The kids in our house are all taken care of. They each get one gift from Dad & Mom, one from their siblings and one from the Jolly Old Man (Because, yes, the Polka Dot Family believes in Santa). I try to bust those out relatively early because my kids are my priority and if everyone else has to wait, so be it!

When we get to the rest of my family, things get a wee bit complicated. My Mother is one person I really enjoy giving gifts to. She has ALS and may not have many more holidays with us. She is in a wheelchair, with no motor function, no ability to speak (or eat) and now has a tracheostomy. As you can imagine, it isn’t easy getting a gift for her. My plan was simple (or so I thought). I was going to have the kids each do artwork with fabric paint on some thick white cotton fabric. I was then going to use pretty fabrics in between the artwork and make a quilt backed in some really soft, cozy fabric. Mom always has a blanket covering her and I thought this would be a nice (sentimental) gift.

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