Nov. 3, 2009 - Christmas before you know it!

It’s November already and before you know it Christmas will be here!  I’m big on not rushing over Thanksgiving because I believe it’s important to focus on family and Thankfulness but I am also a big believer in preparing for Christmas.

If we don’t prepare for Christmas often we get sucked up in the busyness and lose the focus of Christ that we intend to have.  Because this is important to me I’d like to devote a blog entry each week from now until Christmas on preparing.  Some of the entries will include;

Gifts to make

Traditions to turn our focus to Christ

Foods

Planning

Decorations

Books

Thoughts

Stories

Simplifying

And more!

To get an idea of some of the past things I’ve covered at Christmas click on the Christmas category at the right.

A couple of my favorite from past years are listed below.

Jesus Stocking (not much to the entry but it’s been such a profound thing for our family)

Advent (two entries, love the picture on the older one, it remains one of my favorite Christmas pictures) 1st one, 2nd one

Funny Christmas Eve story (this really happened and though not so funny at the time it is now!)

Holiday Candies (my favorite quick thing to do with younger kids!)

So enjoy and hope you can stop back for more!  Be sure to leave your comments with your thoughts or to share your ideas as we go along!

Dec. 26, 2008 - A funny thing happened on the way to Christmas...

Christmas Eve did not start out as a day of peace and joy to usher in our festive day so here is my attempt to give you a little laugh.  You either have to laugh or cry right?  Let’s chose laughter.

We had a pleasant morning.  I started by making the cheese cake for dinner after church.  That done and in the fridge I cut out Ariel’s nightgown from material she’d picked out on the 23^rd.  I had finished Lexie’s the night before and luckily I made no sewing mistakes so in about an hour had that done.  Now, to just tidy up the house before my husband came home at one, oh, and I better pull food from the freezer.

I looked in my well stocked freezer and chose ham and potato soup for lunch on Christmas Eve, Chuck roast for dinner, Sausage balls and Egg Sonata for Christmas morning.  So far everything is going well.  I put the freezer bag with the soup in the microwave to defrost, the roast in the crock pot and added a few potato’s (it’s froze with the onion and carrots already), and left the breakfast items on the table to thaw a little before thawing the rest of the way in the fridge.

Now in tidying up I noticed I forgot to make the clock for my Mom and Dad, no big deal I can do that real quick.  I just pulled out my supplies to the school table, chose some pictures and embellishments, stamped some numbers and had it done.  Next, I wrapped in up real quick and then I was just starting to pick up my mess when Chris came home from work….

So far we’ve got…

Twas the morning before Christmas and all through the home

much was accomplished before we had to roam

The presents were all wrapped and made with much care

in hopes that they please everyone there

The children were bouncing and excited that day

They couldn’t wait to open gifts so they could play

And mama was pleased her pantry was full

just choosing the meals made her heart glow

When at the door came a bustling in

a wonderful husband who had worked without end,

Okay, so here our story resumes…

Apparently he’d been home for awhile but in the melting mush of our driveway he’d been stuck.  The boys got coats and boots to go help dig him out.  While they were doing that he put on the kitchen table gifts and goodies he’d received from friends at work.  While in the kitchen I figured I better get the soup to cooking .  I had transferred it from the freezer bag to a large microwavable bowl a short time ago while continuing to defrost.  But upon looking at the microwave something was amiss. 

The time on the microwave was out and the light on my under the cabinet tv/radio underneath the microwave self was not glowing either.  As I started to move all the Tupperware containers of cookies I had stacked under I found liquid, lots of liquid.  It was all over the containers, dripping from the TV and dripping from the shelf.  The bottom of the cookbooks which live next to the microwave on the shelf were wet too.  It must be coming from the microwave yet when I open the door I see no liquid until I lift the dry glass plate.  It’s FULL of liquid! 

I still have no idea how it happened?  Must have been a leak in the bag, but how it got only under the glass plate I have no idea!  A fluke event if there ever was one!

So at this point while I’m cleaning up the mess, removing the microwave from the shelf, trying to dry the TV, which I can’t get unmounted, Chris goes outside to work on getting the car unstuck.

