Homemade Christmas

Yes, I am still stuck on Christmas blogging! Anyway, I really did try to have a homemade Christmas this year. It did become hard with my hectic schedule, baby in the hospital, lack of funds and talent. Noah also really got into the homemade...as always. Our living room is tiny, and we couldn't have out Christmas tree in there. I did have this little one though, and I love how it all came together. Noah made ornaments for the big tree, but after I saw them, I knew they had to go on my little tree in the living room where I could look at them everyday. Out of pipecleaners and photos, he made an ornament for every member of our family, including all our current, and former foster children. They were so cute. Then, all 3 learned how to make crochet chains, so I wrapped those around the tree as garland. Then, I found this ornament at a garage sale, and I wrote all of our family members for 2009 on it. This tree became very special to me this season.

I think I have mentioned before that I don't get along with my sewing machine. I did want to make the kids all homemade gifts though, so I started out crocheting them blankets for their stuffed animals. The measurement came out weird, so I converted them into these crocheted bags (they don't look too hot in these photos, but the kids seemed to really like them). They are big and roomy, and they had them crammed full of stuff to take down to Monticello for Christmas. I also crocheted them smaller blankets to go with a doll bunkbed that my mom made mattresses for (I need to get a photo of that b/c it turned out so cute!) I ran out of time for Noah's, so I just gave him the hook and thread, and then made his blanket in the car. Crochet ended being a good project to work on while I sat at the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks.