Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays- Service Gifts

It is my turn to make a video on my own. Anjeanette worked like crazy to make the first videos work. You have no idea just how long it takes to make a video. Probably about 50 takes to get it just right (with out tripping over your words or making some sort of strange facial expression you never knew you did). When I suggested we do videos for this, I had no idea that it would be anything other than simple. It is so hard not to look stiff while basically talking to yourself. Forget when somebody else is in the video! The bouts of spontaneous laughter make the process take twice as long. Not to mention laughing at ourselves over the finished videos.

I know that my boys are fairly typical in that other kids their age (5&7) think Christmas is about what they will get FOR Christmas. It is really important to me that they learn that Christmas is more than that, it is about giving and good will and so much more. I want them to grow up to be giving and caring men. I want to teach them that there is more to gifts than the kind you buy from a store. Service gifts are a great way to teach this concept during the Holiday season.

This year they will pick out a toy each for a toy drive. They will take them to their school toy drive so they can feel good about giving. We also plan to do something similar for a food drive. The boys will be the ones to hand over the donation so that it can be something we do as a family and not just something my husband and I do.

Some ideas for Family and Friends: As part of your gift give them a coupon for something like:
-An outing for a day at the zoo, a day at the park complete with picnic lunch, going out to lunch, a movie together, ice skating, or a trip to a store to pick something out. Something they would enjoy doing with you.
-for baby sitting so parents can go out on a date
- for making a meal
-teaching a skill (sewing, crochet, knitting, a sport, cooking, building something, making something, music lessons, art lessons) anything that the person would enjoy (give them something they need for the activity with a card stating your intentions.
-Instead of just a gift certificate, add in that you will take them to spend it. Perhaps plan on getting a drink (like hot chocolate) or bite to eat while out.
-for a day of help doing what ever. (cleaning, fixing something, remodeling something, yard work, painting, etc)
- for nieces and nephews and really good friends you can invite them over for a sleep over complete with an activity in mind. Years and years ago when Erika was little we would have her over for the weekend after Thanksgiving. She and I would spend the weekend crafting and making gifts to give to the family. I enjoyed those weekends, I think she did too.
-for older nephews consider a day of computer gaming, play a game that can be networked with two computers or on a video console. For more involved adventure games why not plan a game day one day a month till you both get tired of the game or till you complete all the levels. This is especially good for nephews that may not have their father in their lives. On line games are especially good if you don't live near by. Not into video games, why not get together to play a sport together.

The big theme is to not just give them a gift but to give them the gift of your time. So much of the time we have no time to stop and bond with extended family members. We get so caught up in the day to day that we forget that we have an opportunity to help mold other children in our lives. We can be mentors and help give them a more rounded education on what family is really all about. If you give a service gift make sure it is something that you will keep your word on. As soon as possible sit down with the person and mark a date on your calendar. It should be something that you can start or fulfill with in the next month. The only problem with gifts like this is that you can't say you will do it and not schedule a date because it is likely it will never happen. Perhaps you can feel out what the person's schedule is like ahead of time and even choose a date to put on the card/coupon. This is something that can easily be done with kid's gifts because you can ask their parents what a good date will be and get it on the calendar. With adults it is a little harder. If you are offering a day of help, it may be best to give them 3 or 4 dates to choose from that are good for you. If you are making a meal for some one, you should consider making something that can be frozen and baked when they need it or that will reheat well. Meals are great for new parents because often times they are getting use to a new schedule (even if it isn't their first child). A prepared meal can be heaven sent when new parents are just too tired to cook or go out to get something.

For the Community/neighborhood:
-Doing little things for neighbors you know are having a hard time.
-If you know they are tight on money you could....give them a gift certificate so they can get a few things from Christmas, I gave a gift certificate for a pet store to someone who has lots of animals.
-Helping an elderly couple with yard work, putting up Christmas Decorations and such things.
-Visiting a nursing home, have the kids read them a Christmas book.
-Do little things like take a plastic shopping bag with you when you go for a walk. Pick up trash you see as you walk.
-Talk to your neighbors about doing a block party.

No deed is too small. The idea is to think of what you can do to make the season a little brighter for others. It does not have to cost you anything but time and a little tough. Some times all it takes is to slow down half a second and give somebody the right of way on the road. If somebody is lifting something heavy, why not help? The best way to teach our children is by example.

