Homemade Christmas Gifts 2015...

Here's a round up of my homemade Christmas gifts this year for the kids.

Cannon - Noah's Ark animals
This has been an idea a long time in the making and I'm only semi-disappointed with myself that I didn't get the ark made in time. Another year...another homemade gift. This year, he got the animals; 12 sets, 24 in total. Based on a set by Holztiger - a company from Germany which I talked about here.



My patio was a disaster for far too long. This was a labor of love and I was counting my lucky stars that I had all my fingers in tact when I finished. Scroll saws can be a little intimidating! They're made of 1" hard maple which was a little difficult to cut out but they'll be much more durable than making them out of pine. I spent many weeks watching Survivor and painting all the animals with basic craft paint (all of which was left over from a homemade gift last year, the nativity puzzle). I finished them off with a couple layers of clear coat and called it good.


They turned out better than I expected and I'm pretty much in love with them. So is Cannon.




Bennett - Wooden Robots
I found these darling robots (Ollibots) at Caravanshoppe.com. These require absolutely no skills. I purchased the digital file which gave me the artwork (printed them at staples) and all the instructions as well as the part numbers to buy from an online hobby store for all the wood pieces (precut).

They suggested different options of attaching the pieces together - I went with low-profile industrial strength Velcro from Amazon and it's worked like a dream.




You can mix and match to your heart's content - and Bennett has!


Hunter - Lego Print
Check out Hunter's Lego artwork gift on a previous post.


Hallie - Fancy circle skirt
I'm realizing the older my kids get the more creative I have to get with their homemade gift. It's much easier when they're younger!

Hallie was in need of some skirts. Typically, I'm able to find something at a store that fits her just right but we've had some trouble lately. She getting taller and she has a fairly skinny waist. We couldn't find a skirt long enough with a small enough waist. I turned to danamadeit.com and followed her circle skirt pattern. It was so easy, I made one for her to wear before Christmas and surprised her with another on Christmas morning. I'm tempted to make one in my size.



I'm ready to start brainstorming this year's gifts. (aside from Cannon's ark which has already made the list!)

Check out more homemade gifts from previous years:

Homemade Christmas gift...Lego Wall Art...

My homemade Christmas gifts come in all shapes and sizes. I had the idea for Hunter's homemade Christmas gift almost 6 months ago. I was working to redo his room and after I got the furniture and bedding placed I knew I wanted a picture hanging between his beds. Almost immediately the thought came to me to take a picture of his legos and hang it on the wall. The idea morphed into Lego wall art - making a quote out of his Legos and printing it for his wall.

I chose a short quote to make sure I could make it fit and look uniform. I spent an afternoon with his legos while he was at school and was done in no time.


I made a 20x20 print and put it in an Ikea Ribba frame.

Christmas morning he opened it and gave me the exact reaction I was looking for. Excitement.


We promptly hung it in his room and it was just as I had envisioned many months ago. "It's awesome mom, I didn't know you could make words out of Legos!" Yes son you can, and it's much easier than the instructions that take 300 steps to build a ship!

Happy Wall 2015...

It's that dreaded time of the year when we take down all the Christmas cards. I love them on our wall - I get kind of attached to seeing our friends and families beautiful faces every day. But evidently, I love a clean, uncluttered wall more! I sure hope the tradition of sending Christmas cards never dies!

Christmas card 2015...

I'm always trying to come up with different ways to present our family in our Christmas card; you might remember the Lego pop up card from last year, the chalk drawings or when we were the Incredibles. We go the slightly non-traditional route when it comes to cards. This year was no different. I had it in my mind early on that it needed to be a spinning card and somehow I made it happen - it was a bonus that I got to tie up my kids in Christmas lights!

Christmas Day...

Four excited kids on Christmas morning makes for a fun day. The kids were excited about their own gifts - they were equally excited about their sibling's gifts and Bennett was heard saying multiple times, "This is the best Christmas ever." He's lived a short life thus far - I'm sure we have plenty of years to disappoint him!

The three older kids woke up around seven and played in Bennett's room until Cannon was ready to wake up at 7:45. They rushed down the stairs in excitement. Santa is always very practical but he never disappoints - especially when he delivers a Spiderman toothbrush and Lego underwear!




Steve's parents joined us for a little bit as the kids started opening gifts before making the rounds to see all of his siblings.

For how long it takes to prepare for Christmas - the morning sure seems to rush by.



In no time, the gifts had been opened, everything was piled in the living room and we moved on to making monkey bread for breakfast.

After breakfast we made our way outside to try out the new gifts and parade our matching pajamas to all the neighbors!

The afternoon was spent napping, playing with toys and enjoying Christmas. Late in the afternoon we met up with family at Steve's parents house where cousins excitedly talked about their Christmas mornings and showed off their new light sabers. By the time we got home that night Christmas was over. Kids went off to bed and Steve and I looked at each other in slight exhaustion. We did it. Another year of Christmas magic - which often takes a lot of energy - and we made it. We spent the month filling our home and our hearts with Christmas spirit and it was worth all the effort. Eleven months until we do it all over again!

Christmas Eve...

I've deemed Christmas eve as my favorite day of the year. The excitement and energy on Christmas Eve is contagious and electric. From the minute Bennett woke up he was on cloud 9. Everything about the day was "totally awesome", "This is the best day ever". He repeatedly talked of Santa Claus and where he was at in the world and reassured us all he would arrive to our house when everyone was sleeping. Bennett was animated the whole day and he had us chuckling more than a few times.

We hosted our neighbors (who don't have any grandchildren that live close) for dinner and a short program. We started the night with cookie decorating for Santa. An inexpensive gingerbread kit from Wal-mart makes the process relatively painless (except the sprinkles that inevitably end up everywhere!)




We ate dinner, in which I cooked my first ham. I followed this crockpot recipe and it was amazing - even better was the leftovers we enjoyed the next couple days.

We read and acted out the nativity story using the costumes my mom made for me several years ago. We usually do this as just our little family so it was nice having a couple more people to dress up and play a few more roles.


The kids opened up their Christmas pajamas (with only one child being disappointed that they weren't star wars themed) and we went out and enjoyed the neighborhood Christmas lights and luminaries.




While we were enjoying a hayride through the neighborhood, our neighbors went back to their house and prepped a fire, hot chocolate sparklers and Chinese lanterns for us. I'm pretty sure Cannon got more hot chocolate down the front of him than he did in his mouth and the lanterns were a hit.


Once the kids officially smelled of campfire and their sugar levels were through the roof - it was time to head home, read Twas' the night before Christmas, wish them sweet dreams and tuck them into bed.

They were exhausted and in no time all four children were dreaming of Christmas morning.

Steve and I had prepped/wrapped everything early; we enjoyed a Christmas movie before slipping into bed ourselves.

I wish I could live and relive Christmas Eve over and over again; it was a good day and our kids are at such fun stages to enjoy all that comes with it.