Christmas Toddler Craft Round-Up

I thought I'd take a moment and share the activities and crafts we did month (December). Realizing that it was going to be an incredibly busy month, I was on the ball early (I'm not usually half so organized!) and had a whole calendar written out before December even started. (I have one written out for January, too, so hopefully this trend will continue!)

Some of these are art process projects, some are more traditional crafts, and some are newer ideas. The kids were really into Christmas this year (I think they remembered some from last year) and got very excited whenever we did anything "Christmasy" - even if it was just painting for a "Christmas craft" lol. ;)

Our counting wall. We always have something seasonal up on the wall to practice our counting with, so this time we did ornaments. I had the kids paint a big piece of paper with glitter paint, that I then cut into 20 circles and attached the tops to make ornaments (although I feel they're out of scale somehow - the struggle of being an art-challenged nanny, sigh.)

Michaels has had a great assortment of cheap craft kids lately. I picked up this bracelet kit for $1.29 and it had enough for three projects. As much as I love homemade craft projects, sometimes it's nice to be able to grab something prepackaged and all-included in a pinch! :) This is great fine motor skill practice; we also worked on patterns and color recognition as they worked on "green, red, white" order.

I was confessing on Instagram that I rarely do "invitation to play" crafts because they can get so out of control so fast; however, this one was so worth it! I adapted it from this pin and put out pompoms, pipe cleaners cut into 1/2" lengths, red, silver, and gold glitter, pony beads in red, yellow, and green, and sequins. The kids took forever filling up their bottles (bonus!) and then played with them nonstop for over an hour, rolling them back and forth, having "races," and just shaking them up and watching them settle.

I created these simple "order puzzles" for one of our circle times. The kids struggled more than I expected to complete them!

We played this counting game at the same circle time; throw the dice and find the Christmas tree with the same number of stickers.

Torn paper collages are fun, and we've done several different seasonal themes. This time I let the kids use scissors for part of the time, which they enjoyed, but got frustrated/tired with easily.

Another really fun activity, especially for Miles (who often tires of being told to "stop banging on things" - he kept banging on the buttons with the hammer, then looking at me like, "Can I really hit it?" lol). Oversized buttons, crab hammers, and styrofoam cones. We have to figure out a way to reuse these cones, or else save them for next year - they were easily one of the more expensive craft supplies I've ever bought!

Super-easy craft, making pipe-cleaner and pony bead candycanes for the tree.

The kids were able to do this craft completely by themselves this year. I did the cutting, but they did the gluing and positioning without any help. :)

Another easy ornament craft - popsicle stick trees. (I swear they're almost totally painted in real life, I don't know why the glitter glue won't show up on the camera!)

Cinnamon-dough ornaments. The kids loved mixing the dough and enjoyed playing with it for a bit before making the handprints. We followed up this craft several days later by painting the handprint ornaments.

The kids LOVED getting to paint their hands lol.

Sometimes our crafts turn out more "Fail" than "pinterest" lol

We did this after dinner one night with all four kiddos. Right before we turned them loose, I told DB that I had the sudden feeling I was making the biggest mistake of my nanny career ;) but it ended up being a relatively mess free craft and one that they definitely enjoyed!

Loving Lately

- Getting a chance to teach my friend Cris how to swim (she's going to be good!).

- Starbucks Holiday Spice Flat White (oh my gosh. So amazing)

- The way the triplets have wholeheartedly and exuberantly embraced Christmas and get so excited whenever we do or see anything Christmas-related.

- Lucy's recent obsession with a capella groups (we're playing a whole lot of Straight No Chaser,  Pentatonix,  and GLAD).

- The way that all three kids sat spellbound through the entire Hallelujah Chorus last night when I played it for them for the first time.

- Impromptu Dr Who watching parties where everyone shows up in holiday pajamas and much popcorn is consumed (and spilled!).

- Driving home from work late at night and seeing all the holiday lights.

- Celebrating one of my coach's birthdays this week with treats that turned out pinterest-worthy.

- Getting to do a lot of hands - on coaching this week (always makes me happy!).

- Making plans for the new year, and all the exciting things it will hold. :)

Holiday Bucket List 2015

I've never posted a holiday bucket list so late, but the truth is I've been so busy actually doing bucket-list-worthy things that I haven't had a moment to post! :) Obviously, since we're only a few weeks away from Christmas Day (eep!), a lot of these I've already completed. Enjoy!

