Christmas Idea #6

For Mason's Christmas gift last year, we came up with a brilliant and perfect idea suited just for him.  Prior to Mason's mission, he was the owner/operator of Three Seasons Lawn Care.  He and his brother were kept VERY busy with weekly yard maintanence and other yard work for a large number of clients.  Upon arriving in Ohio, Mason soon found that every week they were performing service for members and nonmembers alike.  A lot of service.  For Christmas we had Mason's Carhartt workboots cleaned, waterproofed and relaced then wrapped them up for his Christmas morning.  He loved them!  For Mason, it was the perfect gift.  Just look at those things - they are huge! That boy has one FIRM foundation.

This year Mason has been adament that he didn't want us to send him anything.  He will finish his mission in mid-July and said he didn't need or want anything.  Well...he just has to have something, doesn't he?  We wracked our brain to come up with the perfect gift.  This was hard!  How could we top the boots?  Finally, we gave each of our other children Mason's instructions and told them to come up with something to give Mason that was small, inexpensive and had personal meaning between them and Mason.  The kids rallied to the cause and I think they did an amazing job.  Mason will be thrilled on Christmas morning with his personal and thoughtful gifts from his siblings.  Here's what we chose for this year:

Maren:  1 bag Hershey's Hugs, 1 bag Hershey's Kisses

Colin:  a personalized Christmas ornament and a box of candy canes

Connor:  a toy truck (Mason loves his truck)

Matt:  a G-Loomis T-shirt for pj's (Mason loves to fish)

Rebekah:  two ties, red and green - seasonal yet functional

Kiri & Brad:  scarf for those cold Ohio winters

Mom:  Book of Mormon Institute study guide (Mason's doing an intensive study)

Dad:  a really nice pen (Mason and his dad really like office products)

I got the Christmas tag idea off of pinterest (to view the original idea go to Pinterest.com and search my name - Cherylann Brown, go to my Boards and click on "Missionary Packages").  Instead of using the traditional "To:" and "From:" tag, they used a photograph.  So cute!  My niece had just done a Christmas photo shoot for us so I printed off individual photos of the kids in black and white then decorated them up a bit.  The photo is actually wallet size mounted with a single photo mount so Mason can easily remove them and put them in his wallet if he wants to.  I wanted to make the packages look nice but because I was worried that a bow would get all mashed in transit, I just tied a ribbon in in a neat square knot then notched the ends of the ribbon.  Line your Flat Rate box with colorful tissue paper, place the packages neatly inside, top with more tissue and a Christmas card for your missionary to open on Christmas morning.