Handmade Xmas

My 2012 Garden Bird handmade by Grady

Last year I took so many pictures of Xmas that I felt overwhelmed and never finished the blog post.  It felt like I had too much to say and then ended up saying nothing at all.  I didn't want that to happen this year, so I decided to focus on what we made for each other.  Those were the sweetest gifts of the day, by far.

The inside of a hard baseball - LEFT
The handmade gift from dad - RIGHT

Each year Grady asks us to paint something for him.  Last year I was assigned to draw a Sumo wrestler and the year before that a dog (which I drew without a nose).  He asked Steve to draw him a Manga character this year (with a green parrot and a drawing of Molly happening in previous years), but Steve decided to switch it up and make him another handmade mush ball.

Grady has been totally into playing mush ball at school and with Steve on the weekends.  It takes some time to remove the stitching, pull out the hard core, stuff it with a sock and sew it up again - but his son loved it and I can see him really using this gift.  Steve has always been known to be the seamstress in our house and I just love that he did this for Grady for Xmas.

Deluxe Cheeseboard from SL

The wood shop was busy last weekend and Steve designed and made me the most beautiful cheeseboard.  I mentioned I saw a few on Pinterest that I loved and he glanced at the photos, said few words, went to his shop and made this little work of art.  The best.

The morning was moving right along and the pile of presents for the boy was staggering.  Most of it was thoughtful and you could tell the friends and family members gifting to him really knew him and focused on his interests in books, Legos, peanut butter & jelly (yes, really - two big jars!), cool t-shirts, art supplies and handmade treasures.

Grady's Xmas gift from me this year - A Tree 2012

And so here is my attempt at painting a piece of art for my son.  He gave me a fairly easy assignment, as he knows I like to draw trees and circles.  The red dots are supposed to be cherry blossoms, but they look more like apples.  It doesn't matter, he said he loved it and it was one of his favorite gifts.  Oh, melt my mama heart.

Dad Portrait 2012

With all the busyness of the season, G almost forgot to make something for his dad.  This is our thing.  We each make something for each other (or try to!), so he took to painting in the final days leading up to Xmas.  This is a portrait of his father.  He took two days to finish it and thought it was pretty good.

2nd revised letter to Santa drafted on December 23rd

As Xmas drew closer, I think he realized he was not going to get what he had asked Santa for and tried his luck by drafting a revised letter to Santa.  He pleaded his case, tried to pull at Santa's heartstrings and focused on the one present he wanted desperately - an iPod Touch.  Oh, how smart he is.

Notes in blue added by me as to what Santa brought this year - I save these letters

 Santa drafted a letter of his own and included a few fun things in his Santa Sack - like Trix cereal (mom would never buy that!) and three video games (again, mom would never buy those!).  And while he was teetering on non-belief this year, I think he still wants to believe.  The fact that he didn't get what he asked for probably left him a little bit disappointed but, as always, he quickly got over it and enjoyed all the wonderful and useful items he received.

G painted me a "rock bug" at school and wrapped it himself

The day was rainy and windy and never let up.  We watched three movies, took two naps, snacked throughout the day, read books, played video games and BBQ'd a beautiful steak dinner in the rain.

We had three generations of Hecht men under one roof and it was one of the sweetest Xmas's we've ever had.  I think Steve's dad enjoyed it, too.  How could you not?  We showed him a good time and I hope he remembers it fondly, too.

Grady thanked him over dinner for taking the time to come up and see us and spend Xmas at our house.  Completely unprompted by us.

That felt like the greatest gift of the season.