Christmas Gifts

This year we are sending out a lot more homemade items than we have in the past. I actually like sending out the homemade items. Our kids get to help make the items we are sending. It takes a little off of the store shopping/materialism of Christmas and it allows them to be more involved in the gift giving. This year we made birdhouses and wooden ornaments and hot cocoa mix and the kids made their own cards. The birdhouses dad made and the kids get to paint them. The ornaments were made out of wood by dad, and I painted them solid colors and the kids painted the decor on them. They each got to paint one ornament in each set. The hot cocoa mix was easy to make and I bought these cute canning type jars from the hundred yen store. I filled the jars  and put ribbon and a bell around the top. They look pretty nice. The kids decorated their cards. They made one for each box and they all get to sign all the cards.
Since we have such varying ages and the younger ones have a smaller amount of patience, I turned on Charlie Browns Christmas and that helped keep the ones who weren't having a turn making the crafts happy.
Here are some pictures of some of what we made:

                                              The birdhouses before the kids painted them.

                                                             The hot cocoa mix