The Last of the Christmas Posts

This past Christmas, my sisters and I decided to save a little money and draw one person's name to give a gift to. To save even more money and make things a little more interesting, we required each person to make their gift. While I'm not sure it saved us more money, it sure was fun!

Mitch had drawn Winnie's name. Inspired by a story, he set out to find some decorative Christmas houses at Goodwill. $20 later, this is what he had:


What story, you ask? Well, one Christmas when Winnie and I were in college we were home playing "Airplane", where one person lays on the floor and sticks their feet in the air, the other person rests on the feet, and they fly in the air. I was holding Winnie up, and she decided it would be funny to spit in my face. I screamed, kicked her off of me, and she flew across the room to land on Mom's treasured snow village. Once she landed, (and I remember this part very vividly), there was complete silence, then the pounding of Dad's feet as he came into the room. We erupted in a fit of laughter, she had broken a few items, and Mom was beyond mad. It makes for a great story now.

Anyway, as a "tribute" to that story, Mitch thought he would get destructive -



I had Boston, and decided to pay a tribute to his heritage and religion by building a box out of popsicle sticks -



I really think Santa adoring the baby Jesus makes the whole gift.

This gift-opening was certainly the highlight of the holiday when we all gathered at Mom and Dad's, and I think that everyone was more excited to show off what they had made instead of opening their actual gift.

Sarah made Katie some really beautiful homemade pieces of jewelry, in perfect Katie style -


Boston made Sarah some awesome dishes made of old vinyl records -


I made Boston the box -


And a few added gifts - I gave him the gift of song, serenading him with a rendition of "Winter Fun", a song my first graders sang at their recent holiday program. I think he was incredibly embarrassed. To make up for it, I also had a few containers of homemade spaghetti sauce in the freezer for him.


Winnie made me a snow globe with her and Sarah's picture in it.


Gizmo really enjoys the gift, as she looks at it every day and says, "Tim!" She has also declared Winnie her most favorite person in the whole world. That didn't go to Winnie's head or anything.

Winnie enjoyed Mitch's gift of the broken-house snowflake decoration -


And Mitch was impressed with Katie's comic book coasters.


It was certainly a unique holiday with the gifts that were created and given, and while some people *cough* the guys *cough* didn't think this was a good idea, I think everyone had a great time.