1. Drink a Holiday Spice flat white
2. Listen to the all-Christmas music station on the radio
3. Drive around to see Christmas lights
4. Take a nap and stay up late wrapping presents
5. Meet a friend for pie
6. Go on a shopping trip just to buy Christmas cards
7. Bake cookies for my coaches
8. Take a holiday picture
9. Read the Christmas story
10. Read A Christmas Carol (and go see it on stage!)
11. Send Advent gifts in the mail to Khy
12. Watch holiday movies
13. Be kind
14. Go see the new Star Wars movie
15. Burn holiday candles
16. Give thanks
17. Put up the tree and decorate the trailer
18. Watch "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" with the triplets
19. Write thank-you cards for the team
20. Make a Christmas craft with the triplets
21. Take Abby on a donuts-and-hot-chocolate date

Picture Recap, and a Giveaway!

Remember the bootie and cap set I made for my new cousin, Kathryn?

Well, I was blessed at Thanksgiving to get to see her wearing it in person, AND her mama graciously gave me this photo of little Kat modeling it. :)

As you can probably tell, Kat has a little bit of growing to do in the noggin area before it fits perfectly... I resized the pattern from a 6-12 month pattern and clearly didn't make it small enough. Oh well! The good thing about babies is that they grow fast, and in the meantime, she doesn't seem to mind.

Last Sunday we stuffed our ham! For those of you who are not lucky enough to live in St. Mary's, stuffed ham is our regional dish. :) It actually has its roots in Africa, where natives would preserve meat with greens and spices to keep in the heat. When slaves were brought to Southern Maryland, they brought the recipe with them and adapted it to their new land. Google it for more info, but in short, stuffed ham involves tons of kale and cabbage, onion, spice, and fun. We were lucky enough to have friends from church join us!

Alexa, Dad, and I were in charge of processing the kale, cabbage, and onions. We had two food processors set up with me in the middle, trimming kale and cabbage to be minced.

Dad, deboning our ham.

Once stuffed, the ham is rolled up tightly, tied with twine, and wrapped in cheesecloth.

It sometimes requires two people - or more! :)

Thanksgiving was stressful for me this year. I love the holidays, I love being with family, and for me the holidays are a time to set aside the pettiness that we get caught up in. Unfortunately, not everyone shares this opinion, lol, and so our Thanksgiving this year was more about conflict and tension that giving thanks. :( I got lots of practice in using all the new coping techniques I've been learning in class. And that's about the best thing I can say about it.

My mom chose to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends from church instead of her family this year, so our morning was pretty much spent getting our Thanksgiving dinner ready.

In the midst of this, the cat decided to be needy and kept meowing at the door until Maggie relented and went out to hold him. :)

Such a bad cat!
We had an absolutely stunning, Normal Rockwell-esque bird this year. Even I was impressed, and normally I could really care less for turkey. I guess this is part of my tastes changing, because somehow this year I can't get enough.

I didn't get any pictures once our guests arrived, because I was having absolutely too much fun! We had a lady from church and the same family that we stuffed hams with over, and we spent all afternoon regaling each other with funny stories and tall tales. :)

Around 5, Maggie and I headed over to my grandfather's house to celebrate with my mom's family. There is nothing like being with family... as soon as we arrived, all my stress melted away and it suddenly started to feel like a true Thanksgiving. :) I am so grateful for my family - my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was especially fun to get to see the two new family additions, Kat and Zoe. :)

My Abster was there, also, but spent too much time running around shrieking in delight to be photographed. :)All in all, I am thankful for the holiday, and thankful that it's over and it'll be a year before I have to stress about it again. :)

Now - on to the giveaway...

I am not a huge crafter, but I got a chance to sit down today and make some holiday gift tags, something I've been putting off but couldn't procrastinate on any longer, seeing as the pile of wrapped gifts in my room is growing and I'm anxious to label them before I forget which gift goes to whom. :) I got all my tags made, and even got a chance to make a set of twelve tags, which I am giving away to a reader! :)

This is a set of twelve tags: four large, four medium, and four small. All are red cardstock with stamped or punched vellum overlay, tied with green ribbon.

The small tags.

The medium tags.

The large tags.

I will say the camera makes them look orangish, whereas they really are true red. Aren't they cute?

Close-up of one of the large tags.

If you'd like me to send them to YOU :), here's what you do:

1) Leave me a comment for one entry.

2) Become a follower for an additional entry.

3) Blog, tweet, or mention this giveaway in your Facebook status for additional entries (be sure to leave me the url of your blog/twitter in your comment).

I will randomly select a winner on December 4th! :)

I hope y'all are well into your Christmas celebrations by now, and that you're feeling the blessings of the season!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everybody!

