Better to give than to receive

I have been wanting to post more photos of gifts we gave from Christmas because I was really happy with the items we picked out for everyone. Now that Christmas is over and I finally can post them, I realized I forgot to take pictures of a number of them. Oops! Here's a few though:

These adorable coasters were for my mom and came from Little Coaster Gnome on Etsy.

This isn't the exact witch ball I gave my mom, but it's close. Her's had purple in it too. The one I bought is hand blown by local artist. 

The general idea behind the witch ball is to keep bad or evil spirits from your home. There are strands of glass that sort of make a web on the inside, and when the ball is hung in a doorway or window, it traps the bad energy inside instead of letting it get in your home. I have a pretty red, purple and pink one hanging above my kitchen sink, in front of the window.

Another gift for my mom, again not the exact one. It's a red, blown glass hummingbird feeder with metal and glass decorative work. 

We don't get a lot of hummingbirds where we live, but down at my parents' lake house, there are quite a few. Hanging the feeders in the trees off the patio gets them fairly close and they are so interesting to watch.

My dad is a griller and gets really into his seasonings, so we got him the Steak Seasonings Gift Box from Penzey's.

Penzey's is a company out of Wisconsin that has stores in 24 states, but you can shop via their catalogue too. There is a store in Des Moines and it is so cool. The only thing they sell are spices (over 250 spices and seasonings!) and cook books. They have samples of each spice in jars so you can smell them. I could spend all day in there. This gift box, which has seasonings not just for steak but chicken, pork and fish too, includes a recipe book with recipes for each spice. It is packaged so nice with pretty bay leaves, cinnamon sticks and nutmeg. The recipe book even has recipes for those so you don't waste the pretty presentation pieces. They have gift sets for baking, salt-free diets and everything under the sun, or you can build your own set by picking each spice individually. Highly recommend Penzey's to the foodies out there or for gifts for those foodies.

Jim Shore "Wicked Ride" for my MIL. 

Jim Shore "Spellbound" which we got for my MIL last year.

We bought her the "Spellbound" witch for Christmas last year and "Wicked Ride" this year. Halloween was really the first thing I bonded with my mother-in-law on - it's our favorite holiday. I am not a huge Jim Shore fan, but I really do love his Halloween pieces.

There are a few more gifts we gave that I want to show you, but I have to find photos and a couple we haven't given yet, so those will come later.