Christmas 2019

Ready for our traditional Christmas eve junk food and movie night. We watched "Mathilda" this year.  It was perfect since we had reread the book by Roald Dahl a week before.  They brought their favorite stuffed toys to enjoy the show too.  Big sister A saved her money and bought a "Truly Me" American Girl doll during the Black Friday sales.

 This year's Christmas pjs were not done in time to be unwrapped Christmas eve, but I burned a little midnight oil and they were ready to put on first thing Christmas morning.

All the presents this year were handmade by each other with a couple stocking stuffers.

 Brother M and Sister A each got a pocket knife for cub scouts.

 Santa gave Miss L an art quality set of colored pencils.

 Brother S received a "Spelligator" and Sight word game from Santa.

 Miss L painted some cardboard cut-outs for her siblings: a shark for S, an airplane for M.

 Big Sister A decorated some boxes to make stuffed animal houses for her brothers.

 Brother S's best buddy at church gave him some of his old octonaut toys. He told us that that was his favorite present of all.

 Big sister A painted and fixed up (with help from daddy) a discarded little wooden fairy house so that L would have her own Calico Critter house.

 A's favorite present was this Harry Potter sweatshirt that I made for her. Yay!

 I did manage to finish a bunch more clothes before Christmas day: 4 jogger pants for M, 3 knit dresses for L, and A's sweatshirt.  The new underwear (20+ pairs) are still in progress. I set them aside to get the jammies done.

In the photo above M is wearing his new shirt and joggers and A is wearing her new leggings.  L is wearing one of her new dresses. I think that is one of the best parts about sewing knit fabric items - they are so comfortable. The kids have been wearing everything I made with pleasure. Phew!

Our family received this "Slow Motion Race" game from hubby's brother's family. Pretty fun!  I think this was just about a perfect amount of gifts.  The older kids went right out to try their new pocket knives and whittle some sticks while S and L played octonauts.  It was peaceful yet there were plenty of new things to enjoy playing with together.
My Christmas presents were some hanging canvas prints (photos taken by my dad) to adorn the upstairs hallway.  I bought the canvases and hangers from Hanger Frames on Etsy.

 They are 11 x 14s with 12 inch hanger frames.