Deck the Halls With Boughs of Holly!!!!!
The holidays are fast approaching. And as a reminder to those of you with travel baseball or travel sports kids, here are my top 5 holiday ideas for family members who participate in travel baseball or travel sports:
In no particular order:
1) A great duffle bag. Get a decent quality duffle bag for your player to transport the non-sports gear that they are going to need on a weekend away. Consider one from LandsEnd or UnderArmour. Both of these product lines give lifetime warranties on their products so if the zipper breaks next year you don't have to invest in yet another expense. Many times the outlets sell these products as well and they have the same guarantee. TOTALLY worth the additional nominal upfront expense for these brands, in my opinion. You could also fill the bag with other essentials, a neck pillow, a smaller shaving/make up size bag, a laundry bag, travel size shampoos and other toiletries. Get the bag monogrammed or stitched with their number or nickname for added personalization.
2) Baseball jersey for grandparents. I don't know about you, but its kinda hard to come up with new and great gifts for the grandparents each year. Buy them a team jersey with your players number on it (my two players happen to wear the same number so its easy for me) OR put John's grandpa as the name on the back. Even grandparents who live far away can feel connected to their player with a jersey to wear on game day. Want something more generic? Get a Baseball Grandma or Baseball Grandpa shirt made by someone. My favority place to look is etsy to get unique gifts.
3) Gear. You already know you have to buy new stuff every couple years or every year. Why not turn that catchers mitt purchase into the gift for the holidays? Or give your player a handmade gift certificate for the item so that they can pick it out, but its still a holiday gift to open.
4) Headphones all around. You know on those road trips not everyone wants to have the same tunes on the radio, so why not give everyone their own headphones. Carve out some time on the car trip that all headphones are off, so you still get some quality interaction and togetherness (awwww!) but this way your love of country music does not interfere with your son's love of rap music or vice versa.
5) Blankets. Customize a blanket or have one made that highlights your players previous year of play. Many companies allow for this (walgreens just ran a special on this). What kid doesn't like to see photos of themselves playing their sport? This is a great way to capture some action shots on something they can use on their bed or in the car on their roadtrips.
I would love to hear from you with ideas as well. Let me know what you have purchased in the past! And happy shopping. Looks like this year we can get started on Thursday night after dinner instead of Friday at 3am. Yippee!!!
