Christmas 2011

present extravaganza

 Whew - the whirlwind of Christmas is over!  I have to say I'm a bit relieved.  It was a busy one this year, but as always wonderfully fun when everyone gets together.  The picture above is our tree at home - the presents under are mostly furnished from my mother-in-law (with two from us and a few from Santa) who is Christmas-crazy.  She seriously only works so that she can "do Christmas" for her kids/grandkids, etc.  It's super generous, and I'm very thankful.  My kids are thankful too, because I think they know there would be no way this would happen if it was just up to me and their dad! 

For my immediate family, I got all crafty this year...I made my sisters/mom/niece some ruffle scarfs that I think turned out really cute...

They have these little flowers on the bottom...

These were really easy to make - trust me I'm not an experienced sewer, so if I can make them, anyone can.  I made them from a tutorial I found here, and then just made a few changes to make them how I wanted the finished product.

I got some square gift boxes and I filled the bottom of them with food goodies that I had made earlier and saved...

Banana bread, green tomato salsa and pesto

I added the scarf on top...

And then, of course, the final presentation is the most important, right?



Old sweater cut up and put to use as Christmas wrapping

And here they are all ready for delivery...

And the kids got in the crafty spirit of it too by making their cousins these cute cards from paper scraps and jewel stickers we had on hand:

 

So that was our crafty holiday - very fun, but also a little exhausting!  Next year I'll start earlier (yes, I do I say that every year...)

In running news - oh wait I have no running news...I have NO fitness news at all for that matter.  I've been a bit sloth-like through the holidays eating a lot and not sweating that much. But that's what New Years is for, right?  Resolutions here I come!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!