Christmas Projects

I can finally blog about my Christmas projects... until today they were all top secret and I couldn't risk the wrong people reading about them on the blog! (By the way, check out those cute cardboard gift boxes I got (they stack inside each other for storage!) Aren't they cute???

At the beginning of December, we still didn't know what we were going to do for Eric's mom. She is fun to shop for, but still challenging to come up with something that hasn't been done year in and year out (like stationary.... or fancy lotion, etc...) I've heard about this website called Blurb where you can make your own book and have it printed. I decided to do a blog recap of the last year and have it printed for my mother in law. She's not terrible computer savvy and so she rarely gets to see what's on the blog! So, I got online to find out that printing her a high quality hard bound book was within my allotted budget! The only issue was time... I had just 3 days to get my book uploaded to the site to ensure Christmas delivery... talk about pressure!

Here are some screen shots of my favorite pages... I'm going to order a book for myself tonight! I'm sure my mom is going to want one too...

I also took on the monumental challenge of sewing christmas pajamas for my family. I thought I could really save a lot of money and they would be so cute if they all matched! Well, I didn't save a whole ton of money, but they did turn out good! I can thank Sheri for helping me to realize that I can pump out a few pj bottoms in an evening (YW camp jammies)! My serger was invaluable on this project! Then I went to Target and got matching tee's for under $5 a piece!

After our bike ride around the neighborhood on Christmas Eve, dad made hot chocolate for everyone and we got ready for bed. It was a very relaxing Christmas Eve night... the best we've had in a long time!

This was the only gift I got to open that I didn't already know what was inside... (pathetic, eh?) But what a suprise! My mother in law has been busy with Christmas projects too... she committed to make this wall hanging for me a couple years ago and to be honest, I'd completely forgot about it! She took some scrapfabric from my curtains and then her and I picked out some calico prints to go with it. I absolutely LOVE it! I'm already trying to decide where it's going to go and how I'm going to hang it up... I'm thinking a wrought iron bar... what do you think? If not iron, I might go with a square dowel (if I can find any) stained to match my mission furniture. It will be fun to get this up on the wall!

I love this picture... it's just so darn cute!

Merry Christmas!!!