Handmade.

Every Christmas, Yangkyu and I send cards to all our friends and family, but for nieces and nephews and close friends with children, we also sent them Christmas themed books. Year after year we had so much fun picking out children's books we think parents would enjoy reading to their kids or budding readers who were eagerly reading on their own. One of our favorite books we got for little ones was a book called When Santa Turned Green, which teaches kids the importance of caring for our planet. 

One year we realized the book we sent to one of our nephews was way past his age group. He was reading much more complicated things. Oh boy. The kids were getting older and we had a hard time picking out young adult books. We were also losing track of which book we had sent to who. And so, we thought of a new way to send gifts to our close friends and family. And that came in the form of baked goods. 

That was last year. The year when I felt like I wasn't so afraid of the kitchen and my oven. I baked thumb print cookies and also oatmeal cookies, and while they exceeded my expectations in the taste department, mailing them was a different story. It just turned into one big worry fest -- Will the cookies go stale? Will they break en route? Will it turn out to be more expensive than I had planned? While I would've loved to roll up my sleeves and try out a new recipe this year, I turned to a different form of making.  

This year it was all about yarn. 

A couple of days ago, I finished crocheting 36 of these tiny Christmas trees. Aside from the green ones, they are all made from yarn left over from other projects. This feels even more special. It's like sharing a piece of my yarn memory from that specific project with whoever was getting them. 

I spent a chunk of yesterday wrapping them in tissue paper and twine and also added Jessica's holiday tags. {I used them last year, too!} The cards {we went with Minted again this year} are also done and everything is ready to be mailed and shipped. 

I hope everyone likes it. 

Dig back into your Christmas memory and tell me, what is the most meaningful gift you received? 

// You can download these holidays tags here. I used white card stock paper and printed them on my Canon Pixma MG3120. //