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

We are having fun adding these to some other linkups here and here.

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

Technorati Tags: science experiments,gifts,kits

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

Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays Creating Traditions

This week Katrina and I got together to make our video. I know it is riveting screen time to watch our little videos. Katrina and I laughed most of the evening. I think our final take was at 1:00 am. I hope you take a look at the fruits of our labors;) It is a quickie.

Last week I talked about embracing the traditions associated with our heritage. Those certainly are traditions. The kind of tradition I am talking about this week are the ones that make the holiday season special for your family, not necessarily based on your heritage. They don't have to cost money either.

Most of the traditions I am going to mention below started when we were kids, but my little family also has recent traditions that I didn't grow up with.

A few of our traditions are:

*Something that is huge for us is putting the angel on the tree. It is the last thing to go on our tree and we make a big deal out of it. My husband gets the honors...I think because he is the only one tall enough to reach;)

*My little family of 4 loves to drive around the neighborhood listening to Christmas music looking at lights. We rate the houses based on a scale of 1 to 2. Ha! We are tough critics;) We say what we think would have made each house perfect. It is a lot of fun. (I know other families that do this with hot chocolate. This doesn't fit in with our food allergies so we don't do it.)

*Our maternal Grandparents have spent the night on Christmas Eve with our family since we were kids. There have only been a few years they missed. Grandpa died a few years ago, and our 92 year old Grandma didn't come to Arizona at all last year. It just feels wrong without her with us on Christmas morning. We are lucky that she just came back and is staying with my little family for the next few months. She is just in time to spend the holidays with us! My kids get to share in the tradition now!!

*Singing carols as our Dad plays the piano is another tradition we love. This tradition started because our oldest sister's birthday is December 20th. For her birthday parties we would always carol to our neighbors. Before we went we choose the songs we would sing and then we would do a quick practice with Dad at the piano. Our neighbors knew we would be coming and they had cookies and hot chocolate ready for us. How sweet was that?

*Becky has 25 Christmas stories, and she reads one to her children every night.

* Going to the Tempe Light Parade is a huge event the family has done almost every year since we moved here.

*Christmas pillowcases come out on December 1st and we use them for the whole month.

*We always make "Grandpa's Christmas Caramels" with the extended family. I have seen similar recipes forever and they may be exact. But to us, these will always be Grandpa's Christmas Caramels because once they were cooled in the pan, he was always the one to cut them up. We talk about Grandpa when we make these. And they are delish!!

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1 C white sugar

1 C light corn syrup

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

dash of salt

Combine ingredients in heavy pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Keep at rolling boil and cook until soft ball forms in cold water (about 15 minutes). Pour into buttered 7 x 11 pan. Cool, then cut into squares and wrap each piece in wax paper.

This year I thought it would be fun to try to dip these in chocolate. Why, I don't know, but a chocolate coating with some coarse salt sprinkled on top sounds delish to me;)

I'd love to know what you have as solid traditions in your family that you do year after year. And is there something new you are trying this year?

