The big and emotional gift we received today was a frame of photos of our family. Our children went through printed photo albums and our digital collection, to find photos, starting with one of Elizabeth and me in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, through with them growing up. It brought a tear to my eye.

One of the humor gifts is that I had an IOU to give my oldest daughter. I created a certificate using a MS Word template. I considered putting it in an envelope, the envelope in a box, and wrapping it. Middle daughter suggested rolling and tying with a ribbon. Next was rolling and putting it in a tube. We had a tube from a paper towel roll. It fit perfectly, but was plain. I put it in a half-used roll, but that seemed odd. I took an unopened roll, slit the bottom, placed the paper inside the tube, and middle daughter, who is an excellent, highly skilled wrapper, wrapped that.

Oldest daughter was excited to see the package, but disappointed upon opening it, since it was just a roll of paper towels, and these rolls are stored outside her door. It seemed an odd gift, and she thought she could put it in her hope chest to start her new home with one roll. It was about an hour before I had her flip the roll over and look in the bottom.