Holiday Crafts

One difference between K and me is that our families have different standards when it comes to gift giving. For me growing up, birthday gifts = $20 and Christmas gifts = $10. For K, Christmas is this crazy, tradition-filled extravaganza with twice the number of relatives to go around. I was completely shocked at my first December with the in-laws to see the tree completely smothered with wrapped goodies, extending almost 5 feet out from the trunk.

So by the year 2008, I really should have known better than to think "small and homemade." I had this great idea to make a cute cross stitching pattern I had found online, but the cost of raw materials was, what, $7? And then K comes home one day with mysterious package from Best Buy and asks, "Uhhh, honey? How much do you want to spend on Christmas gifts each other this year? $100 or less?" Oops.

Luckily, the "what would K want" brainstorming session wasn't too painful. I ended up tacking on a pull-up bar and ninja knife-eye attack shirt (don't ask). I think he was pretty happy about the overall package too! Here's the final result of my original Christmas gift: