Lots of crafting and homamade goodness this year... I went for the easier things that I could make more of rather than fewer more complicated items.
Peg bears for the youngest set.
Pattern was from One yard wonders, I made Owen & Grace a pair (and Alice too) a while ago, but decided to go with soft flannel for the winter group. Brian helped a ton by cutting out the stamp and cutting most of the fabric for me while I sewed... with the help cutting they went together much more quickly! Thanks! 
Like the stamp? 
Owen helped make the fabric that we put on the bear bags. I like the idea of going towards reusable fabric gift bags for at least family gift exchanges, 
but I am not all the way there yet... how do you know what sizes to make? 
Anyhow, they were cute, soft, stuffed with cotton from Knittin' kitten so they were a little more dense.Hand warmers!
I have been collecting felted sweaters and finally found something that I could use them for!
There was some wool, some cashmere wool blends (my favs) and some cashmere (a little stretchy... instead of for the kids, I ended up keeping those). Appliquéd on some felt stars/hearts/flowers and voila! For the wee tiniest set, I kept the fingers closed, but they can be snipped open as they get bigger.
Some little ornaments with some sculpty...(http://tinyhappy.typepad.com/tiny_happy/2010/11/cream-clay.html) I made the ones with leaves (the wee sage leaves turned out particularly nicely)
Owen used other household items and chose the hot pink :)
We used these on some baskets for teachers, family and friends... that I somehow failed to photograph... they were cute from http://ayumills.blogspot.com/2008/05/tutorial-fabric-basket.html (without the patchwork) and were filled with ornaments, homemade jam and homemade soap (also with a cute stamp I forgot to photograph... one of these days I'll post the homemade soap info... I need to keep track of the good recipe I finally found and what has worked and what I need to work on... but its nice stuff) and tissue holders (http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2/december2010/JCasaSMSProjectDec.pdf) in some They were fun to make and full of a mis-mash of things that I know how to make.
Brian and I finally got together and made some hula hoops based on the model and advice from the woman from whom I bought Owen's a few months ago...
for the same price we made 8 and probably could have made 10 in an evening. Anyhow... easy peasy and loads of fun for kids and grown-ups. We used 100 psi 3/4 inch tubing with some connection (male-male) bits purchased at home depot.
Sealed the connection with black electrical tape and then made a bunch of spirals with colored electrical tape. I think that the thicker stuff holds up substantially better than the thinner multipack I got.... and hear gaffers tape is really the way to go.
Owen is surprisingly good at this.
Mom also made really cute SANTA bingo cards that we used only barely, but also a great game for large groups of friendlies. We basically had a bingo style card each square had some fact... we had to go around and fill in the card by getting people to fill in one square that was true for them... that sounds confusing, but for example: one of the 25 squares would say "spent the night on a park bench" and we would have to ask everyone if they had done that... eventually you would find out that Uncle Steve spent the night on a park bench on a youthful trip to Europe after missing a train or something, and he would sign that square (each person can only sign one). Some of them were pretty targeted, some were random (turns out nobody really doesn't like chocolate). It was a fun way to chat with everyone!
