Homemade Christmas

This year we are choosing to have a Homemade Christmas.  Yes, it is motivated by budget, but truly, finding creative ways to spend little or no money is FUN!  Devin is making Christmas ornaments for people.  He and Mark came up with the great idea of slicing up last years Christmas tree.  We have a wood stove, so they had stored it on top of the woodpile to be burned later.  Now it will be part of our Christmas celebration forever.  I am not really showing many finished products, since some of the people who read this are on my list, but here is the beginnings of their project.  Should be fun to see what they come up with.

I am working on some paintings and crocheting.  Have a few other things under our belts that include granite and other fun stuff.  Here are some of the crotchet projects.

But the thing I found that I want to share with you I am really excited about.  With my children, some kind of electronic gift is what the two youngest really want, 10 and 18.  Well check this out, you may already know, but I didn't, Amazon has a free Kindle download for your PC.  Plus, they have a huge amount of free books for the program.  I just got the program and 15 books for the kids for FREE.  Not only that, I did not even touch on all the free books, they offer a ton.  Classics and new books, even games.  Some of the games will not download to the PC version, but hey, I am happy.  Here is what I suggest,  for family members you can put this on their computers without their knowledge and tell them on Christmas day in a card, or if you are giving as a gift to a college student, copy the program to a CD and include a word doc with written instructions.  It was super easy though.  I already had an account, so you may have to open one if you don't.  Click on the link below, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, on the right side on Amazon there is a BUY NOW WITH ONE CLICK button, you will see Get Kindle for PC below that.  Click there and follow the directions.  Then, just shop at the Kindle Book Store.  So great to get The Wizard of Oz, The Secret Garden and the Junglebook for free along with some new titles.  You can also buy titles for the PC version.  My children LOVE to read, so they are going to like this!  Okay, so today is Pay it Forward day, so here you go!  As for me, I downloaded a few titles I think I might enjoy, so I am taking a break and reading a little!  Enjoy!