Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve

We've had a busy day so far.

Joseph, Becky and I decorated gingerbread "boys" for Santa. Joseph's been so excited about making cookies for the Man in Red. I realize that I cheated by buying a gingerbread kit, but honestly...he's more interested in the decorating aspect than he is in the baking portion.

We got out the boys and began piping icing. Joseph quickly realized that he wanted to help squeeze, so while the results were less than perfectly straight lines, they were unique and so much fun. Santa's going to have a great time eating them.


On top of that, Becky and I have been working our little fingers to the bone finishing the gift bags for tomorrow.

Quick back story: One of my New Year's Resolutions last year was to try to be more green in my every day life. I'll get into more detail about the results of my resolutions some time next week, but suffice to say, the wrapping paper problem was quite a dilemma. Whenever possible I tried to use re-usable shopping bags as gift bags or pack everything in a handy basket. At Danielle's shower, I wrapped her gifts in receiving blankets. But Christmas was a bit more complex. I finally decided to make re-usable bags out of flannel.

My first attempts looked like pillowcases tied with ribbon. Not too bad, but not as cute as I'd like. My latest attempts included a drawstring cord and felt letters. Adorable and re-usable. I'm really proud of how they came out. Best of all, they only took a few minutes (seriously no longer than I spend on wrapping) and can be packed away for next Christmas. I especially love the "To Joseph, From Santa" bag. It's big enough to hold whatever Santa may bring over the next few years and it looks like it came out of Santa's sleigh.

Yep. I'm feelin' pretty darn crafty.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

so i have really been wanting to make some drawstring bags lately. are they really super easy? you need to give me a quick lesson.

Anonymous said...

Mary - I can barely sew a straight line and I whipped these out, no problem. Hmmm...I still have one to make. I'll take pictures and do a blog tutorial...