Handmade Christmas

When I was growing up, my family gave homemade gifts to each other every Christmas.  We each drew a name so we only had one gift to make.  With 6 kids I'm sure that's all my parents could handle.  My mom would help us with the crafty/sewing while my dad helped with any woodworking.  I have some really great memories of those homemade gifts both given and received.  My family still puts an emphasis on homemade in our gift exchange.  And I've tried to do the same in my own family. 

I only have 3 kids, so this year I decided that it might be nice to have each of them make something for both their siblings.  We'll see how it goes!  And I might make something for each of them, I haven't decided.  My oldest son has already decided what he wants to give his brother and sister and my second son has a few ideas as well.  I guess I'll end up deciding for my daughter, and probably making hers as well.  Unless someone out there has a great, useful gift that a 3-year-old can make!

As I've been browsing around the internet I've come across a few fun ideas for homemade gifts.  Not sure if I'll use any of these, but maybe you will!

• Design Mom on sibling gifts: has links to past gifts
• Felt Food (so cute!)
• Cozy pillow case
• Braided headbands
• Tin can knitting: either a gift or use to make gifts!

I'll post what my kids are doing for their gifts later on.  Since they don't read my blog, it won't spoil anything if I post before Christmas.

How does your family exchange gifts?  I'd love to hear about any cute homemade gift ideas you have!

Happy Easter

"In our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: “He is not here: for he is risen.”"  - Thomas S. Monson

April Fools

We've always had a little too much fun with April Fools' Day at out house.  We've mixed up cereal bags, made meatloaf 'cake' and 'cupcakes', candy veggies, and traded beds in the middle of the night.  Here's what we did this year!

For breakfast, this sliced banana prank.

In the afternoon, the Amazing Origami Rock Craft.

And for the grand finale, a crazy, mixed-up dinner.  I think this one may become a tradition.

Now you know who the April Fools are!  Are you one too?

Halloween!!

I figured I'd better post this pic before Halloween is too far behind us:

Underdog, House, and Darth Vader

Homemade costumes really are much cuter then storebought. I'm especially pleased with how the Vader costume turned out. It is really quite impressive in person. Don't know who House is? I'm sorry. DH had a great time playing House for all his students on Halloween, complete with attitude and 'vicodin' (m&m's in a perscription bottle). Me? I did my best impression of a pumpkin by wearing an orange shirt and sitting around while the boys went Trick-or-treating. You don't want a picture of that, trust me.

Wishlist

I was going to make a list here of things I wanted that weren't available at Amazon, but with the new Universal Wish List button I can add ANYTHING to my Amazon wishlist. Cool.

In honor of "Talk like a pirate" day

Halloween (a little late)

Time to play catch up! I don't know how I missed posting this, but here are the boys 2007 Halloween costumes.


Younger ds is a cat, costume made by my mother. Older ds is a dog, costume made by me. I actually made his sweats with a pattern I drew myself because I could not find any cream colored sweats in the stores to match the hood fabric.

This is Fred. (Younger ds named him.) We made him out of milk jugs and hung him outside our door. We liked him so much we even made a pilgrim hat for him so he could stay up for Thanksgiving too. We were planning to give him a santa hat for Christmas, but the wind blew his legs off and he had to be recycled. Poor Fred.

Homemade Christmas: Cranberry Conserve

I canned a few jars of this cranberry conserve for local friends this past Christmas. Yummy! Just FYI, it's a conserve and not a preserve because it has nuts in it (pecans; I don't like walnuts). It also has golden raisins in it. Mmmmm. It goes great on bread or as a garnish on turkey or other poultry. Think leftover turkey sandwich. I think I'm going to have to make this a tradition every year.

Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

PS In case you didn't notice, I forgot to blog yesterday! Oh well, I'll just do like the public schools and have an extra "snow day" post on the 1st of May. Hopefully I won't miss any more days.

Homemade Christmas: Blues Afghan

I made this afghan for my sister who just returned from a mission in Spain. It's (sort of) my original pattern. I'm telling on myself here, but the two center squares are from this pattern. When it became apparent that I would not finish in time if I continued, I changed to the above simpler pattern.

I had an extra square that I sewed onto the back so it could be folded into this handy dandy pillow. Plus you can stick your feet in the pocket to keep them warm when it's unfolded.

Homemade Christmas: Blanket and Juggling Balls

My older ds made these Christmas gifts. The first was for one of his cousins on my side. He designed it himself, I sewed the candy cane on and we both tied the edges. The beanbags he made all himself. The juggling balls were for a cousin on my dh's side. He cut out the fabric himself and sewed them together with some help from me. They turned out so cute! I had to hide them after he finished so he and his brother wouldn't play with them!

Easter

This year for Easter we decided to celebrate the whole week. The events of Easter are too important to our beliefs that we wanted to make sure it would be a holiday that they boys would enjoy, maybe not as much as Christmas, but at least more than Halloween! Basically we decided to have a devotional every day based upon the events in Christ's life for that day plus some little activity related to it.

