Christmas 2012

decorating the tree

This Christmas season was kind of weird. I was pretty excited to be finished with school on the 6th because I thought I'd be able to spend lots of time with my family doing our fun little traditional things—like building our giant gingerbread house, etc.  And with two weeks at home while my kids were still in school, I thought I might make some homemade gifts for my family too. Instead I spent a lot of time sewing for people.

First I made a wedding dress for my niece, Gloria.  It turned out really nice, and she was very happy with it.  Then I did some alterations for my cousin's daughter and her friend, who were in another wedding reception. I was glad to be able to help Gloria, and give her a homemade wedding gift, and I got paid for the alterations, which is always nice :-). But they did take up a lot of time.

These are the only snowflakes
we had this year.  :-( 
Lindsey made them at school.

Well, OK. My kids were out of school by the time the dresses were done, but I thought we could still make a gingerbread house and snowflakes and stuff.  Nope. This year the kids drew each others' names and had to make home-made gifts for each other. I offered to help.  Even though  we drew names at the beginning of the month, nobody really had any great ideas and I really wasn't available to help until school was out for them. So we spent a lot of time from Friday morning (the 21st) until about 8:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve finishing up gifts.

To throw an extra wrench into the mix, our first paycheck after three months was due on the 21st. (Bruce started subbing for Granite School District in November; three months of no job or income is another story.) But someone in some office made a mistake and he didn't get paid! And, to make it even nicer, everyone was gone home for winter break (school district) so they can't fix it until school is back in session.  Thank goodness for my excellent family who has helped us more than we ever deserve, and who pitched in for Christmas, too. So Bruce and I spent most of Saturday doing all of our holiday shopping last-minute.

It sounds kind of frustrating and horrible, huh?  And it was, momentarily.

But Christmas Day was excellent! And the very best part was our new tradition of the homemade gifts—I think everyone really liked what they got.

Michael got a magic wallet from Ryan.  Ryan and I had a hard time figuring out exactly how to make the silly thing. It was a real brain puzzle for us—something Michael excells at (making us wish he could help us make it!).

Jessica made a Robin Hood hat for Jason. He put it on immediately and he's been wearing it every day.

Lindsey got a bookmark, cross-stitched by Rachel.

Brandon got four juggling balls and instructions on how to juggle from Lindsey.

Michael made Ryan a stuffed-toy creeper (some creature from the game Minecraft). Michael says it's also a private joke between him and Ryan. :-)

Kaylie got a cream and gold brocade pillow with navy-blue tassels, a la Jason.

Brandon cut a pendant from walnut and put a picture of Rachel playing with Tucker on it. Then he made it into a necklace for Rachel.

And Jessica got ballerina and jester dolls from Kaylie.

So that was all lots of fun. Then, of course, we had a nice time going to visit family for a few hours. We finished off the day by coming home and lighting a fire in the fireplace and watching Brave while we had Christmas munchies to snack on. 

Jason said this Christmas was really great; he liked the homemade gift exchange and enjoyed visiting family more than usual. So, yes, Christmas Day was very good.

The question is this:  I actually already bought all the candy and stuff for a gingerbread house (ages ago, actually).  Should we still make it, or just eat the candy and call it good?