Happy Holidays,
Katrina

~~~
Anjeanette jumping in! I LOVE this subject! Seriously, I think it is so important for my boys to learn about service and thinking of others. When my 1st son was born, we started choosing a tag from an Angel Tree, usually at the mall. We look and look for a tag for a child the same age as our sons and pick out things our kids would LOVE to have. We talk about why we are giving a gift to other children. We talk about how fortunate we are to have the things we have, our house, our family etc.

Our siblings this year have decided that the gifts we give to our nieces and nephews are going to be service gifts. Erika gave Rebecca's daughter a coupon for a day of baking together for my niece's birthday. We all thought that was such a great gift that we decided that is what we are going to do this year. The gift of time is a much better gift in my eyes than another toy. Hopefully we will also be building great relationships and memories with our sibling's children.

Another thing we do to help our kids think of others has to do with the red buckets that are everywhere right now. I normally don't carry any money on me. But I try to keep some small bills on me from November through December. My kids get very excited about putting money into those buckets. I give them each a little bit to put in with their own hands. They really think that is neat. It is particularly cute to me because often they have to really reach their little hands to get to the bucket. (We do that other times of the year too. Particularly when it is the Veterans. And when it is a Veteran, I also have taught my kids to say "Thank YOU!" to them.)

And my last service gift is something my Mom did with us when we were small. At church one year, they made some wood mangers. They were about a foot long and pretty good sized. Mom had a stack of hay next to it. When any of us saw another family member doing something nice for another person, we got to put a piece of hay in the manger. The idea was to have the manger full of hay in time for Christmas Day (for the arrival of Jesus of course). This was fun and we all tried to *catch* someone else doing something nice so we could put more straw in the manger. I think it is a great way for small children to think of something outside of them self.

Thanks Katrina for such an idea packed post! I love the topic and got a bunch of good ideas too;)

I would love to know what you do as gifts of service during the holiday season?

Anjeanette

Rugelach oh how I love you!

First, I just want to keep it real. Sometimes our little blog may make it appear like we have it together differently than we really do. I mean, we aren't Martha Stewart. I was helping with a PTSO lunchoen today and had promised to make pies and these rugelach for the lunchoen. True to form, my 3 year old was sick all week. Last week my 7 year old was sick. Someone in the house has been sick for the last 6 weeks. I'm not kidding. So I had yesterday set aside to bake for the luncheon. I took more breaks than maybe I should have. I had a PTSO meeting I attended yesterday after my son's school got out. I baked through the night until 3 this morning. While I was at it, I figured why not make extra pies for us and a few reserves in the freezer for later. That is what you all do too, right? My day was carefully planned out almost to the minute. It took some creativity to get it all mapped out and lined up. I dropped off my 2nd grader and ran to Rebecca's house. Our sons go to preschool together. My little one has missed two weeks of preschool. today he was going to go back! At Rebeccas house, my son threw up! It was just lovely. Not only did I gross out my sister, my whole day was off. I'm so lucky I have my mom and two other sisters nearby. I was able to drop off the sick one with Erika and took in 3 French Pear Tarts, 2 Caramel Pumpkin pies (both of which looked like poop, but tasted wonderful) and a plate of Rugelach. I stained my one dressy shirt with grease because all my treats are packed with butter. I did save one of each pies for us too. I have to run everything by my taste-tester husband before I serve it up for anyone else. Thanks honey for sacrificing for me;) I missed helping out AT the luncheon and cleaning up. sigh. Just so you know that we have normal lives too.

Now on to my post...

Really I should be singing the praises to Dorie Greenspan. I adore her so. She is a skinny baker and I don’t normally think you should trust a skinny…well anything really;) I mean Mario Batali I trust his recipes because you can tell that man likes to eat what he makes. And who doesn’t love a man with neon crocs? But Dorie Greenspan is skinny and she bakes and she writes recipes in books.

Let me just tell you…trust her recipes. Trust them. They are almost no fail. And they are to die for. I’m not talking about your marshmallow puff, and processed boxed mix treats that every housewife around knows how to bake either. I’m talking about a real baker with real ingredients and real steps and real yummy treats.

I was participating in an online baking group Tuesdays with Dorie for a while. But then I started getting sick from dairy and wheat. Couple that with my son’s EE and there weren’t a whole lot of people I could bake for in my house anymore. Not REAL baking anyway. With the holidays here, I finally have an excuse to bake for real again. I went to my trusty book Baking from my Home to Yours from Dorie. You can check here for the recipe.

Of course I made a few modifications. I chopped up the chocolate and nuts a bit so they were smaller. I also added the currants and orange cranberries to the warming jelly. I wanted to plump them up and soften them a little. I used orange marmalade as the jelly. Oh my! It was wonderful!

