This year my husband and I decided to make all of our Christmas gifts. We are on Dave Ramsey’s Financial plan, and we know that Christmas is something that would always set us back a little bit, because we love giving gifts to the people we love! Instead of breaking the bank, we decided to spend considerably less, but to come up with some really cool personalized gifts for everyone.
At first I was a little bit nervous, because I didn’t want the gifts to be something that people would just toss in the drawer or not feel connected to. These gifts turned out to be very successful!!! I was so excited to give each person the gift that we had worked on, and everyone seemed to really enjoy them! Not only did this save us money, but I really think this made the Christmas season a little more special this year.
Jared, my husband, and I started working on these in about mid November. The great thing about making gifts for people is that the whole time you are working on them, you are thinking about the person you are making them for! And, it was something really fun that Jared and I could work on together.
So in the coming days and weeks, I will be sharing the gifts we made this year. This first gift is one that we made for my grandpa. He had always wanted a 1955 Chevy truck. While I wish I could afford the whole truck, I instead ordered an original tailgate. We came up with a wooden bench for outside, that uses the tailgate as the backrest of the bench.
This was actually the first thing I have built on my own! Jared works third shift, and he was sleeping one Sunday when I decided to make the wooden part of the bench. To my surprise, my measurements were correct, and it came together really great! Jared did the sanding and sealing, and attached the tailgate to the bench using heavy duty bolts. I had my mom secretly steal the license plate from my grandpa’s garage, which has his and my grandma’s initials on it. We used reflectors to simulate the look of tail lights.
My grandpa was so surprised!!! The look on his face was priceless and I will never forget it. He is so special to me, he has been helping me with anything that I wanted to attempt to do since I was a little girl. I think this is something sentimental he will enjoy for years to come!
❤Lindsay