Merry Christmas Everyone!
Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Today was our daughter’s first Christmas and we wanted to share a little bit of our day with you. Because she is the first grandchild on both sides of our family, we decided to think “outside the box” so her Grandparents could still buy her all the gifts they wanted and we could create an everlasting memory.
Santa built a “Christmas Playland” made of almost all repurposed materials. Because some of Georgia’s favorite things to do are taking the trash out of the trashcan, spinning the toilet paper off the roll, and climbing up the bookshelf, we wanted her to be able to do these things without us having to say “no”. We also created a playhouse out of cardboard display boards and bought a pop-up tunnel. Family & friends donated boxes and paper towel cardboard. A friend gave us plastic playpen balls and we shopped at one of our favorite stores, Hobby Lobby, for tissue paper & other art supplies. Putting it all together took a couple hours, but it was fun to think of different activities that would evoke her curiosity. It was inexpensive and she absolutely loved it all. Since she’s only 10 months old and doesn’t really understand opening presents, playing with the different activities was a great way to spend the morning.
One of the other presents we enjoyed giving was personalized stationery for my mother-in-law, Bobbie, who is the best letter writer we know. We found an antique “Bobbie” cigar box at the Antique Show in Brimfield, MA a couple years ago. To make the stationery we scanned the box and used its images. We then embellished half of them with glitter and sewed the other half with contrasting thread. It was a fun, personal, and one-of-a-kind present.
We hope you all enjoyed your family and friends this holiday season and were able to use your creativity to make some lasting memories.