Presents 2012

As promised, here are the pics from our present-opening-extravaganza. We had SUCH a good time. All the children were in good spirits, and so were the adults!

This year there were several large gifts that required the recipient to close their eyes while their gift was brought into the room. Elise was first.

A bed for her American Girl Doll! I love the look of unbelief on her face behind the bed there…and the look on my brother’s face wondering what on earth that could be!?

Some very fun gifts came from the MI cousins & aunt & uncle. Each of those gifts fit the personality of the girls so well. They felt loved. Thanks so much!!!

 

Look, I was there! And I loved this gift. Actually, I loved all my gifts this year. I am so blessed to have people who care so much about me that they actually put time and effort and thought and love into the gifts. In fact, I think that was the case for pretty much every gift anyone opened. Everything was purposeful and done with such consideration and thought for the recipient…store-bought and homemade gifts alike. I think many of us in this family have gift-giving as one of our love languages and I love the expressions of love that were seen throughout the night.

Those were the gifts I made my bro & SIL…an old window (found & donated by my dad) with vinyl and some digital word art for my brother’s office. I made the boys a castle table tent, but it didn’t really fit on any of the tables at my parents, so I don’t have a good picture of it. Hopefully my SIL will send a picture of it when the boys play in it for me.

My bro & SIL made boards with door knobs for all the girls for their new rooms…so they can hang scarves or jewelry or whatever they want. So lovely. I can’t wait to move and hang them up for them!

Sarah created a picture calendar for my parents. Everyone loves picture calendars!

Bethany wrote and illustrated a book for Josh and Carter. I hope they enjoy reading it as much as she enjoyed creating it!

My dad built everyone a gift this year…the little girls got adirondack lounge chairs for their American Girl Dolls. Anyone want him to build them one? He’s thinking about making them to sell…

Bethany received a full-length mirror for her new room and we put the word “Shalom” in Hebrew in vinyl on the mirror. It turned out so cool. She’s going to love having that.

Sarah’s reaction to…

…her tree bookcase! This was the inspiration for the homemade gifts and I think it turned out amazing. What a unique and wonderful thing for her to have for always that her grandpa made for her. Awesome.

I don’t have a good picture of the boys with their gift…maybe my SIL or dad does? He made them portable Lego trays which turned out so awesome. He made one for my nephew in MI also and made my niece her first doll cradle! For each of the couples, he made an imitation wine barrel mirror. Apparently my parents shopped in several antique stores looking for old wine barrels, but never found any, so he had to create the look of wine barrel wood by curving it and only staining the one side of the wood, like a wine barrel is stained. They’re beautiful. And of course my mom helped him every step of the way.

And then there were the pillow pets…

…that brought about much silliness and fun.