In today’s post, Steve Rae shares some of his favorite things that make great gifts.
Books are favourites in our house. Even from the age of three my son would walk by himself (with us watching at a respectful distance) to the local bookstore and purchase books recommended by Mr. Callan for us. Then we would go back to the store to pay. He would then swipe the pillow case from our pillow and “wrap” his presents in it. He’s twenty-six now and he still does it the same way, except that he pays for the books himself. Some of the most pleasurable reading over the years has come from those wonderful little nuggets of humanity, history and mystery. Books. Favourite authors include Wilbur Smith, Nelson DeMille, Daniel DeSilva, Louise Penny, Lee Childs and Randy Wayne White.
If you have a golfer on your list, a Garmin GPS yardage watch is a must. It comes preprogrammed with 30,000 courses from all over North America. Depending on the model, you get yardage readings from wherever you are on the hole to the front, middle and back of the green. Some models also show the distances to various hazards on the hole you’re playing. Fair warning though, no excuses.
Now, how could we have a list of favourite things without the mention of music? So here are a few of my favourites that you may want to check out:
- Eva Cassidy – Songbird. She died in 1996 almost undiscovered but renditions of songs such as Over The Rainbow and Fields of Gold have vaulted her into the top echelons of music. But still not everybody has heard of her.
- Lyle Lovett –If I Had A Boat. Hard to believe it has taken me so long to discover Lyle Lovett, but he is an incredibly gifted songwriter and singer. Worth checking out if you haven’t discovered him yet or even if you have.
- Darius Rucker- Wagon Wheel You probably know him as lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish but he has a solo career and had a number 1 hit on the country charts with the song Wagon Wheel. I’ve been working on the banjo part so this song has been in my brain as an earworm for a long time, but I still love it.
But hands down our favourite gifts are the gifts we give to those who need them more than we do. For many years we have given goats , aqua boxes and bed kits, but it is really meaningful when someone donates on our behalf.
This year we have discovered a tree called the Moringa whose leaves ounce for ounce have:
– seven times more vitamin C than oranges
– three times more iron than spinach
– three times more potassium than bananas
– four times more Vitamin A than carrots
– four times more calcium than milk
It is really an amazing tree that can grow to feed communities lacking in nutrition and ultimately that is what gift giving is all about – touching someone’s heart.
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