Christmas 2013

Happy New Year! We had a really great month of December. It was super busy - someone had an event or activity almost every night of the month - but I wanted to make sure everything was enjoyable and not stressful. Therefore, some things were left to the side … baking didn't get done, cards waited until after our traveling, and I only did about 1/3 of the decorating I'd usually do around the house.



We spent a relaxing hour at the Home for the Holidays exhibit at our local science/historical museum. They have over 250 trees (we asked!) decorated and on display, it was really lovely. (Not pictured in photo: one child was being a bit of a pill that afternoon and another was doing a share of eye-rolling, but I took pictures and enjoyed myself anyway!)



We also didn't get around to making ornaments this year, but did spend one afternoon making cards for teachers. I would never say that Clark is an artsy-craftsy kid, but he does really get into drawing when we do projects like this.



Christmas Eve was Santa, pageants, musical performances, visiting with family.



And everyone had a favorite gift, all surprises, which made giving extra fun. We had a two-week long school break this year. I wished that we had the foresight and finances to go somewhere warm, but it was not meant to be. We spent one week away with family and the following week for the most part cozy at home, with a few extra fun activities along the way, including visits, meals, and games with good friends.

Snow tubing with cousins, which turned out to not the home-run event we thought it would be. Two out of three kids loved it, Mom & Dad did not (but we were good sports). 

Dora's chose her birthday activity: We spent New Year's Day at the Destiny USA mall, doing the ropes course, visiting the science museum/arcade, dinner of burgers and milkshakes, and a drive through Lights on the Lake.



Jeff and I split up, he got to watch the older kids go on crazy spinny simulator rides, while Clark and I did the more low-key activities. The arcade is a little much for the sensory kid. Happily, we had thought to bring earplugs and the exhibits were not very crowded.

Our days at home were COLD … I didn't leave the house for two days straight, leaving all the dog-walking and shoveling duties to Jeff. And the kids and I all needed a few lazy mornings and pajama days. This week has been a bit odd due to the weather - one day back to school, one day at home, a two-hour delay, one day back, then a half-day. Next week we'll really be back into the old routine.  

Christmas Ornaments 2012

Two fails and one ornament crafting success this year. The happy project: glitter bulb ornaments! I bought silver bulb ornaments 6 for $1.00 at the craft store, took them apart, and covered each ball with Mod Podge and sprinkled with glitter. (Crafty tip: a row of toothpicks stuck in Playdoh makes an excellent drying rack!) These got packaged in little clear plastic bags and included with our cookie trays. I think I may need to coat more things in glitter, because this was super fun. However ...

 ...glitter glass balls, not so great. I ended up with one keeper, but the other ones were a disaster, they turned out super streaky and clumpy. I've got 11 months to perfect this project for next year!

This was the kids' ornament craft ... not our best. We attempted to make these painted glass balls. It was not very easy nor did we get quite such spectacular results. First, it took a loooong time for the paint to work it's way around the whole surface (turns out, watching paint drip is NOT an exciting activity). Once they were totally coated, it took a LONG time for the paint to dry - like several days - and we had to keep rotating them to keep the paint from pooling in one place. The kids managed to get out just enough to give to godparents - and everyone was dutifully impressed with their work - but it was definitely not our favorite!

Grandma Crafts - Winter Trees

Christmas crafts! Yeah, I'm a bit behind on posting pics, but it's definitely still winter, so this is still timely. Similar to the leaf collage we did back in the fall, Grandma and I made winter tree pictures this time around.



Same idea: I painted 9x12 canvases light blue, planned out the tree sizes, printed outlines on the back of scrapbook paper, and cut them out. We decorated with star and snowflake paper punches. Grandma had so much fun with this that my aunt helped her decorate wooden frames for gifts in the same way.



Again, I planned out what size trees to fit in the space and printed them on the back of scrapbook paper.  Grandma stuck decorations to the painted frame with Mod Podge, followed by one more coat over everything to finish it off. These turned out so cute!

Baking Monday - Tree Cake Bites

Bonus Baking Monday today! I was too excited about these to wait until next week. Today's post inspired by these hi hat cupcakes (someday my pics will look that nice!) and Bakerella's tree pops.



These were the original design, and then I started playing around with other sprinkles for fun (and to save time ... )



Green sugar - I really like these.



Nonpareils - not my favorite.



Green jimmies - cute!!



A little forest of trees!



Inside: chocolate fudge cake and frosting. Mmmm.



Cute new mini cake stand - it makes me happy.



Merry Christmas!

Ornaments 2011

Amazingly, I have never made salt dough ornaments with my kids before this year. We've been spending Fridays with my grandma, and I was looking for a craft that we could all work on together a few weeks ago. This was a GREAT project - everyone loved it from sculpting to painting, and we ended up making lots and lots of ornaments.



Here they are, cooked and naked!



These are Clark's creations. He's usually not an arts & crafts kid, but he got really into this project, and did a fantastic job. Rudolph and the red heart are my favorites.



Dora's work. I love the details she added to the snowman - I never would have thought of adding a scarf. She made the zebra striped candy cane for a friend who likes zebras. I tried to paint a tie dye heart that turned out not so great - it ended up in the trash - but she took the idea for her own and made it fabulous!



Theo really took his time and did a great job, too - I love the multicolored star. His was the inspiration for my failed heart which then turned into Dora's terrific one! It was neat how we got ideas from each other, but everyone made them their own.



Grandma's sweet ornaments! I kept the tree for myself - so cute - and she took the others home to use for gifts.



And these are mine. I was quite pleased with the happy face bells, since I never know what to do with bells. The red cocoa mug is my favorite.



They look so cute all together. Fun project!!

Souvenirs

My mom has a tradition of buying Christmas ornaments as souvenirs whenever our family visits a new place. I try to do the same, but typically encounter the problem that 1) ornaments are not always easy to find and 2) they're usually really big and / or really ugly.

However ... guess what you can always find a LOT of? Keychains. Which makes no sense to me, because you really only need one, maybe two keychains, but people who collect Christmas ornaments have hundreds! Happily, a little work with a pair of pliers turns cute keychains in to adorable Christmas ornaments.



These are some of my favorite travel souvenirs - the Lego Santa and Disneyland figures are my new ones this year. Perfect!



I love miniature ornaments - they get displayed on our little tabletop tree.

Christmas Kindness

I put together this quick little project at the beginning of December, we've been having fun with it.



The jar has little slips of paper with daily assignments. The older kids and I pick one in the morning and talk about how we accomplished our task at the end of the day. Just a little nice something to do this month.



Download kindness list here.