Making Christmas This Year

This year we didn't put up our tree until the week of Christmas, and then took it down last night, next year I want to put it up closer to Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed having Christmas this year. It was rather special, as I tried making most of my gifts in the kitchen or on the sewing machine.

We misplaced our box of ornaments and lights, so I decided we didn't need to buy any, we could bake them! I used a salt dough (I think it's the same as home made play dough) and let the kids help me roll it out and cut out ornaments with cookie cutters. I'm kicking myself for not taking pics of the kids when we did them. Here's a few of the ornaments:

My Grandma Carolyn sent me these flowers:

Which was perfect as my centerpiece for Christmas Eve when Mike's brother and sister's family came over for dinner. I baked a ham (for the first time) and it turned out great! Here's a pic of the boys (and Connor had already gotten into the cookies - as evidence is on his face!)

I also made several batches of Cinnamon Rolls, of which some were successful and some were not, I need to make these more often, and not just during the holidays!

These were some of the crayon/coloring bags I made for my nieces.

This sewing project was my favorite - canvas tote bag. I made about a dozen of them and really had fun picking out the ribbon for the handles.

I also enjoyed making these mixes to hand out: Corn Bread, Swope Bread and Salt Dough.

Michael Jr. helped me with the ginger cookies, he had a lot of fun and called the dough, when he rolled it, 'dinosaur poop.'

Here's the stockings I made for Jr. & Connor - next year I'll make stockings for the twins.

Here's my first crayon/coloring bag that I attempted - which I adore, and sent to my dear sister, Jasmine!

This is a garbage sack for the car (or truck) that you put on the back of the chair and hangs off of the headrest.

Well, I sure had fun this Christmas, but will start A LOT sooner than I did this year to get some of those cooking and sewing projects done so I can get more sleep next year!

I will post pictures of the boys opening their gifts on another post.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!