Anjeanette

~~~~~~~~

Katrina here,

Some thing I always remember from my childhood is that we would all decorate the tree together. Some time during December my just older brother (he is 5 years older than I am) and I would sit in front of the tree with a very old book my mother had, singing the Christmas carols from it. We would turn the lights off and just have the lights from the tree. We always opened up with O’ Christmas Tree and we always sang the German version next. My mother is a German immigrant. We would work our way through all the songs in the book.

I carry on the tradition of decorating the tree with my own family. My husband started the tradition of making sure Christmas music is playing in the background. I usually buy some Egg Nog or have hot chocolate for us to drink. The first thing we do is put up our tree. I too remember the days of my Dad putting the angel on top of the tree at the very end. She is beautiful and old. I never found an angel I like as much as her so we have a beaded snowflake for the top of our tree. Unfortunately it is too heavy for the not so strong branches at the top of our artificial tree. So I always put it on first so I can rig it to stay upright. It goes on before the top of the tree is added to the base. If we had a fireplace we would have a fire burning. I dearly miss having a live tree but it isn’t the “green” thing to do so I usually find a candle or something that has a bit of pine scent and light it. Your senses can trigger a memory of things from your past. I like to involve all 5 for this event. It is something that I remember from my childhood. I don’t think my parents did it with a purpose and until now I had not thought about it that way.

Something that my oldest son insists on is that when we wrap gifts, I tie a nice ribbon on to each one. He does not like it when I use those premade bows. He reminds me as I wrap gifts for others. It is that little extra something. I always buy wrapping paper and ribbon at the after Christmas sales for the following year. The first year I did this was to add some decorations by putting bows on pretty boxes. They were empty and I planned to put them on top of a wall to dress it up. He insisted that they belonged under the tree.

Of course we have new traditions that seem to start up every year to go along with the old. I wonder if my oldest will draw up a song book and want to go caroling like last year. Oh my heavens it was so freaking cute to hear my boys version of Jingle Bells. I wish I had thought to video tape it. If your children want to go caroling you MUST remember to get it on video if you can.

Another must is setting up the Christmas village. We have a plant shelf high up next to our vaulted ceiling where we set ours up. I confess that last year it never got taken down. ;) So I guess this year the task will be to dust if off. LOL

One final thing I would like to add is a recipe for Orange Cranberry bread that I LOVE to make this time of year. I mean I LOVE it and will eat half a loaf before it has even cooled. You might say it had become a tradition for me to make it at least once during the holidays.

Orange Cranberry Bread

Grate the rind of 1 orange

3/4 orange juice

2 Tbsp butter or margarine

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 cup cranberries, chopped (I like the cut in half)

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional if you don’t like nuts)

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Heat 3/4 cups of orange juice (You can use the juice from the orange you zested plus an additional orange). Add the grated rind and butter. Stir to melt the butter.

In another bowl combine the egg and sugar. Beat well to combine. Stir into the orange mixture. Add cranberries and walnuts.

In another bowl sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Stir into your wet mixture. Spoon into a greased loaf pan (9x5”). Bake for 1 hour.

Eat warm…Ok so this isn’t required unless you are me. ;)

There are so many things we do during the holiday season that we don’t even realize are traditions. As you go through this holiday season pay attention and I think you will be surprised by how many traditions you have that you don’t even think about. Think about how each event makes you feel. Consider starting traditions that will evoke fond memories for you and your children in the future. When they have families of their own (a long long long long long time from now cause I am no where near ready to think about it ;) they will want to make similar memories for their children. Think, is this something that I want carried down for generations? How do I want them to look back on this time of year? Whether you realize it or not, it is some thing that stays with your children. Like my wrapped empty boxes, it does not have to cost a lot to make great memories.

Katrina

Technorati Tags: Christmas,traditions,recipe,caramel,orange cranberry bread

We are linking up to some fun parties here.

Elf on a Shelf

Last year we started something new. Anjeanette went crazy buying up all the little Elves (aka knee huggers) she could find on Ebay. I am not kidding. She bid on many many many lots of elves. Then she gave one to each of the families to have their own “Elf on a Shelf”. There is actually a story book that goes along with this. If you are curious go HERE to find out more. However, you don’t need to buy the story book, all you need is a little elf and to make up a letter from “Santa”.

