Santa brought the kids 2 gifts which obviously were not homemade, but the rest of the gifts were.
I spent the entire month of December, pretty much every day, working on projects. I helped the kids make their gifts for each other and for Daddy. It was really fun to watch the girls have the experience of Christmas from this perspective. They had each spent their own time and come up with ideas that they really thought their siblings would like. They were excited to give their gifts. And they were excited about the gifts they had received, because they knew that the same effort had been put into those gifts. It is quite a different experience to give a gift that you put personal time and thought and effort into than to just go spend some money. My girls got to learn what it's like to experience the joy that comes from giving to others. It was a special experience.
As part of our Christmas tradition, the kids all got pajamas on Christmas Eve. All of the pajamas were made from old clothes that were headed for DI or the trash. It's amazing how much fabric you have to work with when you just use clothes you don't wear anymore!
Now on to the other gifts:
Emma -- *A heat-able bean bag (I made one for each of the kids with their initial on it)
*2 bean bracelets from Allyson
* A guitar from Molly
*A ring from Bridget (which you can't see in the picture)
*A paper doll kit from Mom and Dad (the coloring and cutting took hours, but it was worth it. She loved it!)
* A baby doll and a scooter from Santa (not shown)
Bridget -- * A heat-able bean bag
* The Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly book with accompanying old woman from Allyson. (The book has the words and each animal which can be placed in a pouch on the old woman's stomach as you sing the song.)
* A purse from Molly made out of Daddy's old jeans.
* A cute flower pin made by Emma
* A teddy bear (which she named Belle) from Mom and Dad (made out of pink hooded baby towels that we no longer needed. The dress and bow were made out of an old shirt)
* A barbie and a scooter from Santa (not shown)
Molly -- * A heat-able bean bag
* A rope-braided necklace from Emma
* A heart pin from Bridget (not shown) made from salt dough and painted
* Matching game cards from Allyson
* 3 homemade puzzles from Mom and Dad
* A barbie and a scooter from Santa (not shown)
Allyson -- * A heat-able bean bag
* A rope-braided necklace from Bridget
* A baby cradle from Molly (the baby was from Santa). The cradle was made out of a rolled oats container and construction paper.
* A Tweety Bird pillow made by Emma from old clothing (She even did most of the sewing and has been asking for more sewing projects.)
* Fairy wings from Mom and Dad made from a hanger and leftover fabric from Emma's baptism dress.
*The phone she's holding was her other gift from Santa
Charles -- Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of Charlie with his presents. We let him sleep past 6:00 so his schedule wouldn't be too messed up. So he didn't open his presents until after church that afternoon and I was out of camera mode at that point. But I'll still tell you what he got.
* A heat-able bean bag
* A stuffed ball
* A drum made out of a used formula can with a drumstick made from and empty spool of thread and a wooden skewer
* Rattles made from small yogurt cups with beans inside
(These homemade gifts were a group gift from the whole family)
* Some cars and a 'punching bag' type penguin from Santa
*Charlie also made a group gift for the whole family (with lots of help from Mom). He gave us our family game, which was a Bean Bag Toss. The girls really like it.
Daddy -- * His Christmas Eve pajama T-shirt, colored on by the kids. The front of it says "This is the Dad of Awesomeness!" It cracks me up!
* A book the kids made for him, "25 Things We Love About Dad" complete with pictures for each thing drawn by the kids. So cute!
* Felt slippers from Mom
We had a lovely Christmas and we hope you did too!
