Advent Adventures: Homemade Wrapping Paper

The idea is to dip cookie cutters in paint (we used BioColor Red and Colorations Metallic Gold Activity Paint) then transfer those shapes to your paper then Voila! Wrapping Paper. However, if you are three, you may prefer a more hands-on approach.

It all started out being fairly tame. Notice the nice shapes the cookie cutters leave behind...

Then the experiments began... William testing the "movement" of the paint on the plates and Sara started smearing

"Ooooooo, how 'bout I make a print, Mom?"

Happiness

All we need is to put a bow on her! Best present ever...

Advent Adventures: Gingerbread Houses

At the rate we’re building, we’ll soon have an entire gingerbread village. This is one of our favorite holiday activities (it shows up in various forms in the advent calendar—sometimes just us making them, sometimes inviting friends for a play date/party variation).  I love the endless creative opportunities and hands-on process. The kids love enjoy that too but let’s be honest, some activities are really all about the candy…

Trader Joe’s stole my heart this season with their $7.99 Gingerbread House Kit that comes with adorable frosting figures. It is quick to build and wonderfully stable for little hands to dive right in and decorate without waiting for the frosting to harden. Also, this kit provided the best recipe yet for gingerbread house building (whip one egg white until peaks form, add 250 grams powdered sugar until mixed then add some lemon juice and water to achieve a nice thick sticky texture)—I will never go back to my old basic mix!

Some folks might miss the pre-made frosting that comes with some kits but an opportunity to lick the spoon is never missed in this house...

Look at those cuties (the frosting figures too)

So focused

While we're on the subject of Trader Joe’s… can I just tell you how muck I love that store? Let me count the ways with this list of some of our favorites this holiday season…

On the first day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, a fabulous South African Smoke Seasoning Blend (made from mostly paprika, no chemicals, adds a wonderful flavor to veggies or tofu)

On the second day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Two Gingerbread Houses

On the third day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, tri-color Veggie and Flaxseed Tortilla Chips

On the fourth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, four cans of organic beans (best price anywhere… even though I know that it would be cheaper and more healthy to make them from dried beans… working on doing that more)

On the fifth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, 5 pounds of Juicy Satsuma Mandarins (easy to peel for the kids and oh so juicy and delicious)

On the sixth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Sesame Honey Cashews (William would eat these by the cup-full if we let him)

On the seventh day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, a 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate Bar with toffee, walnuts and pecans (great stocking stuffer)

On the eighth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Snap Pea Crisps (this would be Sara's snack of choice any time)

On the ninth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, Organic 9 Grain Whole Wheat Bread (if you don't like your bread to be sweet, this is a great one!)

On the tenth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, all my favorite nuts and seeds at great prices

On the eleventh day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, affordable organic dried cranberries

On the twelveth day of Christmas, Trader Joe’s sold to me, delectable Soy Creamy Non-Dairy Frozen Dessert

OK, so I actually consolidate my trips a bit more than my list suggests... but you get the idea. Much better than partridges in pear trees, don't you think?

The Wisdom of Daddy: A Special Phone Call

The Elves called yesterday and reported that they’ve been running into some nasty weather the past few nights and won’t be able to continue nighttime deliveries. They recommended that William and Sara stop waking up at 5:30 every morning and instead check their advent calendar periodically throughout the day to see if a delivery has been made.

Good call, Elf Daddy.

Filling the Advent Calendar

"Baby William" four years ago, his second Christmas

Two advent calendars grace our home. One is filled with treats from elves that come every night and tuck goodies inside the doors (the elves know better than to trust that our 3 and 5 year olds would leave the numbers unopened until the appropriate day).  The other calendar is made of felt and has lovely little pockets where I place daily holiday activities.

A friend suggested this a few years ago and it’s been a wonderful way to help stay focused on all the fun, friendship, and love this season inspires. Here is my list so far (I know it’s more than 25 needed for the month but it’s good to have lots of choices) and a preview of what we’ll be up to in the coming weeks:

Make a “Grateful Garland” using paper stars, mittens or stocking shapes (kids pick)

Create paper snowflakes and tape them to the windows

Make hot cocoa with candy cane stirrers

Forage for evergreen boughs and decorate inside

Create colorful paper stars

String cranberries and popcorn

Gather unused toys to share with others

Make edible decorations for the birds and squirrels

Read 5 Christmas stories beside the fire

Sing Christmas carols beside the fire

Make salt dough ornaments

Make a card (or two) and send it to someone special

Poach pears

Roll beeswax candles

Stay up late and sing Christmas songs by the tree

Hang decorations on a tree outside!

