a very homemade Christmas

This Christmas, we drew names with my family for the gift exchange. 

And we made a rule that your gift had to be homemade. 

It was awesome. 

Seriously the most excited we've ever been to open each other's presents and definitely the most memorable! 

Even the process of making our gifts was fun. 

Chas and I loved having our own separate project to work on in tandem on weekend nights while we listened to Christmas music.

Then, to top it all off, we had a little photo shoot and took pictures of everyone with their gift. 

Like I said, we were all pretty excited about our gifts. 

Here's the breakdown: 

Rosie made me this amazing car seat cover! 

(Baby Banks was nice enough to let me use his car seat for the pic.)

I think little cryings will love it!

Chas painted a family portrait for Sarah!

He worked really hard on this and I'm so proud of him for sticking with such an ambitious present!

This is Sarah's husband, Michael. (Love him.)

Michael is a huge smarty-pants computer programmer. 

So Lizzie made Michael his very own computer programming wizard cape!

Sarah made Lizzie this killer jacket and hand-bound book/diary! 

I made Hailey a big, snuggly fleece blanket! 

(Should be helpful in securing a suitor.)

Michael used his hands ("handmade") to pick out some college essentials for Rosie. 

My favorite part about this was apparently he asked his wife, Sarah, "Do you think it would be ok if I got Rosie some pantiliners?"

Michael knows what's up. 

And Hailey painted this ahhh-mazing portrait for Chas! 

I'll have to scan the original so you can really see how glorious and perfect it is. 

We're gonna commission her to paint one of me and then we can hang them both right above little crying's crib!