I love Christmas, but I'm so glad to say it's over for this year.
When the kids and I arrived home from Alberta, it was like a non-stop circus. We ended up shopping for Christmas gifts every night. Only 6 people to get gifts for, and it took us 5 days of useless browsing (and being bumped about by other mall goers) before we even started to figure out what would work.
I'm glad we had saved ourselves some shopping by hand-crafting my side of the family's gifts. And I have more pictures! My sister Kirstyn got the adorable monster shown a few posts down, and the two younger girls received beaded items. Here is what I made for my parents:
A scrapbook page for my dad. He'd made himself some digital ones of Corbin and himself before Keilyn was born. They hang in his office at work. I know he's always enjoyed my scrapbook pages, so I thought I do something with a little more depth and both grandchildren. I framed it in a simple black frame, and now it is in his office as well.
I sure made a mess doing it, though!
Next year, I am hand-making and shopping online for all our gifts. Anything I'd need to buy in a shop, I can get online, right? Everything for the kids will be handmade and natural if I get my way!!
We spent our very first Christmas morning alone as a family this year. Years past we've been with my family or Brandon's "Chosen" family. This time we put out cookies in our own home, slept in our own family bed, awoke to our own lovely tree and had just a quiet, laid back morning. It was really beautiful. Funny how the simple things like just being in your own place make the holidays so special.
The afternoon and evening were spent with Brandon's "Chosen" family. We opened a whole slough of gifts, ate yummy food, and then had a party.
We brought along my brand new Nintendo Wii, and the whole crew had a blast with it. From the oldest attendee, to the 4th youngest (a five year old). Way to get video gaming to a new level, Nintendo! Gone are the days of sitting on your behind blankly staring at the game, and here are the days of MOVING while to play. It's so much fun for everyone, and easy too.
Now there is a new task at hand. Keilyn's first birthday on January 2nd. (But that's a whole post of it's own!) Following closely behind that is my own birthday. My family isn't quite resting yet!
We brought along my brand new Nintendo Wii, and the whole crew had a blast with it. From the oldest attendee, to the 4th youngest (a five year old). Way to get video gaming to a new level, Nintendo! Gone are the days of sitting on your behind blankly staring at the game, and here are the days of MOVING while to play. It's so much fun for everyone, and easy too.
Now there is a new task at hand. Keilyn's first birthday on January 2nd. (But that's a whole post of it's own!) Following closely behind that is my own birthday. My family isn't quite resting yet!
2 whispers:
I hear you about the pain of gift-getting. I have this profound hatred of the mall. This year, I have managed to go to the mall no more than once every three months or so, and then only to get specific things I already knew I needed. And the less time I spend in the mall, the more painful it is when I do go, but also the more obvious it is to me how insidious the whole thing is. I go with usually one or two modest purchases in mind -- boots for my daughter, or maybe underpants for me -- and I find myself suddenly wanting new shirts, a new dress, maybe exotic snack food from the T & T. It's awful, this drive to buy stuff that takes over.
This year I managed to get most people in my life to agree to no gifts between adults. The rest of the people, I made felted Christmas tree ornaments for, or bought a book. I'm so inspired by the Buy Handmade pledge.
hahahahhaa! I didn't realize you were on here too! Holy. found you. :P
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