This is always a busy time of year for people. There is a lot more on our schedules than normal. I don’t know about you, but for me, that is part of what makes the Christmas season so joyful. I have been a little slow here on posting and I am working on getting my 2 posts for the Journey to Simplicity blog up and rolling. In addition to my increased schedule this month, I have had a large increase in email. I am answering simple questions, complex ones, and offering ideas for a variety of situations that you have been facing. So today I want to expand on one of the answers right here, for a little lighthearted and encouraging FUN!

My friend Crystal from Maine (who promises she is going to get her blog up and running next month) has been emailing back and forth with me regarding the information in Gift Giving from the Heart. With 6 children and one on the way, homeschooling, AND working as a full time nurse she is one busy lady. Add the Christmas frenzy to her life and well, you can only imagine how difficult it would be to find time to make homemade Christmas presents. In her effort to simplify life and have a most relaxed and joy filled Christmas, she had decided not to make any gifts this year. Her thought process was that it would be more beneficial time wise to buy gifts. Sound familiar? I know it did for me too! If I had a nickel for every time I thought about buying gifts…

Then she told me she would be picking up some extra shifts in order to earn enough money to cover the cost of her gift list. WHAT? Ok, I have to admit I actually typed that to her. If she didn’t have enough time to make gifts, how on earth was she able to find extra time to take on the extra shifts? So I worked her through a plan to enable her to make gifts while schooling her littletons and family time. Part of the plan was picking gifts that were not time consuming, allowed her to be interrupted and come back easily, and filled her with joy as she was crafting. Today I would like to share with you the list of homemade gifts I put together for her.

· Apple Cinnamon Room/Car Fresheners

· Pinecone Potpourri

· Bath Bags

· Christmas Tree towels

· Ornaments

· Painted Stemware

· Painted Candle holders

· Stamped Stationary

· Homemade journal (made with composition notebooks that she purchased for 25 cents this summer!)

· Sock Doll

The list isn’t extensive, but it gave her the focus to determine what she could accomplish while doing other daily tasks. Notice, she doesn’t have a single jar gift on the list. Why? Crystal doesn’t can and by the time we began working on this she couldn’t find any canning jars. Each of the gifts she has chosen takes little time. The painted candle holders and stemware she has been working on while watching Christmas movies with her husband at night. I have to admit, that my favorite on her list is the bath bags. These are such a unique and simple way to pamper her friends! Crystal is one amazing mama, I can tell you that. She took her kids on a couple of nature walks to gather items to make the potpourri. Then she did lessons about seeds, pinecones being seeds and all. So she combined her school time with making homemade gifts. How creative is that? Now, if I can only get her to send pictures of her gifts!

I chose to share this with you (with Crystal’s permission of course) to encourage you that even though there are only 2 weeks until Christmas You CAN still make homemade gifts that will be treasured.