Making Christmas fun

I really didn't plan on posting so much about Christmas this year, but things just keep coming up that I really feel strongly about sharing. Don't click the red x just yet, this is about making it fun remember. Not the presents and treats and family traditions, that stuff is already fun. I'm talking about making Christmas fun. See, I have a six year old boy who refuses to do anything unless it's fun. Every morning he tells me that he doesn't want to go to school because it's boring, and every Sunday he tells me the same thing about church. Fun is what his life revolves around. If it's not fun, he's not interested.

So, I set out to find a way to teach my kids about what the Christmas spirit really means and make it fun enough that my son James would actually pay attention. In the end, I came across an idea that wasn't just a one time teaching moment, it's something we are working on from now until Christmas.

What is it? It's a service tree.



The first thing I did was to read the kids this little story. And I have to say, even though I know it's fiction, it still made me tear up it was so sweet. If nothing else, read this story as a family. Then we talked about service and how that is the best gift you can give at Christmas.

So, as a family, we are going to serve each other, and when we do, we put our names on an ornament and stick it on our tree. The goal is to get as many ornaments on the tree as we can before Christmas. There is also a star tucked away in the pocket, which we are going to place on top of the tree after we do a family service project. And of course, there is going to be some sort of reward for when the tree is all filled up. Maybe a movie, or a trip to Chuckee Cheese's.

It has been great to see how excited the kids are to do something that earns them an ornament. Even James is having fun!

I'm hoping to make this a new family tradition. One that we continue to expand on as the kids get older and are able to do more. And I hope all of you can take a few moments over the next week and a half to give a few gifts to your family that will mean more than a pretty package.

Cookie Cutter Ornaments, and a little Fabulous Friday

A couple years ago when I was realizing how incredibly bare our Christmas tree was, I came up with a fun kid friendly craft project to add some sparkle to our tree. At the time, our oldest daughter was the only one I trusted to be in control of the glitter, so this year I decided to try it again but let all three of our kids in on the fun. And it was a lot of fun, but I must warn you. Glitter is glitter is glitter, no matter what you do, that stuff gets everywhere. At least it's pretty though right?




I'm guessing that most of you could figure this out on your own just from the title, but just because I want to, I'm going to walk you through it a little.

First off is what you will need...

cookie cutters (mine were plastic, and I got a bag of six for a buck at the dollar store)
white glue (I used mod podge, but I'm sure Elmer's glue would work too)
Glitter
Clear sealant (I used Krylon clear finishing spray. It was right next to the glitter)
string or ribbon for hanging

Optional...
Beads
collapsible eye beading needles (If your going to use beads, these are not optional, they are a must)

Let me pause for a minute to tell you about these wonderful beading needles. I didn't even know they existed until Thanksgiving weekend when my Mom found them for me at Micheal's. They were only a couple dollars, and if you plan on making any ribbon necklaces in the future, don't follow these instructions I gave for a makeshift needle, just use one of these. They work wonderful!

OK, back to the ornaments. First up is to cover your table in newspaper! Then give your kids a paint brush and let them go to work on their ornaments. It works best to do this in stages though so that one side has time to dry and then you can flip it over and do the other side. We did the front and inside first.


Next, and this is very important, (I learned this the hard way) if your glitter doesn't have a shaky thing on top, don't just let your kids dump the glitter on the ornament, it will end up in every crevice of your house and their bodies. Pour the glitter into a sandwich bag, and glitter your ornaments shake and bake style, only shake gently. You may have to touch up a few of the edges, but believe me, that's a whole lot cleaner than doing it all by hand.

Set the cookie cutters on the newspaper to dry and spray on a light coat of clear finish. You can skip the clear finish if you really want to, but you'll be finding a lot more glitter around your house if you do. Let the whole thing dry and do the other side.

At this point you can tie on some ribbon and be done, which is what we did the first time, but this year I wanted to make them a little more fun so we added on some beads.

I wanted to use some really skinny white ribbon, but Michigan seems to be experiencing a skinny white ribbon shortage right now, so I had to settle for white beading string.

The first step here is to just cut a long piece of string. You can cut off the excess when your done. Then, loop it around the ornament and tie a knot. If your using large beads, you will need a pretty big knot. In the end, I ended up doing two small beads and one larger bead in the middle, so I went back a re-tied a smaller knot than this.

