Christmas 2011: Homemade and made in the USA - with a Wii

Inspired by the World News series of Made in America, I set out to make our holiday as made in America as possible.  What I quickly realized was that it is very much possible but requires a lot more time and effort.  And forget running out to Target or Walmart as made in the USA does not live on their shelves.

A good amount of shopping for the boys came from www.fatbraintoys.com.  The site allows you to search by gender, age and even country of origin which was a huge help. 

In addition to the bought toys I found a great blog tutorial on making a super hero cape out of a large men's t-shirt.  It looked pretty easy so I gave it a try!  I made a couple of modifications including using heat n' bond to adhere a second layer of fabric to help it stand up more.  I also found super hero t-shirts which allowed me to use the emblem from the front of the shirt as a decal on the back of the cape.  Score!

Wyatt's is Batman and Patrick's is Superman.

A close up of the Velcro closure neck.

Another blogger idea was homemade play doh.  I saved peanut butter jars for the last couple of months and made red, green and "white" play doh.  I embellished a bit by scenting it with peppermint essential oil and dressed up the uncolored doh by folding in glitter after it had cooled.  Add a couple of cookie cutters and voila!  Instant Christmas gift that the boys will love.  Here is a picture and the recipe:

Homemade Play Doh

2 T oil

Food coloring
1 Cup Flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
Essential oil (optional)

Add all ingredients to a saucepan. Cook over low heat until mixture is firm, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat, and set clay mixture on wax paper to cool.
Store in an airtight container.

A couple of surprises - pleasant and otherwise:

• PEZ is made in Connecticut.
• Hershey's giant solid kiss is made in MEXICO.  Hershey, PA?  Anyone?
• Shrinky Dinks are made in the USA and purchased at a Concord, NH small business toy store. 
• Piece Time Puzzles in Nottingham, NH makes their puzzles and will also make a custom photo puzzle with a little notice.  We uploaded a picture from our Cape vacation. 
• Wilson brags about their football line being made in OHIO.  From my research it appears that only the official NFL football is made in Ohio.  The Wilson football line in Walmart were all stamped as made in China.  (I've emailed the company directly as their website indicates that their products are all made in the USA.  I beg to differ.)
• Etsy.com is a wonderful resource!  The boys' 2011 Christmas ornaments are handmade by a woman in Oregon.
• Crayola paint is made in the USA.

And yes, the Wii is NOT made in the USA.  But that's OK... just about everything else I found is.  :-)