Handmade Christmas

 My favorite part of the Christmas gift exchange is the "handmade gift exchange" that my mom, sister and I have been doing for about 4 years now.  Each year we invite the rest of the family to participate, but they always decline.  Chickens.

So it's not a surprise at all when it comes to who is making your gift, but it's also not a surprise who you're supposed to make for this year.  Since there's only 3 of us, we just make a gift for the person we didn't make one for last year. 

This year, my mom made me a fabulous arrangement using succulents and crazy squiggly branches.  I'll have to find a place to put this where the cats won't knock it down and destroy it.  Can you believe that the cacti are fake?  I was totally fooled.

For my sister's gift, I knitted her a bag to haul her knitting projects around in.  She liked the one I made for myself a few years ago, so I thought she might like having one of her own.  Now we'll just have to be careful not to accidentally switch knitting bags when we're visiting our parents' house.  

Finally, my sister sewed these little throw pillows for my mom.  We're a big scrabble family, so she made pillows that spelled out the word "HOME" (not "HO", as this picture suggests.)  She can also spell out things like "Oh, me!", ""HOE", or "MOE", depending on her mood.

We've had a full day here, so it's time for a little relaxing.  I'm looking forward to enjoying some time off with my kids!