We had a lot of preparation going on to get ready for Christmas. Fortunately, because we bought almost all the gifts before December, we had plenty of time for wrapping and other projects.
My Dad had collected hundreds of patches from various vacations, trips and scouting and had always wanted to put them on a tent he had. We decided we would attached them to some canvas that could be hung in their upstairs room so he can see his patches. It was a big project and Shantel did most of the work. We first went and sorted them into the different patches he had (National Parks/Nature, Navy Military, Scouting etc.). Then Shantel got them all set up on the canvas and then we used glue to get them all attached. We hope he'll really love being able to see those patches and remember all those trips.
Shantel also took on a few other big projects. First, was sewing pajamas for everyone in the family. You can see Lucy playing in the picture below with the fabric behind her. I can't even remember how it all got started, but we could not really find kid Christmas pajamas that we liked and Lydia suggested that Shantel just make them. Shantel is amazing, so she just did it. Originally she planned to just do pants for everyone, then she found a really cute pattern for night gowns for the girls and decided to do those. Those took more fabric and so she had enough for those, pants for Austin, Caleb and me, but not enough left for her pants. Instead she made a really cute shirt for herself with sleeves using the matching fabric.
On another note- Shantel also found time to make me a beautiful blanket that I'll add to the Christmas post.
We did a lot of wrapping and watching of hallmark movies.
We got the Christmas cards made and the kids helped Shantel stuff them and get them ready to go out. This is another example of how wonderful she is at teaching our kids and letting them be involved in working on these projects instead of doing it all herself. You can see them adding stamps, labeling and stuffing envelopes.
Finally, more wrapping including treating ourselves to Chick-Fil-A to celebrate wrapping the last presents. For names this year we did Paw Patrol names. Lydia was Liberty and Zuma. Austin was Ryder and Chase. Caleb was Tracker and Cap'n Turbot and Lucy was Everest and Chickaletta.
I always love wrapping presents and thinking about how much I love these kids as we do it.
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