My Dad

I did this picture last year. It was my Dad's Christmas present. I had gone on a scavenger hunt to find all these things to put in the picture. My son had the golf clubs. They were my Dad's and also the clubs that he taught me the game of golf with. I always loved the leather club cover. These binoculars went on every vacation with us. I could not find the original old bird book, this is one exactly like it from EBay. We would always try to remember everything about a bird to identify it. Dad always seemed to already know but would help us find the right answer. Dad loved to tool leather when I was a kid. I found this old purse in his drawer. All tooled but never completed. His work is beautiful and I included a couple of his tools. Dad loves walnuts and will sit and crack them for hours at a time. His old pocket knife has seen better days, it is nearly worn out! We collected stamps and coins when I was a kid and had some good times doing that. These are a couple of stamps that we collected, both unused from the 1940's. The silver dollar was my allowance when I was 6 or 7. An 1898 Morgan dollar worth about $6 the day it was given to me! When Mom found out, she tried to get it back! I still have it! Dad and I went on a lot of rabbit hunts when I was a kid. I put in a couple of .22 shells to evoke those memories. A long with the painting was a three page letter about these and other memories. My Dad is not one to show emotion. I was excited and nervous to give him this gift! In fact I have never been more excited to give a gift! How would he react? Would I even know if he liked it? I gave it to him at our Christmas breakfast when the whole family was there. He was just starting to kind of tear up when Mom piped in with her commentary. I wonder if that was a protective thing that Mom did for him? Dad regained his composure and remained steeled. I was left still kind of wondering! I saw him the next day and he told me it was the best gift that he had ever been given! Wow! How can I top a gift like that?!