The Year of Felt 2013

I love creating. I love homemade gifts. My goal each Christmas is to have most... no, all... of my gifts be homemade.

This year all but one of my gifts were homemade, so I would say it was a pretty successful year. 

I made Mom three felt snowmen. 

I made Grammy a Santa wreath for their front door.  

I painted a silhouette of Goliath for David.

I made Grandma a felt nativity for her door at her assisted living apartment.

Then, the felt ideas started flowing for the rest of my family. 

Lee is a Yankees fan.

Mike drives a Mini Cooper, so I made him a felt one that he can hang from his rear view mirror. 

I made Andy a KU basketball to hang from his rear view mirror. 

Since Dad carves at least one Santa each year, I made him a felt Santa similar to one of his recent creations.

I made two of my sweet friends a necklace... I tried out jewelry-making for the first time. 

We had a very lovely Christmas with both our families.

Celebrations were a little different this year since my brother wasn't able to make it until the weekend after, but I'm so glad we were all still able to get together!

See homemade gifts from Christmas past: 2012, 2011, 2010...

Snapshots of Christmas 2012

Homemade Christmas 2012

I love, love, love that most of the gifts were homemade this year. 

I hope this trend continues!

Homemade gifts to others:

a special pillow for my brother

{made from his mini-travels shirt from this summer}

comic book ornaments for hubs

a snowman for mom

a hanging snowman for grandma

cinnamon honey butter for all

Homemade gifts to us:

a stylish thread holder for my craft room

a santa carved by daddy

a centerpiece for our table made by mom and dad

a sign for our basement made by daddy

a stylish hair accent made by a lady that works with my mom

Hope your Christmas time was merry!

Joseph and Rudolph, 2 of a Kind, Sort of

Have you ever considered how similar their stories are?

Joseph's brothers were jealous of his dreams and beautiful coat and the admiration their father showed him.

Rudolph's reindeer buddies used to laugh and call him names. They didn't even let Rudolph play any of their games. Shady!

Joseph's brothers wanted him dead, but threw him in a well and sold him as a slave instead. Shady!

When Santa approached Rudolph about being the only one who could save the day, everyone shouted with glee and loved him. Figures!

When famine threatened Joseph's family, he was the only one who could save him.

Who knew that Rudolph and Joseph had so much in common! :)

For fun today as we were eating lunch today, the hubs and I were trying to create a song for Joseph. If Rudolph has one, Joseph needs one. His story is so much better! Here's what we have so far:

(to the tune of Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer, of course)

Joseph, the man with dreams,
had a very colorful coat,
and if you ever saw it,
you would wanna trade your goat.
All of his 11 brothers
hated him and wished him dead.
They considered taking his life,
But they sold him as a slave instead...

A work in progress that I will update if we ever finish!

Have a blessed and merry Christmas with friends and family!

Christmas Crafts {School Edition}

A couple of the Christmas gifts we made at school:

a reindeer bell ornament

So cute and easy!

door hangers for the residents 

at the nursing home where we went caroling

We also painted a wooden ornament with their picture in it.

You gotta do one of those each year!

Santas made by the teacher across the hall

So cute!

Popsicle Nativity

our finished product today in Sunday school

I think they turned out really cute!

Teacher Gift

part of my gift to my second grade teacher friends

front :: half dry-erasable, half sticky noted

back :: dry erase marker holder

 

GROW Snowballs

In Sunday school this morning we read {in Luke 2} 

about the shepherds who heard from the angels about the baby Jesus. 

We talked about why shepherds {and lambs} are so important in the Bible.

We continued our work on the nativity decoration we're making. 

It will look a little something like this (idea from Pinterest):

We made some snowmen to hang on the children's tree in the foyer.

I had originally wanted fake snow to be inside the ornaments, 

but I bought ones with too small a hole, 

so I went with plan B, 

white paint that we "swished" around inside it. 

I still think they're cute. 

Tree is Up

I finally put it up.

Honestly, it would've been up sooner.

I had planned to put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

Someone {who shall not be named} said it was too soon.

But now it's up.

I think I'm going to do like last year.

No ornaments.

Strange, I know.

But I'm partial to the lights.

At school each 2nd grade classroom has an elf.

Each day he resides somewhere new.

It's fun to see the kids excitement 

as they try to figure out where it is "hiding."

On the projector.

Zip-lining.

Hanging our lights.

Reading a book.

