I was woken up with a beautiful gift Christmas morning.....a phone call from work telling me I could stay home for a few hours! My babes were quite upset in the days leading up to Christmas because I had to work. So you can imagine my heart was overflowing when they were most excited to see me lying in bed as they burst into our room at the lovely {I type that with the utmost sincerity} hour of 8:30 am!

2nd on the list was this BEAUTY!! Our 1st White Christmas as a family!! I grew up with more white ones than not but here in TN it's rare to see a flake of snow much less a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!

We then observed the mess of that old jolly man!

Kayden had wanted him to leave a written response to her note {which he did not!} but turned and looked at the logs and said "well that's his response"!!

I'm always amazed every year that the stocking stuffers seem to bring the biggest smiles!

The girls were unsure as to what this strap was that Santa left behind.......

until they found their guitars!

Daddy might have been just a wee bit excited too!

Thinking of gifts to give this year proved quite simple as they each have their own interests!

For Kayden that has been creating and sewing.....using any leftover scraps of mine that she could get her hands on! LOVE IT! So when I found an old suitcase, in perfect condition, at a thrift store several months ago I knew exactly what would fill it's space!

An array of fabrics, yarn, scissors,

jar of buttons, button makers, cutting board, ruler, measuring tape

various shades of thread, embroidery loop, needles, ribbon, ect! She was in AWE! Really!

For Emery it's been all things classroom related, she has spent hours playing school. Both alone and with her sister!

So a chalkboard wall was painted late Christmas Eve!

Our friend whipped up this BEAUTIFUL kid size podium with her initial!

and she was gifted all sorts of paper, teacher glasses, jar of chalk, eraser,

a file and folders,

stapler with pink staples, highlighters, pens, pencils, scissors, tape and tape holder, glue, ect!

Next came their blankets and they were SOOO happy of course it made me smile!!

One last thing I made was pillow sized ugly dolls.....sewn from thrifted vintage pillow cases and left over felt, yarn, and buttons!

Instant fun!

And for the next couple hours I sat back and smiled as I watched them enjoy this mostly home made Christmas!