It’s that time of the year, when everyone is in a holiday mood and thinking of gifts to buy, parties to throw and attend and holidays to plan. The best kind of gifts aren’t the kind you buy, they are the ones you make yourself. It means a whole lot more and it means that you care enough for the person you give it to. Unfortunately, in this day and age of busy work weeks and fewer days off, people (including myself) tend to prefer the convenience of ready made gifts as opposed to the ones that you make yourself.

I think the only time I received a homemade gifts was back in high-school when my then girlfriend made a sweater for me, or so she claimed. Call me evil but I’ve always believed that the sweater was made by her grandmother. The best homemade gift I’ve seen isn’t something that was made for me, but was made for my daughter by one of my closest buddies. When I got married my friend was still single and busy organizing his life. He loved kids and he absolutely adored my daughter. He came over to our place all the time bearing gifts for her and would spend hours playing with her. One Christmas when my daughter was about 6 years old, he came over and asked me to come help him bring some stuff in from his van. He opened the door and there it was. A massive, unbelievably beautiful dollhouse. I’d never seen one like that before, it was amazing.