Now that Christmas is officially over everywhere but at my house (Christmas tree? Still up. Baby handprint ornaments that I was supposed to finish December 15? Finished last night.), I'll share the handmade gifts that I didn't want to share before Christmas so as not to spoil the surprise.
Two of my lucky friends each received a jar full of her first initial. You never know when you're going to need a spare "W" or "K," so I prepared a couple of jars full of decorated letters, monogram notepads, and the like.
Here's the "W" jar, which is also filled with Whoppers, because they also start with "W." If any of you happen to be friends with the 43rd president of the United States, this would make a great gift for him as well. (He's probably really hard to shop for.)
And now for the "K" jar...
Since I didn't actually present this gift to K. until January 9th, I had time to gussy up the outside a bit more than Miss W's. But I did not have any Kit Kats on hand, which would have been a nice extra touch.
Supplies:
Wooden K's and W's: from Michael's and JoAnn's
Monogram cards in cream envelope: from Michael's
Monogram notebooks: from Barnes & Noble
Monogram ornaments: from Kohl's
Monogram iron-on: from WalMart for $1
Whoppers: leftover Halloween candy (but don't tell W.)
And now for a quickie grammar lesson.
Notice that I included an apostrophe on the "Jar of K's" label. Does that seem incorrect to you? It's actually correct, although it does drive me batty.
Here's the reasoning. Yes, apostrophes typically designate possession or ownership ("Keira's cute clothes") or indicate that something is missing in the word ("Don't y'all think that Keira's so cute?").
But in the case of single letters, apostrophes are used to make the letters plural. Why? Because without the apostrophe, it would be difficult to make certain vowels plural without turning them into another word.
Examples
With apostrophe: "Our son got straight A's." (And we're so very proud.)
Without apostrophe: "Our son got straight As." (Straight as what?)
With apostrophe: "I see four u's." (Something you might hear while playing Scrabble.)
Without apostrophe: "I see four us." (You could read this one several different ways and still never discern the meaning.)
As you can see, the letters "i," "u," and "a" turn into other highly recognizable words when you simply add an "s" to make them plural. I do wish there were another accepted method for making letters plural, but this is what the grammarians have decided upon. And who am I to argue?