Weakened {broken} leg.

The deal is that no one is supposed to touch him.

Someone {supposedly} touched him.

Thus the cast on his leg.

Photo Recap

Christmas hats

A visit from friends

Sour gum contest

New Year's video games

Dress-up play

Homemade Christmas Gifts 2011

for Dad & Mom,
Grandma, and
Grammy

for Mom
(four seasons
or mix & match)

for Hubby and
my oldest brother

I didn't take a picture of Grammy's other gift, but here's the link for my Pinterest inspiration.

T - 26.5 hours of Christmas present work time left.

It's going to be close!

• Husband's present. Done and wrapped.
• Oldest brother's present. Still needs to be wrapped.
• Dad's present. Still needs to be wrapped.
• Mom's present. In progress.
• Mom & Dad's calendar. In progress.
• Grandma's present. Still needs to be wrapped.
• Grammy's present. Not even started.
• Grandma & Grammy's calendars. In progress.
• Other brother's present. Not even started. (Should take 30 minutes.)

Here's the gift I gave my students, though.

I am anxious to post pictures of the family gifts, but will have to wait until after Christmas eve so no one peeks!

Have a merry Christmas! 

Enjoy your family time!

Love This

I'm not much of a decorator.
Not even for the holidays.
There are a couple 'musts' come Christmas season, though.
Nativity scene.
Pretty lights.
Those are my two favorites.
Even in my classroom at school.
Public school.
One of my favorite things is the conversation and comments that open up around this beautifully simple nativity scene.

(I think my mom made it sometime when I was little.)
I put it out today and many of the kids noticed.
Several of the kids engaged in conversation with me about it.
One student even explained the nativity characters to another student.
I love hearing these little snippets of conversations between my second graders.

Homemade Hit 2010

Everyone should switch to giving homemade gifts! There's a sense of satisfaction that comes upon completion of the gift. The person receiving the gift is always appreciative. Sometimes you might even save money creating your own gifts rather than shopping.

Here's what my hubs and I created this year...

1.  I made my mom and dad a portrait of their wedding photo out of fabric. I was really pleased with the direction of this project until the very end when I added the faces. I might have to redo this with better faces (and using felt instead of flannel) at a later time.

2.  David made Grandma some portraits of the family to hang on her magnetic closet door wall. It was fun watching her open the gift and figure out who each person was!

3.  I made my brother a Grinch stocking to hang up in his new house. He definitely needs some Christmas decorations for next year.

4.  For one of our close friends, David and I decorated a small storage cabinet from Hobby Lobby with portraits of some of our friends. We were so pleased with our finished project that we were almost sad to give it up! I filled the drawers with some little office-school supplies for our friend's student teaching desk the next couple of semesters.

Yes, homemade gifts take more time and planning. Yes, homemade gifts sometimes take more thought and definitely require some creativity. I think family and friends appreciate them all the more, though. Give it a try!

Happy creating!

So Many Reasons to Be Thankful!

I love making lists. Usually my lists endlessly point out work that needs to be done or groceries that need to be bought or ideas I'd like to use (maybe someday?). Today, my list is special, though... it's my favorite kind of list!

Of course this list could be endless with the ways that I am blessed this holiday season. Here's a few I reflected on tonight as I thought about the last couple of days and read about the Christmas story in Luke chapter 2 and John chapter 1...

• My under-the-weather-ness didn't last any longer... boy did I cut it close!
• Homemade Christmas gifts were finished, at last, and all gifts were wrapped on time (with hours to spare).
• Safe journeys here and there and everywhere.
• Spending another Christmas holiday with all of my family (except Uncle J who will be down in May).
• Blessed with such a loving family who makes me feel so loved.
• All the smiles, laughs, and stories that naturally come with family shindigs.
• The Lord protecting 91 yr.-old Grandma when she took a fall today and her laughing about it when she got back up again. 
• Not allowing my headaches to bring me down the last couple of days.
• Most importantly, oh-so long ago a precious, little baby was born to a young, inexperienced girl and grew up to die on the cross for my sins (and yours) because he loves me (and you) that much! What a love my Father has for me (and you)!

I love reading the Christmas story each December 25th and am sad to have missed it again around the dinner table today with my family. If the Lord blesses my hubs and I with kids someday, I plan to make that one of my traditions with them. It's such a beautiful story of God's love for us, how He gives provisions, and how He works things out for His glory!

Merry Christmas and God bless!