We had such a sweet end, by candlelight, to our fall session at Rainbow Bridge. We made candle holders and later placed them around the Advent spiral. What a magical day.

To make the candle holders, we took a glass container, painted the outside with glue, and added bits of tissue paper. They looked so pretty when the light shown through them and Bracken loved the project so much that he’s been begging me to make more. I’m glad to have another crafting idea because he likes to keep his hands busy creating all the time and sometimes I need more inspirations of simple things we can make together.

In other news, I got my presents mailed out today and it felt like such a sigh of relief since I wanted everything to arrive on time. Every year I tend to feel a bit guilty, that I’m not giving and doing enough for gifts, that other people are sending more or doing more. Do you feel that way too? We keep it simple and usually handmade. Most of the time we make our gifts or trade for them. But we don’t do much. I remind myself that the people we are closest to, appreciate the littlest things and we wouldn’t have to even give anything at all to make them happy. That being said, I would like to be more prepared in the gift department next year. After I mailed out packages today, so many ideas came flooding in for homemade gifts we could make. I’ve been writing them down for next year, hoping to get more organized for that.

You know what Bracken has been doing lately? Going around the house, grabbing toys off his shelf and other random household objects that he comes across, wrapping them up, and putting them in our stockings. It completely melts my heart (and makes me laugh all at the same time.) There’s going to be lots of surprises when we open our stockings. The other day I caught him sneaking my cookbook (that I had just placed on the edge of my seat after looking something up in it) and hiding it from me to wrap it up as a present. I love the way his little packages look, with all that tape. (Oh, we’re going through a lot of tape!) Children give the sweetest gifts, that just exude so much love. What good reminders they give us when they are so connected to what’s really important.

A few days ago Bracken asked for scissors for a project. I brought his little scissors out and when I turned my back for a moment, he then told me that he had given our Christmas tree a little haircut. My first reaction, in my mind, was something along the lines of: ‘are you kidding me?’ and ‘I literally have to watch him like a hawk every time I hand him a pair of scissors.’ But before I even had time to say anything, he explained to me that he was making some little Christmas trees for his dolls. He showed me and it was all so sweet, that my other thoughts just melted away. A slightly lopsided tree is totally worth that pure joy I saw in his eyes, he was so proud. (Oh, and I should also add that I was grateful he gave the tree a haircut this time and not himself! As you may remember, I evened it out as best as I could at the time. In Wyoming it was growing out and looked kattywampus, so I took a pair of scissors to quickly even out the bangs and immediately thought that was a mistake. A few days ago I got out the clippers to remedy the situation, but didn’t remember which attachment I’d used before and ended up going much shorter than I had planned. Oh well, luckily he can pull off super short hair and hopefully things will be evened out now. They’re definitely even-er.)

What are your favorite handmade gifts to give? Any ideas to share? Leave a comment for all of us to enjoy, if you feel inspired!