So far the outlet’s are not working, the microwave’s not working and the TV’s not working.  Guess we should have asked for a microwave for Christmas!  We still have to have lunch so I now take out a pan and put the still partially frozen soup in a pan on the stove on low.

First, I unplug the damaged stuff and trip the breaker.  Outlets are now working, yeah!  Oh, and yes the crock pot with our roast for dinner was plugged in there too but it was not all the way cold so dinner’s still okay!  Try the TV, yes, it now seems to be working too!  Thank you Lord!  Now the microwave, nope, trips the outlet again, ugh. 

At this point I figure maybe I better go check on the boys and see if they need me to drive while they push.  I thought by this time they’d have made some progress.

I do try and drive.  We make it a couple feet and get stuck again.  The slush is so thick and they’ve shoveled some but this is going to take hours.  After a couple tries Daddy goes in the house.  The boys and I continue working.

He comes back out after a bit.  What were you cooking he asks?  The house smelled all smoky the minute he walked in, oh, no the soup!  The girls were in the house they did stir it once but didn’t know they were supposed to keep stirring it.  I hadn’t planed on being out that long and totally forgot!  Great, Christmas Eve lunch is now ruined and no microwave to defrost anything else fast!

Well we got the car up the driveway (we have a long driveway) and we did eat the soup anyway.  Because it wasn’t stirred most of the scorch was on the bottom.  It was just slightly smoky.  I told the girls some people buy smoke flavoring, we got ours free!  The bread from the bread maker was still good.  So the only long term damage was the microwave, it’s still out.

I’m happy to report the rest of the day went better we made it to and from church Christmas Eve safely.  The roast and cheesecake were great for dinner and driving to mom’s on Christmas day went well too!  I had pulled the breakfast things for Christmas in plenty of time so we didn’t even need the microwave to defrost.  Now I do have to admit we did miss the microwave this morning for reheating the Christmas morning leftovers for today!

So the rest of the story…

At his side I came for a kiss

only to find out something was amiss

The window showed the old mini-van

stuck in the driveway, which was not in the plan

With the mush and the slush I knew in an instance,

it would require pushing of some great distance,

so more rapid than phoning I called them by name

Now Logan, Now Taylor, go help your Dad!

You better go quick before he gets mad!

So out to the driveway they flew like a flash,

(okay, maybe flew is not really what happened!)

They went to work shoveling without a clash.

And then, in a twinkling, a cry from the door

Something was burning, our soup was no more

As I went in the house the smell greeted my nose

I must light some candles to make the smell rose

How the dead microwave twinkled, how the TV looked Merry

How the cookies were saved even the chocolate cherry

Our mouths ate the soup as white as the snow

and later untied all the bows

We sprang to our mini van now freed and gave a cheer

and we all proclaimed Christmas is here 

As we went to bed that night we exclaimed,

“Happy Christmas to all and to all a good-night!”

Dec. 24, 2008 - Thoughts to Jesus

Happy Birthday Jesus!  We've finished our Birthday party to Jesus which was tons of fun.  Now, it's time to turn thoughts to our Jesus letter's which go in our Jesus stocking.  What to say this year?  Tonight we'll do our last advent candle and Lord willing go to the Christmas eve service at church (if the weather holds out!) 

 *see blog category at right on Christmas for more on Jesus birthday party and Jesus stocking.

So what do you want to say to Jesus on His birthday?  Have you pondered that? 

My first thoughts go always to Christmas and the reason for the season.  I am so thankful for this gift so long ago that makes this whole thing possible.  So my letter always includes thanks for Jesus being willing to set aside glory to be born as a baby to make a way for us to have eternal fellowship with God in heaven.  Try as I might there is no way to say this in some magnificent way that will do justice to the gift so a humble thank you has to suffice.

Next, what has God done for you this year?  This year my thoughts went to mercy and provision, some years it has been strength and healing or something else.   But this year I believe God has been merciful to us not only as a family but as a nation and I'm thankful.  I'm also thankful for his provision and for his gifting that allows my husband and myself to provide for this family.

