extended family Christmas party

We had our extended family Christmas party this weekend. It was a blast!

We started out at the ice skating rink. {I know, not a frugal way to start a party} Let me explain that I have a change jar for just this outing. I use cash when grocery shopping, and all coins go into the jar as soon as I get home. {I never spend change} It really adds up. I took the jar to the bank, and it had about $60.00 in it. Perfect.

I had a pot of soup simmering on the stove, so after skating we all went to my house. Everyone brings a dish to share, so it was a wonderful feast.

After eating and visiting, we have a White Elephant gift exchange. It was just getting to be too expensive to buy gifts for everyone. This works out great and it is so much fun. We have a limit of $5 per gift and we always get the most bizarre items! There was even a pair of Captain America underwear, new of course, that was actually stolen! ha ha

I do make gifts for all of the nieces and nephews. This year it was a photo Rubiks Cube. I found the Rubiks Cubes at the dollar store. I then went through all of my photos to find 6 for each cube. I measured, cut them into 6 pieces and glued them to each square. They turned out awesome and the kids LOVED them! It cost about $1 per cube and a 1/2 hour per cube of my time. So easy and fun. I forgot to take pictures of them. Silly me! I'll try to get a pic and post it here soon.