the last of the gifts

Whew...the last of the gifts are done. The ones that need to be mailed, that is. But I think I'm pretty much done. Here's the Christmas mini albums I mentioned before. They're just 4x6 photo albums and I made a new cover for them. Inside I put pictures of the kids every year at Christmas.

I ran into Michaels yesterday to get some more Christmas tins. I had been waiting for these cuties to go on sale :) They were $1.25 each. I put some Blizzard Bites in them, wrapped them up with some cute cellophane (also bought on sale last month!) and I plan on handing these out to some of my friends & neighbors this week.

I also attached a copy of the recipe to the tin. I never used to do this but then I found if someone really liked my treats they'd always ask me for the recipe. So I figured it's just better to attach it to the tin and if they like it they can make more!

And then I found these keychain photo holders at Walmart. I added some stamping, photo and ribbon and it's done.

I know the photo is bad. I didn't have time to "set it up" and get a really good shot. I have lots to send out to the post office today.
One last thing, whenever I mention to people that a lot of my gifts are handmade I get asked "do people like them?" and how people react to getting handmade gifts instead of store bought gifts. (And Kelly, I know you had left a comment recently about that, too). The simple answer to that is that I give gifts from the heart. I give things that I would appreciate getting. I don't just walk into a store and grab the nearest meaningless "thing" that's sitting on the table. I know we've all received those gifts, right?!! Not that store bought gifts can't have meaning, but you know what I mean.

Sometimes people appreciate the effort I put into gifts, sometimes they don't. But it doesn't bother me. Because this time of year is for giving from the heart. And quite frankly, my Christmas list is *long* and, therefore, I simply cannot afford to spend countless dollars on everyone at Christmas. And I won't go broke trying to please people. That's not what Christmas is about. And you see the boxes I have to mail out each Christmas. My shipping costs add about $20-$40 to my Christmas budget because all of my relatives are out of town. So I do a lot of baking, and handmade presents. I could be like others I know and buy a dishwasher, or a computer, or a digital camera for others for Christmas. And I'm sure they're liked more for it. That's ok. If I'm only liked for my gifts, then those people do not understand the true meaning of Christmas. And that's sad.

No one should ever be judged by their gifts as "not good enough" or "you didn't spend enough". I don't try to "keep up with the Jones". I do my own thing. I'm not concerned that someone else can spend hundreds of dollars on their parents or kids or whatever. I can't. And I don't worry about it.

So I hope that explains my rationale behind my gifts. I enjoy Christmas. I enjoy making something for someone rather than just buying a gift. That's just who I am!