This year my family has settled on a "make it or bake it" Christmas. Pretty self explanatory. It was a combination of being jaded by endless hours of shopping and limited holiday budgets. Usually I love gift giving. I'm the person who wants to give you the perfect gift, wrapped up super pretty with a heartfelt card presented on top. Birthdays, baby showers, wedding, whatever the occasion I do my best. When it comes to Christmas though... its lost its appeal for me.
My brother is flying in from Ontario and has already stated that the trip is costing a pretty penny and he is only bringing a small carry on so he will not be exchanging gifts. I ran with it and asked around to see how people felt about a "make it or bake it" Christmas. I explained to my siblings and mother that gifts could be made or people could bring food to share while we spend time together. It was well received.
It seems to be popular this year. People around me are making choices to spend less, buy locally or to hand make their gifts. I plan to bake cookies for my coworkers and bring them in for everyone working the stat like I will be. If I have the time I might make something small for my coworkers. Right now I'm working on my handmade gifts for my niece and nephew.
I'm making a trinket box for my niece. So far I've spent about $10. I bought a wooden box from the dollar store. Now I'm painting and decorating it. I plan to line it with fabric and make it super adorable for her. I promise to take a photo.
For my nephew I am trying to make a wooden puzzle. So far I've spent about $3. I hope this works out. I'm still trying to figure it out but I feel good about it.
My sister is getting a decorated double frame with a picture of each of her children. I have a lot of pictures of her children that she doesn't have as I am the crazy photographer at all family events. I'm sure its something that will tug on her heart strings. I just need to select the two best pictures.
For my brothers I'm not really sure what I'm going to do yet. Those ideas are still lodged in the back of my think tank. Any suggestions?
BF is getting a top secret gift that I can't tell you about yet. Hehehe
For friends... I will bake some cookies but I'm considering making a few trinkets. This will really be time dependant.
Last but certainly not least... the Mom. We got together last weekend, combined our points and got a whole boatload of free stuff from one our favorite shops. I wanted a few things but we had $250 to spend. There were a lot of things my mom couldn't decide on so I told her to use up my credit and consider it part of her gift. So for her she already received a super soft blanket and a SONY digital picture frame. I only paid the taxes! I think I will surprise her with an SD card loaded with family pictures so she can set up it up right away.
Lots to do and less than three weeks to do it. The downside to all handmade gifts is how much time it eats up. Instead of knocking everything out in one day its going to take a lot of creativity and dedication but in the end I think the gifts will mean more and my wallet will be a lot happier.
How is your gift round up going?
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Things That Are New
So my last post was for Thanksgiving? Ouch.. well my computer is pretty much crapped out and was out of comission for a while due to a virus. Now the fan is dead so its slowly dying and I'm trying to save for a new one. How addicted I am to internet. There is another reason why I need access to the internet now though.
BF is across Canada from me for 6-7 months. I'm three weeks in and I have to tell you that long distance sucks. Especially when we've been together so many years spending every waking minute together. He is there for work. I plan to visit in the Spring and then in the Summer we will to figure things out.
To keep my baby Chipotle from being sad and depressed at the departure of his stay at home dad we expanded our family to include a second furbaby we've called Pepper on paper but Pepe is our sweetheart name. He adds so much and really rounds out our family. Chippy could not be happier and I am very much in love with them both.
Pictures to soon come. :)
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