Do You Like This Years (2018 that is) Holiday Ornament Selection I Made For My Children?

Ever since my children were born it has become a family tradition to bless them with a ornament each Christmas. I date the ornament somewhere on the ornament and usually put Mom (dad too when I was married) on it too. With this tradition that allowed my children to have a full box of ornaments for their own Christmas tree/decorating when they became adults. A few years back I had all of the ornaments and decided to sort them and I bought each child their own decorative box to store them in. I still continue to get an ornament each Christmas for them to add to their collection. I am not the only one in the family that does this tradition. My mother, their Nana has also done this. Each year she gets an ornament for the grandchildren and I believe she also dates the ornament with I think she puts Nana on the ornament so they have that memory.
Since both children have pets I thought to go that route this year. When I spend on my children I may not buy them the exact thing as a gift but I try to be pretty fair on spending the same dollar amount. That is why you will see 2 ornaments for my daughter and just the one for my son. Then just yesterday I was at a TJ Maxx in a quaint city but the busier side of town area and found these ornaments. This was the year it was revealed to our family that we have a small portion of Jewish blood in our family bloodline. I thought I should bless the children with an ornament reflecting this new found heritage. Some may say why bother? I think this is a blessing to have found out this piece of information and for some reason it was revealed to me this year. There must be purpose in this revelation for this is not century dated info this is more recent in my family bloodline. My grandmothers grandmother is the beautiful woman that brought this blessing into my family bloodline and for that I am most grateful. If I am not mistaken for all the children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren not one of them has the first name of this woman except for my daughter. I think this is not a coincidence that God knew all along that this was destiny time in our family. This is kind of endearing, My daughter has the first name of this woman. My son shared with me that when he adopted his new cat he wanted to rename the cat. He tried one name first and the cat did not respond to that name. He then named it a shorter version of this woman's maiden last name and the cat responds to that name. He shared with me that it was his part of the Jewish connection to the family. Now, I do not know if he was just saying that to please his mother but there is always the sentiment that he did it just for the reason he shared with me. Either way I am blessed by this. I truly do have great children. My former husband and myself did a great job of raising up responsible, smart, incredible and loving children. For this I am most grateful.
When I was in this quaint city last night I stopped at an Italian restaurant and ordered a dinner to go to take home with me. This is the oddest thing that just baffles me, when you place a "to go" order they actually charge you for the to go container 0.75. Now mind you this is not even one of the better quality containers with a tight lid or anything like that. It is a Styrofoam to go container. As I look back on this I remember when a few friends met for dinner and one ordered a dessert to go to take home with them. That was the first time we just could not believe that there was an extra charge on her bill for the to go container. It is quirky and we inquired then as I inquired last night. the response from the server is it is the owner that sets this and the server cannot change this. Crazy isn't it? Just adjust your menu prices to reflect this charge and incorporate it into the pricing so as to not add an actual item fee to the bill showing 0.75 cents for the to go container. Someone needs to look into the marketing aspect of this concept??? I do want to share with you that this restaurant is at a good price point for their menu items. They give you a generous portion also. Enough for two meals for me. It is like paying for one meal that actually becomes two meals and that does make it a great value.

Th cat ornament may be a bit hard to see, it has flashing lights and I must have captured the picture when the lights flashed on.