Tuesday, January 11, 2011

A Handmade Christmas

I realize I may be a little late in writing a Christmas post, but why not drag out the Christmas memories a bit longer? :) It IS the best time of year you know! Plus, I only just today got around to putting away our tree and decorations (yikes!) so it seems fitting to finish my day with a post about the holidays. That's what a snow day - or should I say ice day - will do for you...it's God's way of giving me time to take care of some housekeeping!

Our little Taflan family of two + 2 birds spent Christmas at my parents' house and enjoyed each minute of our time there. Much time was spent visiting family there and in VA, eating delicious food, and gift giving. We felt so very blessed! On the 30th we left for Ohio to spend time with Matt's side of the family. We had fun hanging out with everyone and playing with our five neice and nephews (with the 6th on the way!). Again, we felt so blessed!

A joy of the holiday season is being able to give gifts to those around you. I found great joy in crafting handmade gifts this year and am determined to do more handmade projects in this upcoming year. I wanted to post these pictures as soon as each craft was complete, but that would've spoiled some Christmas surprises! Here's what I handmade this year...

Cookies! I'm pretty sure I baked over 100 cookies... at least it felt like that many! Some to give away and some to eat...yum!


These are tile coasters I made for the teachers on my team at school. Fun and simple! I used scrapbooking stickers with their last initial to monogram each one. I really need to make some for myself!


This is one snowman decoration of three - this particular one was for the basement at my parents' house, since my mom decorates in all snowmen down there. The other two were for our grandmas. I saw this idea at a craft show and thought it was so cute - I just had to recreate!


A wreath I made for my middle sis - she's a music major at UNC. I bought aged music books and spent a good deal of time cutting circles and using the hot glue gun. These pics were before she found a place to hang it. I just love the way it turned out!


I made these dictionary page ornaments for my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. We exchange ornaments each year and I thought these were unique either hung on the tree or elsewhere. I found the perfect sized decorative boxes to package them in at Michaels.

That wraps up my handmade gifts for this Christmas. I am happy to have left over materials so I can make some of these items for our home! Having a holiday vacation from work certainly fed my desire to craft and I am determined to take more time to do so - even with 19 kindergarten children taking up my time :) It's refreshing to complete a project and giving them away as gifts is rewarding! I want the gift-giving spirit of Christmas to live on well into the rest of the year...
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