I had to go in for dental surgery this past week, Wednesday actually. Oh what fun. You see, we spent 1500.00 3 years ago for me to have two root canals and gold crowns. This week we spent almost 1700.00 having those two teeth removed because of an infection I've had in there since Nov. 2004. Of course with both of us being self employed, we have no dental insurance, so this all comes out of our family's budget. Great timing too, right before Christmas. lol

But, as I posted before, Christmas is NOT about the material aspects is it?

So we've been more creative this year. We've made more gifts then we've bought. Which has actually been quite fun. It would be even more fun if we were not so busy trying to make extra stock for my shop to help regenerate some cash to pay the bills! lol But we must look at the bright side of things, and realize that this is such a short time in the big picture of our lives.

So for SIL and MIL we sewed tea towel toppers. MIL loves Elvis, so we bought her an Elvis Christmas cd, and then we found some perfect Elvis Christmas fabric at the fabric shop. I used this to make her tea towel toppers. It's such a simple, yet very useful and practical project. I made a bunch of toppers for myself (not with Elvis fabric lol, I personally don't care much for Elvis) and used them on some tea towels a friend had given to me a while back. She bought them in faith that one day I WILL have my blue and white kitchen. So they sat in my closet for the past 6 months or so, and then I thought I should just enjoy them now and remind myself of her faith each time I dry my hands with them.

Back to Christmas gifts, getting sidetracked here. lol

For SIL I used some Christmas fabrics for her toppers.
Then for her and her husband we made fingerless gloves with fleece. I just made up a pattern using my hand and my dh's hand. It was very easy, and they turned out nice and cozy. I hope they like them. We also sent all of them some treats and of course some toys for our niece and nephew.

For my parents, since both of them pretty much have anything and everything they want, I'm going to spoil their two doggies. I figure I'll get some practice for the day I finally get to have a little doggie of my own. They have a Yorkie (which is the type I'll probably get when this place sells and life slows down!) and a chihuahua. They are both SO cute, but I figure a chihuahua  would simply get trampled or killed some other way on a farm, so a Yorkie, with it's Terrier side, would be the best little doggie for me. It can earn it's keep by chasing rats and other rodents. lol I like the silky terriers as well, so I'd be happy with either one. We actually saw some silky terrier pups about a month ago, and I tried desperately to convince my husband that we needed the tiny little runt female who was a 1/3rd of the size of her brothers. He didn't quite agree. lol It's probably a good thing one of us is practical.  Most of the time anyways....

Here's my parents pups.

Here's Charlie, the Yorkie. Not hard to see why I've fallen in love with him eh?

Here's Mini. It took me a bit to 'see' Mini's cuteness. I had never been in the presence of such a strange doggie before. But now that I've gotten to know her, she's such a little doll doggie. My girls LOVE playing with her.

So for Christmas, these little doggies will receive a blanket each, and a doggie sweater. LOL I never thought I would see the day that I'd be sewing a doggie sweater!

Around here, our tradition every year is to take the kids shopping some time the week before Christmas, to purchase gifts for one another. This year, we'll be making all those gifts. Other years they still made gifts as well, but this year there won't be any purchases except for the gifts the older two bought for their little sisters.

So I told the younger three that this week I will take each of them aside, one at a time, and we'll work together to make their gifts for their siblings, behind a locked door. They are pretty excited about the element of 'suprise'.  I won't post here what they'll be making as their older sister might happen to read it...

Well, I should really get in the tub. I'm not feeling so hot. It's probably TMI (too much info) but I've swallowed a lot of blood over the past few days and it is just wreaking havoc on my poor stomach! Of course the Ibuprofen and antibiotics are probably not helping that at all either. I am looking forward to feeling normal again. I have a nice bruise on the side of my face where the two molars were pulled and if I forget to take the Ibuprofen, the pain begins again.  But we have a Christmas tree to pick out at the tree farm today, so I can't stay home in my house coat like I want to. lol