Gifts.

First – today’s my mom’s birthday. Yeah! We had a nice family dinner at my parents’ house last night, but we were all to full for a slice of the birthday cake. Happy birthday to one fabulous momma! ~<[:)

And this is a poor transition, but birthdays have gifts, and here are the handful of homemade gifts I made for people for Christmas. {A month late posting on this, but better late than never!}

Eugene’s brother is SO hard to buy for…he buys everything he wants, he gets tons of DVDs and electronics, and the only things I can think to buy him are a few hundred dollars. I finally, after 8 years of knowing him, thought of something to give him that he might actually like: homemade freezer meals. He’s a bachelor and lives in an apartment with a roommate and he doesn’t know how to cook. He’s not even a grilled cheese kind of cook, so he’s a huge fan of my cooking anytime we have him over for dinner. I made him chili, enchiladas, and shells/pasta. He has enough for at least 10-12 meals, and he was pumped. :)

I also made 5 more sets of the tile coasters for the girls in my mom’s side of the family. They were happy…especially my mom, who “hinted” quite a bit that she liked them after I posted it.

And my favorite DIY gift was for my niece, Cate. A long while back when Eugene’s family & I took a trip to the Wilds to see a ton of exotic animals. When I was taking a ton of photos there, Eugene’s mom gave me a great idea of making a children’s book out of the photos. I used those animal photos & the photos of Cate I took on my last visit to Oklahoma to make this hardback book. It’s kind of corny because I wrote it, but I think she’ll like it. {I still need to mail it to her…it got delayed in the mail coming to my house.}

I’m really happy with how the book turned out. Makes me smile to think of Cate reading it as she grows up the next few years. :)

So that’s my DIY gifts for this year. I had a lot more ideas, but was pretty short on time {and energy.} So we’ll see if I can whip up a little more “homemade” for next year!