Christmas Projects, Part II

More of our Christmas projects…

I made these little doll diapers for Raine. She likes to dress up stuffed animals as well as dolls but did not have any diapers. This is important with a real baby to mimic around the house. She mix and matches all her doll clothes and so at some point I’ll have to make different sizes. If anyone is interested I can upload a PDF pattern for these diapers. They are very basic and easy to make. I made them out of white flannel so they have the feel and look of real cloth diapers.

UPDATE: See the tutorial HERE.

Doll Diapers

We concentrated some effort this Christmas season on helping Raine to be a gracious receiver of gifts as well as learn the joy of GIVING. She is so well loved by all her family and they all go out of their way to give her thoughtful gifts…I did not want to have a repeat of her birthday when she just threw each present to the side as she spotted a new one to receive and open. So we practiced receiving gifts before Christmas as well as helped her decide what she wanted to make for ALL her family members. Here are a few of her projects:

Raine likes making up stories and so made a couple of original stories for her uncle Riley and Tyler.

I transcribed for her onto card-stock and then she painted the pages. We then folded the pages and I sewed them together 1/4 inch from the fold to make a sort of book binding.

“The Sea Program”: Once upon a time there was a ship and the waves came up and then everybody went under deck so they wouldn’t get all wet. Then there was even bigger splashes and bigger waves and so they went even under boat.

“The Princess Program”: Once upon a time there was a lovely princess with a lovely prince. It was a Christmas land. After that they got married. The princesses name was Ariel. The princes name was Henry. They lived happily ever after. The End.

She also made and decorated these cookies for another set of uncles. She really was excited to make her gifts and have me wrap them. When it came to them opening them she was very proud and excited. It was a nice change of pace from her opening presents one after the other. It also gave the adults more gifts to open which was fun.

As far as practicing gift receiving, I should tell you about the little game we played. I adapted our game from an idea I read about in a magazine,  I believe it was Family Fun Magazine, where we all took turns placing something strange into a Christmas tin and gifting it to each other. It was really funny watching Raine open the tin to find something horrific, like a snot sucker. For you see, the rules of the game insist that the receiver be excited about the gift, thank the gifter and tell them how it is either perfect for you or how you will use it. It gets pretty funny…and Raine is REALLY good at it. She is a drama queen. So at Christmas time everyone was pleased that EVERY gift Raine received was what she “always wanted!” They knew she was acting but it was good entertainment.

We made so many things this Christmas these blog entries can get so long. I think I’ll have to do a Part III next week. Until then! Thanks for reading and your encouragement.