Homemade Christmas…in April

family love, Just me. April 4, 2013 3 Comments

Oh, hello April. You snuck up on me this year…!

After spending the past three out of four weeks hotel jumping and vacationing with family, I’ve been left with a bit of a bewildered feeling of un-settlement with a touch of restlessness. No big deal that I’ll be leaving for a week come Monday either. Yikes. I’m left with a disaster-zone of a house, a bomb-squaded {yes, that’s…a word} mess of an office and files pretty much everywhere. And don’t even get me started on the laundry. Oh, that laundry. Where does it all come from!?

While I attempt to get organized and orderly once again, be ahead of the game and have time to relax and rejuvenate guilt-free before wedding season starts in {not to mention get my garden started–wheee!}, I’m going to need to get some of this chaos rightened. I still have many, many sessions to blog and am excited to get to them in the coming weeks. I’ve also decided to share more ‘personal’ posts with all of you–no worries, I’m not goingÂ that personal!–just to break things up a bit and keep it fresh! Whoot, whoot, cheers to more regularly scheduled posts!!

A few {ahem} months ago, I had some people ask about the results of our hand made Christmas gifting. Since it has been a fast-flying several weeks since Christmas and most of the snow is finally vacating the landscape, I figured I might as well put that post together today. I mean, my wreath came down only two days ago, so we’re still somewhat in the Christmas spirit…right? {Seriously. I had a wilted and completely dead Christmas wreath hang on our door for an Easter decoration. Pitiful.}

Without further ado…I give you…homemade Christmas 2013!!

In 2010, after spending an inordinate amount of time and money on Christmas gifts that, sorry to say, were not too memorable, my side of the family struck gold when we decided to try homemade Christmas in 2011. That first Christmas brought iron Sheppard hooks from my parents {dad made them} as well an assortment of a life-sized Jenga set, homemade cookies, hot cocoa mix, and Baileys {thanks to the brother and his lady friend} and other infused alcohols, knitted scarves {from the sister} and some other equally fantastic gifts. It was the most fun Christmas opening I can remember in a long time; with everyone oooing and ahhing over each others strokes of genius and creative minds. We all self-high-fived and patted our own backs for coming up with such a genius idea. The only thing better than receiving a homemade gift is knowing that the giver picked out the idea, executed plans and thought of you the whole time whist in construction. It is super awesome. Deciding to keep to our new tradition, we all waited until the last minute {I mean, procrastination is our family motto!} before hammering out our creative presents this year, but that didn’t hamper the spirit or diminish our imaginations one little bit.

There may even be a bit of friendly competition to see who comes up with the most creative and in-depth concept. Or it might just be me.

😉

Here are a few shots of what we came up with. Just off the top of my head, not pictured are homemade tomato cages and clothesline poles from my parents; hilarious weenie roasters that my brother made; snow globes; photo ornaments; a shot-ski that Tawna and Charlie put together; fishing gear for Jax from Tawna and Charlie {how we both were thinking fishing is beyond me}; and much more…

Norah sporting her new collar from my cousin!

My gift to my sister :: five meals, just add the liquid/meat

Tj’s girlfriend half-cheated and got her gifts at Cranberry Fest {hey, someone made them, right?!} 😉 These boxes were pretty sweet–chalk on one side, whiteboard on the other, packed with awesome crafting stuff.

Our gift to Gavinn :: net, poles and fish with magnetic mouths for fishing to do with his awesome ROCKING BOAT created, built and painted by Uncle Nick!! {We totally won Homemade Christmas.}

Our gift to MiaRae :: church bag with activities

Our gift to Jax :: A fabric book spelling out his full name in different kinds of activities

Our gift to Charlie :: Duct tape wallet filled with gift cards for lunches-on-the-go

Chelsea’s real homemade gift for us :: date night in a jar!

Our gift to my parents :: a family quilt. We each are represented by a white rectangle surrounded by fabrics I picked to personify each of us {my grandparents, parents, siblings, spouses and kids}. Shirts from our high school jobs and other places of employment, fabrics from previous projects, colors to symbolize different life events…I was really thrilled with how it turned out. I’m still working on finishing up the binding, but it should be completely finished soon!! Oh, what about Tawna and Charlie’s #3 due in July? No worries–this is a quilt that’s meant to be added to over the years.

All that creating left my craft room in complete and utter shambles, but it was so worth it. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with next year!!!