a homemade Christmas

Right around the beginning of December Rayden was doing research for an upcoming message when he happened upon a statistic that (I forget the specific numbers) said that Americans spend more on Christmas than it would cost to provide clean drinking water for the entire world for a year. I was blown away! And conviction began to grow in my heart. So, this year we spent a lot less on Christmas so that we could give more to those in need. And one of the ways we accomplished that was by giving practical and homemade gifts. I made each kids a pair of pajamas from fabric that I already had in my stash. I also used extra scrap fabric to create I-spy bags. We also bought a ton of wood and got to work creating Aubri's big girl bed. And not just any big girl bed....a playhouse bed. We used plans we found on www.Ana-white.com. We were so so so happy with how it turned out. I even sewed little curtains for the playhouse window and Aubri's bedroom window from fabric I had bought ages ago.

Here's the view looking in to the door:
She's got her kitchen inside along with a shelf we made and hung.
I also spent the month of December hand stitching felt food for her kitchen. It is seriously about the cutest stuff I've ever seen. I am in love with it....perhaps teetering on obsession actually. I will be continuing to make more and more I am sure.

And we had enough would left over to do some stuff in the boys room. What better for these Wii-maniacs than a mario and luigi room. I dreamed up the idea, Rayden made it come to life, and I filled it in with color. We built shelf/boxes that open up to hide all kinds of secret treasures. We also used an overhead projector to trace all the characters from the game. The boys went C.R.A.Z.Y. when they saw it.
See how they open?