A Little Desert Apartment

Do you have any VIPs in your life? People who do the little, thankless things that you really appreciate? I have a few that I love to be able to give extra thanks to show how much they are appreciated!

I love my daughter.  She's absolutely loving and wonderful and sweet and... a tween.  A tween with a brain injury.  A brain injury that has caused her executive functions to be... um... well, they're struggle.  She can be quite a handful in her very hard headed, shenaniganizing way. Did I also mention she's very sweet and loving? She is.  All her teachers, bus driver and after school program staff are totally VIPs in our life! They have so much patience and truly want her to succeed.  Even when she says ugly things to them (a minute later she's saying I love you!).



Let's be honest- any teacher and aides who help decorate a desk that fabulous deserves a thank you gift!

Putting together a little something to show your appreciation is easy to do and it means so much! My daughter's classroom has a lot of staff.  Two teachers plus 12 assistants.  It's a very high staff-to-student ratio.  They are working with children with special needs and some are very high maintenance.  They work hard and are great at what they do! Her program- same thing.  They work so hard... I just want to show them how much they are appreciated.


I put together two types of gifts to show extra thanks for all they do!

One is a jar with Extra gum (hee hee, get it? EXTRA thanks!) and single serving instant coffee packs (Seriously.  I always need gum after drinking coffee... no more coffee breath. Heehee)


I filled each jar with two packs of Extra gum, instant coffee, and used a chalkboard label.  I used a chalk marker to write on the label and closed it with a piece of fabric and a little ribbon!


I made multiple jars and sent them to school.


For her after school program and bus drivers, I picked up some berry baskets (how cool are these?) and put a pack of Extra gum, hot cocoa packet, coffee packets and tied them with baker's twine and a gift tag.

How perfect are these?

Here's what you need to make your own VIP Extra Thanks Gifts:

Jars or berry baskets (I found mine at Michael's craft stores)
Bakers twine
fabric ribbon
chalkboard labels
chalk marker

Extra Gum
Other goodies: single coffee packets, hot cocoa packets, pens, note pads, gift card, homemade sugar scrubs, etc. Anything you think the VIP in your life would love!



Maybe police, firefighter, nurse, mail carrier, UPS/FedEx, teacher, day care, neighbor, etc.  The ideas are endless!

Be sure to check out Extra on Facebook for some really inspiring ideas, Pinterest and Twitter.