first up: the rest of lan's family's gifts. lan and robert's joint gift was a framed cross stitch of baby elephants, like the one in the rents' kitchen, along with a picture of ryan and long. in the middle i cross stitched "gege didi," or "big brother little brother" in chinese.
(admittedly, i 1st wrote out the characters on the mat with a sharpie. however, my chinese writing is so sketchy that it wrecked the look of the whole project and thus i cut out the writing and cross stitched the characters because, from previous attempts, i have learned that my stitched chinese is better than my written chinese. what kind of chinese person am i?) i cut my own mat from a "classic columns" posterboard, since the photo mats that michael's sold were gigantic. since the frame was huge and i didn't have much holiday wrapping paper, i wrapped the gift in the holiday comics from the washington post! applause for my cleverness! 
everyone got a cross stitched bookmark as well. an impala for ryan (to continue with the running theme), a killer whale for long (to continue with the swimming theme), and a koala for robert (not sure what theme this was... hehe). lan's is currently still under production. sorry, but this elf ran out of sleep! 
i also baked some chocolate chip, walnut, banana bread for the whole family. it came out so beautifully for once!
next, i made mom a second pair of pjs, this time in flannel for the winter. the print was super cute and had snowmen and penguins! 
here's a close up of the ribbon detail on the draw string of the pants: 
for the top, i used a matching cotton shirt i bought from the gap ages ago and wore maybe twice (don't worry, i don't always gift old clothes to people!) and added a kangaroo pocket again (my mom is a huge fan! she says they're perfect for storing her glasses!). up top i "freezer paper stenciled" a cute penguin icon that erin, my friend from durham (!), helped me find online, but with my own edits. i am the biggest fan of freezer paper stenciling these days!
barb, jimmy's gf, also got a pj set. now barb loves pigs. according to jimmy, she hopes to one day own a bunch of pigs and be a crazy pig lady. during my black friday joann's trip, i found 2/3's of a yard of flannel that had pigs, farmhouses, and oink! all over. just enough to make a pair of pj shorts! i had a hard time figuring out how long to make the inseam since barb is far leggier than i am, so i chose 4". (i would have chosen 3" for myself, as i am short and less modest. hehe)
for the top, i used another of the $1.99 target tshirts mentioned here and again ripped off all the sequins. using the scraps from the shorts, i added pleats down the middle of the tshirt to make a faux button placket and ruffles on both sides. jimmy found the top to be too bib-like, but HELLO! has he not seen the plethora of bib necklaces and bib-styled tops that have flooded the market these days? at least barb and mom were fans!
and now, for the big guns project of the season! i stole one of dad's old dress shirts on my trip home at thanksgiving and ripped out all the seams so i could use it as a pattern. i kept a list of the order in which each seam was ripped and then sewed the new fabric together in the opposite order. all the ends of the fabric were tucked into each other and hidden, thus making my replication of it more complicated than andrew's ducky shirt. however, it fit dad perfectly!! (note: he refused to change into dress pants for the modeling picture and thus the sweatpants that he was sporting made him look like he has the middle-aged bulge! ha!)
on the back, i had to add 2 long darts just like the ones my mom put into his old shirt (he's super skinny). i felt that the shirt was a bit long on him, but he claims that the longer length helps keep the shirt tucked in better. i think i'm going to make him more for his bday in march... shhhh!
and finally, mom begged me to bake something for dessert for new years, so after scavenging around the kitchen for ingredients, i made some oatmeal fruit cookies with vanilla chips. there was minimal sugar, of course, since dad is a health nut. they were shockingly tasty and i ate my fair share before i left ct! 
unfortunately, the holidays weren't all good news. my sewing machine has pooped out on me and won't sew zig zags anymore. right-justified sewing doesn't work either. i'm going to take it in for repairs tomorrow, so cross your fingers that it won't cost too much!stop by the actual blog to check out the layout (for all of you who get my email updates)! i ditched the lighthouse background, since lighthouses have nothing to do with crafting or bunnies. i'd love to put a cool banner up top, but that's just too techy for me. if someone wants to create one for me (ahem, jimmy!), i'd be thrilled! happy new year, everyone!
Your dad's shirt looks great! I can't believe you're even thinking about making another, though.
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