the gift of time

I like to think of myself as a pretty good gift giver... first, I LOVE to shop and second, I love to give to others so its only natural that my gifts are usually pretty stellar!! And I hate to buy the run of the mill items for people unless it ties into a cute theme or a makes a statement. And packaging.... don't get me started on the wrapping- its all about the presentation, right?  Why just buy someone a blender when you can create a whole story behind the blender... smoothie mixes, some fresh fruit, recipes of your favorite blender concoctions, now that's way more fun! I always try to think bigger than just that one item that is intended as the gift.  It doesn't have to cost a whole lot extra either, just throw in a few inexpensive items that tie it all together... get creative with! And when the money is tight and the budget is less than favorable that's when you've got to be really creative, which is usually when the gifts become a lot more personal and have much more meaning behind them.

Now this leads us to my favorite gift given in 2014. My hubby turned the big 4-0 this year and I knew Id have to pull out all the stops.  Unfortunately he hates parties, especially ones where he is the guest of honor, and he didn't want us to make a big fuss over him this year either.  Even more, he didn't want me to blow the bank and waste a lot of money on gifts.... boo!!  That's when my wheels started turnen and my creative juices got a flowen.  So I asked myself, "what do you give the man who has everything? And if he doesn't have it, and he decides he wants it then he buys it for himself."  Ok, so maybe he doesn't have everything he wants but he is pretty darn spoiled!  I remembered in years past, the kids and I had made countless "coupon books" with fun little ways to serve daddy and rid him of his daily duties, as I'm sure many of you have done the same.  But truly, how many of those coupons really get used?  I'm sure many of ours ended up in the trash or tucked away in the sock drawer never to be redeemed or cashed in.  So like any wise crafter I turned to pinterest!! I found a couple fun posts about planning out all your date nights a year in advance and giving those as a gift to your significant other (my source). So with that idea and putting a twist on the whole "coupon book" my plan was starting to come together nicely.  I started jotting down fun things that we could do together and things that we use to do when we dating but rarely do these day due to the kids or lack of time. Which of course led me to the conclusion that it wasn't about the tangible gifts I could buy for my husband, it was the TIME i could give him that would truly be valuable.  If anyone knows my husband, you know what a hard worker he is.  He spends very little time on himself and rarely takes a break from work for leisure.  He never seems to have enough hours in the day and I'm certain that if he were given extra hours he'd use those for work as well.  And date nights, don't get me started on date nights. Yes we may spend a lot of time together but it's not always very meaningful time.

So with all that said, here is it is. My GIFT OF TIME to my hubby!!

Some of my gifts of time included a gift card so we could actually follow through with what I had planned.  While others were simply stay at home activities that were fun yet easy to complete.  I tried to come up with monthly dates that were special to us in some way, shape or form, while at the same time taking us out of our comfort zone a little.  In one of the summer months, I planned a camping date. We love to camp but in the past 17 years all of our camping has been done with our kids and family. So I decided that it would be fun and relaxing to take a camping trip all by our lonesomes... this may be one that I am anticipating the most!!

Here are the prints offs I made up so please feel free to print them off and use to make you own special "gift of time" for that special one in your life.