Hanukkah stories and a couple more layouts

Hanukkah has come to an end.  We had eight fun-filled nights of family dinners, present-opening, candle-lighting, latke-eating and dreidel-spinning.  My girls said it was the "best Hanukkah ever."  That makes a mom happy!

My husband and I have a fun tradition that we started years ago.  Rather than buy each other big gifts for Hanukkah, we challenge each other to buy eight little gifts (one for each night of Hanukkah) -- and all of them have to be purchased at the 99¢ Only Store.  It's always a fun challenge to find gifts for each other that cost under a dollar.  Some of them are practical, some are meaningful, and others are just downright funny!

This year I bought Robert the following:
1.  A picture frame.  I put our family picture in it.
2.  A set of mini screwdrivers.  A guy can never have too many mini screwdrivers, right?  Plus I needed them for one of my recent craft projects.
3.  A box of Junior Mints (his favorite candy).
4.  A multi-pack of his favorite chewing gum.
5.  A book about science facts.
6.  A Springer Spaniel puppy calendar.  He had two beloved Springer Spaniels who have gone on to doggie heaven.
7.  A nose hair trimmer (hehehehehe).
8.  A combination flash light, level, and drill bits/screwdriver doo-hicky thingy (cool, huh?).

Robert bought me:
1.  A kitten calendar.  I love cats, so this was my favorite gift.
2.  A book light for late night reading 
3.  A multi-pack of purse-size kleenex packs.  My grandma always told me, a "lady" should always carry tissues in her purse. 
4.  A shower cap***
5.  A pair of wine glasses.  Surprisingly, they're very nice quality!  I think I'll go back to the 99¢ Store and get more of these wine glasses to complete the set.
6.  A jigsaw puzzle.  It has 500 pieces.  That should keep me busy for a while.
7.  A fly swatter.  Huh??? Because a girl can never have too many fly swatters??
8.  A necklace.  Actually, I bought this gift for myself at a local gift shop.  Halfway through Hanukkah Robert realized that he only got me 7 instead of 8 presents at the 99 Cents Store, so I volunteered to go pick up a little sumpin' sumpin' for myself to open on the last night of Hanukkah.  Very thoughtful of me, huh?

We always have a lot of laughs over our 99¢ Only Store gift exchange, and it doesn't break the bank!

***The shower cap was a reference to a laugh my family shared on our trip to Disneyland a few months ago.  The four of us went on Splash Mountain our first day there, and we all got soaked.  It was so much fun so I said I wanted to go on it again the next day.  Robert and the girls said they would go on it again, but only if I would sit in front -- the seat that gets the wettest.  I happily agreed . . . but I had planned ahead.   When I sat down in the front of the log with my family behind me,  I pulled out a plastic shower cap from the hotel and put it on.  There were a couple dozen people looking on, so it totally embarrassed my daughters -- something that gives me a twisted pleasure {insert evil laughter}.  I wore the shower cap the entire ride, but the rest of me still got completely soaked. If you've been on the ride, you know that no dinkie little shower cap isn't going to keep you dry.  But I digress . . .

Here are a couple more Hanukkah layouts I created for Creating Keepsakes magazine.  Here's a 2-pager featuring my girls opening their presents:

As seen in the December 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes.  Copyright Creative Crafts Group.  Posted with prior permission from the publisher. 

 
I made the little presents and gift bags out of chipboard pieces, paper scraps and trim:

I had the pleasure of playing with Faber-Castell products on this layout:

As seen in the December 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes.  Copyright Creative Crafts Group.  Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice and/or any other holiday you celebrated recently!!