Christmas is quickly approaching, are you done with your gift buying?
Gift giving can be a difficult, exhausting task.

As you might guess, I tend to receive many gardening-type gifts, which I always love.  I want to share a special gardening gift with you that I received about 8 years ago.  My cousin, Philip, a gardening-type guy himself, works in the landscape industry in California, gave me a great gift.

The gift!

Philip had gone into our grandmother’s garden shed a few years after she died and he knew he had found the perfect gift for me. Her gardening gloves and her favorite gardening tool. She was an avid gardener and loved flowers.

My avó (what I called her, Portuguese for grandmother) was known for the beautiful flowers in her yard, especially for the rose trees that lined her driveway.

Her tool is by far the best tool that I have ever had and I use it all the time. It’s great for working up soil, planting flowers, weeding and so many more things. Every time it’s in my hands I think of her. As for the gloves they are proudly on display in my office.  I’ve never “unwrapped” them, they are still tied with the garden tape Philip so carefully wrapped them with, a great reminder of his thoughtfulness.

My college graduation, one of the last pictures I have with my avó.  Of course, we had to take the picture in front of the window boxes at the house I lived in (the first window boxes I ever planted).

Thanks, avó, for passing on the gardening genes.  Thanks, Philip, for giving me a gift that is filled with so many wonderful memories.  I’m so happy to have it.

We all know that sometimes the best gifts don’t require any money just a little thought.  It can be easy to forget that when we get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season.

I hope your gift buying, wrapping, cooking, baking… is almost done, so you’ll be able to enjoy the most wonderful time of the year.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
See you in the spring-