Christmas done in May!

With our trip home to Seattle just 2 weeks away, I started thinking about Christmas awhile ago. What? You may be asking, Christmas in May???... Well, I have a ginormse family and when I do the math, there are 24 people I usually buy for, just on that side, so I had to get creative... and fast! I normally bring presents home with me throughout the year or have my Mom & Brent take them back on the plane for me when they come to visit, to save on shipping- so it wasn't really a big thing to get Christmas started a week 1/2 ago.

Every year, I pick a theme, last year was home made crafts, this year, it is thriftyness! I was reorganizing my pantry awhile ago while trying to think of what to do for 24 people in 3 1/2 weeks, and as I was straightening up my rows & rows of shampoo, I thought, BINGO! That's it! I'm going to make care packages for everyone and fill them with fun, practical goodies and show them how much I spent on everything in the box. I typed up a little note encouraging them to save money this year, and that some things in life really are free- and off to the post office I went to collect a ton of boxes for my project. I combined the spouses/girlfriends this year and then did something similuar for the nieces, except put the items in cute little purses. It took several hours, but I finished, wrapped them all up and now they are ready to go!

My huge push to get it done was the baby coming at the beginning of October. I knew I would have a 2 month old at Christmas, which wasn't going to leave a lot of time to buy/make quality things for that many people, so I thought I'd just make it silly & practical this year. And each box only cost me.25 + tax!

Just wanted to give you an idea for Father's day, Birthday's or Christmas! Hope it could help someone!