Just one more month and it will be Christmas again. I had been celebrating this holiday for 28 years in this Earth and I guess this year will be one of the best Christmas time for me because so far I had never thought of giving much than this year. It has been my own goal that by Christmas I would be able to give more than I am receiving. The Bible does says that it is better to give than to receive and I personally is not expecting of anyone to give me any gifts this Christmas, instead I am expecting myself to give more than what I had given last year.
And by God's grace, I am able to secure Christmas gifts for a group of Youth people and with the help and support of my husband, we will be able to extend blessings to others. God has spoken into our hearts to give and we are responding according to His calling. Both of us are thankful for the blessings He had bestowed to us so it is indeed time for us to give back to the community and to the people around our environment.
Maligayang Pasko is a Tagalog phrase for Merry Christmas! Photo courtesy of imgur.
So since I am now talking about giving, I am going to blog about my gift ideas this year. These are my own means of giving and so you can either copy the idea or give suggestions too in the comments that I can also try to consider the said item. But so far the list below are what I am thinking of giving and hopefully this will be realized. Oh I am also stating the recipients of these gift ideas. Let me know of these suits the receivers.
T-shirts for Church Youth Members
I have been very grateful for the blessings that I have received and that includes the fact that I am earning some amount of income here in bitLanders. As a result, I had promised to pledge this income to the church as well and one way of helping the church is supporting the youth.
Third year, I had shared two batches of t-shirts to our Youth Group. First batch was way back in April or early of this year and I designed the shirt print with the help of my husband. The t-shirts were given to those active youth members who are able to join the quarterly fellowship and other activities of the church. I am glad that there were more than 40 t-shirts distributed that time and they were all glad to receive these shirts for free. Well I was also glad to share the blessings to these young generation. My husband was also blessed to see them wearing this shirt in every youth activity at the church and even at other churches.
The second batch was around two or three months ago when I had started liking this T-shirt line bearing Christian designs with verses too, I thought it would great for the Youth members who are also part of the Music Ministry to have their own T-shirt design so when they are playing during youth events and other activities at church, they'd be able to have their own uniform shirts. So then I ordered online and got them their Transform shirt from Wear His Word. I learned about this Christian t-shirt printers from Facebook, I greatly like their print designs so I had ordered my first shirts way back last year with four designs two for me and two for James. Each time they release new designs and if I like it, I would definitely order one.
The shop also has do sell shirts with huge discounts and I myself is also looking out for those opportunities. The Christian shirts which I recently had ordered for the youth's Christmas gifts were also on sale this time so I had decided to just order it online instead of buying shirts and doing the design plus looking for printing shops. This way, the shirts will just arrive at home in Bohol without me ever thinking of where would be the best shop to print the designs.
I had selected the Made to Worship design and ordered 44 t-shirts this time. The orders are set to arrive by the 28th of November and by the time I had posted this blog entry, the t-shirts should have been received by my mother in Bohol.
Charcoal Sketches for My Parents
My father had given my mother a sketch of herself using charcoal and it is still available at home, being hang by the wall. Last 2014, I had given them a digital painting made by my college friend, Kristine. This year, I would like to give my parents a new memorabilia with them in it. I decided to have them sketched in an 8 by 10 paper.
I don't do sketches though so I have contacted my nephew, John Ed, my cousin's first born who had also made the sketches for the Mayor who had performed our wedding ceremony last February 24, 2015.
This time, I am sending him another set of portraits to be sketched and i will be buying some picture frames for the sketches. In fact, I am planning to have my parents and our church's head Pastor and his wife's portrait too. However, I have not sent the pictures yet because my nephew is not yet available. He did mention he'll be available by the second week of next month. Since the gift will be given by the 25th, I have a great feeling that the portraits will be done before Christmas.
I had decided to give portraits because I believe that portraits show personalization instead of just buying some thing that they already have. I can't think of any other thing that would suit them.
However, I am also thinking of buying some wearables for mama and papa aside from the portrait. The portrait would also be a gift for their wedding anniversary aside from it to be a Christmas present so the gift has a dual purpose.
Toys/ Dresses for Godchildren
Out of all the the people that I would be giving gifts, these ones will be the most challenging ones, why? There are a few reasons and let me list them down:
1. If toys, I am not sure if they'll like them.
This is every godparent's dilemma and I am part of the many who have this issue. I am not sure what specific toy to give.
I have six godchildren, most of them are still young, they are children of my secondary year classmates and friends or college friends so they are quite young. Kids would love toys of course but then I think they might not appreciate the specific toy because of course it would be best if they'll be the ones who had selected the toy they are receiving.
This is also the reason why for my husband's godchildren, we will be bringing them to Cebu City instead so they can select whatever they wanted as toys.
2. If dresses, I don't know their sizes.
Another great option as gifts are dresses or for the boys pants and shirts but the issue here is that I have not seen these kids for a year and so I am not sure what specific sizes to get.
I remember when I was still small, my ninang used to give me dresses as gifts and each year, I am not able to wear them because it doesn't fit me at all. Aside from that, I don't really like her taste of designs. Either they are too old fashioned for me or I am just a choosy person. But I am sure I have not worn any of those gifts she had given me.
So, this occasion has been stuck on my head for years that I feel the kids might end up not liking what I have bought for them. But if there would be no other option left, I'll definitely be sticking with the wearables. I might end up asking the parents on the best option for their kids so I will be sure they'll gonna be able to wear them.
3. I have a feeling that they'll appreciate monetary instead.
This is a funny story but I had done this last year because I didn't have the time to find for gifts to all my godchildren so I ended up giving them all monetary gifts instead.
image from philstar.com
This will be the best option I guess and one where the kids will be given the freedom to choose the thing that they really want instead of giving them something which they won't be able to appreciate.
The story of my Ninong giving me money over material things was instead giving me that positive vibes because I am able to get myself more than over gift. My godfather would always give me 500 pesos before which is for me a huge amount already. At that time, I can still buy lots of food with that amount, I can also buy any toy or dress that I myself selected. And after that, I still have something left in my pocket which I can keep with me.
Sacks of Rice for Church Members
For the past three or four years, it has been my own initiative to give sacks of rice to specific church members. Every December, our local church celebrates our annual anniversary as well so it is also a perfect time to give to our co members.
My first time to give sacks of rice, my mother suggested that we should just be doing a raffle draw for it with the name which will be last called as the winner. It was a great idea except that the winner was not a church member, instead a guest. I was still glad that I had helped someone that day but the second year, I had advised my parents to distribute the rice by five kilos and instead of doing a raffle draw, I had decided to give it by family. Positive feedback were heard after this event and so this has been the norm every year and it is a lovely sight to see happy and grateful faces of our church members.
If you noticed, I have not listed my husband and my siblings because my husband and I don't really need any particular thing by December as we had already bought ourselves our own personal gifts which is the ultra wide Tokina 11-16mm lens for our Nikon camera. This is the only thing that we both have been longing for this past few months and gladly we were able to buy one.
For my siblings, they are not in the country except for @jjeeppeerrxx-nartleb and I bet he doesn't really need anything for this Christmas instead I believe he would also like to give to others.
So what do you think about my list, would you say that these suits the recipients?
Regards,
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