Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas (eve)!!!

I just love this time of the year. Getting to see all my family for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas. Lots of holiday time off from work. It's great!

All of our main Christmas presents were shipped off to Arkansas for my stepson and my family-in-laws last weekend. I'm really excited about the girls opening up their handmade jewelry.

Green Toys - this flatbed truck and car are made
100% from recycled plastic bottles! How cool is that?
(image courtesy of woot.com)

My family doesn't give gifts to adults, so I only needed gifts for one person. I snagged this really awesome Green Toy from woot for my 14 month old nephew. I stepped into World Market the other day and found that they were selling the full line of these toys. Plus they have some great vintage toy replicas! Love that store!

This is the perfect toy for my brother and sister-in-laws kiddo. They live on an island with no running water, no sanitary sewers, no electricity, no garbage pickup, no ferry-boat access and barely any cell phone coverage (they have to go stand on a hill to get reception). They built their own house from the ground up with wood harvested from the island and milled onsite. They shipped in recycled blue jean insulation. They also grow their own food and make their own stuff.

As you can imagine, they are pretty earthy people and are more in touch with sustainability than most. When I saw these toys made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, I was sold! Not only are they perfect for a 14 month old boy, but they are perfect for my brother and sister-in-laws way of life. They also are packaged in un-dyed cardboard with no plastic, thus 100% recyclable.

Up-cycled Gift Boxes - these boxes are made from turning
inside out a cereal box, 12 pack coke box and a
Krusteaz Coffee Cake Mix box (from left to right).

I baked cookies like crazy this weekend. I made peanut butter, orange creamcycle, thumb prints, ginger molasses and Scottish shortbread cookies. I also made key lime pie and pumpkin bread. I've got a few last minute crafts that I accomplished. I figured since I'm so late with these I'll save posting about them for next year.

I wrapped up lots of pressies! I turned boxes found around the kitchen inside out for gift boxes. Can you believe these are from a cereal box, 12 pack coke box and Krusteaz Coffee Cake box (which was the perfect size to fit a DvD! Shush! Don't tell anyone).

I'm so excited for my fiancé to unwrap his pressies. One of them turned out really good, but how could it not? The other wasn't planned. I had originally wanted to make an engineer plot sized photo of us with some of his favorite lyrics, but it just didn't happen. I instead got him something different. That's just what happens sometimes. I think he's going to love it!

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!