Merry Christmas 2008

I love Christmas. This year has been so fun getting all our gifts together. As some of you know we had a homemade or free Christmas this year. That means all of our gifts we gave each other had to be either homemade or free. There were 3 exceptions, Chris really didn't have anything to make me so he said "You are the mom and deserve some new things", the other exception was I bought O's "Santa Gift", really who can make a Hannah Montana Wig on such short notice. The 3rd exception was a few stocking stuffers. So with our rules set in place we were off to make the best of our Christmas.

The kids came up with some really fun ways to "acquire" gifts. K found things in her room that she no longer played with and bartered for gifts for her siblings with her friends. C had Chris cut 2 wooden birds out of a leftover board we had and painted them for the girls. O drew K and C a picture and we bought inexpensive frames for them. They were all really excited on Christmas morning to see each other open the others gifts.

Here's a picture of the tree and gifts before the children woke up. They did not wake up until 7:30. Chris and I were up before them! That's a first.


C with is planes that he got from Grandma, and Chris with his new robe!

K with her new robe, slippers, and hat

O with her Hannah Montana Wig and her beads from K.

Chris and I worked hard making gifts for the kids. I also was able to use a couple of $10.00 off a $10.00 purchase coupons at Kohl's and JCPenney. I found things on clearance for $10 and used the coupons so they were free. A couple of girls nights out a few of the ladies had yarn and books to give away so my crochet projects were free and the kids got a ton of "new" books. I also had a friend that was cleaning her toy closet and gave me a huge bag of wooden block for C. Chris used a 2x4 to make 2 pirate daggers for C, and I used left over fabric, buttons, and ribbon for the girls' memo boards. I even bartered from my good friend at vivapron. I made purses for her girls and she made aprons for mine (we provided our own fabric) Here's a list of our frugal Christmas items:

K's Gifts:

Slippers free yarn
Scarf $2.00 worth of yarn at Dollar Tree
Apron free bartered
French memo board $ 1.79 for the wood and free fabric, ribbons, buttons
Robe $9.00 worth of fabric
Jeans free and brand new with tags from a friend at Chris' work

O's Gifts:
Slippers free yarn
Scarf free yarn
Apron $5.00 bartered (I also had one made for me so she did charge a small fee for the 3rd one)
French memo board $1.79 for the wood and free fabric, ribbons, and buttons
Books free
Hannah Montana Wig $5.00 on clearance from $20.00!!!

C's Gifts:

Blocks free
Books free
Scarf $1.00
Pirate flag $8.00 worth of canvas and a dowel rod
Hat free
Daggers free


Chris's gifts:

White shirt free Kohl’s gift card,
scarf, $1.59x2 for yarn
lunch box free
Robe $12.00 worth of fabric
PJ pants from JC Penney $2.00

Syndy's Gifts totaled $25.00 (and by the way I asked for all these things)
Drop Cloth
Cute mug with little penguin
Cocoa
Sugar Jar
Lotion
Pill organizer

The kids had a great Christmas morning and were able to open gifts from Grandparents too. My mom even got into the homemade Christmas idea and made the girls dolls that are soooo cute. She made me a really cute organizer that fits over a 5 gallon bucket (can't wait to organize my sewing room). After gifts we went to the movies and saw Bedtime Stories it was really cute. I'm not usually an Adam Sandler fan but sometimes he comes out with some good stuff. (We also had gift cards for the movies so we only had to pay for 3 tickets, and we had our Indiana Jones bucket so popcorn was only 50 cents, candy and soda were snuck in as usual)

We came home and had pizza and crazy bread for dinner.

Our Christmas gift total $83.00

Not going into debt for one holiday... PRICELESS!

Comments

Karrie said…
I L-O-V-E this. I get so tired of budgeting for Christmas, and we really tend to keep things low key. But it's gonna get worse as time goes on... I want to follow your lead for next year. Actually, I am making a list now of cute things I've seen and I want to start now. I figure if I do that, then I'll get stuff done on time. I can't wait to have a house though- it'll make things easier.
My kids get more than enough from their grandparents. I really want them to focus on the giving part. I think homemade/free is a great way to start.
December 26, 2008 at 11:23 PM
Anonymous said…
This is so great! It feels good to be not in debt over a holiday where the real season is about the Savior. Most of the reason we had a slimmer Christmas was financial but we have also felt that we want to give more on birthdays than Christmas. You did way better on your total than us though. Way to go!!! My plans kinda changed but that is ok. I can't wait to get feeling better and start early little by little be even more frugal! Again WAY TO GO!!! I admire you very much!! P.S Sory about the silly peanut brittle. Ours never really got to hard so I imagine yours was the same. Oops! It was my first try at it. But I really owe you ALOT for the sacrifice you made for me and my family!
December 27, 2008 at 12:49 AM
The Queen Bee said…
Lisa, your brittle was great. It did kinda stay in one big pile but Chris ate the whole plate chizzling off a piece everytime he walked by. He LOVED it! Funny thing was he loved the plate too! We had so much fun doing Christmas this year. We are making it a tradition too.
December 27, 2008 at 8:21 AM
Katie and Luke said…
You are amazing. I love those ideas! Going into debt for one holiday that is supposed to be celebrating the birth of our Savior is CRAZY. I am actually proud of ourselves that for the first time we didn't have to use our credit cards! (Been married 9 years...but it takes a while to figure it all out!) :)
December 28, 2008 at 7:55 PM
The Queen Bee said…
It took us about 7 years to figure things out. We haven't used them in 3 years and it's been great. I guess credit cards should be a whole other post because I have my own opinion about those too, but I'll save you all the boredom.
December 29, 2008 at 9:08 AM
Mary said…
Your Christmas turned out so wonderful -- what a great example. All the robes and other things you made turned out so well! Us doing free or homemade would look completely different than yours -- anyone want a paper sack vest?
December 30, 2008 at 6:55 PM
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