A gift handed down...

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This year, my son got two very special gifts from his paternal grandparents. When they called and asked what kinds of things he likes, I mentioned that he's very into trains lately. As a matter of fact, he can't walk past a train in the store without wanting to buy it -- he loves them. Well, they were going to go out and buy him a little train set to send, then remembered something. They still have a bunch of his dads toys from when he was a kid. Among them, is a train. A 30 year old toy might sound like a lousy gift, except that I've seen several of the toys my ex had when he was a kid, most of them don't look like they were ever played with. He took such good care of them, that there's minimal wear and tear. So my son now has a toy that was his daddy's toy, and he absolutely loves it. He did get another toy that was his daddy's too, one of those old Donkey Kong games (the ones that look like a mini arcade game), which works perfectly. It's so awesome. I'm even having fun with that one. My son's grandma was afraid I might take offense to getting a "used" gift for my son. Truth be told, I don't care if a gift is used as long as it's given with love. These gifts are made all the more special, because they belonged to his dad. I might not be with his dad anymore, but his dad is his dad and I think it's incredibly special that my son gets to play with something that gave his dad years of happiness as a child. I only wish I still had some of my old toys to pass on to my son.