The idea behind the Elf on a shelf is to partially explain how Santa knows about everything children do and help children remember to be nice. Some time before Christmas (for us it is the day we decorate for Christmas) the elf shows up in your home with a letter from Santa. The letter explains why the elf has been sent to your home. Children are encouraged to name their elf. There are some rules for the children. They are to never touch the elf. If they find the elf on the floor then they are to ask their parents to pick up the elf and gently place him some place safer. They can talk to or write to the elf but the elf is not allowed to talk to children. However the elf can some times leave notes from Santa or in reply to something a child has asked. The letter also explains that the elf will move around at night and when they aren’t looking. The children can have fun looking for their elf every morning when they wake up. It becomes a fun game. The letter also states that the elf will report back to Santa on a regular basis. Santa may send notes back from time to time.

Some other ideas for the letter (especially if the elf has been at your home previously) along with the usual nice and naughty reminder are activities that reinforce the values you want to teach your children. This year I included two letters with the elf. One for the boys and one to addressed to my husband and I. We don’t have a “naughty” and “nice” list on ours but a “remember to” list. On it is a list of things we can improve upon or do to set the example for items on our boys “nice” list. This is a great way to work on any issues your family needs to work on. Elphie will be coming back with notes of encouragement from Santa on their progress.

Mostly I want this to be fun. Last years letter didn’t have lists. It explained the elf and the rules and how it all worked. It also reminded the boys to have fun. Always the letters have something personal in there about the kids. To point out some really great things they have done during the year. It adds to the mystery of how Santa could know all that he does and that he DOES know everything.

Here is the letter to my boys for this year.

Here is the letter to my husband and I. It is something I did new for this year. I figure if the kids get a letter from Santa, why shouldn’t we? After all we all have some things that we need to remember. Plus I think the boys will like the fact that we all have items to work on.

I am thinking that maybe Elphie will have little notes for the boys from time to time with requests or even challenges. Some ideas I have are a scavenger hunt, bring back some snow (if we go to see snow before Christmas), make something, to hear a certain song or for the kids to sing or a service project. There are so many things you could do. If you do an Event Advent Calendar, the elf could arrive with it.

We had a lot of fun last year with our Elf. The boys even asked me a couple of times to bring Elphie into their room at night to watch over them as they went to sleep. Some times Elphie would appear on their foot board at night. Then while they were at school, he would move to a place where he could watch them better when they got home. Some days he moved only once and some days he moved a couple of times.

I would love to know if you have a similar tradition. Do you do Elf on a Shelf? What has “Santa” put in his letters to your family?

Katrina

~~

Anjeanette here. Somewhere when I was a kid, I saw the knee huggers for the first time. I fell in love!! A few years ago when I saw this book and elf that looked so much like a knee hugger, I had to have one! We love the story and have so much fun with the elf visiting our house. The last few years, I tried to convince my siblings to get the book for themselves and their kids. Our kids see a lot of each other and it is so much fun if they all have similar things happening in their houses. Well I couldn't convince my siblings that they had to have an elf. While they liked the idea, they weren't as crazy about them as I was. So I figured I would help them to add an elf to their traditions. At one point I was watching 42 different lots of these knee huggers on Ebay. I think I bought 4 different lots. Then a friend of mine found some more at a garage sale and bought them and sent them to me too. So right now I probably have 20 still hiding in a box;) I had my siblings choose the one they wanted and they were able to adapt the elf to their family. The cousins have a ton of fun talking about the elf at their house. And the adults have fun with it too. Our elf comes on Thanksgiving day and stays until Christmas Eve. Santa occasionally sends a letter with the elf during that time, if the kids need little reminders of how to behave. I have caught my kids talking to the elf and telling him what great things they did that day. I also like that these elves remind me of the Danish Nisser which is a little elf like dude too. I love the letters Katrina has this year! I'm totally doing almost the exact same letters (thanks Katrina!)

Anjeanette

Technorati Tags: Elf on a Shelf,tradition,christmas,Santa

What do you know about Chanukah?

This is take two on this. For some reason Blogger ate most of this post when I tried to post it on Tuesday. Hopefully this time it will work;)

I am so excited to share this with you. One of the best things about the internet for me, is making friends. I have a sweet friend , Dalia, that I met through a photography site about a year and a half ago. She is simply an amazing photographer. (If you are in New Jersey area, you are lucky, her photographs amaze me all the time.) Last year she had a lovely post on her blog explaining Chanukah traditions including an explanation that was so easy for me to understand. I asked her to help me with a post for this blog, about celebrating Chanukah. As I get older, I’m meeting more and more Jewish friends. And quite frankly, I am embarrassed to say that I just don’t know very much about the religion. There are a lot of other religions and even cultures that celebrate their holidays in December along side Christmas. What a great month this is!

