Intangibles

When Emma was in grade school, she came home once with a gift for me that her teacher told her was an 'intangible'.  It was a gold sheet of paper, and it had something like "RESPECT" written on it.  She explained to me that it was an intangible thing that she was going to try hard to give to me.

 As she grew up, lots of notes were left out - mostly day to day things, but often very sweet notes.  I found one on my pillow one night that said 'I love you more than anything in the whole world'.  In very young printing.

As both children have grown, I have often gotten hand made cards for my birthday, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, where they have written lovely (and sometimes silly and funny) sentiments to me.   And yes, I have kept them.

A couple of years ago, she was trying to think of a last minute gift for David, and I told her that she should come up with some 'intangibles' for him - that he would like those more than any gift that she could buy.  So she went up to her room, and came up with around 20-30 different comments on pieces of paper.  She put them in a jar, and gave them to David and told him he could only read one per day.  They said things like:  "You make Mom laugh harder than anyone I know" and "I remember when you used to tell us to 'get a hundred' every day when you brought us to school."

Well you can imagine that I was quite jealous.  :)  David had a hard time limiting himself to one a day - I think sometimes he cheated - because they made him feel great.  Some funny, some sweet, some serious.

Then for my birthday last year, I got my own jar.  I was very excited.  She obviously worked hard at coming up with statements that were very meaningful between she and I.

It made sense then, that Emma have her own, so I found a jar - labelled it 'Emma's Intangibles" and cut up a whole bunch of pieces of paper.  Every time I would think of something, I'd write it down and toss it in the jar.  After I had quite a pile, I gave the jar to her this past summer.

When she came home later for a visit, she brought some new ones to add to David's jar as a birthday gift for him.

Don't get me wrong - I love to get presents, but you know what?  I think I could get those little slips of paper for the rest of my life from her and be completely happy!  It's such a nice pick me up to know that someone is thinking of you, and has such nice things to say.  And it's fun to be reminded of memories. It certainly reinforces what an awesome young woman she has become.

As a parent - it's just about the most awesome gift that I could ever get.