A semi-homemade Christmas

Last year we spent Christmas at my mom’s house in Texas. Since we were flying in, taking a lot of gifts seemed impractical, and not within our budget anyway, so we chose to do a gift exchange instead. I was fine with that, but also thought it would be nice to give a little something to my other family members.

The handmade gifts that stand out from last year, I remember for their simplicity.

For my mom, I bought a box of glass ornaments in a deep blue color, and had Maya help me glue faux gems on them. Then I outlined the gems with gold glitter puffy paint. The entire process literally took minutes (not including drying time). The lights on my mom’s Christmas tree reflected against the ornaments beautifully. She loved them (but what else would a mother say!)

Two days before Christmas, I was looking through the photos on my digital camera, and came upon several that I didn’t take. I remembered that I had asked my little brother to hold my camera while I was taking care of the baby in church the previous Sunday, and figured he was the shutterbug behind those photos. Most of them were close-ups of his face, but one stuck out to me – that of a longhorn against what looked like leather. I later found out it was some kind of decal on the dashboard of a car he had been riding in that day. I uploaded the photo to a computer, turned it to black and white, and rushed to Wal-Mart that same day to pick it up. While waiting for the photo to be printed, I grabbed a $3 black frame with a white matting off a nearby display. The look on my brother’s face when he unwrapped his gift was priceless. His eyes just lit up when he recognized the photo. He now proudly hangs it in his room!

I’m not sure what, if any, gifts I’ll make this year. I’m off to a late start, but just happened upon this activity book by Klutz that gives you step-by-step directions and all the supplies needed to make your own angel ornaments. Sounds like the perfect project for Maya and I to work on during baby’s naptime!