| I also made something for my younger
daughter, Angela, which is attending college
as well. Her project had been thought of while I was is the mountains
deer hunting this year. Why would deer hunting do that you ask? It’s all
about the acorns!! The story goes like this: I was having lunch
under some pine trees while hunting in late October, that consisted of a
smashed ham sandwich that has been bouncing around in my pack (they
taste so much better when you’re out in the woods) along with some
smashed chips. I was just letting my mind wander for a few
minutes enjoying the cool mountain air along with some water to wash the food
down. Once I was through eating, I
was back on my way when I came too a small creak of running water. Near
the water were some acorns and right then it hit me what to give my
daughter for Christmas. The story goes like this, Angela
and I went deer hunting a long time ago when she was about eight or nine
years old. One of the things that she learned that day was how to read a
map. What I did was tell her what forestry road we were on and she did
the rest. I was impressed because she was very young and I didn't expect
her to do that well. We looked through binoculars together and tried to
find a deer but it we didn't see any that day. After spending the whole day together, walking and driving around those same mountings, we came across an area that had running
water and close by were some acorns on the ground. We stopped and walked
around a little bit and when it was time to leave, we picked up a few of
those acorns to bring home. I didn't know it back then but they ended up being a reminder of what a good
time we had that day. And to this very day, we both still have them (I
keep mine in a small box at home that also has a few other keep sakes of
my kids). They aren't worth much and might not have any value to them,
but to me... they mean the world. After
seeing those acorns on the ground, at just about the same spot that the two
of us were at years ago, I just had to pick them up and take them home. This
is where the idea of the box came into play. What I had in mind was to
build her a wooden box and place the acorns inside for her to open on
Christmas day. I guess you could call it a two-in-one present. When
she opened up the cardboard box that I had placed her wrapped present in,
she looked at her gift and said how cool it looked. But when she took
the lid off and looked inside, I had placed a note in it that read,
"This was one of the best days of my life, love dad". Well, her eyes
filled with happy tears when she saw those acorns laying at the bottom.
At this point, my eyes were doing the same thing, along with everyone
else in the room once they found out what the story was behind the
little treasures that were inside her present.
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