Well Christmas has come and gone once again, but it was a very blessed holiday indeed. One of the best I have experienced in many years. This is the first year my four year old understood the magic and joy that is Christmas. It was amazing as a parent to sit back and watch the wonder in my child's eyes when he saw Santa for the first time. That was truly the highlight of my holiday.

I was a crafting fool this Christmas. I made a personalized gift for each person on my list. It certainly made the gift giving that much more exciting. For me the best part about Christmas is watching others open their gifts. I love to see the smiles and joy.

My theme this year was warmth, happiness, and blessings for the New Year. I purchased soft blankets for each person on my list and then crafted a personalized gift to go with the warm blanket. I already had the warmth part of my theme covered with the blankets, now I just needed to work on the happiness and blessings part of my theme. When my family spends time together we like to open a bottle of wine or enjoy our favorite spirits so for the happiness part of my theme I made personalized coasters for everyone to set their favorite drink on. I also made a piggy bank out of a growler to save up for the fine wine and spirits, and of course to cover the blessings part of my theme and my personal favorite of all the gifts, I made blessings jars for everyone. I got the idea from a post from a friend on Facebook about a memory jar. It was very simple, just a jar that was filled with happy thoughts memories, pictures, and assorted items throughout the year. I decided to take that idea and make it my own. The end product turned out better than I could have hoped and was received with smiles and joy.

Tutorials of how I created each of my DIY Christmas gifts are posted below if you are interested.