I have ever told you that I know the tooth fairy? I do, she is a friend of my parents. I know that there is more than one tooth fairy, because how else would she get around and visit all the children who have lost teeth. But I know the tooth fairy of my time, when I was a child. Even though she isn’t the tooth fairy anymore, it is like being the President, once a tooth fairy, you will always be the tooth fairy.

This tooth fairy didn’t only come out at night. She would go into schools and teach children about oral hygene. It is a big job to make sure that children know how to take care of their teeth. I don’t know if the schools still have the tooth fairy come to visit, but they should.

Anyhow, after a while, the tooth fairy had helped a lot of children, she decided to do other things with her life. She has had many different jobs and helped many different people along the way. She is active in the Jewish community, volunteered and raised her two sons who are now grown. She also became a grandmother in recent years and is so proud of her grandson and now baby granddaughter.

This tooth fairy is a very strong women. She fights for what she believes in and isn’t afraid to tell you exactly what she feels about any given topic on any given day. So, as you can imagine, when the tooth fairy was told she had met up with the “C” monster, she wasn’t going to change her fighting spirit, not for the monster or anything else for that matter.

And she has not backed down her fighting spirit the whole way through the continuing battles with the the monster. She asked if she could be on a special trial and the hospital agreed. So she tried, but the monster seemed to be taking over and possibly trying to win the battle.

I went to visit the tooth fairy on Monday night. She still smiled at me and we still had stories to share. She will still tell you what she feels when she feels like it. I think that for some, that is a very good character trait to have. You know what you are getting, and it is up to you to deal with it. 

to be continued……..

Dawn, thank you for your comments on my previous post today. I totally appreciate where you are coming from and agree with you.

Which actually brings me to a real life event that I have been doing ever since.

One of my extended family was getting married about two years ago, and she had a few different showers for her wedding. While going through the cards after the gifts were open she came across something on the back of the card which is an AMAZING idea and I have been doing ever since.

One the back of card in very small printing was the address of the gift giver. This would SOLVE the problem if you have been invited via email and may not have an address, or someone shared the cost with someone else for the gift. That way a handwritten card could be sent to this person without having to be asked for their address.

I have been doing that since hearing about this story. Maybe now that you have read this, you will to. Then when you get a handwritten thank you note in the mail, it will make your day!

This post has several random thoughts that will hopefully come together as one message….please bear with me as I go through my thought process with this post.

When you are a child and you go to a birthday party, you are usually thanked at the end with a loot bag. It makes sense because if you are around at the end of the party and you see your friend, family member, sibling opening up all the amazing presents, you can’t help but think, “what about me?” I get that. Of course the child forgets it when they have their birthday party and they are the recipient of all the beautifully wrapped and bagged gifts, but is not the point. The point is the moment. All the amazing new unopened gifts which is really, to be honest overwhelming for a child. What do I look at first, “Can I open this one next?”

Another cool party idea for a child is when the parent plans a party that actually involves the other children in an activity that results in them taking home their loot bag that they have been a part of creating. I have seen that as well earlier this year and it went over well.

A friend of mine put in her daughter’s loot bags, t-shirts and fabric paint and after the party, a couple of the kids carpooled and had that birthday party continue at the next house, by making the t-shirts and sharing the paints they got as gifts. The gift that keeps on giving.

Then as you get older and you have engagment parties, bridal showers, baby showers, you are now the adult recipent of all these amazingly wrapped (the older you get the more elaborate the wrappings) gifts. Most of the time, the guests won’t get a loot bag, but they may get a small token from the event. I know that I made chocolate flowers in flower pots for my cousin’s shower and guests were able to either eat the chocolate at the event, or take them home at the end. For a friend’s wedding I was asked to make heart shaped cookies which she put in little boxes for her guests to take home. A lot of the guests ate them at the events, but it was the thought that each guest was going to receive a gift just as they brought a gift for the event.

Even more so as adult, you “learn” the art of the thank you card or email. It is still unclear to me all the rules around the thank you ettiquette. Apparently the thank you email is acceptable in today’s world. I guess that would make sense when you send out invites via evite.com you may not have everyone’s home/mailing address so email is what it has to be.

I had a birthday party celebration for my own birthday this past winter. It was a great event, minus the snow storm that had the event starting early and ending early. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of my friends, family and extended family. Brad even arranged for flowers to be sent to me on the day of the party – and of course they were purple. I felt like a kid again when I looked around my living room floor and started to open the presents and read the cards one by one. I felt so special the night of my party and the days that followed. It meant so much to me to have so many people celebrating with me, for me and I will never forget how great that night was.