Secret Siblings

This year for Christmas we thought we'd try something new and fun.

Instead of doing a Secret Santa,

we thought we'd do Secret Siblings.

In September each child drew a name out of a jar.

The idea was for each child to keep their Secret Sibling...well...a secret

and make a gift for them for Christmas.

The gift was to focus on something that that child would like

and it had to be totally homemade.

Courtney started on hers first.

In September when her Grammy was visiting,

Grammy taught her how to knit.

Her Secret Sibling was Garrett.

And she knew he loved frogs,

So she made him some froggy slippers.

 

The finished product.  I didn't start documenting it until later, so this is the only pic we have during production.

A very happy boy.  He loves his froggy slippers and wore them the whole day.

 Garrett's Secret Sibling was Courtney.

She was just finishing up her soccer season when he started on his gift for her.

So Garrett & Mommy took to the sewing machine and made her a soccer pillow.

Mommy pushed the 'gas pedal' as Garrett steared the material through the machine.

The front all done

The back all done.  He laid out the letters (me giving them to him in order of course) and ironed them on himself.

The finished product front

The finished product back

Courtney LOVED it!!

So much so that Garrett got a hug a few minutes later.  She's so sweet.

Gavin's Secret Sibling was Kaidin.

Gavin took Kaidin's LOVE for Auburn and decided to make him a gift having to do with that.

He got out the paints and grabbed a canvas...

And wah-la!  An Auburn painting.

I drew out the letters in pencil as a guideline and he immediately got out the paints and got to work

He was so excited.  He did very well!

All wrapped up and ready to give

Kaidin loved it!!!

So that made Kaidin's Secret Sibling Gavin.

Gavin loves anything Mario related.

Kaidin grabbed one of Gavin's Mario toys

and fashioned a stuffed "animal" after it.

May he present to you:

The Mario Mushroom Toad

We pulled out the sewing machine again and got to work.  He pushed the gas pedal and guided the material through.

He tried it on

After applying the eyes, it was time to stuff

And presto!  A Mario Mushroom Toad

He wrapped it up and couldn't wait for Gav to open it.

Like all the kids before him, He loved it!!

The kids were more excited about their Secret Sibling opening their gifts than receiving gifts themselves.

That made my heart really happy!

Even though I wasn't a secret to the kids,

I decided to get on the homemade Christmas present band-wagon.

I made all the kids a winter hat according to their likes.

I finished them on Dec 21st.  Phwew.

Kaidin of course loves his Auburn hat.  War Eagle!

Courtney loves her soccer hat (sorry 'bout the blurry pic)

Gavin loves his Mario hat.

And Garrett loved his Luigi hat.  He was even thrilled that it matched his Froggy slippers.

 And I made one for Matt too.

Matt enjoyed his hat.   He wore it the rest of the day.  I added a few more inches on it today for him and now he's up roofing wearing it.  Makes my heart happy. =)

This year we did Secret Siblings because finances were tight,

but it's something we'll do for years to come.

The sense of accopmlishment,

The joy at seeing others faces when they opened their gifts

And the thoughtfulness that each child had to have in order to make their gift special

was completely priceless!