Handmade Holiday Part III: What We Received

We're still enjoying our lazy vacation week...playing in the deep deep snow that swirled all day Monday, reading, watching Christmas DVDs.  Occasionally I remember to feed my charges (something other than leftover Christmas cookies and peppermint bark).

Here's a little peek at some of the wonderful handmade gifts we were lucky enough to be on the receiving end of this Christmas.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, the boys got together with one of their grandmothers and made some kid-art place-mats as gifts for C and me:

 Each year one of my sisters, my mom, some of my aunts and I do an ornament exchange.  In the past I have made the ornaments I sent out (last year's felted birds, fabric birds the year before and stacked trees the year before that), but this year I just could not muster enthusiasm or energy and finally ordered some cute birdhouse ornaments off Etsy.

My sister, though, decoupaged this ornament ball with fabric (the clay "peace" snowflake my mom bought from a local artisan):

And my aunt made this sweet felt aspen leaf on a golden branch.  It made me all weepy and homesick for Colorado.

My dad made me this gorgeous cherry wood recipe box:

Now I'm going to need to get more upscale recipe cards and dividers (rather than my cheap Staples index cards and cereal box dividers).

For each of the boys he made treasure box for storing money and other treasures (where brothers cannot steal, "find" or otherwise abscond with the contents).

 Each one fashioned a lock for his box (a splinter of wood, a twist of wire and a padlock borrowed off a diary).  We finally made it to the hardware store today for real locks.  You'd think it was Christmas all over again.

My mom made C a pair of snowflake mittens to go with the hat she made last Christmas:

And finally, she also made jammies all around.  The boys can count on grammy-jammies every Christmas, but this year C and I lucked out too, which is a good thing, since I ran out of steam before I made the pajama pants I was planning for C:

So although I blame my Christmas makings and doings on other bloggers, it appears that perhaps it is a genetic trait after all.

Hope you too received many wonderous gifts this holiday season!