• Welcome someone to North Carolina with a housewarming gift.north carolina outline image by Kim Jones from Fotolia.com
  
  North Carolina is home to a lot of firsts: the Wright brothers propelled their airplane in the first successful flight in 1903; the first Pepsi fizzed its way into a glass in 1898; and legendary ball player Babe Ruth hit his first home run in the state in 1914. If you know someone who is about to move into the state and experience all these for the first time, welcome them to the neighborhood with a "North Cackalackie" housewarming gift.
  
  

Awesome Acorn

• Sitting atop a pedestal in Moore Square in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, looms what may be the world's largest acorn. Impenetrable to even the most scurrilous of squirrels, the North Carolina symbol is actually hoisted into the air every year at New Year's Eve and dropped like the Times Square ball. Chances are, while your housewarming-gift recipient won't be able to fit such an acorn in her new home, you can use the acorn as a theme for your gift. Welcome North Carolina newcomers with a variation on the typical potpourri gift. Gather acorns as they drop in your yard or purchase decorative ones from the craft store. Spray paint them a pretty metallic silver and gold or to match the color scheme of the person's new home, if you know the hues. Just before the paint dries, shake on a canister of sparkling glitter to give them a "bling" effect. Pile the decorative acorns into a pretty vase or glass bowl.
  
  

Wonder Wine

• California may get a lot of credit for its Napa and Sonoma Valley wineries, but your North Carolina newcomer is moving into a area with close to a hundred wineries in the state, many clustered around the central and western region. Wineries are usually open to the public and sell their bottled goods on site; you'll also find them sold in local North Carolina grocery stores (North Carolina blue laws allow beer and wine to be sold in grocery stores; hard liquor is sold through government-run shops). Choose a bottle of red, white or rose from vintners such as A Secret Garden Winery (Pikeville), Moonrise Bay Vineyard (Knotts Island), Uwharrie Vineyards (Albemarle) or the Grapefull Sisters Vineyard (Tabor City). Present the person with a taste of what's to come.
  
  

Friendly Fauna

• Many housewarming gifts involve a bouquet or a plant to dress up and liven a person's home. Keep to the North Carolina theme by welcoming the newcomer with some Dogwood pickings, which blossom in the early spring into summer and come mainly in white, though you'll also find pink and red. Another option is to purchase a baby pine tree, the official state tree as of 1963. North Carolina is the indigenous home to eight different pine trees, including loblolly, shortleaf and table mountain. If you're feeling adventurous, seek out the North Carolina wildflower, the Carolina Lily, official designated as such since 2003. Find the flower in the forests and swamplands; it grows up to 4 feet high and has up to six bright red-orange flowers, mostly blooming in July and August.