Heirloom Gift ideas?

The boys first birthday is coming up and I am starting to think about gifts. I want to start a family tradition around their birthdays. My hope is to get them each a savings bond every year but I would also like to do some kind of special gift. I know a woman whose father buys her one really nice piece of jewelry every year. My DH gets one gold dollar for every year he is alive from his mother. He keeps them in a chest and has a few hundred dollars worth in it. I want to start a tradition with the boys and am looking for some ideas.

Suggestions or stories???

 

My mom's BF (the kids second grandma) gets them a savings bond for each birthday. I also like the gold dollar idea too. Maybe a special gift could be a year in review for them: i.e. in the FY, learning to crawl, sit, pull up, first words, first foods, trips you may have gone on...even day trips, list of favorite toys, books and foods...etc...

 

I like the gold coin idea. It might be nice to do that with your boys too since their grandmother started that tradition with their dad. I have bought a book about birthdays every year and have the people who come to the party sign it with birthday wishes. For my older son, I did a scrapbook page the theme of the party and had people sign that every year.

 

My dad was a numismatist, so he used to buy me proof-sets from the US Mint.

 

[quote name='Nate and Jack's Mom' date='29 December 2010 - 08:53 AM' timestamp='1293634382' post='1740756']
My dad was a numismatist, so he used to buy me proof-sets from the US Mint.
[/quote]

Kudos on using a big word that I had to look up.

I like the idea of proof-sets for each of them. Also I like the idea of the year in review. Maybe I'll look into doing books from shutterfly recapping the entire year. Although I would have to get them done after their birthday party. Or maybe the first page of each book would be the previous years birthday. Hmm. Things to think about.