A Semi-Homemade Christmas

Christmas was going to be a whole different beast this year.  I had deemed it a no-gift Christmas very early on, but a forced idea is oh-so-ever a bad idea.   So in the spirit of flexibility, We rerouted Christmas and landed on a, so far, beautiful Advent styled Christmas instead.  Each day we attend, do, watch, read or create something purely Christmas.  I had good intentions about making a fancy card system or wrapping presents where the children unwrap the day's activity, but I just made a list instead.   Simplicity won (again!) and I am gratiful that instead of focusing on how pretty the wrapping was, we have been able to focus on each other.  So, our days have been filled with hand colored Christmas cards, nativity houses, ornament making, gift conspiring, song learning and well, lots of things.  Early on we had a jewerly gift making day.  And boy howdy, they nailed it!

The supplies, like all of my projects, came from various places.  Lou picked out a strand of beads at the local craft store.  Mr. E and I spent some time at a specialized beading store.  Bug and I deconstructed some second-hand stuff.   I dug through the stacks of boxes to find a small box of glass beads and the findings we already owned.  

While a little editing was needed, the earrings that the children created are beautiful and are sure to be lovely gifts for all the females in their lives. These pictured are only a small sampling of their creations.  Even the boys enjoyed this activity and I was pleasantly surprised at their attention to detail.  (For those that know me well, I ask you?... which earrings did I claim for myself? Look closely!!)

Because I couldn't find any of my fine work tools, I used what I had.  Dustin's leatherman is indeed a workhorse, but not really the best tool for fine jewelry work.  Any flaws in the earrings are all mine and a result of a lack of finesse and expertise of the leatherman pliers.  Bug really wanted to kink the earings all by himself, but his hands didn't have the ability to hold the leatherman quite right.  Sometimes it is downright hard to be small....

Lou wore a pair that she had made to our church's Christmas party where a wonderful woman complimented her on how lovely they were.  Lou came home and made her her own pair.  Then babbly wore me down until I stopped everything that I was doing to help her wrap and deliver this gift.  Somewhere in her persistence, I paused long enough to really hear her and realized that one does not suppress their child's desire to love and serve someone else.  It was a good Christmas lesson to learn.  It still brings tears to my eyes to picture her joyfully handing that box to this new found friend. 

Up next- Christmas light tour!