If I have time and materials I love to make homemade gifts rather than bought. My family will enjoy a loaf of pumpkin or zucchini bread and a beaded necklace. I usually do buy hot sauce for my brother and bil because I know they love it, will use it, and it doesn't break the bank. I like to go to the asian food store... Lot's of unique items at decent prices. My husband's family is harder because they like bought stuff. It's getting harder to find something within the budget that they don't already have.
I LOVE Christmas, although we lost my Gram this year, so it will be bittersweet in many ways. So many of our traditions involved her. <3 I would LOVE to get all our Christmas shopping done by mid December. Last year my sisters and I decided together to stop buying for each other's children, but one year I had a brilliant (and very affordable!) idea for the nieces and nephews. I went to Dollar Tree and bought each one of them a lightweight fleece blanket, and a few boxes of microwave popcorn. I got each child a $5 gift card to Blockbuster (back when they still existed!), and wrapped up each blanket with a package of microwave popcorn, one of the gift cards for a movie rental, and a list of five movies I thought they might like. It was really inexpensive, I had tons of fun thinking about each child and what movies I thought they might enjoy, and they all thought it was really fun! I'm not sure what would work now with it since Blockbuster and other movie rental stores seem to be all out of business...Or you could do the same thing with a gift card to a bookstore or give them a book to go with the blanket instead of a movie. I really want to put thought into this year's Christmas since it will be our first Christmas with our daughter!
What a really neat idea!!! I never buy for my sils, but one year I copied my mil's Christmas Cookie recipes, printed them all out 3x5, made a stamped "envelope" out of cardstock to put them in, and gave one to each sil and also to my mil. My mil is the one who always says, "Oh, she doesn't like that color", or "I don't think her mother allows her to read those books!" or "I saw a much nicer one for ten dollars less than what you paid!", things like that. It's difficult to satisfy her. Well, she had NOTHING negative to say about THAT present, lol!
Yep. We've been busy over here planning, and my daughter has already started some sewing projects. She discovered a website where you can customize your own fabric. She downloaded the logo for her gymnastics team and is making grips bags and headbands for the girls in her level. She is so excited and the first ones came out really cute. My mom and sister have already placed their requests for (more) knitted socks and felted slippers-clogs, so I am working on them. I think DS13 is getting a package of ski lessons through a local homeschooling group and a new bike; DD11 wants a new sewing machine, and a bedroom makeover, a Nook, and fashion design classes in NYC on Saturday mornings; and DS8 wants snap circuits, and more Star Wars legos. I am saving now, and increasing the amount of proofreading I'm doing weekly to cover some of the cost.
ABALL- good job on the DS game!! I love that scholastic offers free books. Its something that not alot of people thing of.
