Here it is January 4th.  In our house, we celebrate the 12 days of Christmas. This means there is a gift for each child on each of the 12 days. No, we don’t wrap 36 presents in wrapping paper and trash the planet.  I might wrap a few for the first day…then I just re-use gift bags I find around the house. 

  Now, that sounds like a lot of presents. But we are by no means rich, and do not wish to turn our children into little consumers. We just spread the joy over 12 days. So some of the gifts are…socks, or personal care products or educational magazine subscriptions for example.  

  You get it..things that we would be buying anyway.  So tomorrow , the 5th, is the last day…this usually ends up being the day they actually get something they might have put on a wish list at some time. Then on the 6th comes 3 kings day.  The 3 kings of course do not bring anything that could be bought at a store.  They bring a more spiritual gift meant to last a little bit longer. 

  This year the girls are going to be recieving a hand-lettered family tree.  It took me awhile to figure it all out…with the 12 days of presents.    I got the idea for the family tree from Martha Stewart’s website.  Hers is white lettering on a brown background. I modified that idea by writing in black on a white sheet of paper, then cutting out the tree shape and pasting it to a piece of black scrapbooking paper.