Christmas Gifts For the Cheap, I Mean Frugal

I had so many grand plans as always to make wonderful handmade gifts for everyone I remotely came in contact with...friends, family, neighbors, the mail man...I managed to get gifts for family done and that was about it.

This is the one I was most excited about. I found this 1952 gem of a book on Costmotology at the local print shop for 10cents. I picked it up for my sister Debi and held onto it.

Then I tore out all the pages (I'm sure Trish and other teachers and library enthusiast across the land are passing out right about now;)

Added a little matching fabric and some handles and duh da.... I'm sure Debi will love it when I remember to bring it do her as I forgot it at Christmas! rrrrrr....

Next I made aprons. Wendy had several apron tutorials on her site and I was blessed enough to have a great yard sale day last fall and found several square dance dresses for a quarter each. I made these into some rather cute aprons if I might say so myself.



Then I added iron on monograms for everyone. The 1st one I attempted was for my sister Gina. "G" for Gina. However, you'll notice that not only did I manage to iron it on upside down, I figured out later (by way of Gabby informing me of my mistake) that the pretty dot in the middle was suppose to be a period that I cut out to use seperately.


And then there were these coasters. I took glass from the shop and had the glass man sand down the corners and edges for me in exchange for a couple extra kisses. And decoupaged (with homemade decoupage paste) scrapbook paper on the back.


We made springerale cookies, (my didn't look as great as this link, but I did get to use my SU stamps) homemade caramels (fabulous!), orange julius cookies, Chai Tea mix, hot chocolate mix, puppy treats (in the shape of cats) & jello spritz cookies with the press.

We spent Christmas lunch with Allen's family. It was nice, Kathy is a terrific cook and I always enjoy hanging out with them.



This is Allen's mom and dad with all the Grandkids. We took photos of each family and all the grandkids in less than 20 minutes.


Then we headed to my folks for Christmas night. The next day we started family photos in a more professional atmosphere and it lasted almost 4? hours. And Adina (talented sister in law with an eye for good shots) is going to post those soon...right? I thought all the guys were going to loose it. They had to dress up and wait for the girls to primp and do hair and pose and kids were starting to fuse. It lost it's fun quickly for Allen, but I'm sure once we get the photos back, it will be well worth it.

I think I've mentioned before what a great host my mom is. Every holiday gets a big deal made out of it. I stayed up late Christmas night helping finish pies with her in the kitchen. It is always nice to go "home". She always has a huge spread anytime we go home and the house is always decorated. The entire sunroom was filled with pies, candies, desserts, chips, dips, manicotti. Every year, she makes bon bons and my favorite pie ever, sour cream raisin. My dad makes several different batches of homemade fudge. We got in an afternoon of Bunco as well. We love playing games and it is fun as the grandkids are getting old enough to play along.

Almost every room at my parent's house has a decorated tree. This is the guest bathroom, and she has mini shampoos, soaps, etc hung on for decorations.


This was the tree in Allen and I's suite.
This was the little bathroom tree in our bathroom, also decorated with bathroom goodies.


This was the tree in the toy room with all the homemade and odds and ends ornaments.


And I didn't even take any of the trees upstairs. Some day mom....I'll make you proud, but this year the kids were lucky I got a tree up. :)

Santa comes every year to Grandma Connies and brings gifts for all the little kids.

And this year he brought a six pack for all the big boys as well. :) Yes, at Christmas.

Here is Wyatt helping the other "babies" as he calls them eat all the gummy bears that were left unattended.