Christmas Stuff

I know Christmas is over but we're all still really excited about our new goodies so I wanted to at least share a picture.

I laid all the presents out around our tree for this picture  and Alexander was like "I want my truck back."

(A few of these things are actually just the box because we are already using the item. Also, if you don't see a present you got us in this picture, that's probably because Kevin was so excited about it, he put it right to work and then threw away the box or he put it away in a place where I didn't think to look.)

Also, I wanted to post a picture of the ties I sewed for my dad and Kevin's dad but I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I sewed the ties because I wanted to do an iron-on of all the grandkids hand prints and I couldn't find any ties made of cotton or cotton-poly blend (which is the recommended fabric for an iron-on). So I got some blue cotton-poly blend fabric and found a pattern online. There were a few learning experiences... Like not realizing how narrow a 3 and a quarter inch tie would actually be and ending up having to revamp the pattern. And figuring out the hard way that the back seam of a completed tie would make the surface too uneven to do the iron-on and having to back track again and do the iron-on before finishing the sewing. All in all though, it was a pretty simple project. All the other parents were great about getting me their kids hand prints and I was glad I got to include all the grandchildren instead of just our kids.

This is what the hand prints on Bill's tie ended up looking like -

Bottom to top (oldest to youngest): Tanner, Lindsey, Maren, Luke, Alexander, Jacob

I also included a little flower at the other end of the tie to represent our niece Rachel who passed away the day she was born.

(Cosmos flower: Birth month flower for October)

And here's what my dad's tie layout looked like -

Bottom to top (oldest to youngest): Alexander, Jacob, Gideon

Funnily enough, since I had yet to meet Gideon at the time I laid out my dad's iron-on, I didn't realize that his hand is actually bigger than Jacob's but it still gives the general idea. :-)

I also ended up having to do a little more sewing and extend my dad's tie after I gave it to him. He's a pretty tall guy and when he tried to wear the tie for Church the next day, we discovered it was a bit too short for him. (Speaking of which - Bill, if your tie didn't turn out long enough either, I'd be happy to fix yours as well.)

I hope everyone else had as awesome a Christmas time as we did! It was so great to get to see (almost : minus Scott, Katie, Luke and Logan) everyone from both our families. Thanks again to everyone for all our new goodies. Oh, and Happy New Year 2011!  Here's to a new year in pictures!