Which brings me to my next thoughts, my family.  My first thought is Chris.  I'm so thankful that he is willing to work everyday and allow us to raise our children at home where they do belong.  I'm thankful that my children want to be homeschooled and want to have pure relationships to prepare them for the best marriage and family they can have. Also, I have to thank God for the way he's gifted and enabled me to be able to have the school to can, home cook, sew and a multitude of other things that help us live on one income.  Do I ever take the time to thank him for that or just take it for granted?

In the season of giving gifts I also think of what I can give my King.  He has my heart but what can we give the God of the universe?  Again, nothing we can say or give can compare but yet I still want to make a humble attempt to please the Lord.  Some years I have a specific thing in mind, like a gift of service or ministry but this year my thoughts went to that as well as the way I live in general.

This year my thoughts went to Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the father.

It's not a new verse and it's not that I don't usually try to live it but this year I want to really be mindful of it and try to do all in the name of Jesus and giving thanks to him in everything I do.  I also want to live and  learn it with my kids.  I want them to catch it in a big way.  So that is what I'm giving and I'm asking the Lord to help me with that gift.

Is that a weird idea?  I don't think so?  You know you might give a gift to anyone that they need help with.  For instance my brother got a model airplane when he was young but he spent hours getting help from my Grandpa to get it to run right and LEARNING how to fly it.  When I was younger I got a sewing machine but I got a lot of help especially from my Aunt Sue who had a lot of SKILL in sewing to use my gift.  So no I don't think it's weird.  In fact I think any gift you give like that will create far more memories and lasting skill then any fancy thing you could do all on your own. 

But does God need help with the gift?  No we but we do.  Has your child ever given you anything that was really more for them?  Then you had to help them to complete it?  Hmmm....I bet you can think of something.  Did you hate that gift?  No, again it created time and memories together and you appreciated their thought.

So maybe that kind of gift is really the best kind of all?

What are you saying to Jesus this year?  What are you giving Jesus this year? Have a Merry Christmas and have fun celebrating with your family but I pray for you that you find some time in the glow of the Christmas tree to ponder these things in your heart.

Gina

Dec. 20, 2008 - Cookie Making day

This last week has been cookie time at our house.  Over the years I have scaled way back on the cookie making in hopes to cut down on calories.  (Don’t even ask how this has worked for us! grin…)  But we narrowed our list this year to these favorites;

1. Peanut Butter and Chocolate kiss cookies (Chris’s favorite)

2. Chocolate Maraschino Cherry cookies (my favorite)

3. Cream Cheese cutout cookies (best cook-out type I’ve ever made)

4. Russian Tea cakes (my grandpa’s favorite)

5. Turtles (for my Dad, okay, it’s a candy not a cookie)

6. Cherry Chocolate cookie (new one we’re trying this year, they’re yummy!)

7. Seven layer bars (an old favorite Chris requested that his mom used to make)

 8. Peanut Butter balls

Notice no favorites for the kids…they like them all!

So what have you baked this year? 

Here are a few pictures to get you in the mood!

Most of the recipes you probably all have in your books but I’ll give you the Chocolate Maraschino Cherry cookies since they ARE MY favorite and they are a bit different.  Don’t worry, it sounds like a complicated recipe but it’s really easy and makes a very nice presentation.

Chocolate Cherry Cookies (modified from a Pillsbury recipe)

½ cup sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

1 t. vanilla

1 egg yolk

1 ½ cups flour

¼ cup cocoa

Preheat oven to 375.  Mix  the first 4 ingredients till light and fluffy.  Add the flour and cocoa till well mixed.  Shape into small 1 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Make a small indentation in the center of each cookie with your finger.  Bake 7-9 minutes till set, cool completely on rack.

For filling- While baking the cookie combine ¼ cup butter, 1 cup powdered sugar and 1 T. almond extract.  Once cookies are cool put approximately ½ t. into the indentation of each cookie.

Top with- a marschino cherry (with or without stems, up to you) placed in the center of the filling.  Melt ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and add 1 t. of oil.  Use the tines of a fork to drizzle over the cookies.

Dec. 4, 2008 - Advent

How are you doing preparing and anticipating Christmas? 

