DIY Eco-Gifts For The Long Lost Relative On Your Holiday List

Nothing evokes family like holiday gatherings. Why not gather your whole family together in a family tree? Creating a family tree can be a profound and thrilling journey into unknown territory. Once you get past the forest of names and information, the insightful findings make the effort personally rewarding. Plus, it's a great gift for that hard-to-buy-for relative.

DIY Family Tree

My Tree and Me creates hip and modern genealogy charts connecting the history of your family. I also like My Tree and Me because 1% of all of their profits are donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Photos: Jen O'Neill for My Tree And Me

DIY Eco-Gifts For The Kids On Your List

Kids learn by example from their parents (yes, I like to jump off swings too). The holidays are the time of year when everything is heightened, including the messages and traditions parents pass on to their children.

In the holiday craze, sometimes the important messages of the season get tossed out the window, only to be replaced by the, "I want..." and "Can I have..." vibe. I remember how the arrival of the massive Toys R Us catalog would send my kiddies into a "I want..." tizzy.

One gift you can never go wrong with is play dough. Little kids love its tactile squishiness. Not only does play dough provide hours of fun, it has the ability to improve hand strength, dexterity, and motor skills.

"Recent research also shows that using your fingers and hands actually stimulates your brain and increases the number of neural connections it makes." ~ Schloastic Magazine

For some fun brain exercise, why not make a batch of play dough for the little ones on your holiday list? There are lots of recipes for play dough, but this natural one I've been making with school children for years:

DIY Play Dough

What you need:

2 cups organic flour 2 cups warm water/apple juice 2 tablespoons organic coconut oil 2 tablespoons cream of tartar 1 cup organic sea salt Natural color: Beet Juice - Pink, Spinach Juice or Parsley Powder - Green, Carrot Juice or Paprika Powder - Orange, Turmeric Powder – Yellow

What to do:

1. Place ingredients, into a large pot over. 2. Cook on a low flame and mix. 3. Keep mixing until the consistency is heavy. 4. Put in bowl and let cool. 5. Knead the dough. 6. Add natural coloring

Here's the original post with more DIY eco-holiday gifts for kids.

First Snow Graffiti

This installation, check by Thomas Voorn via Design Milk portrays all that I love about winter (which is almost everything except shoveling).

This image danced across my computer screen as the flakes began to fall.

Dust of Snow ~ Robert Frost

The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued

DIY Eco-Gifts for The Handyperson On Your Holiday List

I am starting this post with the definition of "handy." Why? Because I posted over on Care2 about the semantics of gender words and "handy" was one of the hot words. Here's the definition: Handy - Skillful in using one's hands; manually adroit.

For those of you who are scratching your head and totally ready to ditch the whole post if I don't give you the meaning of "adroit," here it is:

Adroit - skillful or dexterous

OK, vocabulary lesson over. What can I say? Once a teacher, always a teacher.

We know that people who love to work with their hands have their fair share of aches and pains. Rejuvenating gifts like heat applications, lip balm and moisture cream are the perfect soothing gifts for all the "handy" people on your list.

DIY Heating Pad and Hand Moisturizer

Using an old pair of pants, a sewing machine and rice, Cathe Holden of Just Something I Made created this heating pad with pockets to tuck a book or reading glasses in. Here's her tutorial. Add a DIY holiday tag with heating instructions and include some DIY moisturizing hand cream and  a DIY lip balm and your gift is complete!

Note about the cartoon: This drawing was used with permission from New Yorker Cartoonist, Danny Shanahan. Danny's a good friend of mine and when my "handy" husband, Ted built a deck to surround our wood-fired hot tub, Danny gave us this cartoon. Danny and I also worked on a humor book together called, Some Delights of the Hudson Valley (I've got a short story included in the collection). Wow, this would make a fine non-DIY gift, don't you think?

Photo: Cathe Holden

DIY Gifts For The Gym Rat On Your Holiday List

We all tend to overindulge during the holidays. Did you know that most people pack on a lasting few pounds? My scale is already creeping up. Here's the official skinny on holiday weight gain and people of a certain age: "Most people don't ever lose the pound of weight they put on during the holidays, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Since the average weight gain during adulthood is about one to two pounds a year, that means much of midlife weight gain can be explained by holiday eating."

OK, enough of that nonsense. Let's find a fun way to keep the weight off. I like to encourage my workout enthusiasts to get a wintery workout - to embrace the crisp air and fresh snow by hitting the slopes, going ice-skating or just taking a walk in the woods.

When I was growing up my dad built an ice rink in our backyard each year. One of my fondest memories is of my hockey-player dad all bundled up on snowy evenings heading for the backdoor. He would announce that he was going out to "water the rink". Here is a post called, The Home Ice Advantage: Make An Eco-Skating Rink that I wrote about my experience of building an ice rink for my kids (you can catch a glimpse of them skating on the rink in the post).

The full holiday gift guide for the Gym Rat includes all the reasons to work out, how many calories you can burn off doing winter sports, how to make your own gym clothes (no, you can't always wear your pj's)
, and how to create your own gym equipment. Check it all out here.

The cartoon is used with permission from New Yorker cartoonist, Liza Donnelly. It's from her funny new book, When Do They Serve the Wine.