It's about time ~

I can share more {but not all!} of the Christmas crafts and some pictures of the great Christmas snow we've experienced in Colorado.

As I mentioned before, there was a lot of new learning that went into the crafts this year, mostly involving sewing.

There were more aprons::
One for each of my siblings to accompany a family cookbook I put together. The aprons are made from tablecloths used for many years on our table.

The cookbook is full of family pictures and some of our favorite recipes. Although, with a look to the future, this cookbook is by no means comprehensive, leaving room for a full family cookbook series. I made the cookbooks using blurb.com. This was my second book from blurb, and I've loved the results both times. The software can take some time to get used to and does slow down if you try to do too many manipulations of your work, but I find that just quitting and restarting the program keep things running smoothly.

There were also some pj pants for C {I modeled them before they were wrapped}::


These were a great project {almost easier than the precision needed with the aprons!}, and I'm sure I'll make some more in the future ~ for everyone in the family. I finished these quickly and didn't reinforce the seams, which is really a necessity with pj pants. I had a lot of fun using rivets instead of button holes for the tie area. I used twill tape for the ties, unfortunately, I could only find it in white, so in the future, I might dye it to compliment the fabrics.

There are a few more presents that haven't been mentioned, but that just prolongs the season! I also haven't shared many of the crafty gifts & projects that I've started working on over the break.

In other news, we've had amazingly snowy trip so far. There have been flurries or full on storms at least every other day since we've been in Colorado. The skiing has been great, and we've even tried out some AT skis ~ they have "skins" on the bottom allowing you to go uphill and get a great workout. After a long hike/ski up the hill, you take off the skins and glide down!



A sign as we passed through Nevada {but really, where are the Casinos?}::


And of course, a Christmas road trip is not complete without dressing up the van with a chandelier and a wreath::