Olive and S puppet theatre and holiday recap!

Brotherly love on Christmas morning at grandma's house.

Had to share this one because as my husband put it, Luke looks like he is about to poop a turd of happiness. Hahahaha.

Hi everyone! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. We did. It was nice -- and also so very tiring and hectic! We had things going on and people to see Friday, Saturday and all day Sunday, and then we were both back to work on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was spent sorting through my house, trying to get this disaster area in order. The aftermath of Christmas is always a mess, isn't it? Boxes, wrapping paper, twisty ties, toys everywhere. Thing must be put together. Old toys must be stored. New toys must find new homes. And of course, everything must be played with. It's all intense. I was still wearing my robe and PJs yesterday at 2 p.m. And I was pretty much fine with that.

The hectic-ness of the last two weeks did me in when it came to handmade gifts. I had so many plans for handmade gifts. I accomplished only two of them. The Olive and S puppet theatre for my boys and an apron for my mother-in-law. The apron was finished around midnight on Christmas Eve because I scraped my first totally finished apron and started over from scratch at about 10:30 p.m.. I do not recommend this. Stress! Hello, stress!

I'll share more about the apron fiasco later. For now, can I show you the finished puppet theatre?

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Of course, I know every little thing that is wrong with it (uneven bottom anyone?). But overall, I think it looks cute, and it's completely functional, and Luke took right to it.

If you plan to make this project, know that the instructions are great, but there are many many steps and this is something that takes hours. I'd guess I put at least 10 hours into this. Not a quick turnaround by any means. But I have a feeling we will be playing with this for years and years.

Did you give any handmade gifts this year? Did they get the reaction you hoped for?