It Was a HOMEMADE Christmas

Every few years, my family has made the rule: "It has to be homemade."...

Last Christmas we all enjoyed the "off year" of not making gifts & made it a pajama Christmas. (we all recieved a new pair of p.j.'s) We all loved that, so I think that most of us have agreed that every other year (odd #) should be: "HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS", and the off years (even #) should be: "PAJAMA CHRISTMAS".

Even though it takes so many hours & extra stress- homemade gifts mean so much more.

You know what I mean?



It was a perfect year for so many of us (everywhere) to spend less on gifts. I loved seeing how creative people were all season.

Here's some of my favorite HOMEMADE gifts & ideas. ... (that I took pictures of, anyway)


Man! How cute! - {chuckle, chuckle} I love how these turned out.

Super JoAnn's has these large letters that only cost about $9 each. (PLUS- if you use a 40% off or 50% off coupon ---- do the math! They are cheap.) The letters are fragile, because they are made of paper mache (sp?)- so let that be the warning.

I made my mom JOY in red & white polka dots to match her Christmas decor, & I also made my mother in-law JOY in red & sprinkled glitter over the letters. (Sorry- no picture- I forgot! I thought it turned out really cute!)

Someday I'll have to make myself some words.

I hope you can be inspired to make some fun words- if so- please share!

(Maybe we'll have to make these letters a PROJECT IDEA on She's Got It All!)


My sister, Shalae is super crafty, so creative & is such a perfectionist. Anything she does turns out amazing!
(Shalae actually made this for my mom for her birthday in November. She has been wanting to make this for a few years now... she even bought the frame a couple years ago!)
She e-mailed everyone in the family & asked us "What does Christmas mean to you, & what are some of your favorite memories of Christmas with our family?".
Then check out what she made:

I loved seeing (and eating) all of the homemade treats & sweets from neighbors & friends.
I saw these peppermint cookies on a magazine cover & I loved how festive they looked, so I made some, too. (P.S.- I liked the look better than the taste.)

Shalae spends many hours making these delish peppermint cookies for loved ones! (Some of the best cookies) Of course the presentation is so cute.

My mom also made cute cards & yummy sweets for friends & neighbors:

Here are some fun hair clips & jewelry that I made for Ellie.

OH, and I made Roxy some, too.

My crafy sister in-law, Crystal made Ellie this adorable black & purple tutu.....
I obviously need to take a better picture.

Elle couldn't wait to wear it to dance, so she put it on New Year's night & even fell asleep in it! Ellie (and I) love this tutu!
My mom got down & crafty.... and personal.

We all loved these! Her & my dad came up with "things they love" about each family. Each one was so different, so fun, & so sweet. She even made us matching cards. GO MOM!!

Oops, it's blurry... This was for my Grandma & Grandpa Sherwood.
My oldest sister, Auburn (who thinks she is NOT crafty- but she is) made each of us these adorable signs!

Aren't these so cute?

Shalae took many hours & made everyone really cute scrapbook pages.

I love it, since I never have time to scrapbook & I take lots of pictures.

I made these necklaces for my sisters & my mom. (by request.. *wink)

My youngest sister, Alisse (another sis who only thinks she is not crafty-but she is) spent lots of time putting together a calendar for each of us!

She had some help from Snapfish (?) & my mom. I am so glad to have this calendar! Every page has lots of differnent pictures of our whole family... June just happens to be The Cummards month of photos!

Another crafty sister in-law - Summer (& actually her husband, too- Jon) made us these letters & all the different symbols that make up the letter "O". HOME- they cut everything out from wood & painted them & everything else! Lots of work- & so fun for every season!

Ellie & Lance have their very own mini scrapbook of JUST the 2 of them, so I made a few more pages for them to add to it. - Nothing special... actually I made them last minute after midnight on Christmas Eve... I guess that was Christmas morning!

Speaking of Lance- my great husband also has some craftiness in him!! (he had some help from his mom & our sister in-law Syd.... who were inspired by Nie)

I love this gift.

For every simple reason.

I love the detailed frame, I love the black & white, I love how Lance & I can see that it is Ellie right away, I love how cute Elle is even in black & white-and her little profile... and so much more.

I put in on the wall-(for now)- and one day Lance was looking at it & I heard him chuckle & say "that is so cute, it really looks just like her".

I can not wait for Lance to make his profile & mine.

Another funny thing is that I asked Noah: "Noah, look- who is this?" Noah guessed: "Umm, you..??" I laughed & said: "no, it's Elle." Noah replied "Well, it looks just like you, too".... he continued to try to explain that Ellie looks like me, so it looks like both of us.... he was confusing himself- but I know what he meant.

Lance also helped me make this cupcake tank top for Elle Belle. (the iron-on was from JoAnn's)

He made it so fast. Ellie loves it, esp. since Lance "made it".

And... as mentioned in previous post, my awesome visiting teaching partner & friend, Shellene helped me make a life size Brad. ha ha!!

There were some other gifts that I forgot to take pictures of & I didn't mention- but I loved everything.

Thank you so much for all those who spent their time making their gifts a little extra special with their hands, hearts, or time. Everything was special!

Watch for upcoming PROJECT IDEAS!!!

