Five On Friday: Homemade Holidays

When I was home with two small children, I made a lot more presents than I do now. Older mothers would tell me that they used to do things like that when their kids were small, too. I didn't think it made sense at the time--how could we mothers have more time to do things when the kids were so small and needy?

I think it's because they may be small and needy but they don't have much of a social life. So if you're a stay-at-home parent there's plenty of time to make presents. As our family grew by three more children and they kept getting (and making me) busier, I did find I had less time to make gifts. I wasn't going to make a single thing this year.

But then I had an idea and I knew I could work on it at night when I was otherwise just vegging on the couch. There ended up being a few other homemade things that helped make the holiday special, too . . .

1. Embroidered Babci quotes: I'm not sure how I came up with this idea, but when December started I was missing my Grandmother, Babci, something fierce--probably a combination of the upcoming holidays as well as what would have been her 102nd birthday. She had so many fun sayings and I decided to embroider them on little hoops to give to my sisters and mother. This one is my favorite:

2. ALL THE BREAD. When it gets cold, I bake bread. I fell in love with this recipe for Rosemary Braided Bread from Super Healthy Kids and baked a bunch of loaves. Once I figured out a super-cute wrapping (kitchen towels and ribbons!) they made a great gift to hand out to a few special friends and neighbors. (Plus I have all that dying rosemary in the house! Win-win!)

3. Lavender Flax Seed pillows . . . I occasionally make rice packs to warm up for sore muscles but when I saw that people use flax seed instead of rice--and I just happened to have a bag of it on hand--I had to try. I harvested lavender from the garden, shook it up with the flax, and sewed a quick sleeve together. The flax feels so smooth and wonderful I had to make two more.

4. Card holder: a gift from me to my future family. A few years ago I realized I felt badly about throwing all the wonderful holiday cards away and so I made a little felt bag to keep them in. I was surprised the following year to see just how much the kids loved sitting down and looking at all the old cards.

5. Oh hey, that's only four different things that I personally made--but this last thing is so amazing I have to include it on the list. It was made by my daughter (and hey, I did make her so I guess this counts!). She didn't have any ideas for me this year but was inspired by my embroidery. Of course she had to take it a step further and just go ahead and EMBROIDER BABCI HERSELF. I'm really glad I made that kid!