Best Birthday Gift Ever

Alas, the best birthday gift ever is not one I received, but rather one I gave. Make that one my boys gave and have been giving since we stumbled onto its simplistic awesomeness: a box of golden coins.

Last winter, I hadn't braved the snow to make it out to buy a game or gift card for a friend of one of my boys and the party date was rapidly approaching. When I realized we had some gold-like Sacajawea dollar coins left over from Hanukkah, I ran to my craft cabinet and pulled out a lovely velvet-lined cigar box I'd picked up at a garage sale (for $1) and dumped the coins inside.

Like the inspired pairing of peanut butter and chocolate, the coins and the old wooden box with velvet lining made a striking combination.

What tween doesn't like money, Especially when it looks it looks like golden ancient treasure?

And with concerns about stores closing and gift cards losing value, cash is a great way to go.As I said, this is a gift idea we've been repeating. I've gone through my stash of old-fashioned cigar boxes, but I can pick up new wooden boxes at the craft store and possibly even convince my boys to decorate them.

What's your go-to gift?

Harvesting the silk

Splinter can be a very sensitive boy, so I wasn't sure how he'd react to harvesting the silk from the cocoon, an act which inevitably involves the death of the pupa. They are either killed during the process or in preparation for it (think about that before you buy a silk purse or shirt). I chose the latter method, baking the cocoons in a 200-degree oven for 20 minutes prior to boiling (and while the kids were out of the house). Those puffy white cocoons looked just like a sheet of meringues.

The actual harvest only held his interest for about 3 minutes, leaving me to spend the better part of an hour untangling the cocoons. It's definitely an art I have not mastered. Sometimes I got a very fine, single thread and other times I found myself winding a much thicker thread- something that looks like dental floss. In theory, Splinter is going to embroider a cloth which will be my Chanuka present. Of course, this gift can only be made with a great deal of my help....(Super DH, you want to take this on?)

Hopefully the next, and perhaps final, silkworm report will be about moths hatching out and creating new life in the form of hundreds of eggs. I say hopefully, because I'm not sure I found a dark or quiet enough place for the pupa to morph. We should know by the time December rolls around.