Christmas with my family is always fun. I have two sisters, that each have two kids. They are all grown with kids of their own that are at least teenagers, so we have no small kids with mountains of gifts to open any more. The adults stopped exchanging gifts years ago, so this year we decided to do a White Elephant Gift Exchange to liven things up. We agreed to do this at Thanksgiving. These types of gift exchanges are quite popular at offices and other small groups, around the holidays. If you have never participated in a White Elephant Gift Exchange, these are the rules: |
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I hadn't planned to post any more this week, I swore I was going to take the rest of the week off, but this afternoon when I was browsing in Hometalk, and I ran across the cutest thing......if I didn't share it with you I surely would have burst! Unfortunately, I do not have any small kids anymore, but if I had some daughters, I would not rest until I made this for them. Check it out: ![]() This is a little box I make whenever I can in lieu of wrapping a gift. It's less waste, and cuter too! Below I have an tutorial on how to make this little box. I don't provide a pattern because the size of the box will depend on the item you are wrapping; it has to fit in the middle. You can see in the shape below that I traced out after making a paper pattern from the object I am going to wrap. I was reading my Facebook wall this morning and I ran across a post by Evelyn Saenz. It said that most people have been using aluminum foil and plastic wrap wrong, their whole life! I am like....huh? What it actually meant was, we have not been removing it from the box properly, and causing ourselves unnecessary annoyance. Check out the video below, and you will see what I mean: Unbelievable, eh? I have gone my entire life never knowing about those tabs on the side of foil and plastic wrap boxes! /FACEPALM Did you know about them? Why haven't they ever put them in a commercial? Useful information in a commercial??!! Ridiculous! Well, I have done my kindness to humanity today by imparting this vital information that has been hidden from us for so long. Have a great day! Jade :) ![]() If you have never made bread dough ornaments for your Christmas tree, then you should give it a try! It is a fun activity for the whole family. They are easy to make and fun to decorate, you just paint them! The ingredient list is very short for the dough, it is just three simple things. ![]() Used with permission
I was looking around on the website Hometalk looking at all the really cool crafts and home decor ideas. I do this a couple times a week, I would do it more but I can't afford the time. I could spend hours on that site, love their innovative posts!
But, I digress. During my travels on Hometalk, I saw one of the cutest, and simplest ideas that I have seen in years. I just lit up! I immediately emailed Lisa, of The Pennington Point website and asked her if I could feature her idea here on Homemade by Jade. I just had to share it with you all, it is adorable!
![]() When I was a kid, I had a friend named Mandy, whose grandmother had a party for her every Christmas. It was a very special party, you see, because we got to decorate Christmas cookies! Each child got three cookies to decorate, one for their mom, one for their dad and one for themselves. It was so fun! There were all kinds of shapes: trees, stars, reindeer, gingerbread men, bells and more. It was always so hard to decide on the three you wanted! ![]() I've always loved egg nog. When I was a kid, we never had it very much, my parents always said it was too expensive. I am not sure why my mother never made it from scratch. I remember Mom coming home from the grocery store around Christmas time and taking that festive carton out of the bag. We would beg to have some, but we always had to wait until after dinner, when we would enjoy it together as a family. |
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