I hope your day was "merry and bright" because mine certainly was! Christmas morning is always a magical time at our house... I look forward to creating my own Christmas-morning-traditions someday in my own home with my own family, but I know I will look back wistfully at these times. :)

Our family has opened gifts every-which-way over the years... We've opened gifts all at once, we've opened each gift one at a time, and now gifts just sort of get opened. :) One positive change we've made is that in the past, my father always videotaped Christmas morning, which I'm sure we'll all be glad for in the future, but set him apart from us when we wanted to share the fun of presents with him. Last year we requested that we not have any videotaping on Christmas morning, and he agreed... this year, though nobody discussed it, the videocamera stayed put. I like this much better! :)

We always get some form of reading material on Christmas - books, magazines, etc - and there's usually a mini-pause while we resist the temptation to read everything right then. :)

On to the gifts I gave... these three modern-art-inspired horse prints I picked up at the thrift store for a few dollars apiece (and kept one for myself, lol). This summer/fall, I took the kids on a trip to D.C. and while there, Ruth and I ducked into the art museum together (everybody else pooh-poohed the idea, but Ruth is like me - always open to new ideas and adventure!). We enjoyed spending some time discussing the modern paintings and sculptures, and when I saw these prints I immediately thought of that memory we'd made. Everyone else in the family thought that 1) the paintings were ugly and 2) didn't see much significance in the trip to D.C., but when Ruth opened them on Christmas morning she immediately said, "Oh, these are from our trip to the art museum!" And she loves them. :)

Lizzie is hard to shop for... I picked up this "Cowgirl: Spirit, Spunk, Style" sign at Ross (is there no good thing that cannot be had at Ross?) and was afraid that the design was too "pink" for our tomboy, but Lizzie assured me that the message of the sign outweighed the girliness of its design. :)

I bought the girls these removable wall-stickers for their room last year, but I don't think I've ever seen them on a wall... I was amused yesterday to see their decorating. :)

Allen has asked me for two years now for WiiPlay, so I got him that for Christmas, then I saw this Venus Flytrap plant at the nursery and I just had to get it. A plant that eats flies - what more could a 13 year old boy want?!?

I got Anna a lunchbox set for our days at co-op... here, she shows off a sign I found in the dollar store. Oh, so true!

Gifts I gave but neglected to get pictures of: My dad, who is impossible to shop for, got a sentimental picture frame (when in doubt, go for sappy-sweet :)); my mother, who is also impossible to shop for, got a black cotton sweater from Lands End (she spents days each fall hunting for a suitably plain/sturdy black sweater, and I have been incredibly impressed with the quality of Lands End merchandise, so maybe this will end the hunt for a few years); Maggie opened a copy of Jaws and found this poem:

For your gift, you're going "to sea"

But don't worry (much!) 'cuz you're not going deep!

To Camden, New Jersey, we'll go on a lark

To Adventure Aquarium, to swim with the sharks!

If you don't get eaten, then they'll let you stay

To swim next door and feed the rays!

So grab your suit and towel and dash -

This gift is sure to make you splash!

Magge was thrilled and excited about her adventure! :)

On to gifts I got...

Okay, by far the most incredible gift I got this year was this moon sculpture that lights up and goes through the stages of waxing and waning. I love it! I am obsessed with the night sky and I love moongazing, and now I can have a piece of my passion right in the room with me! Of course, this was my gift from Maggie, who always knows exactly what to get me. :) The wrapping itself was a work of art - she wrapped it in white tissue paper with silver stars, and put it in a silver bag. :) Can't wait to put it up!

The kids went in together and got me this home spa kit, which I had hinted about multiple times. :) I can manage a DIY pedicure, but there is just no substitute for sticking your feet into a hot bubbling massaging footbath. :) I used this last night after we came home from our family celebration and just about died of ecstasy...

My dad got me this incredible aviator-inspired vintage-look leather jacket (try saying that five times fast!). I am so in love...

I don't know why, but we kept throwing the wrapping paper down the stairwell. :)

Little Christmas Gifts

A few years ago, I heard this song on the radio and fell in love with it. I never heard who sang it, and hadn't heard it this year, so I desperately googled the first line of the song and up popped the title and artist. It's totally worth the 99 cents. :) Merry Christmas, everyone!

A poor orphan girl named Maria

Was walking to market one day

She stopped for to rest by the road side

Where a bird with a broken wing lay.

A few moments passed till she saw it

For its feathers were covered with sand

And soon clean and wrapped it was traveling

In the warmth of Maria's small hand.