Next, get out that awesome beading needle and thread your string through it. String on your beads.

Finally, give yourself whatever size loop you want for hanging, and tie another knot on top. And, it's never a bad idea to add a drop of super glue to the knot.

Now, just let your excited kids, who have been waiting forever for these to be finished, hang up their special ornaments.

What's fun, is that every day now since we made these, I've heard my kids tell each other "hey look, I found my ornament!"

Since our cookie cutters came from the dollar store, were not 100% sure what all of them are supposed to be, but we think this is a snowman.

And I'm still not sure if this is supposed to be an angel, or just a ginger bread woman. We made her into an angel though.

OK, enough pictures of sparkly cookie cutters. Here is my very short Fabulous Friday tip.

It's winter, which means we've got a lot of this flying around!

It's the most frustrating on Sundays when I've spent so much time torturing them, I mean fixing their hair, and then we get to church, they take their coats off and you can literally see the sparks jumping from their coats to their hair.

The quick fix to this is simply rub some lotion on your hands, and then right before it's all the way rubbed in, run your hands through their hair. Or your own. Mine isn't much better right now.

PS. If you need more fun Holiday ideas, check out this party and this party that I linked up to!

The reason I will celebrate this year

I've been debating all weekend what I should post today. I wanted to post something about Christmas, since it's just weeks away. (Does it scare you to read that, because it does me) What I really wanted to post was something meaningful, something that would help us all to reflect on the real reason we have to celebrate, but without sounding too preachy or repetitive. Sometimes though I just can't separate all the thoughts swirling through my brain into anything that makes sense. Then I went to church on Sunday and it all made sense. Really, it started on Saturday night when I sat down with our 8 year old daughter to talk to her about something very important.

In Oklahoma where we used to live, there is a great family struggling through a very difficult trial. Their sweet little girl is battling cancer. She was diagnosed just shortly before we moved here, but I have been keeping up with her progress through facebook. On Friday I got an email letting me know that she is back in the ICU battling an infection. The email asked for our prayers and fasting on her behalf this coming Sunday. On Saturday night I asked our daughter if she would join me in fasting for Gracie. She agreed without hesitation and said the most precious, sincere prayer on her behalf before bed.

On Sunday morning, a man stood up in church and talked about how he and his family had made a goal for this coming year to be more involved at church and to make friends. They had been in the ward for several years, but still didn't feel like they knew anybody. He wasn't accusing of anyone for not making the effort to befriend him or his family, he simply had a sincere desire to reach out to others.

In our last meeting of the day, we talked about being Christ's hands. As women, we have the gift of touching lives. This truly is a divine gift, given by a loving Father in Heaven who can't physically reach out and touch us in times of trial and suffering, but can send a friend who with a hug can fill us with his love. I was touched by all the stories the women shared about when other sisters had served them with nothing but charity in their hearts.

I came home with a renewed desire to not just reach out to those I come in contact with everyday, but to serve them and love them.

In our busy lives, I know it's sometimes hard to stop and think about people other than the ones living under our same roof, but if there is ever a season to make time, it is now.

There is no better way to honor and celebrate the birth of our Savior, than by following his example.

Count down day one

One of my favorite Christmas decorations growing up was our advent calender. Mostly because it was a fun way to count down to the most exciting day of the year, but I'm pretty sure it was also because it involved candy. Although as one of seven kids, my turn to take the candy only came up a few times in the 24 days.

Now that I have kids of my own, I want them to have fun Holiday memories as well. Things that they can look forward to. And can you believe we don't have an advent calender? I know, I'm depriving my kids. But when I saw this little Christmas tree in the dollar section at Target I decided it was time.



I really liked the idea of this cute little tree, but I wanted something a little bigger and maybe not so dollar section looking. So of course I thought "hey, I can make one" And just so you know, I have that thought a lot, but it doesn't always work out for me. This time it did though, so I thought I would give you all a tutorial just in case you are in need of a fun and easy way to count down to Christmas. If you hurry, you can run to the fabric store this morning and have it finished by this afternoon.