I am excited to learn more about Chanukah because we have relatives about 3 generations back that were Jewish. They mostly adapted to all the religious customs when they converted and moved from Romania to Utah. It was apparently quite a change for them. They adapted to the culture and religion of their area and unfortunately, we don't have any of the old traditions passed down to us. This year I am going to make Latkes and the milk carton dreidel that Dalia mentions below.

Thanks Dalia for taking the time to write this all out for me to share with our little crafty blog.

From Dalia…

"Chanukah -- the eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of Kislev 25 -- celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, of purity over corruption, of spirituality over materiality.

More than twenty-one centuries ago, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who sought to forcefully Hellenize the people of Israel. Against all odds, a small band of faithful Jews defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G-d.

When they sought to light the Temple's menorah, they found only a single vial of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, the one-day supply burned for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity.

To commemorate and publicize these miracles, the sages instituted the festival of Chanukah. At the heart of the festival is the nightly menorah lighting: a single flame on the first night, two on the second evening, and so on till the eighth night of Chanukah, when all eight lights are kindled.

On Chanukah we also recite Hallel and the Al HaNissim prayer to offer praise and thanksgiving to G-d for "delivering the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few... the wicked into the hands of the righteous."

Chanukah customs include eating foods fried in oil -- latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot (doughnuts); playing with the dreidel (a spinning top on which are inscribed the Hebrew letters nun, gimmel, heiand shin, an acronym for Nes Gadol Hayah Sham, "a great miracle happened there"); and the giving of Chanukah gelt, gifts of money, to children.

Latkes
4-5 medium potatoes
1 onion
3-4T matzah meal or flour
2 beaten eggs
1-2T salt

Grate onions and potatoes. Mix with matzah meal eggs and salt
Heat a few tablespoon of oil in a frying pan. Spoon out a heaping spoonful and press it into the side of the bowl to get some of the juices out. Plop it in the pan and flatten it slightly. It should be a nice level mound. When the bottom is getting set and brown it is time to flip them. You will know because the top of the latke will start to look slightly pasty and less like potato strips..
Enjoy with applesauce and or sour cream.


How to play dreidel

Playing with the dreidel is a traditional Hanukkah game played in Jewish homes all over the world, and rules may vary. Here's how to play the basic dreidel game:
1. Any number of people can take part in this great game.
2. Each player begins the game with an equal number of game pieces (about 10-15) such as pennies, nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, matchsticks, etc.
3. At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game piece into the center "pot." In addition, every time the pot is empty or has only one game piece left, every player should put one in the pot.
4. Every time it's your turn, spin the dreidel once. Depending on the outcome, you give or get game pieces from the pot:
a) Nun means "nisht"or "nothing" [in Yiddish]. The player does nothing.
b) Gimmel means "gantz"or "everything" [in Yiddish]. The player gets everything in the pot.
c) Hey means "halb"or "half" [in Yiddish]. The player gets half of the pot. (If there is an odd number of pieces in the pot, the player takes half of the total plus one).
d) Shin (outside of Israel) means "shtel" or "put in" [in Yiddish]. Peh (in Israel)means "pay." The player adds a game piece to the pot.
5. If you find that you have no game pieces left, you are either "out" or may ask a fellow player for a "loan."


Milk Carton Dreidel
Easy to make dreidel with small milk cartons!

pencils
glue
paint and paintbrushes
small milk cartons or boxes

Fold tops of milk cartons down to make boxes.
Mix a little glue with paint and let children
paint boxes. Poke pencil through box from top
downward so point is on bottom"

~~

I am so thankful to have friends that are willing to share with me and help me learn new things all the time. I hope some of you learned something new too;)

Chanukah in 2009 will start on Saturday, the 12th of December and will continue for 8 days until Saturday, the 19th of December.

Note that in the Jewish calendar, a holiday begins on the sunset of the previous day, so observing Jews will celebrate Chanukah on the sunset of Friday, the 11th of December.

Thanks again Dalia!

Anjeanette

(The picture is from my son’s class last year. His teacher is Jewish and she had these adorable things for them to make in addition to a little Christmas tree. The bread is a menorah and the marshmallow, licorice and kiss is a dreidel. How cute are they?)

Technorati Tags: Chanukah,Dreidel,Latkes

Pumpkin Pie Spice Play Dough

I run a daycare. I have crafts and foods every day that pertain to a theme for the month. Yesterday I tried a new one and I had to share it! I absolutely LOVE pumpkin pie. Yum. I also make a delish Pumpkin Cream Cheese Crescent Roll* that is to die for. Really, anything sprinkled with pumpkin pie spice entices me. So, when I remembered a recipe that I had for Pumpkin Spice Play Dough, I just had to make it. Wow, it is fantastic. It really does smell great, and totally looks like you are playing with pumpkin pie. Awesome! We will be playing with this right up until Thanksgiving!

