Christmas gifts made from scratch are the very best

I get all soft and mushy at Christmas. Even my wife thinks I'm a bit too much over it. I think of all the Christmas memories that I have had over the years and wonder just what new memories I am going to have this year, if any. Not every Christmas is memorable, but it seems that most of my life's greatest moments have somehow been tied to the season between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I remember the Thanksgiving my brother came home from Vietnam, the Christmas Eve that I proposed to Miss Tarsha and the day after Christmas when she told me that regardless of the years between us, how different we were, and all the reasons that "it" would not work, she wasn't going to let the way she felt about us pass by. I remember the first Christmas when Bubba, Jr. was just old enough to understand the wonder of it all and as me and his mother hid in the room and watched him approach the fully lit tree laden with presents, he stopped and in total awe, said, "Caw Caws!" It was as plain as he could say Santa Claus in his three years on earth. I recall Lil' Bubba wanting to know if Santa Claus was coming this year if he had gotten many letters on his "bat." All he wanted was a bat for Christmas. He bothered us for weeks about a bat. So, I got him a bat. The first time he played with it, it flew away. He never asked me for another Christmas present in his life!

That ain't true, but it is funny!

I remember not having enough money to buy the things I wanted for my family and today I'm so well off I find myself wanting to give them their inheritance while I'm still alive and can see them enjoy it. I'm planning on dying broke, so I'm doing the best I can in this department. I get extra generous at Christmas, but then when is there a better time?

I think the greatest things I have ever gotten for Christmas were things people made with their own hands just for me. My mother gave me an overcoat made from rags she cut into strips and crocheted together. It must have taken months and every time I hear Dolly Pardon sing "A Coat of Many Colors," I know exactly how she felt. I wore it totally out in two years and cried when it fell apart as it got to small for me. She taught me how to crochet and I made her a "hook" rug for her bedside the next Christmas. I still know how to do it to this very day. I treasure the FSU Seminole wall clock my son Carter made me in High School, today it still hangs on my wall and I have had to replace the clock twice, but I'll always love it. It is one of my most special Christmas gifts.

Last year I spent over 60 hours making a very large photo collage for each of my sons that showed almost the entire history of their lives. I hope they will look at it at every Christmas and thing of their old man and how much he loves them. It seems that the gifts made with ones own hands and totally from the heart mean so much more to me over the years. Is it that way with you?

We spend so much money at this time of year to tell others we love them. Stop, take a minute or several hours if need be and create something that says "I love you so much, I made this for you." Maybe it's just Christmas cookies.

My daughter in law, Anne, sends us a tin of cookies every year and every time I eat one I think of her and how much she loves my son. Or maybe a Christmas tree ornament that will remind me of you every time I pull it out once a year to hang on the Christmas tree.

Last year we lost almost every single personal Christmas tree ornament Tarsha and I both had in the hurricanes and her niece and nephew made her some cut out ornaments with photos of each of them and her mother that had died several years ago. Her brother Jeff packaged them up in and old shoe box and sent them to her. She cried for an hour as she hung them on the tree. They will go up every year until they fall apart, I'm sure. Maybe it's a photo that you took and made the frame for, autographed with special words that can not be purchased at Wal-Mart. It could be anything, just as long as it took some creativity and thought and it is one of a kind, just from you.

Trust old Bubba on this one. Put some thought into Christmas this year and see what you can give that is of yourself and doesn't come with a receipt or a guarantee.

Just thought you'd like to know...