It's Christmas : Time for the 4th Annual Family Homemade Gifts and Painting

It's that time of year again! We have cards, we have decorations, we have the tree, we have gifts, we have wrapping, we have baking. Lots to do. So why not add something else on top of that?

What do you give to the family that has everything? It is still fun to shop and get them gifts but I wanted to do something special. So, I started making homemade gifts to give as well, with a little help from Pinterest. Because what the heck, why not take this thing up a notch to total pressure cooker of insanity! In years past, I have made cranberry lime vodka, peppermint vodka, coffee bbq rub, and cheddar herb bread mix. Big fan of flavored vodkas. I highly suggest you try them. So easy and so good!

Now that we are all grown, we don't all live close. So I wanted to do something to symbolize that even though we are apart, we are our own people, and we have our own families, we are still part of a bigger family. So I decided to painting. I took smaller canvases, put them together into one large canvas, and painted one large painting. Then each person gets a piece of the whole.

Here is what I did this year and how this years painting turned out.

• First I made hot chocolate packets with marshmallows. I attached homemade Irish Cream. Perfect for opening presents Christmas Eve!

• Next I made homemade vanilla extract that has been brewing away for months. It smells divine!I want to guzzle it but I know it would taste awful by itself. I added fixings for my favorite cookie recipe and opened the super secret vault to includ a copy of my super secret best cookie ever recipe. 

• Finally, the painting. This year I used 6x6 canvases and painted 15 into one large painting. I was inspired by this little steampunk gears stencil I found a couple months ago and I think it works nicely with the family idea, all parts working together as one. Added some gears and rusty metal parts.

This is how they went out. 

I always have even more fun making these than shopping for the other gifts. And I hope the paintings mean more to my family than just something they have to hang when I come over. :)

Merry Christmas from the Maliasmark family! 

P.S. : The cat had to be photo-shopped in because she would not cooperate for the family picture. So for that she gets a Grinch hat in honor of my favorite Christmas movie!