Here’s the super easy recipe:

2 C Flour

1 C Salt

4 tsp. Cream of Tartar

3 tsp pumpkin-pie spice (I did 4…cuz I wanted to!)

2 C Water

2 TBL Vegetable Oil

Red and Yellow Food Coloring (the more the better!)

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Stir on low heat until mixture starts forming a ball and will pull away from the sides. Let cool. Enjoy.

Rebecca

Obviously you could eat this dough and not die, but with that much salt, I can’t imagine it would taste very good!

*

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Cream Cheese Crescent Roll Recipe:

Refrigerator Crescent Rolls

Cream Cheese

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Orange sugar or sprinkles

Take Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and unroll them. Spread Cream Cheese on them. I used to love Cream Cheese and would add a thick layer. Now my thighs are begging for a thinner layer, and that tastes great too! Sprinkle with Pumpkin Pie Spice (again, to your liking...my liking is a LOT). Then, roll them up and cook them as directed. For extra bling, sprinkle the tops with orange sugar or sprinkles. I actually do this last step to differentiate between crescent rolls with the pumpkin pie cream cheese filling, and those without (sadly some members of my family do not like cream cheese...what are they thinking?!)!

Technorati Tags: pumpkin spice,play dough,homemade,pumpkin,cream cheese,refrigerator rolls,crescent,recipe

Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays Celebrating and Embracing our Heritage

We all come from somewhere before we got here. Whether we know about our ancestors or not, our family before us had their own set of traditions and beliefs. It is great to be able to continue traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation.

But what if you don’t know where your family is from or what traditions they had? December is full of so many holidays besides just Christmas. For example this is a majority of religious holidays and observances for December 2009:

Advent is celebrated the fourth Sunday before December 25 (the Sunday between November 27 and December 3 inclusive.)

6 - St. Nicholas Day (International)

8 - Bodhi Day - Buddha's Enlightenment (Buddhist)

12 - * Chanukah (Jewish Dec 12, 2009 – Dec 19, 2009)

12 - Virgin of Guadalupe (Mexico)

13 - Santa Lucia Day(Scandinavian)

16-25 - Las Posadas (Mexico)

21 – Winter Solstice

25 - Christmas (Christian, Roman Catholic, International)

26 - Boxing Day (Canada, United Kingdom, Australia)

26 - Kwanzaa (African-American - Dec. 26, 2009 - Jan 1, 2010)

31 – New Year’s Eve final day of the Gregorian year

*Holy days usually begin at sundown the day before this date.

Do you know about all these holidays? There are a couple I had not heard of before, like Las Posadas or Bodhi Day.

When we celebrate our traditions that have been passed from generation to generation, we like to talk about the people before us, why they celebrated in the way they did etc. It is a great way to remember the world is bigger than just ourself.

Since we mention it in the video, I thought I would share our recipe for Pizzelles. You do need to have a Pizzelle iron to make these though.

3 eggs, beaten3/4 c. sugar3/4 c. butter, melted1 1/2 c. flour1 tsp. baking powder2 tsp. vanilla1 tsp. anise seed or extract
Add and beat ingredients together in order listed. Drop by rounded spoonful onto center of preheated grid. Close lid and clip handles together. Allow to cook until steaming tops about 30 seconds. Remove with fork. Allow to cool on wire rack or towels. Dust with powdered sugar. Store in air tight container.

I would love to know what your heritage is, if you have a tradition that has passed from generation to generation, or if you are going to learn about a new culture or religion this year.

Anjeanette

~~

Katrina here,

Another great way to learn about how other cultures celebrate the holidays is to check out story books about them. I tend to like to check out children's story books associated with different holidays to use as social stories for my boys. For years I would check out books that had stories that were similar t the way we celebrated Christmas. I looked for books that talked about all the events that happen during the holidays. I did this to prepare my autistic son for what was to come. So that maybe he could understand all that was happening better. Now I feel it is time to expand their view of the holidays.

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1. You are next...
   CLICK HERE to enter your link

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Retro Mice Ornament

Yes, that is a walnut shell! I have always remembered these sweet ornaments that my Mom made with us kids. They hung on our tree for years. That crafting time with my Mother is what inspired my own Walnut Shell Mouse Christmas Ornaments!

When we made these with my Mother, we used a homemade clay recipe. I tried getting details about these from my Mom and Anjeanette, and this was what I came up with. We did not have Polymer Clay growing up, so I was quite excited to do this craft using Polymer Clay (not that I have an obsession with Polymer Clay…I swear I don’t have every shade imaginable…). With Polymer Clay you can add so much more detail and finishing touches.

If you look closely at these, I made them all with minor differences. My favorite is the one with the Santa hat! Some have paws holding onto the top of the blanket, others have pink or white centers in their ears, I added cute tails to some, and I changed up the colors for their bodies. Other differences are the size, whisker marks, shapes of ears and heads, and kinds of eyes. One even has feet, but what is the point of that because you will never see the feet (though I know they’re there, and that’s why I did it…it makes me smile).