One of the traditions my family has liked to do over the years is Advent.  You can find many sites with lots of information and even various books and resources of which I have a few.  We've been doing it for many years however so we tend to do our own thing, sometimes traditional, sometimes different.

If you've never done advent before check out this blog I did last year complete with a picture of my kids (a few years younger) by our advent candle.

This year we have chosen to let the kids each do a week.  They will chose what scripture we read and what song we sing and anything else they want to say or do.  I also found this devotional that Homeward bound is sending out this December which looks like it's focused on Angels that we may fill in with here and there.  Another interesting angle I was thinking about was focusing on the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled (which would be a good reminder since we covered this in History a while ago!)  Here's a chart from our history work which could be a good starting point.

 Now, in case you think you're too late (the first Sunday of Advent was last Sunday) don't worry.  We haven't actually lit our first candle yet.  Remember, the point is to focus on Christ and his coming, not to get  hung up on doing it on Sunday.  We're planning on lighting our first candle tonight.  My youngest daughter is doing this candle.  After that we'll probably try to hit Sunday's but if one candle gets lit on Monday or Tuesday, no big deal.

So what are you doing to focus on Christ and prepare for CHRISTmas?

Gina

Dec. 31, 2007 - A Christmas Gift

 This is not my story but that of my friend Jean.  She told me I could share it with you because it is so special.  I pray I can do it justice. 

Two years ago November my friend Jeans’ mother passed away. This was a very difficult time for her.  Her mom had been in a nursing home for some time and Jean had a hard time keeping up with her family and still finding time to spend with her mom at the home.  Her grown daughters and their children visited the nursing home and Jean did as often as she could.  Her son Daniel, however, who was much younger than his sisters who are all married, but older than his young nieces and nephews was just not comfortable there.  He was about 10-12 during the time she was there and it just made him sad to see her that way.  Because of this, Jean didn’t make him go often.

This Christmas Jean was missing her mom and trying to put together some memories of her mother.  She found pictures of all her children and grandchildren with her mom except one.  Everywhere she could think of she searched for a picture of Daniel with his Grandma.  Desperate, she started asking Aunts, friends, anyone who might have a picture of Daniel with his Grandma.  It seemed no one had taken a picture.  How could she have let this happen?  She felt sick about it!

She cried out to the Lord.  She prayed and she cried. 

Her ex-sister in law had remained friends with Jean over the years and had been one of the people Jean had asked about the picture.  Her mother too was in the nursing home where Jean’s mom had resided. 

While she was at the nursing home just before Christmas and aid came into her mom’s room.  She had some things she was carrying.  One the back of one of the things in the aids arms was a name written, the name of Jeans’ mom (who had been her mother-in-law.)  She asked the aid what it was.  She replied just some things of former residents.  When she asked if she could see it as it was her former mother-in-law she handed it over and low and behold it was a picture.

It was a picture of Jean, Daniel and her mom taken at a fun fair some years back at the nursing home!   She asked if she could have it.  The aid hesitated and said she wasn’t really supposed to but ended up giving it to her.

This was Jean’s Christmas gift from Heaven this year!  Thank you Jesus for making Jean’s Christmas so special!

Dec. 25, 2007 - Five days of Christmas Fun!

We always try to end school a week at least before Christmas so we have time for some fun stuff.  Last year we were all sick and missed out on much of our usual fun stuff so I’m determined this year it will happen!  Thought I’d post some of my planning ahead in case anyone else needs some ideas for Christmas fun!  This entry will stay at the top till Christmas so if you've already read it go ahead and scroll down.

For us right before Christmas is an easy time so I guess that would be my tip #1, take the week off!  Plan to finish your school so you have a whole week before Christmas off.  As much as you can, get rid of all your “activities” as well.  This free’s you up for fun!  For our family, concerts are the week before so all our band’s, orchestra’s and lessons are over till after January.  Awana for church is over till January and our history  co-op is on break too!

So  for the next five entries (12/6-11) I’ll let you know what we are planning for our 5 school days off this year!  Please comment and let me know what your plans are! Oh, and I forgot to add this originally but this is part of a party hosted by Lilliput station so check it out.  There are tons of people contributing recipes, crafts, lapbooks, notebook pages etc...

