A few Tidbits from Christmas Past

I've been saving these photos to post ever since Christmas, wanting to take a few more photos of gifts and things before I shared them....but what the heck...why wait any longer. :)

The pretty and very old bird on the mantel is one of my two gifts from Ben. He always knows just what to get me! Last year it was scanner...lol. He also got me a cloth Mother Goose book that's over 100 years old. It's one of those books that were made for babies and toddlers so they couldn't rip the pages and the graphics and softness of the pages are amazing. Thanks Ben!

And this was my gift to Ben. Rubber boots since we live in the country now. I packed them with socks (which he actually asked for), a headlight, a little old bicycle picture frame and some other goodies. I tried to stash the boots behind the tree before he opened everything, but he spotted them immediately! lol

I made this pie for Christmas, but had to put it in the oven to bake at my parent's house on Christmas Eve since we were spending the evening there. My Dad didn't let me save it for the next day unscathed. The apples were really ripe which made it watery...but the flavor was amazing!

Little molassas spice cookies for Grandma. The recipe is here. They were really good and I ate a bunch of them before I packed them up for her!

This was the gift I gave my sister, Suzy. She is 14 and was desperate for a vanity for her room. I bought this one over the summer at the auction for $17. I wish I had taken a before shot, but I didn't think ahead. It was a dark blue and had some missing knobs and some of the drawers were stuck a bit. I painted it fresh white and added some new old knobs and sanded the drawers so they pulled out more smoothly.

I even lined the light blue drawers with beautiful foil wrapping paper. I love how it turned out and she was thrilled to get it. However I have to get a little better at keeping surprises. Before everyone arrived, I covered it with a huge quilt and put it in a separate room, but she spotted it through the window when she came in and claims she knew what it was (and luckily was excited). lol

I had this queen bow from Silver Bella and knew she would be the perfect person to get it!

We didn't take as many people photos as I had wanted to, but my sweet sister Sara is modestly thrilled at her gift from mom...

While Suzy is relaxing after a hard morning of opening presents.

It was a Merry Christmas! I'll share more of my cool gifts as soon as I'm organized enough to photograph them! :)