Handmade Christmas for Family

It's not always easy getting the right gift for family members for Christmas, is it?  No matter how well you know your parents, your sister, and others, it still doesn't make it any easier to get the right gift.

I live several states away from my family, so this year I got everybody the same thing: a gift card to Red Lobster.  I figured they could all go out to dinner for an evening together, and I told Mom to leave an empty chair at the table for me.

But, somehow a gift card seemed a bit too cold.  So, I cross stitched up an ornament with a pocket on the back to hold the gift card, for each person.

Here are some photos of my ornament gift card holders:

See the little soldiers under the tree??

Luckily I had some 'candy cane' fabric in my stash! 

I was amazed that I had so many Christmas fabrics in my stash to compliment the cross stitched motifs on the front of the ornaments...

I did this matching pair of ornaments for Mom and Dad.

All in all, they didn't turn out too bad.  I fretted over the finishing for weeks, and suddenly it seemed so easy to finish them up.  It took me a few nights of fending off the cats (Probie) while I hand-stitched the blanket stitch around the edges of each ornament.

Mom says that everybody raved over their ornament.

I've got how many days til next Christmas?!?!?

Thanks for dropping by!!