Sibling Gifts 2011

When we started making sibling gifts several years ago (here, here, and here) I had no idea that it would become such a family favorite.  The children love making gifts for each other and it's the first gift they want to open on Christmas morning.

This year, Grace knew right away that she wanted to make some sort of animal for Harris.  She decided on a sock animal that she found in an old Martha Stewart Kids.  With a little help/guidance from her Grandma she created Mr. Meows for Harris.  He is darling and Harris adores him!

I helped Harris to make lip balm for Grace.  He was giddy the whole time he was making it (and he did almost all the work- he even shaved the beeswax!) because it was one big science experiment for him!  We followed the instructions from Martha Stewart and the balm turned out beautifully.  I think we will all be using it.  I waited a little too long to order pots or tubes so we used travel sized pots from Target and they worked out just fine.

Sibling Gifts 2010

{Hugs after gift opening}

One of my favorite things to do throughout the entire Christmas season is to help the children plan and make gifts for each other.  We started making sibling gifts several years ago (here, here and here) and it has been hugely successful.  In fact, they are the first gifts the children want to open when we start opening family gifts!

This year Grace made an i pod touch pouch for Harris.  Everyone in the family shares the i pod touch but Harris usually takes it to Grace's ballet class to play while we wait for her to finish.  She embroidered the front, sides and sewed the button on!

Harris' gift to Grace this year turned out adorable and she absolutely loves it.  We took two pictures of our cats and using iron on transfers put them onto t-shirts.  I have to give full disclosure on this on- it turned out that this was a lot more work for Bryce than it was Harris.  It took a long time to figure out how to do it without photoshop (we have iphoto) and there wasn't much for Harris to do until it was time to iron.  He was still very proud of them!

Tree trimming

Last night was our annual tree trimming dinner! For the first time in at least 14 years we had to change our menu (it didn't make sense to try to make it all gluten free) but I think we found successful and yummy new menu items!

Tree Trimming Menu

Cranberry Spritzer

Puff pastry brie with crackers and grapes

Tree (broccoli) Soup

Wilted Spinach Christmas Salad

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

We had a lovely afternoon. We spent the afternoon and evening picking out the perfect tree, making place card crafts, cooking and baking in the kitchen, stringing lights on the tree, exchanging this years ornaments, trimming the tree, eating good food and spending time with family. It felt just as Christmas should. Here are some (ok, a lot) of images from our tree trimming.