Another really good tip is to roll the dough out between waxed paper. Put it back in the fridge to firm up before you do anything else. Then spread your jelly mix, add your nuts and chocolate. Roll them up and sprinkle with some nice chunky sugar like Turbinado sugar. Oh yah! That is what I am talking about!

Anjeanette

Fun Garlands For Your Christmas Tree

I grew up with a Christmas tree that had scandinavian decorations on it. Even if this wasn’t my heritage (which it is) I would still love these kinds of decorations because they were a part of my childhood. I remember cute straw ornaments with red accents. Even more than those, I remember garlands made out of Danish flags. They are called Flagranker. Oh, how I love those garlands. The other year Anjeanette and her family visited Solvang in California which is a cute Danish themed town. They bought those awesome Danish flag garlands for each of us! She bought them at Jule Haus. I put them on my Christmas tree and was oh so happy. Such a little thing, but I swear they put such a great smile on my face whenever I see them! Well, the other side of my kids heritage was not seen on the tree. As soon as this was brought to my attention I immediately whipped up a garland made out of Scottish flags. Makes me even happier. I do not know what it is about the Holidays, but it makes me think of my heritage. I love hearing stories of where my family came from (especially because my Dad is such a great story teller!). Having these decorations on my tree is a great conversation starter for my children. They always ask what things are and why we have them. So, it opens up a whole conversation about where all the different people in our family come from. I am so lucky to know of my family’s rich heritage. I love that my parents celebrated Holidays from other countries! It is also one way to prolong the celebrating (which is always a good thing, in my book….I believe you don’t just have a Birth-Day, but instead a Birth-Week….get where I’m going here?)!

Not all flags are as easy as Denmark’s and Scotland’s. However, I think you can still come up with ways to incorporate parts of your heritage into your celebrating or decorating.

Rebecca

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Garlands,Flags,Scotland,Denmark

Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays Christmas Day

Today I am continuing our videos for our Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays. Anjeanette has been the one posting the videos for us up until now. So this is my first try posting one on my own. Pretend that my mouth is moving at the same time as the video...k? My family always calls me motor mouth. Watching this video with the audio out of sync to the video, I can see why they may call me that! ;) And, apparently when I make a video by myself...I also over accentuate facial gestures. Let's just pretend I'm keeping my kiddos occupied while trying to film the video. So the exaggerated gestures are for them! Or if it keeps you amused, that works as well! It's a short video with a few ideas for keeping Christmas Day heartfelt.

For those of you who made it through that video without laughing, thank you. For those who laughed...so did I!

I will be assessing my Christmas Day, as I do each of the holidays. I will think about what parts of it are important to me or for my children. The rest I will leave out. I will also notice in what ways I can complete the mood for the day. I will make sure to have all the senses accounted for when I can.

I'd love to hear some of your Christmas Day traditions or what you feel your priorities are, on Christmas Day. How do you handle wrapping and unwrapping of the presents? Can't wait to hear from you.

Rebecca

~~Oh Rebecca! I'm thrilled your video doesn't sync either! It is much harder than I imagined too. Apparently, you and I are very expressive with our faces. I think it is fun to let our readers see us.

I love Christmas morning!! I am usually the one rounding up everyone in the morning. Even when I first got married, I would be up early and just dying to wake my husband up. I remember trying really hard to wake him up sometime around 5:00 am, saying "Let's see what Santa brought us..." I'm sure he thought I was nuts. Hopefully, this year, my kids will wake up earlier than I will.

I always start my morning with cinnamon rolls in the oven while we open gifts. I need to find a good wheat and dairy free recipe this year;) I bet that doesn't really exist. (Let me know if you have one to share.) And I need to figure how to make something for my 3 year old out of rice, rice milk and sugar;) I guess he will get my rice only rice krispy treats for Christmas breakfast.

My oldest son loves to hand out the presents. He reads the names from the gifts and sets up piles next to each of us. Then we take turns opening gifts. One person opens a gift while the others watch. I hate for the gifts to get rushed through and not getting to see their faces as they open their new thing.

This is the first year that I won't be doing Christmas Eve dinner. We usually spend Christmas day eating leftovers. I'll have to come up with something fun for food on Christmas Day.

The best part of our celebration is that our 92 year old Maternal Grandmother is staying with us. We grew up with our grandparents sleeping over on Christmas Eve. They have always been there on Christmas morning to watch the kids open their gifts. Last year, Grandma didn't come to stay with us. This year she is with us again! My kids adore her and she is looking forward to watching my children open their gifts on Christmas morning! She said she was glad to be "home" for Christmas this year.

I too would love to know what you do.

Anjeanette
~~~~~~
Katrina Here:

One thing I like to do is have all the gifts from "Santa" be wrapped in special paper. I am VERY CAREFUL not to ever wrap something from Santa in paper we have used for other gifts. I even hide it at the bottom of a drawer where the boys will never see it. It always has Santa on it. Even the ribbon I use has something to do with Santa on it.

In my family, when I was growing up, we always opened gifts from each other on Christmas Eve after dinner. All of the dinner dishes and leftovers had to be cleaned up. It was the one time that more than one of us were washing dishes so that we could get to opening presents faster. Thinking back to my childhood the opening of gifts felt a little frenzied but I know that we each took turns opening a gift. I remember watching to see what everyone got. This is definitely something I want to emphasize for my own children. The gifts that we opened on Christmas day were just the presents from Santa.

Another thing that I remember from my childhood is the tradition of adding and orange to the items in the stocking. I have read about similar traditions where an apple was placed in the toe of the stocking for good luck,an orange in the heal if you were good, a nut for fun, salt for good luck and a piece of coal to keep you warm in the new year. I could easily see adding a candle or a flashlight instead of the coal and the meaning would be to guide your way. Another thing that my mother always did for our stocking was to go to a world market that had specialty candies from all over. We would always get little tins of hard candies and a chocolate orange. They were items we didn't get any other time of year. They were not the standard candies that you can buy and any store (though they are in more store now than they use to be). It was fun to get some candies that are sold in other parts of the world. Oh how I wish that they made those chocolate oranges gluten and dairy free. That way I could pass on that tradition to my boys. To this day I look forward to my chocolate orange on Christmas.

Katrina

Easy to make crocheted Snowmen with recycled jars.

All you need are some basic crochet skills. The large snowman head is covering a plastic Pineapple jar. The small snowman is a yogurt drink container and cap.

You will need:

A container you want to cover

White yarn (mine has a shinny thread through it)

Black yarn for the hat (or what ever color you want)

Another yarn color for the scarf and hat decorations.

Crochet hook

Buttons for the face and other decorations

Pipe cleaners are an option for the nose

Hot glue gun

To make the white body of the snowman make a chain that is long enough to fit around the neck of the jar. Make it loose enough that it can stretch over the wider parts of the jar. When you have made your chain long enough crochet in the first loop to make your ring. Now single or double crochet (your choice) around until your tube fits the whole length of your container. I made mine long enough so they just cover the curve of the bottom of the jar. Weave in your loose ends.

For the little snowman I added a scarf that is just two rows of double crochet. I hot glued it in one spot on the back just to keep the scarf from falling off. The buttons are sewn onto the smaller snowman but you can just as easily hot glue them on. The nose is a heart shaped button that I colored orange with an Sharpie.

To make the little hat: Chain 4 then chain 1 in the first crochet. Now make 10 double crochets into the center ring. Chain 1 in the first double crochet. Now you will increase the size by doing 2 double crochets into each chain. You may need to do this again depending on the size of your cap. You want to make the initial circle the same as the top of the cap. Once you have gotten the right diameter you will do 1 double crochet in the front loop only of each chain. You will need to do at least two rows this way. Depending on how deep your cap is you may need to do a third row. You will see that your hat will start to take shape. Once you have the cap covered you will need to make a brim. To do this you need to increase the width of your project by doing 2 double crochets into each chain. Repeat with 2 double crochets into each chain for the second row. Row 3 of the brim will simply be 1 double crochet into each chain. Add a 4th row if desired. End your crochet and weave in the ends. I hot glued (use sparingly so it does not show through) the hat onto the cap so it won’t spin when opening the container. I made a chain to go around the hat at the base of the brim. I tied it off and stitched on a button on top to hide the knot. Then hot glued on some sequin leaves behind the button for decoration.

