Christmas 2011 In Pictures

Once I went through my pictures from the season I realized I did not do a very good job of capturing all the things I should have. No really good pictures of opening presents or of the fabulous gifts that I put together for my niece and nephew through thrifting and sewing. So sad. Here is what I did capture and a little story to go with each that may help explain why taking pictures seemed to fall to the way side quite often.

Our loveable lapdog lab who earned himself a trip to the doggy emergency room
when we found a PIN protruding from his chin. He is just fine but is still sporting a remaining piece of
pin in his lower jaw. He really does channel his inner goat...

My little and his sick momma (I spent the whole week before Christmas with a head cold) spent lots of time needlefelting Christmas ornaments for our loved ones. The one thing I seemed to be able to do with a stuffed up head. And he LOVED it. He made ornaments for his cousins and his brother. The one for his cousin Cam is pictured below with my favorite needlefelted bird, Hedwig, the Snowy Owl.

The Little and I also managed to pull off handmade gifts for his teachers. Handmade Sculpey ornaments pressed with cedar and pine needles. I got the idea from a Soule Mama post. While the Sculpey was out both boys were inspired and created an igloo and penguin together which will grace our Holiday collection for years to come.

And I did finish the handmades for each of my boys. Above is an apron and chef's hat for my Half Naked Chef (every time the Little cooks he somehow manages to end up without a shirt.) He also received three cookbooks: an organic dog treats cookbook, The Star Wars Cookbook and a Paula Dean cookbook.

For my almost 11 year old making him handmades is getting increasingly harder and I always worry if they will be appreciated after all the time spent. This year though I nailed it. I made him fuzzy feet slippers (idea from Our Ash Grove) because I noticed that he was constantly borrowing my slippers (we currently have the same size feet - not for long though). He also requested a hat for sleeping. Even with all his blond hair he said his head gets cold so he wanted a hat to wear to bed. How could this knitting mamma refuse! To top off his gift I needlefelted him his 2011 ornament - a football and baseball to commemorate two stellar seasons!

There it is, in a very small nut shell. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and will have a very happy new year!