Buy Nothing Christmas

So, my mom, dad and sister came in this weekend and we exchanged our “Buy Nothing” gifts.  The point of “Buy Nothing Christmas” is to make something or do a service instead of buying a generic, overpriced gift from the store.  If you have to buy supplies, it should not be more than $5.00.  We were trying to be creative and see what we could come up with.  It was very neat and interesting what my family gave me.

Melanie, my sister, made me an apron and hand painted “Kiss the Cook” on it.

My mom made me a devotional book.  It is very cool.  She took family devotions from our childhood that she saved and combined them with my first recital sheet music “Joy to the World” and family activities.

My other sister, Tiffany, who lives in Alaska made me a mini scrapbook out of dominoes.  It is too precious!  I absolutely love it!  When you open it up, it says: “Words that describe you”.  Sprinkled throughout are words that she attributes to me.

My dad made me DVD’s of our family vacations, childhood videos and a 1987 “Passion Play” our church used to do every Easter.  This is also a favorite gift.  I think they were all my “favorites”.  I am glad that my dad took the time to convert them from VHS to DVD and make me a copy for Vivian to watch.  I think Vivian will get a kick out of seeing her mommy at a young age.

I made all of the girls pretty whimsical pot holders with pretty fabric.  Vivian and I made the men a miniature box made out of an altoid tin.  Vivian painted the tins and I decoupaged them with different images and sayings.  On the inside we gave them a list of suggestions on how to use their little box.  Such as:  toothpick holder, really small pens, chinese fortune holder, stray screws, etc. 

Steven received a metal detector from my dad.  My dad either bought or received the metal detector as a gift many years ago.  After digging several holes in our yard, my dad was satisfied that there was not buried treasure located anywhere in the front or back of our property.  At that time, he put the metal detector up and never used it again.  My dad overheard Steven say he wanted one, so he dug it out of the attic and gave it to him for Christmas.  Well, it wasn’t very long before Steven and my dad disappeared and this is where we found them:

At first, we kinda came in and out of the house laughing at them. I fussed at them for digging holes in my yard and told them to make sure that they filled them back in.  They found many roofing nails and a twisted metal, but we stopped laughing when they found this:

It appears to be a circa 1920’s silver cosmetic case.  That’s when all of us got interested and pulled a chair out on the porch to give advice on where they needed to dig.  In fact, my dad and Steven laughed at us and took a picture of us gawking.  Here is a picture of us with our food and drinks with a front row seat watching the “Gold Digging”:

Even Vivian caught “Gold” fever.

We also found a 1929 wheat penny and an old marble.  The marble was a lucky find.  It just turned up in a clump of dirt they turned over.  Last time I checked, the metal detector is parked close to the door so I am sure that there are many more holes to come and many more roof nails to find.  🙂

All in all we enjoyed our Christmas.  We proved that you don’t have to spend a million dollars or buy the “perfect” gift in order to have a good Christmas.  We focused on what is really important.   I did not want Vivian to grow up thinking Christmas was all about getting presents and I did not want to feel pressured to buy a lot of “Stuff” just to keep up with the Jones’.  I hope everyone liked their gifts and I look forward to continuing this tradition for years to come.

THREE DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!

ANDREA