Gina

Dec. 20, 2007 - Christmas week fun!

Okay, we are now enjoying our week off school before Christmas.  To go with our Candy making theme we toured (and sampled) The South Bend Chocolate Company.  They have a video tour here.    We had some of our friends go with us which made it even more fun!  I also discovered chocolate covered dried blueberries.  They are so good!

We had our birthday party for Jesus yesterday which was a big hit.  We ended up with 8 families and a total of 26 kids (I think) and 8 moms!  It actually worked out very well.  We had games going on at the kitchen table, sometimes 2 at the dinning room table, one at the school table downstairs and one around the coffee table in the family room.  Yes, we are blessed to have a good sized house!  It comes in handy!  We have three bags of stuff collected for the Pregnancy Care center and my husband and I are hoping to drop them off tonight (see this entry for more info!)  My girls ended up making some foam snowman ornaments for each family too!  They love to do crafts.

Today, we're caroling at the nursing home with our homeschool choir and just hanging out!  We may make some cookies later....  We'll see.   Hope you are able to take some time and do some fun things!

Gina

Dec. 18, 2007 - Jesus stocking

This is a newer tradition we've added in just the last few years but it has become so meaningful it has stayed.  I can't take credit for the idea, it was my wonderful husbands'!  As far as I know it was original with him but do feel free to copy.

The week before Christmas we each write a letter to Jesus and place it in a Jesus stocking.  On Christmas morning before we open the gifts we read our letters to Jesus.  After Christmas I put them in our scrapbook with our Christmas pictures.  Okay, that's the simple instructions but oh, how words cannot express how meaningful!!!

The kids letters (and pictures) are so cute.  It's amazing to see what's on their mind and how they think.  They are usually simple but profound.   My husbands letters have brought tears to my eyes.  He shares his thanks God for many things including things about each of the family members.  In 2005 his thanks to God for healing and for a second chance, it was truly amazing.  Much of what we write is personal and though a part of me wants to share the exact words it just wouldn't come across the same to you. 

I hope you'll give it a try.  We did make a stocking for Jesus and found a cross stocking holder but that's not really the main point.  However it works for you try writing a "Happy Birthday letter" to Jesus this year!

Dec. 11, 2007 - Making memories

On the 5^th day of Christmas fun…

We’re storing our memories.  This one actually can last throughout your Christmas week.  I’ve created a booklet that you could use it by itself or attach it to a lapbook and make it part of a bigger Christmas project. 

Your child can either draw picture or you can insert photo’s in the boxes on each page (or some of both!)  On the lines they can record their thoughts from this Christmas.  Won’t this be a fun little book to look back on in years to come! 

To put the booklet together simply fold each individual page in half.  Stack them in any order you chose.  Make extra copies of pages you want more of (maybe you want to highlight several ornaments?) and feel free to leave out any that don’t apply.  Once you have them stacked, glue stick the blank sides together then take the cover and put it around your stack like a jacket.  Now staple the left side to hold your pages together.

Feel free to share this idea with friends.  I just ask that you link them to this blog article to get their file.  I also plan on creating a lower elementary version (with the larger writing lines) but did not get a chance yet.  Check back later this week and I’ll probably have it added to this blog.  Okay, got it done...here it is!

If you have ideas for other pages let me know.  Who knows maybe this will become an annual thing and we can add more next year!

Gina

Dec. 10, 2007 - A birthday Party for Jesus!

On the fourth day of Christmas fun…

We’re having a party!  A birthday party that is.  When my kids were younger (like preschool, lower elementary and a baby or two…) we did a regular Birthday party for Jesus!  We invited a few of their friends, sang happy birthday, had cake and “played” like at a regular birthday party.

We acted out the nativity story using a plastic set.  Then we read a book called, Santa, Are you for Real,  and we made a craft.  There are so many neat nativity craft type kits at places like oriental trading I would do that but that year we made our own.  All we did was glue straw (left over from Thanksgiving decorations, those little bales) to a small piece of cardboard (probably about 2 X4 inches.)  Then we took a small piece of blue fabric and wrapped it around some fiber stuffing to make a “baby”.  Take a hole punch to make a hole in the cardboard and attach a string to hang.

