I road-tripped back to Houston to see my family, and to meet some new people who'll be entering my friend-family soon. Four days, lots of home-cooked vegetarian food, dinner at my favorite Indian place, and tons of love later...
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| Merry Christmas from the H household! |
PSA: My mother would like everyone to know that she reuses her fake tree every year and all of her ornaments are reused. She takes pride, well-deserved pride, in the fact that many of the ornaments on her tree are 30 years old and hand-picked for their sentimental value.
The following is a montage of awesome wrapping craftiness courtesy of the family!
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| Guess which presents are mine... |
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| mom made bows from leftover yarn |
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| My bro accidently made a bow from a Nazi article. This immediately sparked a political debate! |
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| Kuddos for reusing newspaper but try to pay attention to the articles. Mom accidently used the Obituaries. Hah! |
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| Dad, the original crafter, used a horrible pic of me and turned me into an angel with cottonballs. i'm keeping this one. |
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| What to do with all those address labels... |
I took some packaging paper that World Market shipped to me with my order and repurposed it into wrapping paper.
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| This one got the paper grocery bag treatment as well as a hand-made paper flower. I teach kids to make these flowers at work. |
We also used a lot of reusable bags....
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| This bag has been mine since I was born. Mom doesn't even change the nametag. I see it every year. It is as much a holiday tradition in this house as anything else we do. |
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| This bag just appeared but my grandmother made it for me when I was little. Good things come in small packages. |
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| I got reusable bags on sale at OFFICE DEPOT. I looked everywhere and couldn't find any. Luckily, mom knew where to go. They were $2 or so each. Go forth and stock up for next year! |
Some of my gifts were even green Christmas gifts. My cousin got me a calendar made from recycled products with beautiful tree images all over it. The parents got me bamboo shades to lower my electric bills :-) My bro got me the gift of gardening....
Ah yes... one more hand-made Chrismas decoration to show you...
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| Handmade by grandma K 30+ years ago. Everyone has one but this one is mine. |
And last but not least, how to make your fake reused tree smell fresh and natural?
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| dad added his own "decoration" to our tree |
Happy Holidays and have a safe reflective New Years Eve. See you guys after my lovely cuddle-filled 3-day weekend I have coming up.
Kristi
Ok, so my favorites have to be 1. the bow made by your borther...really, he made that? That is so awesome 2. the Kristi angel, great stuff, and 3. the papel picado...I heart papel picados...That is so awesome your whole family took part.
ReplyDeletePlease note - altho Kristi's gifts were wrapped with the oh so pretty newspaper, all had an angel on them somewhere. Some traditions just can't be ignored. She always has had angel wrap, and Justin had rocking horses until he rebelled. Now he has anything with wheels. I don't think I whould say what Gary's traditional wrap is. Let's just stop at 'Santa'.
ReplyDeleteMom
I love that you got the whole family in the recycle spirit! I also love that Lennox's li'l white feet snuck into a pic. :)
ReplyDeleteHa! So I get an email this morning from a friend... "You might want to make a quick edit to that second sentence...unless, of course, you really have become a vageterian."
ReplyDeleteI changed it. I'm not quite sure I want to be a vagetarian, but I damn sure know that if I were, I don't want it home-cooked in my family's house!
Thanks J for keeping me straight! (literally)