She happily gave her last peso

For a cage made of rushes and twine.

She fed it loose corn from the market

And watched it grow stronger with time.

Now the gift giving service was coming

And the church shone with tinsel and light

And all of the town folk brought presents

To lay by the manger that night.

There were diamonds, incense and perfumes

And packages fit for a king

But for one ragged bird in a small cage

Maria had nothing to bring.

She waited till just before midnight

So no one would see her go in

And crying she knelt be the manger

For her gift was unworthy of Him.

Then a voice spoke to her through the darkness

"Maria, what brings you to me?

If the bird in the cage is your offering

Open the door, let me see."

So trembling she did as he asked her

And out of the cage the bird flew

Soaring up into the rafters

On a wing that had healed good as new

And just as the midnight bells rang out

And the little bird started to sing

A song that no words could recapture

For its beauty was fit for a king.

Now Maria felt blessed just to listen

To the cascade a note sweet and long

As her offering was lifted to heaven

By the very first Nightingale's song..

- "The Gift" as sung by Aselin Debison

Homemade Christmas Gifts, Part 1

Let me preface this post by saying that I am not a crafter, sewer, or quilter. I missed the genes that run in my family and bestow the ability to turn piles of material into beautiful handmade heirlooms.

However, as Christmas approached I thought it would be nice to make handmade items as gifts. I googled "homemade Christmas gifts" and - no offense, anyone - the lists I came up with were stupid. I don't want to give popsicle stick picture frames, or juice-can coasters. I want things that will last, that people can use, and that will hopefully conjure positive memories of me whenever they see it.

However, a few days ago I noticed my sister Anna, who did receive the gene *grumblegrumble* putting stitches on an incredibly beautiful table runner. I mean, Martha Stewart/House Beautiful type table runner. I examined it and discovered it was completely made of 2" strips of material, all straight seams, and no lining up pesky corners, angles, etc, etc, etc. I still wasn't totally convinced I could create a masterpiece like Annas, though...

... until I tried. :) If I can do it, anyone can do it.

I will be posting a mini-tutorial later on, but I just had to take a moment to brag. :)

(Isn't this material, quite frankly, rad? :)

Overheard and made me smile...

Ouerheard on the radio: Next, the Beach Boys will bring us their version of "Frosty the Snowman"... Which is ironic, considering that the only Frosties they have in California are the kind you get through Wendy's.

:)

Things That Make Me Happy :)

Isn't this painting incredible?! I found a stack of modern art-type canvases at the thrift store a few weeks ago and snapped them up for a few dollars apiece. Three of them are going to be a Christmas present for my youngest sister, but this black and white piece just HAD to go on my wall. I love the art museum/city loft vibe it gives off. Can you tell what it is? :)

In other news, I was enticed by the candle aisle at Wal-Mart yesterday, and ended up buying a scented oil plug-in in a scent named "Moroccan Bazaar". It is fabulous - much less "earthy" than I was anticipating, but still good. The scent is listed as ginger and nutmeg, but smells EXACTLY like spiced pear to me.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving... Although the actual day was a bit stressful and rough for me, I have really enjoyed the long weekend with family and friends, and the official start of the Christmas season!

What I Love (And Hate!) About Christmas Shopping In A Recession

What I Love
1. Prices and sales. 'Nuff said. If your financial situation hasn't changed much this year (and mine hasn't), chances are you can afford more or better with the same money you spent last year.

2. You rarely have to go off hunting for a salesperson - they come to you. And they're actually friendly! Last year I knew I owed my dad a special present, big-time. It had been a rough year, and he'd gone out of his way to be super-supportive. I wanted to buy him the end-all MP3 player, but I was pretty sure the iPod wasn't going be it. I wandered into Best Buy one day to window shop, and a salesman came over, brought out a few different working models for me to play with, and - get this - when I had questions that the little info slip couldn't answer, she went out and hunted up another employee who owned that particular player to come and talk with me. Even though I intended to buy the player online or through Amazon, I ended up buying it at Best Buy and felt good about it!

3. I finally have a good excuse to give homemade creations, thrifted fab finds, or good-thing-in-small-package gifts... I'm not being cheap, apparently, I'm just with the times!

What I Hate

1. Stores are cutting back, so not as many salespeople, cashiers, etc = long lines.

2. Stores seem to be cutting back on brands, models, etc... This does not make me happy. I know some folks say we'd be happier with fewer choices, but that's not me!

3. Is it just me, or does merchandise feel more cheaply made lately?!?! Would anyone else rather pay more to keep quality?