For gifts we asked that each guest bring something to donate to our local pregnancy care center.  I thought that was a great idea because it would then be a baby gift and we were celebrating the birth of baby Jesus.  You could also do canned goods for food pantries or something similar.

This year my kids are older so as a treat for them more than anything else we’re planning a different kind of birthday party.  Jesus spent a lot of his life fellowshipping with people and we want to do that as well.  We’re planning on letting the kids invited ALL their friends for an afternoon of Games and Birthday cake for Jesus.   Here’s our invitation.

I may be crazy but I think it will be fun!  We haven’t totaled the number of kids that could show up yet but it’s sure to be a lot!   With four kids I figure there’s no better way to do it then all in one day! 

So I hope you’ll consider planning a birthday party for Jesus!

Dec. 8, 2007 - Ornament making

On the third day of Christmas fun…

We’re making gift toppers or tree ornaments.  Again, I like things that aren’t all day projects.  So here’s a couple of ideas…

Using salt dough, in probably an hour or less you can turn out a batch of really cute ornaments to either hang on your tree or attach to the tags of presents.  It really adds a nice touch to use them on your gifts.  Just tie them on with your bow or tag.

To make the dough mix 2 cups flour, ¾ cups of water and ½ cup salt.  We usually air dry them overnight.  Or you can bake them at 225 checking every 30 minutes or so till dry.  The cookie cutter type won’t take very long the fatter ones like the snowman below could take 1 ½ or 2 hours.

For this heart (or any shape you have a cookie cutter for) simply roll out your salt dough with a rolling pin.  When my kids were little they had little ones from their Tupperware sets they used.  By the way, I like to roll out on wax paper, it saves a big mess.  Use flour if you need to just like rolling out pie crust or anything else.  Just press out your basic shapes.

Next we made the flowers.  To do those you’ll need to color a little bit of your dough pink and green (or whatever colors you chose) with food coloring.  Just mix it in a separate bowl.  Roll out a small amount of the pink.  Take a butter knife and cut out long skinny (about ¼ inch) strips.  Start at one end and roll till you get the size you want.  Pinch one edge of the roll which makes the other edge “fan” out slightly to form your “bud”.  For the green leaves simply make a strip like you did for the bud and then cut the size piece out that you want.  Use the knife to make a point on one end for the leaf.  Just place them among your buds tucking the blunt ends down and somewhat under the buds so they look like they are attached to a stem.  Don’t forget to poke a hole with a straw for hanging or attaching to a gift!

To finish it off we painted the heart (after it dries) with a  pearlescent white paint and glued gold cording around the edge.  We used some ribbon I had in the sewing stuff for the hanger.

Another cute one to do with salt dough is a snowman.  For this once instead of cookie cutters you just roll balls of dough.  We did two for the body, large for the bottom and smaller for the head (maybe 1 inch for body and ¾ inch for head?)  Once you make the balls squish them slightly flat.  Next make the hat and arms.  For the arms make small oval s to connect and squish on each side.  For the hat make a small round ball for the top of the head but as you squish it square it by place your finger or a knife blade at the top so it squishes flat on the top edge.  Use your fingers to mold a little into more of a rectangle.  For the hat band and thumbs roll a skinny “snake” and cute to fit for the hat band and thumbs.  Finish by painting as desired (after it dries of course.)  Oh, and don’t forget to insert a wire hanger it the top of his head.  Just take a small piece of wire, twist to make a loop and insert the ends up to where you twisted in the top of the hat.

The cinnamon applesauce ornaments also make cute present toppers.  This one is so easy and makes your house smell wonderful.   For the dough  mix ¾ cup cinnamon and ½ cup applesauce.  You want to roll them out ¼ inch thick between two sheets of wax paper.  If you need flour for stickiness, use cinnamon instead. Cut out the “cookies” with cutters.   Again don’t forget to poke with a straw to make a hole for attaching.  They just turn out looking brown but make a great accent for a country type tree or a gift wrapped in rustic type paper.  Even brown craft paper! 

