I don’t know if it was because of the slower pace last year, or what, but Christmas 2020 ended up being a lot about handmade gifts.

Some I knew plenty about:

Like this quilt that I made for Ben.

Years ago, I had the patches half done when a number of unfortunate events resulted in water spilled on a few of the unfinished patches and magically erased the blue marking on them. So I shelved them in despair.

Long story short, my mom encouraged me to pull them out and with a few hours of concentration, I was back in business, with the deadline of Christmas 2020 looming ahead.

A neighbor machine quilted it for me, and I was pretty excited about Christmas.

Grammy made the boys each an activity book. She spent hours creating each page with love.

It was fun to watch their reactions. It’s definitely a little over their heads now, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they are “reading” away.

Aunt Jul gave Alexander one of her famous handmade bears. She puts a music box inside him, so he sings. I know Baby A will love it.

Another project I was slightly involved with is Ben’s railroad spike project.

I spent a fair amount of time on an old abandoned railroad last summer in quest of discarded spikes.

Pretty tickled the end results of his surprise for his nieces and nephews too 🥰

And the handmade gift that I knew nothing about:

Julia had my name in our family exchange and she made me a wood box out of a wooden bed. I’m so pleased with it 🥰

I’m also pleased with the little beavers inside the box, but I’m not allowed to keep them 😂

I love how handmade gifts reflect unique talents. And it’s pretty neat how much of that came out in Christmas 2020.

Wishing you the deep calm assurance that God is working ahead of us in 2021.

Happy New Year,

Kendra