Home made Christmas Gifts

     So...Christmas is around the corner and I am always looking for ways to make this time memorable, truly about Christ and not about commercialism and about family. One of the things we really like to do is make and give gifts to people. Some people do NOT like homemade gifts and in a commercial world I DO understand that, BUT I want my children to give the gift of time so homemade is what comes into play.
     Now, budget is a BIG consideration....NOT that we are cheap, but we like to give A LOT and we need to stretch the budget a long way. I have been searching for new ideas, but not coming up with very many. A few years ago we made candles. This was a fun thing to do, but me being a big candle person, well I was somewhat disappointed. I wanted the candles to smell up the entire house and though they did smell good, they weren't Yankee candles so I was sad.

     We also made body scrub! Now this was WONDERFUL as was the goat's milk soap. I had made both before, but used your basic kits from shops in town. BIG MISTAKE. You must get quality products online! I used a goat's milk base for the soap and our hands were well moisturized unlike the drying soap from the kits. We WILL make soap and the body scrubs again!

     Now onto food....I have done the mixes in a jar, but often I follow the recipe exactly and come out with more ingredients than I have jar. What am I supposed to do...hand them a baggie with the rest of it? I don't like that! Containers can also be expensive....what to do? Goodwill is great as is our local Hope's Close, not to mention garage sales, but it takes time to get enough and you must have a place to store them.
     Now for the list of people we want to give to.....here's hoping...1. mailwoman (we have 2), 2. UPS man, 3. FedEX, 4. garbage men, 5. Sunday School teachers, 6. Awana leaders, 7. Children's Church leaders, 8. Nursery Workers, 8. ELO teachers...holy cow that could be a LOT (like I said, this is a dream list), 9. people who are so good to us and our foster children....who share clothes and diapers and take pictures and make stuff for us....we are blessed, that list is long, 10. family, 11. Buckner workers, 12. CPS caseworkers, 13. Physical therapists, 14. Speech therapists, 15. Occupational therapists, 16. ECI coordinator....oh boy, now I am getting a little frantic. Time to stop this for now and hunt for ideas. Any ideas? List them here! I need help!

***...and you thought this was going to be one of those crafty blogs with fun things pictures and made easily on no money.  Oops, sorry to crush the illusion.