If making dough isn’t your thing try these fans.  This one is quick and easy too.  Just take 4 or 5 inch wide flat lace and make it into a fan.  Cut it in about 10-15 inch pieces (more or less and you like) and cute out a piece of wax paper approximately the same size.  Lay the lace on the wax paper and start folder (fold wax paper and lace) accordion style back and forth about every ½ inch.  Pinch at the bottom and slide the wax paper part up from where you’re pinching about ½ inch.  Glue generously the lace you’ve exposed at the bottom.  Take a little scrap of wax paper and put it over the outside of that section.  Put a paper clip over that the hold it secure till it dries.

Now, slightly fan out the top part and spray with fabric stiffener (found at craft stores, or you could use spray starch).  You can spray several times depending on how “stiff” you want your creases.  Let the glue and stiffener dry.  To finish hot glue any ribbon or trim to the bottom where your fan is gathered.  These would look cute on a “fancy” wrapped present or we lay them on branches to fill in our tree.  You could attach a ribbon to hand with through the lace if you wished as well.

So there you go.  I hope you’ll plan a day to spend quality time with your kids, making memories and creating!

Gina

Dec. 7, 2007 - Gift making

On the second day of Christmas fun …

We’re making gifts.  I love for my kids to make homemade gifts but I also like them to be something the receiver of the gift might actually use.  What Grandma (or Aunt, older sister, mom etc…)  would not want a set of note cards made by their precious little Grandchildren? 

Sometimes when the kids were small it was hard to think of things they could make that would actually be useful.  These are note cards made with their fingerprints.  All you do is press their finger on the ink pad (or let them do it if they are older) and then make “fingerprints” in the shape of snowmen.  Once you have three prints, one on top of the other, then you use a marker, pen or pencil and decorate.

  For the paper you can either buy premade cards and envelope from most craft stores or make your own.  I usually make my own.  Just cut cardstock and crease your fold in any size you want.  To make your own envelope use regular weight printer type paper.  Do remember when you're folding to leave about 1/4 inch space around the card so you'll be able to slip it in and out of the envelope.

If you point your mouse on the photo's in the slide show they give step by step instructions for making the envelope.

We chose to go very simple for our cards.  Just a little black maker (which I did for them when they were real young) and you’re done.  Do a set (4 is fine) and tie plain old brown twine to hold the four together for a cute gift.  Don’t forget to include the envelopes.  It’s always a great finishing touch to add one lone snowman to the bottom left corner of the envelope just to make your “stationary set” complete.

 So happy card making!

Gina

Dec. 6, 2007 - Candy Making

On the first day of Christmas fun….

We’re making candy!  This is a tried and true (kid tried I might add) recipe for making 5 candies in the microwave in 30 minutes.  Did I mention that I like to do fun things with the kids but I don’t always have the WHOLE day to accomplish it!  It really can be done in 30 minutes at least with older children.  If you have younger kids or are making double batches (we always do!) plan more like an hour.

All of it is done in the microwave which is such a safe way to cook with kids!  I recommend using a 2 to 3 quart microwave safe bowl preferable high quality plastic (like Tupperware, not butter tubs!)  You can use a glass Pyrex type but it gets hot and can break.  With kids I like to be better safe than sorry.  You’ll also need a smaller (about 1 cup capacity) microwave safe bowl or measuring cup for melting the caramel.  I would recommend an adult help with the caramel as it gets VERY hot but other than that the kids can do the bulk of it themselves!

Okay, so here’s how it works.  Start with the first recipe.  Scrape out the bowl well with a spatula and move right on to the next recipe and so on!  Only one bowl to wash, you gotta love that!

Holiday Candies

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Holiday Wreath Pretzels (or birds nests)

Small round pretzel (or knots)               2 blocks white almond bark

Red and green M&M’s

Place pretzels on waxed paper.  Melt almond bark on high in microwave safe bowl 1-2 minutes (till melted.)  Stir.  Using small spoon fill center of pretzel with bark and place an M&M in the middle.

Pink Ice

Crushed peppermint candy                               2 blocks white almond bark

Peppermint extract                                            red food coloring

Melt the bark in the bowl until smooth; add candy, extract and food coloring.  Spread thin on waxed paper and cool.  Break into pieces.

