Homemade Christmas Gifts

I have been meaning to post some of the things that we made this year for our Christmas gifts to each other. I had wanted to do homemade gifts this year instead of store bought with the hope that Christmas and gift-giving would become more personal and less commercial. This is new to my kids and I was really happy with how excited they were to participate and they really did put more thought and effort into what they did for each other. This has encouraged them to learn other skills for birthdays and future Christmas ideas.

Here are a few things that we came up with for this year.

Kaylee made this for Addison out of some of the scraps leftover from making her quilt and window coverings. Addy loved it and can now pin up a few of her "special" things.

Addison made these two pillows. The heart is for Kaylee and the round planet is for Andrew. Kaylee LOVES hers. She sleeps on it every night. It is the perfect shape for propping up to read a good book and is so wonderfully soft and cuddly.

Kaylee made these clothes tags for Addy. She has not mastered the pick-out-your-clothes-for-school-on-your-own thing yet. Although she has DEFINITE ideas about what she does and does not want to wear. This has caused some serious issues in the morning. However--since she recieved these, it has been a breeze. She and I pick out her outfits usually on Sunday night. I give her a bunch of choices and she picks from those. We hang them all up. Tag them with a day and then she just grabs the appropriate outfit each morning and I don't have to spend time dealing with that. It's great! (She thinks they are pretty cool too.)

Andrew made bookmarks for the girls and for grandma's. He cut some ribbon into strips and then glued cute buttons and butterflies and ladybugs to the ends. Easy, simple, yet way cute and he really did do it all himself. (Sorry no picture)

Hopefully this will be the start of learning to look beyond the actual gift to the love that is behind it. These are simple, I know, but it is in the simple things that we often find the most joy.