The Completed Christmas Projects

The following pictures are of the gifts I made for my family members for Christmas this year.  If you saw my previous post on Christmas Projects to make, then you've seen what I had planned to do.  This post is to show you what I actually got done.

This went to 6 married couples in the family.  It was a certificate, a box of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate Mix, and some Hershey's Kisses.  It is a membership to a "Cookie of the Month Club".  Not a REAL membership mind you, because although those ARE available, I wanted this to be more personal.   It's a promise to send the recipient two dozen homemade cookies on the 15th of each month. 

 The schedule is as follows:

• January:  Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
• February:  Sugar Cookies
• March:  Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip
• April:  Peanut Butter Honey Cookies
• May:  Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
• June:  Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies
• July:  M & M cookies
• August:  Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies
• September:  Old Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookies
• October:  Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• November:  Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• December:  Ginger Krinkle Cookies

I think I may have shot myself in the foot with this cookie gift thing.

Then, I gave hubby a membership to the "Date of the Month" Club.  I think he liked this gift, but he has yet to give me his date options so that I can start planning.

Dahlin' had also complained that we didn't have enough pot holders or hot pads in the house for him to use when cooking.  So, I went garage sale shopping and found these wonderful little denim place mats for only $3 for the set!  Now, when you go shopping and you see something like, say, a place mat, I'm sure you see a PLACE MAT.  Not me, unh unh.  When I look at a place mat like these, I see things like.......

Custom made potholders and.....

Sweet little denim pocket purses.

I also had a little roll of camoflage duct tape which I then tranformed into a wallet for the Boy Scout son of mine.

Here's another little creative idea that I gleaned from the internet.  I just love the internet. Don't you?

Personalized Checkers game

I also made a Family Yahtzee game and a Memory Card game.

Then, I made a charm bracelet for my daughter.

Time to start planning next year's projects!

My December Christmas To Do List

Well, here it is.  December 1.  Only 24 more shopping days until the Big Day!  It's been a tough year for us here at the oxbow.  Dahlin' hasn't worked like he did last year which made our budget just a tad bit tighter.  I'm a little late with the brainstorming, but I wondered if I could possibly do a "buy nothing" Christmas....well, with the exception of purchasing things like computer ink or glue for the handmade project completion.

Then, I had the little problem of figuring out what to do for all the household members.  There's Dahlin' to consider as well as DQ, the Teen, Birdie, and Roo.  Then there's the added family members who all expect (not really) a little sumpin' sumpin' at the annual get together.  Since today's the first of December, well, I can't tell you what I'm doing for the extended family, that'll have to wait until after Christmas.  However, I happen to KNOW that my KIDS don't read my blog, so it's safe to share what I have planned for them.

On that note, here's my To Do List, complete with photos and links to the instructions....just in case this post motivates you to try a few of these yourself.

I'll start with the list of what I'm planning to do for my girls. 

1.  Read along books on CD - using books from the girls bookshelf, my own computer, recording software, and a microphone. Okay, so there's no link or photo for this one....just got the idea from somewhere else that I can't remember right now.

2.  Doorway puppet theatre like this one. 

3.  Pillow buddy critter

4.  Pillowcase PJ Pants

5.  Soap Crayons

6.  Denim Pocket purse

For DQ: 

A cool looking tote bag

Some bath fizzies

 And a shrinky dink charm bracelet. I'm thinking of using family photos since she's always bragging about the girls or her brother or even now, her new baby.

For the Teen:

Handmade Boxer shorts, I guess these would be similar to PJ pants but shorter.

A Duct Tape wallet



And a big bucket of junk food just for him!

Finally, for Dahlin':

First of all, I'll help the girls make him a pretty photo ribbon book mark like this one. 

That'll be from them to him.

And from me to him:  A membership in the Date of the Month Club featured here at the Love, Actually blog.  This blog is so cute!!!  I have found lots of great ideas here. 

I'm so excited about this upcoming Christmas!!  Now, I just have to make the time to get these gifts all made and wrapped up.  And I only have 24 more days to get it done!!!  Accckkk!!!