I had to decide what kind of material to use for the blanket, and what/how to tie them to the tree. I have a nice collection of ribbon (again, not something I would be obsessed with, I’m just saying) and first wanted to go with a delicate ribbon that ties in a bow at the top. However, once I decided to go with felt for my blankets, I knew I wanted to do a simple loop with yarn, to carry the retro feel of these ornaments. Tonight my kids and I are carrying on the tradition of making these. I can’t wait!

A few tips for when you make these. When using yarn, I just hot glued the yarn on the side but I also made sure to coat the yarn end with the glue so the yarn didn’t come apart (but use it sparingly so that you don’t even see it). Also, hang the ornament on your finger to make sure that they are evenly balanced. I also hot glued these mice into their shells. I would hate for them to fall out and end up broken (or just missing…not that things would go missing in my house…especially tiny things…).

Rebecca

I love this month. I love being reminded to be grateful for what I have. Right now I am very thankful for all the wonderful teachers. I truly believe in the old saying of it taking a village to raise a child. I wholeheartedly believe that children will be more successful by being taught by many different people in their lives. I am so thankful to teachers that take a special interest in my children (this is professional teachers as well as my friends and family that my children also learn from). Erika will be teaching one of my daughters to cook/bake. My Father-In-Law did a wonderful series of once a week art lessons for my children. There are so many instances where my friends and family are helping to teach my children and shape them into who they are! I am so thankful for this. I have been so lucky that my children have gotten some phenomenal teachers at school as well. These teachers can make or break a child.

Thank you to all those who teach and inspire people! Your time and effort is invaluable!

Technorati Tags: christmas,ornaments,retro,mice,walnut,polymer clay

Rebecca,

These are adorable!

For our readers I have a tip for you on how to easily crack a walnut in half. First of all look at your walnuts. Some of them have a seam that basically cuts it in half. Some of them when you look at the smaller end look like they have a seam that splits them in thirds, you don't want to use these. Now that you have selected your walnuts with a nice seam. Get a hot pad to work on so your nut does not slip around. You will need something like a butter knife or flat chisel. Hold your walnut with the fat end up and insert the tip of your knife into the center of the seam (there is a bit of membrane there that is easy to push through). It may not look like it but your knife should slip in at this point with a little pressure. Push the knife in as far as it will go and then slide it down the seam (kind of like when cutting a melon in half). Some of your walnuts won't separate into two perfect halves but your will most likely get at least one good half out of just about all of them.

Katrina

We are adding to the Christmas fun by joining some link parties here and here.

You are invited to my 3rd annual Girlfriends Great Cookie Exchange!

One of my favorite things to do during December is to host a cookie exchange. I love to bake. I love to gather with women and just be a woman, not a wife, or a mom, just a woman for the evening.

Our family has always gotten together to bake cookies, but I always wanted to do a cookie exchange. This will be my third official exchange outside of just my family. When I started doing a cookie exchange, I searched for info on how to do it. I found Robin's exchange how to. This lady has been doing them since 1989. It is a great resource on games and invitations and rules for the exchange.

A cookie exchange takes a bit of prep work. I like to have my participants email me their recipes in advance so I make sure there are not 10 people bringing chocolate chip cookies. I usually stick to Robin’s rules. They are great for keeping a level playing field. But since most of the people that I have at my exchange don’t love baking as much as I do, I am easing up on the rules a little this year.

Another great reason to have the recipes emailed to you early is so that you can get a recipe book made up. I found these adorable recipe card digital files that I used in Photoshop to make recipe cards with. I ran up the street to Kinko’s and had the recipes printed. I have a comb binding machine that I throw together some little booklets with. The first year I had the recipes printed at Kinko’s and then I put the recipe cards into small photo albums.

Here is my recipe from last year:

The first year, we played some cheezy Christmas games. Everyone apparently isn’t a Christmas dork like me and my family. So the game was a little akward. Last year I made an apron and we played Left, Center, Right to win it. It was a lot of fun.

The winner of the exchange always gets a “Golden Spatula”. Last year, Erika had to run all over town finding a yellow spatula for my party (I love you, Erika!)

Once you have all your cookies together, you have to have some way for your participants to bring their cookies home in. The first year I purchased some cake boxes for each participant.

They were fine, but all the cookies didn’t fit in them and they were a little flimsy under the weight of all the cookies.

Last year I picked up some plastic bins from the clearance the year before.

