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Working Moms
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NWMR - What can I do w/these gifts other than store them for 20 years?
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in Working Moms
DS just had his 1st Communion. IL's gave him very sentimental gifts but I have no idea what to do w/them.
(1) FIL & MIL gave DS my DH's chalice from when he made his 1st Communion. They had DS's initials & communion date engraved on it. It was not used in DS's communion ceremony - they gave it to him after. They want him to save it for his kids' communion(s).
(2) SIL gave him 8 handkerchiefs w/his initials and communion date embroidered on them. DS had no idea what they were when he opened them and I have no idea what to do w/these. I don't see him carrying handkerchiefs any time in the near (or distant) future.
So all of this is sitting in the box it came in...DH is very sentimental and there is no getting around saving this stuff. Can anyone think of something I can do w/these gifts other than letting them sit in the boxes they came in for the next 20+ years?
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Re: NWMR - What can I do w/these gifts other than store them for 20 years?
Do you have a China cabinet you can put the chalice in? I would do that, and make it a talking point with him on occasion, so that he understands the importance and history behind it.
Those handkerchiefs can be used at his wedding...and I guess then yeah, they probably need to be stored until then...but is it really that large of a box? They can also be used at his Confirmation.
Netty - good idea re: the chalice. We don't have a china cabinet - just a sideboard - but your suggestion did give me an idea of where AI can put that in my DR.
And no the box is not that big - I just hate to just stash everything away for a couple of decades and I am trying to figure out what I could do with them now.
That is a possibility - maybe with his certificate and a couple of the mementos he received.
Thanks for the ideas!
These kind of gifts really irritate me just because I end up having to store them for 20 years.
My ILs gave DD a crystal Waterford praying angel for her Baptism. At 3 months old. I stuck it in my china cabinet. I imagine it will stay there until she gets her own place, then I will pack it in a box and ship it to her with all the other sentimental crap she's been given.
The $150 for the angel would have been better off in her 529 instead of collecting dust on my shelf for the next 20 some odd years.
So OP, I think you are SOL.
BFP #2 4/13/10. Bridget born 12/28/10
BFP #3 Finn born 8/11/15
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This is my MIL...she is in the "passing down" phase of gift giving and is giving DS all of these things that DH left behind in her house. I think it secretly her way of getting DH's stuff out of her house and into ours.
Honestly, though, MIL is very sweet and gave DS a long letter with the chalice w/the story behind it (which I now also have to keep) and she had it engraved and everything. So it was a lovely thought but I wish she had at least told me so maybe we could have used the chalice for DS's communion and it would have some meaning to him. She had tears in her eyes giving it to him and meanwhile the look on his face when he opened it was like "huh?"
LOL @ your toddler sipping wine from a kiddush cup.
You could also fold/press one of the handkerchiefs, put it in the chalice, and hang with the date outside of the chalice or set the chalice on one of the handkerchiefs.
That is a nice idea Roxy.
Yeah I find these gifts irritating too just because I hate clutter and I really can't keep up with gifts that need to be boxed up. Although, at least they are sentimental. When LO was a newborn my MIL sent us a box of clothes for varying ages including a package of underwear and a shirt that would fit a 10 year old.
We have the underwear in a drawer and I gave the shirt away.
But I guess your DH gets his sentimental nature from your ILs. Putting the chalice on display in his room or elsewhere + sticking the hankerchiefs in a box or maybe his sock drawer sound good to me.
If at my wedding my DH had pulled out handerchiefs that were given to him at his first communion, I would have fainted from shock. How do people keep up with stuff that long?