"Homemade Christmas"

This Christmas, in an effort to save money and focus on the true meaning of Christmas, I decided to make as many gifts as possible.  Hence the title of this blog post, "homemade Christmas!"  Most things turned out great, and I look forward to doing it again next year.  Needless to say, I was pooped when it was all over...but I loved the excitement and joy on the faces of those who received our gifts!  I photographed some of my favorites to share...and to help me remember for next year :)

A great way to "dress up" a gift card - Tear a piece of cute fabric and wrap it around the gift card and tie with some twine.

Homemade snowflake gift tags

I can't even tell you how many hundreds of no bake cookies I made.  Joanne's has cute tins at great prices.  Slap a "reindeer droppings" tag on them and you are good to go!

Homemade Hot Chocolate....to die for! 

Super cute goodie bags from the dollar store filled with reindeer droppings.

One of my favorite things this year, Mod Podge.  It's great! 

Homemade paper wreath...I couldn't give this one away.

Just tear up an old book and look at what you can do!

A shortened version of the "merry and bright" sign I showed you in my last post.  Burlap was another one of my favorite things this year.  It is inexpensive, and so versatile!

Painted on letters covered red glitter.  I'll be making one for every season!

My gift to my sister.  She hates clutter, but needed a place to display her kids' art work.

I dressed up the clothes pins by covering them with paper and coating it with Mod Podge and distress ink.

Auntie, Grandmas, and Daddy got one of these cute hand prints.

 

 

 

 

 

 I also made a really cute "days until Christmas" block set, which I forgot to photograph before giving away!  Some adorable gifts I received were homemade vanilla and a jar of cookie ingredients.  The grandmas both got Shutterfly photo books this year of their grand kids.  They brought tears of joy to their eyes, and they have loved showing them off to their friends.  The most wonderful gift I received was a video of Liam's first year.  Craig put so many hours and hard work into this work of art.  I have watched it over and over, and it makes me cry every time.  The best gifts truly do come from the heart, not the store!

"llama llama holiday drama" is one of our favorite books.  Liam LOVES his llama llama, and carries him everywhere...so naturally we read this book before bed almost every night leading up to Christmas.  Every time I read the book, it made me smile when I got to my favorite part:

..."wishing, waiting, wanting things...we forget what this time brings.  Gifts are nice, but there's another.  The TRUE gift is, we have each other..."

Craig, Liam, and I are so blessed to have each other and all of the family and friends that surround us.  We thank you all for all you do for us and for being such an important part of our lives.