Last-second crafting

It's been a crazy week around here. I've been staying up late every night, working after my family goes to bed, preparing for tonight's big celebration--the annual end-of-the-year party for my kids, with a ceremony for the first child to "graduate" from my program. She's been with me since the beginning--three years now--and I wanted to do it up right. I put together slide shows of the past year, and of the graduate's 3 years. I wrote the annual letter to the families, summarizing our year's work, illustrated with scanned drawings from the children. I printed programs, illustrated with self portraits of all the kids. Together with the kids, I altered the words to Bev Bos' "I Remember When You Couldn't Do That" to sing to her. I wrote a "diploma" for her, describing many of the things she's accomplished in her years with us. I assembled a book from the children: each page had a photo of one of the children, their message for her, and a drawing from them. Anyway, 11:00 last night rolled around, and I still didn't have a gift for her. So I made this bag (literally at the eleventh hour), and tucked the book inside.

She loved it. Success.