What We Got Our Family For Christmas
How in the world has Christmas already come and gone? I feel like one minute we were putting up the tree, and the next we were ordering last minute gifts off of Amazon Prime for same day delivery. 😅
In case you didn't know, we have a HUGE family. I have four little sisters, Sean has both a brother and a sister, plus both sets of our parents ... with all of that family comes a whole lot of shopping! We get a little bit of a head start to avoid going broke this time of year 😂, especially because all but a few people have birthdays between November-December! The celebrations are literally never-ending until we hit the New Year. It's totally exhausting, but I secretly love the craziness this time of year brings. It's one big celebration after another! ✨
Putting together thoughtful gifts is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I get so excited to see everyone's reactions when they open what we got them, and I have to say, we did a pretty darn good job this year! Here's a little peek at what we got our family for Christmas this year. 🎄
The Parents
MOMMA
My mom is always one of my favorite people to shop for! We pretty much love all of the same artsy + boho stuff, so she's one of the easiest people on our list to buy for! She's not the over the top sentimental type, and with five daughters? It's probably a good thing! I have a feeling she'd lose her mind if she were. 😅
Although, my crazy talented sister Court did give her a gift that left her in tears this year! She painted her a big canvas that featured my mom in the center, and all of us girls with flower crowns around her ... It's seriously so beautiful!
This year we got her a ring that has her favorite phrase, "Be Still", engraved on it, a super big blanket from one of my favorite small businesses because she is ALWAYS freezing, a couple of signs for her craft room, a potted mini succulent, and this sweet compact mirror!
Sean actually picked out a gift specifically from him that was SO perfect. My mom has a slight Red Bull obsession so he ordered her one of those dash buttons from Amazon! Now she can reorder her sugar free Red Bull whenever her caffeine loving heart desires!
STEP-DAD
Y'all. If it's possible to be the HARDEST person to shop for on the face of this planet, my step-dad holds that title, hands down. He typically gets the same themes when it comes to gifts because we all take a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentally! Last year we got him a super cool BBQ gift crate from Man Crates which was PERFECT, but that made this year that much harder to come up with something equally as great.
All of the guys (my step-dad, Sean, and my sister's boyfriends) have been playing cards anytime we're all over at my parent's house, and he's a big bourbon lover, so we went for a cards / bourbon theme. We got him an automatic card shuffler (because it's everyone's least favorite job when they play), a couple decks of bourbon themed playing cards, and ice ball molds for when they break out the bourbon!
MOTHER-IN-LAW
So, you know how I mentioned that my mom isn't the super sentimental type? Well, my mother-in-law is a big enough sap for all of us combined! 😂 For real, she has a whole basement full of keepsakes from when Sean and his siblings were growing up!
Knowing this has always made giving her gifts super easy, and so much fun. When Sean and I started dating 8 years ago I started the tradition of giving her a calendar featuring photos from the year before ... this year it was pretty stocked full with photos of our Emmy girl, and there were definitely no complaints.
On top of the calendar this year, we also got her a charm bracelet. It has each of kid's initials (plus Em!), and each of their birthstones. We were so excited for her to open it that we ended up giving it to her like a week early this year! 🙈
FATHER-IN-LAW
Does anyone have any idea why the heck dads are so stinking hard to shop for!? Sean's dad isn't nearly as difficult to shop for as my step-dad, but hard enough to the point where we've gotten him a different version of the same Patagonia pullover a few years in a row. 😅
We knew that we needed to mix it up a bit this year, and when I was scrolling through Pinterest searching "gift guides for hard to shop for dads" I came across the PERFECT gift. He's a drummer, and plays drums at church every Sunday, and we stumbled upon a hoodie that says "Drums And Jesus" on it. Literally could not have designed a more perfect sweatshirt for him myself!
The Siblings
MY FOUR SISTERS
I could break down each of my sister's gifts into their own little category, but did you see the part where I mentioned I'm a big sister to four? Yeah, this post is already a novel so I figured I'd spare you. 😅
I did get a one group gift for each of my sisters (and myself!) this year that I was so excited about, and thankfully they all loved it, too! I found this shop on Etsy that hand stamps bangle bracelets, and I bought five that have each of our names on it going from oldest to youngest. They are seriously so perfect, and we've all been wearing them everyday since!
Along with the bracelets, I got them each one of these boho compact mirrors, a bath bomb, and then one gift each that was specific to them. I linked all of them below to you can check them out! ❤️
FUTURE BROTHER-IN-LAW
This was the first year that my oldest-little-sister Court's boyfriend was at our family Christmas since they moved in together over the summer, so that added one more guy to our list! Thankfully he and Sean have super similar interests, and he knew just what to get him! He started a YouTube channel earlier this year, and has been super into vlogging ever since. We got him an external mic that will block out wind noise, and will give him really good quality audio for his videos!
SISTER-IN-LAW
Jess pretty much loves all of the same things that I do ... she's in school for art and graphic design, and loves all things boho. My kind of girl! We got her a bath bomb set that has a bunch of relaxing scents to help her chill out from the stress of school, a handmade keychain from a gal I found on Etsy, and a potted mini fake succulent!
BROTHER-IN-LAW
Y'all, I said this about both of our dads, but I'm starting to sense a theme here. Guys in general are just impossible to shop for! Someone needs to write a book on this or something. We typically get Ricky something video game related, but to continue our theme of mixing things up this year, we found something totally different from anything we've given him before. He's super into medieval armored combat so we found him a couple of t-shirts from zazzle that he absolutely loved!
The Husband
Sean and I stopped exchanging gifts a while ago ... I don't know quite when we fell into that pattern, but when all of the money comes from the same place, and you have approximately five million people to shop for, it tends to take the pressure off things. Not to mention the fact that we typically just buy what we really want throughout the year rather than waiting for birthdays or Christmas. So romantic, y'all. 😂
This year I decided to go a little crazy because not only is his birthday six days before Christmas, but it's his first birthday and Christmas celebrating as a daddy!
He had been eyeing the Nintendo Switch since before Em was born ... And when I say eyeing, I mean we would legitimately walk by the video game aisle every time we were in Target to see if they were in stock, and the one time it was, he didn't even buy it! Sean's not big on spending money on himself so I've had this gift planned for a while. 😉 Plus, we've played Mario Kart almost every night since he got it so I'll call that a win in my book!
So, the Switch was his big gift, and then Emmy and I got him a sweet gift that we teamed up on. 😍 For those of you who don't know, my husband is an insanely talented musician. He can pick up any instrument, sing any song ... he has such a gift. Em and I got him an engraved wooden guitar pick box that has his initials on it, and then four handmade wooden guitar picks. Two of the picks have his initials on them, and then the other two say "I couldn't pick a better daddy. Love, Em", and "I will always pick you. Love, Chelc". MY HEART! 😭😍 He's so not a mushy kind of guy, but I thought that it was a super special first gift from his baby girl.
And that wraps up what we got our family for Christmas (pun totally intended 😉🎁)! Hopefully this post will serve as a little inspiration for what you can get your loved ones for Christmas next year! I personally think it'll be really fun to look back on this year after year to remember what we picked out for our family and why ... Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year! 🎉
SHOP MY OUTFIT