The Big Unveiling--or What My Girls Made for Christmas

A lot of people have asked me what my girls made for each other for Christmas. I couldn't really say until after Christmas but here it is.

Kate decided all by herself that she would make pillowcases for the other kids. She picked out all the fabric and did all the sewing by herself. Grandma and I helped with the cutting and pressing. She did an awesome job and it only took us about 4 hours one day (and probably another 1/2 hour at the fabric store picking out the fabric). Way to go Kate! The girls loved them as pillow cases, but Ruth and Lily have also been using them as loot bags and potato sack racing bags. Who knew?

Mary decided all by herself to make little doll/Webkinz blankets for her sisters. She wanted to embroider them with their names and a small picture. So I helped her set up the embroidery patterns on the computer and print them out. I showed her how to trace them on to fabric and she did all of the actual tracing. She also did all of the embroidery by herself. She did an awesome job too!! She picked out all of the fabric herself too. Grandma and I helped with the cutting, pressing and sewing. (Mary tried to do the sewing but I think I was being a little intense that day and she ended up just wanting me to do it.) She helped with a lot of the turning and prep work for the sewing. We also picked all of the fabric out of my stash of extra fabric and free shop hop fat quarters. It was awesome! And the kids all loved them.







Emma decided all by herself to make everyone origami frogs that she learned to make in Chinese class. I have to say that I kind of handicapped Emma because I convinced her to use some scrapbook paper and it wasn't as easy to fold as origami paper would have been. But even so, the frogs turned out great. She folded them one day all by herself at my mom's house. Me and my mom were in awe of her perserverance. And even if they aren't as durable as some of the other gifts, she has had a lot of fun helping the other girls refold theirs when they have come undone or gotten smashed. Good work Emma!!

I had to come up with some ideas for Ruth, but she decided to color pictures, glue them on to construction paper and make place mats (which I would like to start using more at our table). She did an awesome job. She picked out all the pictures herself and did all the coloring, cutting, and glueing. She colored all the people black and when I asked her about it she said, "You know Mom, some people have that color skin!!" I did know and thought it was great. I got them all laminated for a whopping $1.35 at the BYU place. They turned out fantastic!! Good job, Ruth!

Lily, I helped too. John and I decided that she could draw pictures of everyone and we could frame them. On one of the Kmart Thanksgiving Day sales I found this great picture frame that is matted for about 30 4x6 pictures. So we had her draw the pictures on index cards and stuck them in with the real pictures. It turned out really cute. She also helped John pick out and put the other pictures in the frame on Christmas Eve. Good work Lily!! (Notice the big hair, little body on Adam. Hilarious!!)











So having them make their own presents turned out really fun. It was a little more work and I don't know that it was a lot cheaper. But the girls were really proud of what they gave to each other and I had a lot of fun helping. They already can't wait until next year.