Trucker Kids - They are Working on Their Christmas Gifts

Yes, I realize that it is only September and it's a little early to already be talking about Christmas.  I personally would like to get through Halloween and Thanksgiving before the stores start bombarding me with Christmas.  But making Christmas gifts can take time.
We believe that it is very important that our children experience the joy of giving for themselves.  So they have been making Christmas presents since Princess was 19 months old and Buddy was 15 months old.  When they are really little like that I do most of the work on the gift.  But as they become older they are doing more and more of the gift themselves.

• For Princess' 2nd Christmas we made an angel ornament.  She fingerpainted sheets of foam and we traced her hands and foot onto the foam, cutting out and gluing together with a ribbon.  (The upside down foot was the head and gown, the hands were the wings)
• Princess' 3rd Christmas we made cookies.
• Princess' 4th Christmas she loved jingle bells.  I cut out the cups of the egg carton and made some leaves.  She painted them and we put them together as a flower with a jingle bell in the center.  Buddy painted a sheet of foam and we made Christmas tree ornaments out of it.

This year we are going to turn their artwork into a calendar.   Here are a few samples of the art work they have already done for it.

They make the pictures.  Most of the ideas I base the pictures off of are found on my hand and footprint art pinterest board.  I also had them sign their names onto a separate sheet of paper.  Then I scanned it all into the computer.  I used http://www.picmonkey.com/ to create collages when necessary (they each made a snowflake pictures) and to add their signatures and pictures of them to each page.
There are several options for putting the calendar together.  Most stores with an online photo section, such as Walmart, have the option to create your own calendar.  The last time I did this I did everything myself and printed it out on card stock.  I bound it together with loose rings that I found at Staples.  This way takes a lot more time and work on my part.   It's still too early in the season for me to know which method I'm going to try to attempt this year.  But we are making significant progress on the first step.