christmas making

Oh my...

the Christmas making has kicked into high gear around here.

Almost every surface in this house is covered in supplies and scraps 

and filled with little busy fingers at work.

It feels like Christmas!!

My cute 9-year-old has been our busiest elf.  She made almost all of our cousin gifts by herself, including the darling stamped fabric pouches.  She has cut out, wrapped, sewed, knitted, and MADE so many pretty things...I'm so proud of her!!  

Her favorite handmade this year has to be yarn pom-poms.  (tutorial here.)  I can tell by the looks of the area rug, which seems to have morphed into a Christmas-colored shag rug!  It is continually speckled with bright furry yarn trimmings, and an array of perfect little pom-poms.  All of the kids have joined in the fun too.  (you can imagine how many times we've emptied that trusty Dyson vacuum this December...)

And my cute littlest girls...making Christmas cards and gift labels all day.  So much drawing, writing, and creating from such little hands.  They beg to sew something at least twenty times a day too.  But they still need mom's help for that.  So when mom's busy, they make more cards.  I love peeping over their shoulders to see what funny drawing they come up with.  And it always makes my day! 

And thank goodness for DesignMom's great handmade sibling gift ideas.  We're using a bunch of them!  Each child is making a batch of one type of gift for his/her siblings.  I look forward to working with each of them one-on-one to create fun surprises for the other kids.  I've hunted down all of the supplies, but most of the making will happen this week.  Can't wait to show you the finished products!!

I have so many knitting projects underway as well, which need some serious time and attention, if they are to be completed by Christmas!  I'm looking forward to lots of knitting this week.  In front of a roaring fire and glowing tree.  With a cup of tea and Pandora Christmas music playing.

Now, I've finished my breakfast of warm eggnog and sourdough bread with butter.

Christmas cards are all sealed, stamped, and ready to go.  (thanks, Taylor and helpers!)

Now to finish packaging up the gifts to be mailed, and a quick (praying for short lines) trip to the post office.

The kids are doing chores and looking forward to an outdoor fire with s'mores and a marshmallow fight with friends this afternoon.  

While I start that knitting by the fire...

in peace and quiet.

I love Christmas!!