We started out Palm Sunday by making 'palm leaves' out of construction paper and sticks and then doing a readers theatre (with simple costumes) of Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. It was a big hit with the boys. They read the script probably 5 times through before I made them stop. On Wed. we acted out the parable of the talents and showed them the 30 pieces of silver (quarters) that were promised to Judas Iscariot. Thursday we had a meal like the meal Jesus may have eaten at the Last Supper. The boys liked eating on the floor but they weren't too crazy about the food. Friday we watched "To This End Was I Born". A bit graphic, even for me. Sunday we woke up the the Hallelujah Chorus and had fish and honey (minus the comb) for lunch.

In all, I think it was a good experience, though there are a few things I will change for next year. But I think the importance of the message got through to them, as evidenced by this picture my younger ds drew:

He told me the first person, in red, is Mary, the one in brown is Joseph, the other two are disciples. They are thinking about the tomb.

Maybe I need to focus more on the resurrection next year. ;)

30 Days

I have chosen April as my "blog every day" month! I've never attempted this before, so we'll see how it goes. I hope I can think of 30 interesting things to blog about! Okay, so being "interesting" is not a requirement, but hopefully most of them will be interesting.

As April 1st approaches every year, dh and I contemplate announcing an "April Fools'" pregnancy, but so far we haven't been brave enough to do it. It's sometimes hard to tell if an April Fools' joke will cross the line, and I suspect an "April Fools'" pregnancy just might be one of those. So instead, late last night, we moved the boys into each other's beds. My older ds woke up at about 11pm, called my dh in and said "I think something's wrong here." We convinced him to stay there so his younger brother would be surprised in the morning. Younger ds was surprised, but I think they both didn't know quite what to think. Our final prank will be played on the ward choir. My dh signed up to bring the refreshments tonight and so we're bringing "french fries". We even got bags from Burger King to pack them in, and we'll buy a few bags of real fries to add the signature smell to the deception. We'll see if anyone is actually fooled. Food pranks are my favorite!

OK. You've fooled around long enough...

Need More Holidays?

Here's how they extend Valentine's Day in Japan and Korea. (Thanks to my friend in Japan for cluing me in to these!)

White Day
In Japan, girls give boys chocolate on Valentine's day. White Day (March 14th) is the boys day to reciprocate. The generally recited rule is that the return gift should be two to three times the cost of the Valentine's gift. Sounds good to me!

Black Day
If you didn't get to celebrate Valentine's Day or White Day, you celebrate Black Day (April 14th). Basically, you go to a restaurant with similarly single friends and eat white noodles with black bean sauce. Wish I'd know about this holiday when I was single! I might celebrate it anyway, just for fun.

Homemade Christmas: Striped Lapghan

This is the Lapghan I made for my sil (dh's oldest sister). I actually bought the yarn at the beginning of the year, but didn't get started on it until the last quarter. Thankfully the pattern is really simple and it worked up quite quickly. It's made with Lion Brand Wool-Ease, so it's soft and washable and won't break the bank.

Homemade Christmas: Puppet Theatre

This gift was from my younger ds to my brother's oldest dd. As you can tell, he didn't make most of it. Here's the story: It was originally a gift for him, but when I asked him if he'd like to give it to his cousin, he was quite excited about it. (I'll make him another one at some point.) He and his older brother helped me design the layout on the front, and they made the sock puppets to go with it. It's hard to see, but there are four of them; a pink flowered one with sparkly pink hair, a brown dog, a purple striped snake, and a red striped 'alien'. We checked out a book from the library about making puppets, and for weeks it was the only thing they could talk about! They were really excited to give it to their cousin, they were just sure she would love it!

Gingerbread Houses

Can you guess whose is whose?

Cranberry Orange Vinegar

It's my first solo foray into home canning (aside from freezer jam, which doesn't really count)! I was afraid the whole time that it wouldn't work at all, but in the end all the jars sealed. Aren't they pretty? Next I'm going to try cranberry conserve.

Thanksgiving Eve

We have a tradition (the past few years) of having a "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" dinner the night before Thanksgiving. We serve the dinner Charlie Brown served his friends and then watch the movie. The kids think it's a blast because they get candy for dinner! I like it because it means I don't have to cook dinner after cooking for Thanksgiving all day. Not very healthy, but I figure once a year isn't going to kill anyone.

Thanksgiving Leftover Shepherds Pie

Need something new to do with all those Thanksgiving leftovers? This shepherds pie is super easy and super good. Make it as big or as small as you want!

Combine in casserole dish:
Leftover turkey, shredded
Leftover stuffing

Leftover veggies (or frozen mixed, heated)

Leftover gravy

Top with:

Leftover mashed potatoes
Cheddar cheese, shredded

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until heated through. If desired, put it under the broiler for 30 seconds to give the cheese a brown, crispy crust. Serve with salad and leftover cranberry sauce.