Made with Love Not $ - Thursday 1st January 2015

I have four grandchildren aged 13, 12, 10 and 10. Like many children they have the latest in electronics and are 'privileged' as they rarely go without anything. Their experience of giving Christmas gifts is to obtain money from dad for mum's gift and from mum for dad's gift. My suggestion to them is that their parents would appreciate a gift that they had earned money for themselves or something they had made. They decided they would cook their parents' favourite treats. They 13 year old found a recipe online for macarons for her grandfather, the 12 year old decided to make rocky road for his father using milk chocolate, cashews, red jellies and marshmallows and the 10 year old made earthquake gingerbread biscuits for his mother. The other 10 year old was not interested in being involved and said he would use his own cash to purchase gifts. One obstacle was who would pay for the ingredients. Comments of "you have all that's needed in your pantry!" My response was "but I had to pay for them." We added up the cost of the ingredients and negotiated some time weeding my garden to pay for them. The end result was three very pleased and proud children, some beautifully presented gifts, and impressed parents and grandparent, (the children could not wait until Christmas Day to give their gifts) and I hope a gentle lesson.
Contributed by Carol Woolcock