Christmas Projects & Traditions

I've been busy working on Christmas projects and recently came across a felt applique Christmas banner that my mother had in her craft stuff. It was about 2/3 finished so I've been working to finish it. Which reminded me how much I love to do applique. So I also decided to get some applique stockings since I really haven't done stockings for us as a family...I just had generic stockings. So I found some cute ones that kind of go with our personalities. Anyways, I'm really enjoying finishing my mom's banner and knowing that I will get to hang it this year and that her hands were a part of it!

I'm also really tickled because my brother, his wife, and my three nieces are "most likely" going to be here for Christmas. I just love lots of kids around at Christmas and think it will be so much fun!! Of course, now I'm thinking of all the ways that I can make it really special - especially since this will be the kids first year without Grandma and ours without our mom. I really want to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas & have been trying to find ways to do that. Like giving only 3 gifts - one to represent gold, frankincense, & myrrh or having each family member writing a letter to everyone else and putting it in the stockings. Anyways, I'm trying to think of what would work for our family. We'll see where I go with this.