To make the hat for the large snowman I made a chain just smaller than the opening of the jar. I wanted the hat to just cup over the top of the jar. I then did 4 rows of double crochet to cover the threads on the top of the jar. You may have to to do more depending on your jar and the look you want. Then to make the brim you will need to increase the next 2 rows by doing 2 double crochets into each chain. I added a third row to my brim using just 1 double crochet into each chain. Again you can do another row to make the brim wider. I made a chain using red yarn to make a decoration for the hat. I made it long enough to go around the base of the brim plus extra that allowed me to tie a bow. I used hot glue to keep it in place.

I hot glued on the buttons for the eyes and the mouth. For the nose I used two pieces of orange pipe cleaner folded in half and threaded the ends into an orange button and through the crochet body. I then bent the ends out like you would a brad. I added a touch of hot glue to keep the nose securely in place.

Since my jar was a little tall for the pens to stick up very far over the rim, I put some left over batting in the bottom to raise the pencils up a bit. You could easily add some marbles or pebbles or beans to add weight as well as give the pencils some height. I say use what you have.

If you need a little more help with things like making the hat there is a terrific video tutorial HERE. All you have to do is submit your name and email and they will email you the pattern for their little snowman along with a step by step video tutorial on how to make it. The hat is basically the same, as the one detailed above expect I had to increase my circle by two rows instead of just one to fit the cap. The site has some really great free video tutorials on how to crochet different stitches. So if you always wanted to learn, now you can.

My pencil holder snowman sits on our table for homework time. It is an easy way to make your homework station fun.

Katrina

Technorati Tags: Snowman,pencil holder,crochet,recycle,candy gift jar

Make Science Kit Gifts

Last year I made some science kits for a niece and a nephew as Christmas gifts. Over the previous year my boys and I had an explosion of fun with science experiments and I wanted to share our favorites with their cousins. The kits you buy in the store aren’t all that complicated. You are mostly paying for the written experiments themselves. The supplies included aren’t all that expensive to get and some of them are household items. You can put together a $20 kit for less than $10 and have money left over to add some items to make a really amazing kit.

I purchased a $1.00 plastic shoe box container to hold everything.

I then added:

Color mixing Trays for color experiments. Use primary colored water to make 24 different colors! Just go buy some bath color tablets. You can find them with the bubble bath at places like Walmart and Target. I like the ones by Crayola. You can cut the tablet in half or even fourths for your experiments.

Pipettes are great for most experiments like color mixing. You can use them to squirt the vinegar onto the baking soda in your volcano. My boys love any reason to use them.

These test tubes are the coolest. I will tell you why. They are soda bottles before they are expanded. That is why they are called “Baby Soda Bottle Test Tubes.” I believe the gumbo test tubes are the 2 liter size soda bottles. So not only are they great for a science kit they are also a cool thing to point out to your kids. Let them compare the test tubes to an actual soda bottle. Encourage them to think about how they get from point A to point B. Think about it. If a Soda company wants to order bottles for packaging, wouldn’t it be better to receive them in their pre expanded form? Think of all the wasted cardboard if they got them shipped in the final size! Seriously cool fact. Ok I know my geek is showing.

Look in the dollar section of your craft store for Insta Snow tubes. I found some last year at my Local Michaels store. You can find these for around $1.00. I highly recommend that you try it. A little goes a long way so don’t use the whole tube at once. I suggest this be used outside. It is basically tiny water gel crystals so it won’t harm your grass. In fact it will help keep your grass hydrated and it will eventually break down.

Add a cube of polymer clay so the kids can make their own reusable volcano. If you want to get fancy then give them a cube of brown and a cube of red so they can make lava flowing down their volcano. Basically they make a mountain with a well in the middle for the baking soda and the vinegar to go in. Then their parents can bake the volcano and it is ready to be used over and over and over. To “erupt” their volcano all they need to do is pour some vinegar (with red coloring if desired) in the well of their volcano and drop in a small amount of baking soda. Be sure to place the volcano in a container or on a plate to catch the “lava flow”.