These worked out so much better than the boxes did. I just wasn’t in love with the color choice. I didn’t find any at the end of last year’s Christmas clearance. So I’m still on the look out for something to carry the cookies home in.

Erika and I spent some time making up these *bells* to decorate the baskets. We also made them for our stockings for Christmas Eve. You take a circle of tulle. Fill some small plastic cups with nuts and some more with mints. Wrap the tulle around the cups and tie them off. They are supposed to look like bell ornaments. We have made these to tie onto our Christmas Eve stockings forever. Our Mom had them on her Christmas Eve stockings when she was a little girl so it has been a long time that our family has done them.

For an activity, I had all the supplies to make these paper globe ornaments. I had seen this paper craft everywhere it seemed. I had to make them. It was really fun to make them. I think everyone was quite proud of theirs when they were done.

We have a lot of fun at our cookie exchanges. I love to bake and it is a good excuse to get to bake. I love to make things with other girlfriends. And I enjoy being with just women every once in a while.

I have to share this recipe with you. It is totally delish and terribly bad for you I’m sure. I had to dig it up in a church recipe book. I just have to mention this. WRITE IN YOUR RECIPE BOOKS! I’m not kidding! When you cook or bake something, write how much you and your family liked it next to the title of the recipe. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve searched for a recipe only to not be able to remember where it is. Another thing I do is make something only to remember after we have eaten it, that we don’t like it. A great way to tell your favorite recipes is by which pages have creases, smudges or splatters on them. But I can’t always read if that is a good thing or not. Now EVERY time I make a recipe out of a book, I ask my husband how many stars it gets on a 5 star rating. I write that at the top. I also write my impression of making it. “Time consuming but worth it” or something like that. I have two recipes that this could be. I didn’t write which one I loved, so I had to call my mom. (It is her ward/church cook book so she knows by whose recipe it is.)

Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs (beat on high 5 minutes)

1 c. sugar

2/3 c. pumpkin

3/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Line cookie sheet with waxed paper and pour batter onto it. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Sprinkle powdered sugar (a lot) on a clean towel; flip cake upside down onto towel, remove pan and waxed paper. Roll cake up in the towel to cool (it also helps to give it the shape).

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 c. margarine

1 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix until creamy. Unroll cake; spread filling, re-roll without towel, chill and serve.

Yummy!

If you do have a cookie exchange, take lots of pictures and share what works for you and what doesn’t. It is so much fun!

Anjeanette

Technorati Tags: recipe,pumpkin roll,cookie exchange

Thinking this Veterans Day

I just wanted to share this prayer with you.
Eleanor Roosevelt's Wartime Prayer
Dear Lord,

Lest I continue
My complacent way,
Help me to remember that somewhere,
Somehow out there
A man died for me today.
As long as there be war,
I then must
Ask and answer
Am I worth dying for?

I think it is a good reminder for us to ask ourselves..."Am I worth dying for?" I am so thankful that there are men and women now and that there were men and women in the past that thought I was. Thank you.

Anjeanette
and Rebecca and Katrina and Erika

Yummy Parsnip Muffins GFCF

I know what you are thinking……”Parsnips? Yummy?” Yes they can be yummy. I can’t say that I eat parsnips all the time. What I can say is that I have prepared them before and not cared for their flavor. So when I say this is yummy, I am not kidding around. If I didn’t like them you would not be reading this. If my husband and one of my two boys didn’t like them, you wouldn’t be reading this.

Last weekend I was watching Good Eats on Food Network. Alton Brown had an entire show on preparing parsnips so that children would not only eat them but ask for seconds. The first thing he made was parsnip muffins. They looked pretty tasty. His version had roasted almond slivers on top and looked much like muffins you would buy in a bakery.

I decided I would try to make a gluten free version of these muffins since my son can’t have gluten. What is the point of making these the normal way if my child (whom I am trying to get to eat more vegetables) can’t eat them? So I can’t tell you if these taste “just like” his but I can say that we liked them. My oldest son is avoiding them because they are a new food (even though they look much like the banana muffins he loves). My younger son who is in many ways even more picky than his brother said “Mmmm these are super yum!”

My version has the texture of banana or pumpkin bread but a slight lemony flavor. Even though there is no lemon in them.

Thanks Alton for the inspiration!!! Here is Alton's original recipe.

Ingredients

1-ounce sliced almonds (optional)

nonstick spray

8-1/2 ounces Gluten Free Flour Mix

1 teaspoon Xanthan Gum

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (Alton recommends freshly grated, I say use what you got ;)

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

3 whole eggs

3/4 cup soy yogurt (I used 1/4 cup soy sour cream + 1/4 cup soy cream cheese + 1/4 rice milk because it is what I had on hand) Plain soy yogurt is harder for me to find with out driving all over the place.

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)

8 ounces sugar

10 ounces grated parsnips (I processed the gratings into a pulp to hide them better)

