Grandparents Day 2010

"What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies." ~ Rudolph Giuliani

Sunday, September 12th is Grandparents Day! Every family is different, but we hope you are blessed with grandparents in your life. Because of loss or distance, they may not be related by blood, but you might have some grandparent-type people in your circle of friends. However it looks in your family, grand-angles can help provide those essentials Rudolph Guiliani mentioned (and we know there are more essentials that point to God too). Every year at this time we try to honor them for the blessing they are in our lives. And every year it seems that I’m scrambling to come up with ideas. I’ll give you some of mine and I’m counting on you all to pitch in some of yours as well! How do you honor the grandparents and great-grandparents in your life?

Gift ideas. We talk about speaking our children’s love languages. Think of that when giving gifts to grandparents too. Anything that shows how the kids have grown is usually a hit.

* Quality time--Share a meal together, if you are close enough; or call them

* Words of encouragement--Write out a blessing; or send a card

* Acts of service--Help them with yard work or another project

* Physical touch--HUGS! (Even if you are far away, you can measure a strip of paper as long as your child can reach and put a hand on either side of it to send a “hug.”)

* Gifts

---> Handprints and pictures are always hits in my family. We have put them on bookmarks, cards, and t-shirts. One card said “We have the best grandparents, hands down.” Another card was a cut out of the kid’s hand where the thumb and forefinger were on the fold and it made a heart shape when you opened it. My daughter came home from school where they made characters out of thumbprints. She said, "Mom, it's amazing what you can do with a thumbprint!" It's true! You can make thumbprint characters for your whole family on a card.
---> Calendar with pictures (we usually do this one at Christmas instead)
---> Current pictures framed
---> The kids’ art work
---> Brag book or accordion card with current pictures and stories of how God is working in each one’s life
---> Then there is always the option of something they actually need or want. Or something they collect or are interested in. :)

Recently I overheard my grandparents talking with their friends, and the main topic was not “how successful my kids/grandkids are” trying to outdo one another. It was stories of how God is working in my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids lives. That was encouraging for this mom to hear. So this Grandparents Day, give them something to praise God and be thankful about!

by Shelly ~Mom and Loving It Ministry assistant
Giuliani quote from: http://www.grandparents.com/gp/content/expert-advice/new-grandparents/article/grandparents-day-quotes