Lemons

Observation and imagination: I think these two faculties lie at the heart of good present giving. Firstly, you need to watch your intended recipient, to take note of what they're interested in, to listen to what they talk about. And once you've done that, you need to think about what you can make or buy that chimes with what you've observed, to imagine what they might like to receive. 

It's clear that the miniMinx has taken note of my burgeoning collection of glass bottles, which are dotted around the house. I like bottles that are old and bottles that are chunky, and not so much the kind of glassware that looks like it might shatter if you sneezed at it.

For my birthday, then, she decided to give me this five litre beauty. And I like it a lot. But what I love is that she then looked up recipes for drinks and wrote them out on labels, which she managed to suspend in the jar by trapping the strings in the lid. (This looked like it must have taken some time and, on asking, I found that it did!) You can just see in the photo that they are hanging from the spigot.

Today, the miniMinx, Dan and Abi made lemonade using one of the recipes. It was quite delicious although, to be honest, my favourite thing about it was the face the Minx made when she tasted it before they'd added any sugar :-)