Tonight our mothers came over to enjoy the second to last night of Chanukah with us.  It’s been such a wonderful week!  The kids have given them gifts each of the three evenings they’ve come so far, and tonight dh and I gave them our gifts.

Remember when I told you about making first aid salve?  I made a bunch with the intent to give some as gifts.  It’s the kind of thing that is expensive to buy, but so affordable to make yourself, and useful for so many situations.  I bought tins from Mountain Rose Herbs weeks ago to package the salve in, and asked dh if he could make a label for it – that was the plan and I thought I was all set.

Then I saw that the salve that was a perfect consistency when I made it in September was too firm for the cooler temperature now.  Actually, it was downright hard!  (Now I know that I should have stuck with the measurements of the original recipe!)  All I needed to do was melt it all down and add more oil, but then started thinking that I didn’t want to give ‘imperfect’ salve and should just start all over.  Then when my husband didn’t have time to make the label, I decided I didn’t want to give it if it wouldn’t look the way I pictured it looking!

Yep, thoughts of perfectionism sneak in and I have to beat them back!  I melted the salve down, added some cold pressed flaxseed oil, and cooled it down.  Then I hand labeled the tins with a ‘product name’, a list of ingredients on the back, followed by the uses for it. This wasn’t so easy for me to do, since I had to let go of my image of what I wanted it to look like.  It was a good exercise in letting go of my ego. 🙂

But you know what?  The salve itself smelled wonderful, the texture was wonderful, and it will be a useful gift for our parents.  They both appreciated it, and were impressed that we made it ourselves. Giving nothing because I couldn’t make this perfect wouldn’t have been a better option.  Neither would buying something just to have something to give been good.

In addition to the salve, we gave my inlaws a jar of homemade organic fig preserves; I used honey as the sweetener so it’s delicious and a healthy jam option.  We made this in September when we picked the figs. I was hesitating about giving this because a) it tastes so good that I don’t want to share! and b) it’s unattractive looking.  Finally I decided that I have enough ‘currency’ with my inlaws that there’s no reason they would expect to be given something awful, and stopped worrying about it!

For my mom, I bought three different kinds of herbal tea- two are holiday blends and one is her favorite kind.  Celestial Seasoning boxes are attractive, so we stacked them one on top of another, and wrapped a ribbon around it, then popped it into the fabric gift bags we made.   She loves herbal teas and really appreciated this.

I love so many things about Chanukah, and I love giving the people I love things that they appreciate!

Avivah