Directions

Place the almonds in a single layer in a pie pan and place in the oven. heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake the nuts until lightly toasted, approximately 20 minutes while the oven heats. Meanwhile, spray a standard 12 cup muffin tin with the nonstick spray and set aside.

I skipped that first part because I used my mini muffin maker (kind of like a waffle maker that sits on the counter). I did spray my mini muffin maker with nonstick spray.

Combine the flour, Xanthan Gum, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in a bowl. Mix well.

Whisk the eggs, yogurt (or my substitutions listed above), vegetable oil, and sugar in a large mixing bowl until combined. Add the flour and parsnips, and fold with a spatula until all the flour is moistened.

Prepare the parsnips by peeling off the outer skin. Cut off the top end and grate all but the inner core. In Alton’s show he explains that the core is a little bitter. You want only the sweet flesh for this. I then put my grated parsnip into a food processor to make it into a finer pulp. This gives the muffins a similar texture to banana muffins. The parsnip will not break down when baking. Your children will be able to see the shredded parsnip inside the muffin when they eat it if you don’t process it down further. Just saying….. For us it is a texture thing.

Divide the mixture evenly among the muffin cups. If you are adding almonds, sprinkle the top of each muffin with the toasted almonds. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the muffins reach and internal temperature of 210 degrees F and are golden brown. Rotate your pan half way through while baking. If needed, use a small knife to loosen the muffins and immediately remove them from the tin to a cooling rack. Alton says to cool them for 15 minutes and serve warm. We ate our mini muffins as soon as they were cool enough to bite into with out burning ourselves (which was more like a minute but remember we made mini muffins, they cool faster).

I have found that gluten free baked goods are best eaten fresh. These are best when eaten with in a day or two. I froze half of my batter for another time. I have done this for years with cookie dough, cake batter and banana muffin mixes. We bake up what we want to eat right away. When I want use use my frozen batter, I simply defrost it and bake it. With cookie dough, I defrost it enough to make enough cookies for right then and return the rest to the freezer. It will keep for up to 6 months this way. This is great when you have produce that needs to be used right away before it goes bad. We like to use the frozen batters on weekends for no fuss breakfasts on Saturdays.

P.S. if you add a touch of lemon juice to your banana muffin mix it won't turn brown in the freezer.

Enjoy,

Katrina

Oh and since I am working on remembering to be Thankful, I am so VERY Thankful to those people before more who paved the way for Gluten and Dairy Free foods to be easier than it other wise would have been. There are so many wonderful recipes and ready made foods out there and every day there are more. I am thankful to manufacturers that take the time to label their foods Gluten Free and there are so many more now that do it. It puts my mind at ease. I read every label and worry over ingredients that could be an issue. I look for the allergy warnings to see if there are hidden contaminants. Even trace amounts of gluten or dairy can mean that we have up to a week of bad temper tantrum, meltdown kinds of days. Most people think of food allergies effecting people in their gut only or as a rash. Food allergies can effect mood, mind and body. Dairy literally disconnected my child from the world. Some of my son's issues were from Autism but some of them were from his allergy to dairy and gluten. It is food for thought.

Katrina

Technorati Tags: recipe,parsnip,muffins,gluten free,dairy free

Christmas in July Ornaments and Gifts Recap.

Just in case you missed these……

In July we posted a full week of Christmas Crafts to get everybody inspired for Christmas. You could also say that we wanted an excuse to have some fun making Christmas crafts a bit early.

There is still lots of time to get any and all of these done before Christmas. All of these crafts are quick and fairly easy to make. Most of them can be done with your kids.

Don’t let the look of this fool you into thinking it is more complicated than it is. Your kids can lace the yarn around the edges. Think of it as a Christmas ornament lacing board. This is definitely something that you and your child can make together. Go to, our plastic canvas snowflake picture ornament post, to see a complete tutorial.

Here are some fun ideas for Christmas photo ornaments to make with your children. Get out those scrapbooking papers and stickers you have stashed away. Also included are some durable Polymer Clay ornament examples.

Here is a fun way to dress up an ornament. So simple yet it adds so much to the look of your “glass” ornaments. These fantastic shatter proof ornaments are a great way to have beautiful “glass” ornaments on your tree when you have kids and pets.

Go see how to recycle a card into a crochet ornament. Don’t let not knowing how to crochet keep you from making one of these. See our step by step instructions on how to crochet these ornaments.

We will show you how to make some Christmas Shrinky Dink ornaments as gifts for Christmas. These are great to make with your kids. They can give them as gifts to their friends, teachers, aunts, grandmothers, great grandmothers, and special care givers.

As always thanks for stopping by!

The Roots and Wings Co Girls

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Christmas in July,Crafts,Tutorials