Easiest Cheesiest (without actually being cheese) Neighbor Gifts

Last Christmas I was a Grumpy Grinch. I didn't take my kids to see Santa (they didn't deserve it). I didn't send out Christmas cards. I didn't give out gifts to our neighbors either.

I was determined to enjoy this Christmas season more and to do the things that I neglected last year. I have a stack of Christmas cards written out and addressed. If I actually go get stamps, my friends and family should receive them soon.

Today, I finally finished delivering our gifts to our neighbors.

After going over our list of families that we wanted to give gifts to (they teach our kids in Primary, or they have kids in our nursery, or we just like them--actually we like them all) we had a list of over 50 families and I'm quite sure we forgot some (if I forgot you, I'm so very sorry). Since we needed to give to so many people and our budget is tight and I always fail when I try to bake for other people, we brainstormed other fun gift options.

We came up with this easy, silly option:

We made them for Family Home Evening last week. I turned our family picture into a coloring page using Adobe Photoshop software; added a message and printed them out. Neal helped by punching holes in the card stock. Amberly cut the ribbons. And we tied a box of crayons to each card. (I planned ahead and bought the crayons back in August when Wal-mart had it's back-to-school sale, so I'm even cheaper than you thought.) Thomas, Lilly and Molly went with us while we walked around the neighborhood and left gifts on doorsteps.

Hopefully, we gave our neighbors a little chuckle as they colored our family picture. I've already seen some of the artwork. My little neighbor Max did a really good job.

We really do love our neighbors and friends. We are grateful to live in such a great place with such great people.