The 12 days of Christmas



This year has been so hectic for our family.  In January I started an accelerated full-time nursing program.  We are also expecting another precious little girl.  Needless to say, it has been a whirlwind of stress and emotion.  My husband handles it all so well.  In the past I always found little ways to show him how much I appreciate him and not just on special occasions.  This year (when he has helped the most) I feel like I really let that part of our relationship slide.  Well, it's Christmas time and we always exchange gifts but I thought this year I would do something really special for him.  It's the 12 days of Christmas.  I started on the 13th and each day I am giving him a little gift that corresponds to that number.  I also add a little tag that says "On the (whatever day it is??) day of Christmas, my true love gave to me..." with some goofy Christmas clipart.  For day one I give him one thing, day two I give him two things, day twelve I give him twelve things... you get it.  Some are nice gifts and some are really small but it has been a lot of fun so far trying to get these gifts to him without him catching me.

Oklahoma shirt from Unlabeled

  So, for day one I gave him one great T-shirt.  On the second day I gave him a pair of gloves.  Yesterday was the third day so I got him Battlefield 3 for the PS3.  I'm pretty sure I will regret that one but he was excited about it and that's what I was going for.  Apparently, you play this one with a squad so he has to get on when his buddies are online and they fight battles together.  Yeah... whatever.  I don't think it could be any worse than COD but we'll see.  I felt like he was gone for the first few weeks Modern Warfare came out but this last time he wasn't so bad.  I'm really thinking I should have given him a 3-pack of golf balls or something instead.  Oh well.  Anyway, it took him until last night to figure out what I was doing.  He asked, "So do I actually get a gift all 12 days?"  My answer? "If you're good!"  ;) 

Sometimes he works 24 hour shifts and he leaves before 5:30am. Ugghh! So I have to get his gift ready and put it somewhere he will see it in the morning but not the night before.  It has been a challenge. So far, I have just put them in his truck when he isn't paying attention (like when he is playing his stupid PS3.  Today is the fourth day so I gave him a 4-pack of snacks.  I used Starbucks frappaccino bottles, removed the labels, washed them really well and used scrapbook paper to cover the little carrier and add detail to the bottles.  I basically made a template for the box and just cut strips of paper to wrap around the bottles.  I also used a circle punch for the bottle tops.  Mine was 1.5" but I think they look just a little on the small side.  I secured everything with double-sided photo stickers that are used for scrapbooking. 

This is what I ended up with!  I think they're pretty cute.  I would have preferred the mocha frappaccino light bottles because the caps are blue but I don't think Nic would drink those.  I thought about posting a template but I'm really not that computer savvy.  Anyway, you could really fill them with anything but I chose puppy chow, caramel popcorn, trail mix (with cranberries- his fave) and a spicy chex party mix.  Now that I have all these snacks I'm thinking I probably should have filled all the bottles with the same thing. I could always take them to a party (or just eat the puppy chow myself- hmmmm...) What do you think?