Oh there's nothing like homeade for the holidays!

I put the finishing touches on the last gifts this year. I’m done, with three days to spare! Wahoo! I love all of the personalized things I get to make at Christmastime. There’s nothing like homemade for the holidays!

I made Christmas symbol jars for good friends for gifts. Each of the jars contains the symbols of Christmas, along with a copy of the “Teach The Children” story. We do this for Family Home Evening, and the kids love it! We take turns being Santa and pulling the objects out of the jar. It's a lot of fun to make and a great tradition for the family.

I made these cute picture frame stacks made out of 2x4’s our parents and a few best friends. I thought they turned out so well! Here's the one for my in-laws, Grammie, and our best friends. My sister, Marko and I did them together, they were fun to make.

I finally finished my cross-stitch stocking this year, working my hands like crazy to cross-stitch and assemble it. Mine has some snow men caroling on it. Dave’s is a Santa, Emma’s has an angel on it, and Cal’s is a snowman stocking. So we all have a stocking now! And I’m even starting on the baby’s stocking already, because they do take a long time to do. But I’m so glad everyone’s is done…finally. I thought I could finish Dave’s the first year we were married, his took two years! It seems like I have been behind ever since. Hopefully I can stay on top of that now!

The first cross-stitch stocking I made. Dave's Santa stocking, since he's my Santa Baby.

Emma's angel stocking. She is our little angel!

Cal's Snowman sock. A cute stocking for a cute boy.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

We’ve been trying to teach Emma that making something yourself is sometimes more special than going out and just buying it (though there is nothing wrong with that). She made little homemade bead ornaments for all of her little friends this year. They were so cute. She was so particular about what she wanted to make for each friend – candy cane, bell, butterfly, heart, star, and put great thought into each one. She also had a ball wrapping them (and other gifts) up this year! It’s been great to see her get into the spirit of giving, instead of just receiving, something we’ve been trying to teach her. Because "it is more blessed to give than receive".