Here is what you will need:

• Half a yard of green felt. (You will have extra)
• One sheet each of white, red, blue, and yellow craft felt
• One sheet of stiffened yellow felt (for the star) it's right next to the other felt.
• Ribbon for hanging
• Either a fabric marker or iron on numbers

OK, so the first step for me was to make a pattern. I taped four pieces of paper together, traced the smaller tree and then made it about an inch bigger all around. I wish I was computer savvy enough to make a pattern that you can download, but technology is just not one of my talents. So, you can either find a Christmas tree online that you can enlarge or draw one of your own. If you want to follow mine these are some dimensions. From top to bottom the tree is 19 inches tall. the trunk is 7 inches. The bottom tier is 15 inches across, the middle tier is 12 1/2 inches across and the top tier is 10 1/2 inches across

Since mine was hand drawn and not exactly the same on both sides, I decided to fold the pattern in half and lay it on the fold of my felt. It's the same concept as folding a piece of paper in half to cut out a heart. Both sides end up the same

You will need two felt trees and one of a medium weight interfacing.

To put the tree together, start by sewing the interfacing to the wrong side of one of the green pieces.


Next, you need to cut out 24, 1 1/2 by 1 1/2 inch squares. They can be all the same color or a variety of colors like I did. Also, cut out one yellow star from stiffened felt. I traced around a cookie cutter and it was the perfect size.

Next, lay out all your squares on the green piece that is NOT sewn to the interfacing. Arrange, and re-arrange until it looks like you want. Don't stress too much about how perfectly straight the lines are, because having them a little helter skelter adds to the charm of it. Pin the squares in place. DO NOT pin down the star at this point.

Stitch around the sides and bottom of each square as close to the edge as you possibly can. Don't worry about cutting the thread in between each square, just slide it on over and start on the next one. Make sure to back stitch. When your all done, you can go back and trim off the excess thread.


Stitch a square to your star.

Cut a piece of ribbon roughly 10 inches long. In can be longer or shorter, it's just preference. Pin the ribbon to the tree like shown.

Next, sew the two green pieces (right sides together) using a quarter inch stitch, leaving the bottom open and about half and inch on each side. This is so you can turn it right side out and also tuck the unfinished end in.

Trim the seams and clip the rounded edges.


Turn the tree right side out and iron to flatten it down nice and crisp. Then hand stitch the star to the top.

To finish it off, turn in the bottom edges and then hand sew if you are crazy. If you want this to be an easy project like I did, just squeeze some hot glue in there.

At this point all you have left to do is add numbers to all the squares and you are done. You can go one step farther though and decorate it with some ribbon and cute little iron on snowflakes.

As you can see, my tree is still numberless. (sad face) I do have the little candy canes though to put in each pocket! I want the tree to have a nice finished look, so I'm still trying to find iron on numbers. If I can't find any I may have to use a fabric marker and just draw them on myself. I really hope not though, because my hand writing is terrible!

Happy counting down!

Last minute gift idea

If your say, trying to throw together a Christmas gift for your kid's teachers the night before their last day of school, here is what I would recommend.

Candy Cane Sugar Scrub

1/2 C. white granulated sugar

1/4 C. olive oil

1 1/2 Tbs. very finely crushed candy canes or peppermint candies

Optional: 1-2 drops peppermint oil

Directions: Crush candy canes into small pieces by hand, then use a blender to chop into a fine powder. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then pour into a cute little container. (Mine came from Hobby Lobby.)

Decorate your jar with a cute little bow and tag and then enjoy the smell of peppermint throughout your whole house!

Christmas Wreath

I got my inspiration for this wreath from one that I saw at target. I probably should have just bought the pre-made one, but for some reason I have this strange drive to see if I can make things myself. Anyway, I won't show you a picture of that one because mine looks nothing like it, but since this was my first ever attempt at making a wreath I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. You really can't tell from the pictures, but I sprayed the whole thing with glitter and it looks really cool.

Materials used:

Grapevine wreath

Dried flowers, feathers, and assorted other dried stuff.

White craft bird

Krylon's mettalic satin nickel spray paint

Silver glitter spray paint

Wide red ribbon for hanging (I pushed thumb tacks into the top of the door)

Tons of hot glue