We decided to get creative with gifts this year to save money, as we bought plane tickets to visit family in California as our main gift. Following is a few of the gifts we chose.

Spencer decided to create shoes for our sisters and my friend Kaitlyn (who I was so excited would be in California the same time as us), with the know-how he had acquired last year when he drew a couple pairs for me. We picked up some shoes and another packet of fabric pens to add to his collection. He said he wanted a broader selection of color than what he was limited to the last time. 

For Cassidy he fashioned an array of minions to the front and drew Mickey and Minnie for Kelsey. Tangled was attempted for Kaitlyn's shoes, but it soon became apparent that what he had in mind would be too detailed to copy onto shoes. He switched themes to Harry Potter and they turned out wonderfully. After sketching and coloring them in, he sprayed them with a waterproof sealer before locking it in with a tumble around the dryer. I was tempted to keep all three pairs for myself, but (I suppose luckily) none were small enough for my feet's size.

Whilst he was coloring away, I was cutting up fleece to fashion a few scarves to give away to his brother Justin, his dad, and grandfather. After cutting them as straight as I could, I sewed the lengths together and ironed the seems flat. If anyone has tips for cutting straight parallel lines please share. Turning them right side out, I cut strips in to the ends, to tie into knots.

After I finished the scarves, I moved on to his brother Andrew's (and his new wife Kayla's) gift. Pinterest inspired me to ModPodge photos onto a wooden letter that they could hang in their home. I found the letter pre-painted and ready for hanging at Hobby Lobby. I downloaded some of their wedding pictures off Facebook, converted them to black and white and ordered a few copies from Sam's Club. I wasn't sure which ones would fit right, so I ordered more than necessary to be on the safe side. I only ordered 4x6's, as they didn't have a wallet-size option, but wallet would have probably been easier.

Once I received the prints, I chose the ones I liked, arranged them best I could, and outlined a broad, general shape to start with. After cutting that out, I taped them together as they were laid, and flipped it all over, so I could see the back. I traced around the excess and trimmed again. After Modpodging  it a few times, I took a razor blade and fine-tuned the edges. I finished it off by sanding it ever so slightly with steel wool. It looked fantastic, and I might have to make us one in the future.

For my grandparents I had the idea of having each of their grandchildren recorded saying what their favorite thing about G&G is. I had some of my aunt/uncles send me videos of their kids and recorded the rest with my camera. This project took a while, mainly because there were so many videos to collect, so I was finishing putting the video together as we drove up to my grandparent's house Christmas day. Just in time! There were a few wet eyes watching. Mine almost included, even though I thought I had gotten that emotion out as I had watched it repeatedly while editing. We have pretty awesome grandparents.