If you have any projects, or crafty gifts that you would like to share- I would love to see & hear about them! Please send them to suzycummard@msn.com OR customerservice@shesgotitall.net !!!

OUR CHRISTMAS 2008

It started off as a "MARY CHRISTMAS" with our Grandma {Mary} Riggs & the Riggs cousins on Dec. 23rd.

We all had a great time.
(Wow, how our family has grown! We took a family picture of ALL of us before dinner, and it had been so many years since the last time that was done. I don't think anyone realized how many of us there were. Next year we'll all have to meet together somewhere larger.)

.......................................

Next thing we knew- it was CHRISTMAS EVE with the CUMMARDS!

We did all the traditional things that I love....
* We all prepared parts of the delish. meal
* The kids performed the nativity
(Missy Elliot was an ANGEL)

The little kids were so cute & so funny! Just look at their faces & their costumes. They loved it. I think that I took more pics of them than Elle- oops!

*We cuddled with the babies....

Ellie loved "taking care" of baby Presley .. and anyone else small that would let her love them for a minute or two.

* We exchanged gifts

Grandma Cheryl goes above & beyond when it comes to gifts.

This gift she was holding even made her emotional!

It was a 14" bronze statue of Hyrum & Joseph Smith (brothers). At the bottom she had "FRIENDS ARE GOOD BUT BROTHERS ARE BETTER" put on it. That is the Cummard family motto.

..............................................

After a long {sleepless} night it was CHRISTMAS MORNING!

When we came in the living room, SANTA had not only filled our stockings, but had brought Ellie a cute little baby doll with a note from him!

Ellie was so excited & kept telling me:

"Mom, look how cute this baby is. I love her!"

Right after we looked at our stockings, Noah came over to show us what Santa had brought him....

A NEW BIKE!!!

So we told Noah that we were going to count to see how fast he could ride his bike to the back yard.

Ellie found that SANTA HID A GIFT FOR HER IN THE BACKYARD:

YEP! A NEW BIKE!!!

I loved when she said:

"Mom, I thought Santa just brought me a baby.... but he brought me a bike, too!"
It was so cute, because she was so happy just having the baby.

Ellie was excited about everything that she opened... she is so easy to please! I LOVE IT!

Ellie picked out this cute pink & brown polka dot tie for Lance to start his new job! (congrats)

We may be a small family, but we always have so much fun, no matter what!

THANKS to our SECRET SANTA- whoever you were.

It made our Christmas this year! Thank-you, thank-you.

That afternoon, everyone came over to my parents. (including both sets 0f grandparents & the missionaries who live on their rec room)

What were we all totally looking forward to?

TALKING TO ELDER SHERWOOD IN BRAZIL!!!!!

My mom dialed so many times & she kept getting the busy signal... AHHH!!

But by the look on this face - obviously she finally heard his voice.

We put the phone on speaker and passed it around...

All of us were so excited to say hi to him, ask him some questions & just to hear his voice that we have not heard for almost 9 months!

The funniest things to most of us was how Brad's voice had changed because of his accent. Also, he was telling us that him & his companion wanted MacDonalds for lunch, because they were craving FOOD AMERICAN. All of started laughing & had to remind him that we say AMERICAN FOOD in America. All of has a great time listening to him around "the fire".... AKA- the Christmas music channel. (My grandpa Sherwood kept joking saying that his knees were starting to burn from the fire... but later I about died when my Grandma Riggs asked if it was really hot! ha ha- LOVE HER!)

While our parents finished up talking to Brad, we took the kids outside so they could show us some moves!

All 3 of the youngest grandkids got BIKES from SANTA! (Little did Santa know - Noah already caught on.. he has ditched those training wheels for good!)

Later on, we moved to the stockings!

(Can't wait for our (G-ma's) girls trip to Newport coming up!)

Next - we moved on to exchanging gifts.

Of course, we all exchanged some loves, too!

My mom & dad gave Ellie this Barbie computer- that she LOVES!!!

They gave Rox a pee-pee-on-the-potty-doll!!

SHE WAS IN LOVE as soon as she saw her.

Ahh, the fire just added the perfect touch.

I forgot to get out part of my dads present... but later look who joined us:

My {great} friend- Shellene Garner helped me put this together.

The only bad thing - ROXY IS SO AFRAID of it. She calls it "The Man." She was clinging to her mom the first time she saw it. She knows it's Brad, but it is a little bigger & it really isn't him.. kinda scary... I guess.

Roxy: "Mom, can you carry me down the hall, because The Man is in that room and I scared. I scared of The Man."

After presents, lunch & a couple naps.... Mamma Mia was enjoyed by a few.

Esp.- this miss!

She knows most of the songs & loves to dance to all of them.

That night we went back to Grandma Cheryls to see more family & see if Santa visited their houses, too.

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The day after Christmas:

Lance, Ellie, me, Shalae, Noah & my mom went and saw a cute movie:

Marley & Me was really cute.... but it hit too close to home.

I got my MAJORLE Dog on Christmas morning when I was in 6th grade. He was the best dog for our family. The way his life ended was so much like the movie- it brought back all those sad feelings. I miss our dog so much, but I love all the memories that our family & Majorle have.

I am still quite behind on my blogging- maybe I should set a goal about this?!?!

I hope everyone had a great

Christmas & New Year.

HAPPY 2009!