Who doesn’t love being told how much they mean to others?  When I taught Spanish in the local high school, I always did an exercise with adjectives.  I had everyone write their name in the middle of a piece of paper.  Then I had everyone go to each student’s paper and write a descriptive word in Spanish about them.  The rule was only nice words.  Every year they did a great job practicing their new vocabulary and anonymously leaving someone a compliment.  Most students kept their papers in their binder for the whole year.  It must of meant something to them too.

Inspired by my idea in the classroom, I decided to convert the same concept in the form of a gift.  I gave the first two to my parents.  I found a photograph of them and drew my interpretation of them on watercolor paper.  Then I painted their portraits.  I had each of my children draw a small picture of themselves on the paper.  Then they signed their name.  Now for the fun part.  I asked them to describe my father.  They immediately poured forth adjectives and phrases.  Cowboy, loving, outdoorsman were some of the descriptions.  I wrote them neatly all around his likeness on the paper.  Underneath their portraits, I wrote out their names.  Finally, I matted and framed their portraits.

The next time in made this gift I did it a little differently.  I wanted to make one for my brother and his wife jointly.  I took a picture of my children.  Isaac was a baby at the time so I laid him of the rug.  I had all the children lay on the floor around him.  It was a cool photograph because the children looked like a wheel or sun; it was hard to decide which way to hang the photograph.  On the mat, I wrote the adjectives and phrases neatly.  I used a blue for my sister-in-law and black for my brother so that they could easily tell which words were about them.  Then I framed them.

Take this idea of mine for a great, meaningful present.  Everytime the ones receiving the descriptive framed photo look at it they will feel loved and appreciated.  It is a gift that can hang in the office or home.  People will admire the gift.  They will also think the receiver is a pretty special person.  This gift is a winner anyway you look at it.