Gifts I Gave

.

This is what I made for Mom for Christmas. 5" square, made with cardstock, variegated thread, tiny white seed beads and blue Swarovski crystals.

This is the mandala I made for Gretchen for Christmas. Gretchen likes retro stuff and she spends a lot of time in Florida and these colors remind me of both those things. Plus she's nuts for pink lately. She's going to hang it in her bathroom she says, which has those colors. I love this one so much I immediately started making 3 more to sell.

For the last several years I've given Dad a "Soup of the Month" gift where I make him a book of recipes that I've found on the Internet. He tells me each month which ones he wants to try. Some are keepers, some are not. Right around May, we both start losing interest in soup, as the weather gets warmer. He tries to tell everyone that I peter out and he never gets his full gift but I think I can safely shift at least some of the blame his way. Anyway, this month he asked for 3 months of soups. That, I can do. He asked Gretchen for 3 months of cookies. She is definitely one of the best cookie bakers I've run into.

I gave Simon a vacuum cleaner. He wasn't as disappointed in the vacuum cleaner as I thought he would be. That's probably because I softened the blow by including some cold hard cash. And last night I may have successfully prepared him by telling him, in response to him needling me about what I got him, that "No, I didn't get you something you want. I got you something I want you to have." And maybe he's as sick of borrowing my vacuum cleaner as I am of him borrowing it. Not even gonna mention that I have to ask him, minimum, 5 times to bring it back. Minimum.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about how hard my family rocks in the gift giving department. Rocks.

.