Supply Elmer’s school glue and a small container of Borax along with a science experiment sheet that tells them how to make their own slime. Get the directions here. (they called it glacier gak but it is the recipe for traditional home made slime). Beware that children with texture issues may actually throw up when kneading the the slime just after it is poured into the borax solution. Once it is kneaded it will be less like lightly cooked egg whites. (We have video of my little guy gagging every time he put his hand in the mixture to knead. Like good parents we have played the clip for all that we know and still get a big laugh out of it.)

Other items you can add are:

Pick up a Tornado Tube and then go to the experiments tab and click on weather experiments.

I love the Steve Spangler Science web site because you can get individual test tube experiments like these or these. What ever concept you want to teach they have fun products. You can get items for individual experiments or buy an entire classroom kit. So much fun.

You can find so many gift ideas from this one site it is hard to choose. If you don’t want to build a science kit from scratch they have lots of Kits in a bag that come with a rack of 6 test tubes all with a different experiment in each tube. If you clicked the link I provided you will see so much more than the test tube racks. I had done a search to give you a link to all their test tube racks and came up with a ton of kits that range from inexpensive to not so inexpensive depending on your budget.

Don’t for get to go to their science experiments tab to print out some very cool experiments. There are tons that use every day house hold products. Each one not only tells you the “how to” but the “why it works” behind the experiment. I would suggest going through them and printing out the ones you like and then purchase any “Lab Supplies” that aren’t easily found around the house. Some of them have video clips showing the experiments. Steve Spangler’s enthusiasm for science is contagious. He makes science fun!

Here are a list of some of the ones I printed out for the kits I made for Anjeanette’s and Rebecca’s children. All of them use every day items and you probably already have around the house.

Density column experiment using house hold liquids.

Pop Rocks experiment

Film canister Rocket This one says to use Alka Seltzer but you can use baking soda and vinegar. Go to a photo developing place and ask them if they have any empty film cans. I got a ton from Walgreens. The ones that work the best are the see through ones with the lids that fit inside the lip of the canister. I found the type that the lid fits over the top lip are harder to get together in time. Give them a piece of fun foam so they can hot glue fins on the sides. They can use half a mini easter egg as the nose for their rocket (or half a small styrofoam ball). Give them stickers to decorate their rockets (use stickers that won't come apart when wet).

Lava Lamp Tube

Color Changing Milk

Color mixing tray experiment

Cloud in a Bottle

Ketchup packet Diver a version of the Cartesian Diver experiment.

Poke a Straw through a Potato Trick

Do Not Open Bottle Prank

I printed out these experiments and put them in a presentation folder with a cover letter explaining the kit. I included a summary of all the fun experiments they could do with their kits. I also typed up a few pages for color mixing suggestions.

Put a primary color in each of 3 test tubes and put the caps on. Then band them together with a rubber band. Hold them up to the light and look through them. Turn the test tubes and watch the colors change as you look through two colors at once.

If you have water gel crystals, soak some crystals in each of the 3 primary colors. Layer the colored crystals in a test tube. Watch as the colors create a rainbow in a tube. Where two colors touch it will make a third color. Eventually all the colors will mix and the crystals will all be brown.

I have talked about these crystals Here and Here

Some of these experiments would be great for science fairs….. The kids can pick a concept like density and demonstrate a couple of experiments and then elaborate on how they are related and how they show the concept.

I hope you get around to making one of these kits for a gift. They are fun and educational all at the same time and they don’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.

Katrina

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Letter To Santa

Around this time of year my children start mentioning items that they want (thank you commercials!). I always tell them to ask Santa for it. Then after a few times I start telling them to just add it to their list (meaning list to Santa). I finally got smart after a few years of trying to keep this “list” in my head and totally forgetting items. Then, we’d hurriedly write a list one day (which is really only what they could think of that moment and not what they really wanted), to mail off to Santa. How I got smart was to finally make up a cute blank list to print up and hang on the fridge for my kids to add to their list when inspiration strikes. I thought I would share it with you. We have already printed ours out and have our lists on the fridge. This is also helpful for when friends and family ask what my kids would like.

Just so you know, when it is closer to Christmas I actually print another one out and have the kids write their actual Letter To Santa on this. Always remember to have the kids also add the date and their age to these letters. You think you will remember, but I never can remember which year that letter went with exactly!

Rebecca

Technorati Tags: christmas,wish list,printable