Peanut Clusters

2 blocks white almond bark                              ½ cup chocolate chips

6 oz Roasted peanuts

Place bark in bowl and melt in microwave (about 2 minutes.)  Stir in chocolate chips and keep stirring till they are melted in.  Add peanuts and stir.  Using a spoon, drop unto wax paper and cool.

Rocky Road

2 blocks white almond bark                              ½ cup chocolate chips

6 oz Roasted peanuts                                        ¼ cup mini marshmallows

¼ cup red and green M&M’s

Melt bark and chips in microwave for about 2 minutes.  Stir in rest of ingredients.  Drop by spoonfuls on wax paper and cool.

Turtles

1 block white almond bark                                1 block chocolate bark

8 caramels                                                        pecan halves

Melt both barks in microwave for 2 minutes.  Stir.  Using a spoon place a small quarter size (or just slightly larger than a quarter) amount on wax paper.  Place a whole pecan and four pieces (for feet) on the chocolate “quarter”.  Melt the caramels and a few drops of water in the microwave of 30 seconds (watch closely so as not to burn.)  Place a small amount of caramel on top of pecan halves.  Spoon more chocolate on top of caramel and smooth around to cover.  Cool.

Here’s a link with the pdf file of Holiday Candies if you’d like to print it off.

Nov. 29, 2007 - Christmas countdown

While I’m preparing for Christmas I came across this countdown calendar that was in an email newsletter from index cards with Molly.  I did contact her and she said if you sign up for her newsletter by the end of the week she’ll offer you a free one too! 

It starts on Dec. 1^st and each day you lift a flap to show a verse or sometimes two.  She also had free Christmas notebook pages to go with it.  So here’s my plan.  Almost all my kids really need to work on handwriting so I thought for December we’d use it for copywork.  No, we probably won’t get all 24 days but we should be able to get in 3 or 4 of the days each week and the bonus is we stay focused on the real Christmas story!

Just another thought for keeping Christ central!

Gina

Nov. 23, 2007 - Advent

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We did!  We have so much to be thankful for!  This morning we are blanketed with a couple inches of snow and so it reminds me that it's time to look toward Christmas.

Advent is a tradition that I grew up with and I've learned over the years that right after Thanksgiving you need to get started or before you know it you're late getting your candles out!  I found this site that does a really good job explaining what Advent is and what different weeks, colors etc... represent.  Basically, for those that don't know it's a time of "waiting" and/or "anticipating" the celebration of Jesus' birth.  You light a candle each week leading up to Christmas day.

For us Advent reminds us to keep Christ in Christmas.  I think it's so easy in our culture, if you don't intentionally plan, to lose that emphasis.  We are so bombarded with the secular and material Christmas.

Our Advent wreath has almost always been four red candles with one white in the center.  My mom always had bright red but I have usually gone to a more burgundy color as that looks better with my color scheme.  Traditionally, I guess the candles are purple, pink and white (you can read more about that at the site I mentioned above) but we have never done that.  I'm not sure why but the church I grew up in did the red and white too.  We have since gone back to that church to visit my parents and they now do purple ones.  Maybe it was a trend in the 70's and 80's, I don't know.  We're sticking with red and white...tradition you know.

We light the candles, usually on Sunday night and read scripture.  Our kids take turns (youngest to oldest and we have 4 so that works for us!) lighting the candles and Daddy lights the Christmas candle.  Now that they can read sometimes they will read or sometimes my husband or I will.  Last year a couple of the kids wanted to pick the reading and "plan" the night so we let them.  In years pasts I have followed devotions from different books and things but most years we do our own.  We read a scripture, starting with the announcements to Mary and Joseph the first week and on from there.  After we read the scripture Daddy usually asks a question related to it and then we sing a hymn and close in prayer.  It's really not all that formal and the kids really look forward to it over the years.  It's become a tradition for our kids.

At any rate I encourage you to give it a try if you never have and if you've already done it don't forget to get your candles out this week! 

Gina

p.s. The above picture is old (2005) but it's my favorite advent picture from the scrapbook.