This year my gift making started in September with a trip to the berry farm. The boys and I picked a ton of raspberries, and a few strawberries. I also bought some fresh Western Slope peaches. The next day I turned them all into jam, and ventured into my first foray into canning. It's surprising how easy it is! I ended up with a ton of raspberry jam, and several smaller jars of strawberry and peach jam. I also, over the next few weeks as my tomatoes ripened, made an amazing bruschetta. OMG, this stuff is so good. Too bad my tomatoes were all so small, or I'd have made a literal ton of it, it's that good. Rounding out the batch, I made some of the Pioneer Woman's Cranberry Pomegranate sauce. Tasty stuff.
Anyway, I made these with the intention of giving them as gifts. I picked up a few small baskets at Jo Ann Fabric, popped a couple of jars into the basket, and voilà, homemade gifts, ready to go.
The kids also did handmade gifts this year. We made cinnamon ornaments. I don't think I took any pictures of them (bad, i know!) but they smell amazing, and look really pretty. After they'd dried for a few days, the kids decorated them with glitter, pipe cleaners and pom-poms. I think we might skip the pom-poms next time, they don't stick so well, and the kids get a little overzealous with them.
We also did homemade gifts for their classmates. We (always) have too many crayons floating around the house, so I got a couple of silicon candy molds, and we broke the crayons down, and made cute little gift crayons to give out. We also included some chocolate kisses and candy canes. The kids in their classes really enjoyed the gifts, though the kids in Tyler's class tried to eat their crayons.
The process was a bit messier than I expected though. If you ever decide to try this, cutting the crayon's wrapper with a knife beats picking the paper off with your fingers by a long way. The knife also made breaking the crayons up a lot easier too.
The kids had their annual holiday party at school. It wasn't the best organized one I've ever been to, but they seemed to have fun. Connor was VERY excited to sing carols.
The kids also got to visit with the Big Guy and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Connor was excited for the opportunity, Tyler just thought he was scary.
I spent a lot of time researching local photographers and photo studios, so that we could get a family portrait done, but after a while I gave up, and ran outside while the kids were playing in the snow to snap a couple of fun pictures of them for our cards. Hubby helped with this session by making faces over my shoulder to get the kids laughing. Couldn't have done it without him. I think the pics came out adorable.
Christmas morning was a lot of fun. The boys got up early, but not too early. They knew that they were allowed to open their stockings, but had to wait until Hubby and I were up for the day to get into anything else. Thanks to this, we got to sleep in until about 7:00, I believe. Not bad for Christmas morning.
Connor got the gift he'd asked for the most, a "real" guitar. Actually, he'd wanted a whole band of instruments (the drums most of all) but Santa decided it would be best if he focused on just one thing at a time. He's loving the new guitar, though we've had a few broken e-strings already. Doesn't
Tyler's big gift from Santa was a bunch of new wooden train tracks for his Thomas set. He was so THRILLED when he opened that gift, that I knew
And I'll end with a gratuitous shot of sugar. Don't ask about the elephants, I can't really explain that, except that the kids saw one of our zoo cookie cutters, and insisted on using it. Ah, well. Merry Christmas, hope yours was bright!
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