Light a candle in honor of Hanukkah and talk about various faiths and celebrations

Make Christmas cards for friends and family

Mail Christmas greetings to family and friends

Paint Christmas ornaments together

Make gift tags

Decorate the Christmas tree together

Make & bake Christmas cookies

Decorate Christmas cookies

Deliver Christmas cookies to a neighbor

Paint everybody's toenails in Christmas colors

Purchase a present to give to charity

Picnic lunch by the Christmas tree

Go out after dark to look at Christmas lights

Write a special letter to Santa

Make gifts for teachers

Festive family disco night!

Go out somewhere special for dinner

Ice cream sundaes for dessert

Make popcorn & watch a Christmas movie

Make a special bookmark for your favorite storybook then read it together

Give your favorite pet a Christmas present

Write a love note and put it under Daddy’s pillow

Build snowmen in front of the Senior Center

Create holiday art/craft bags for kids in hospital

Make Snow Angels

Make snow ice cream (snow + sugar + vanilla + milk)

Sleep under the Christmas tree

Attend a program at library or local nature center

Shop for an adopted family in need

Christmas Crafts! Make paper chains, pom-pom garlands, noodle garlands & more

Plant paperwhites (early for blooms at Christmas)

Make tasty treats for the birds

Family game night

Fondue night

Chocolate Fondue night

Attend a holiday concert or play

Tell a friend at school you think they’re really cool

Recycle some toys to share with others

Read a Christmas book together

Take food to a local food bank

Go see Santa!

Sit by the fire & drink hot cocoa

Roast marshmallows in the fireplace

Make thank you notes before they are needed

Make a list of 10 things we are thankful for. Share with your Grandma!

Hot chocolate & cookies by the fire

Learn a Christmas song and Skype it or call to sing it for someone

Breakfast for dinner while wearing Holiday pajamas!

Christmas cookie play date

Gingerbread house-making party!

Make popcorn garlands for the tree

See a Christmas show

Go for a family hike to find signs of winter

Face painting

Build and decorate a gingerbread house

Make our own wrapping paper (dip cookie cutters in paint)

Wrap presents

Eat dinner by candlelight (celebrate Solstice!)

Take a drive in the dark to look at Christmas lights

Sprinkle Reindeer food (oats + glitter) outside

Put out treats for Santa (and the reindeer)

Let me know if you're interested in a printable version complete with fun little graphics--I'd be happy to pass it along and spread the cheer!

Decking the Halls

Determined to enjoy all of our Christmas treasures for at least one whole month, we didn’t waste any time decorating our house. Storage boxes were pulled from closets the day after Thanksgiving and our massive tree came down from the attic. Yes, our tree is fake and no, I didn’t ever think we’d have one but have to say that I love not chopping down a tree, fighting with fitting it into the tree stand, making it look straight, keeping it watered, hanging the lights evenly, etc. etc. A fake tree is easy and can be enjoyed for a solid 30+ days with no fire hazard!

Sara and William donned their head lamps and delighted in the adventure of checking out the attic, a section of the house they rarely see. My little lumberjack wanted to carry the tree down from the attic himself but Daddy ended up doing the heavy lifting. It’s unbelievable that no ornaments were broken in the process of emptying the Christmas boxes, the kids were so excited to dig everything out. Ornaments from my childhood (bless my Mom for saving them) and ones that their Daddy made years ago (bless his Mom for saving those), ornaments that the kids have chosen, and personalized ornaments; each one felt uniquely special as we unwrapped them.

Taking advantage of the weather, we hung our outside ornaments and lights too. A couple red-nosed reindeer helped.

Hmmm... "helping?" Time to take this one in for hot cocoa

Leaf Piles

Some families toss a football around after Thanksgiving. Leaf wrestling is more our style.

The Adventures of Art Lady

This time around (only my second time teaching art in my son’s Kindergarten classroom) we made Oil Pastel Self-Portraits. Much to my surprise there was a substitute teacher so I knew things might get dicey. Thankfully, it was a pretty straightforward lesson.

I showed them the Mona Lisa as a famous example of a portrait then provided mirrors so they could really look at their own features, a pencil to sketch an outline, oil pastels to color the entire page (background too), heavyweight watercolor paper, and q-tips for blending.

Most of the kids dove right in, studying their faces in the mirror then drawing and coloring. One child was only interested in drawing “transformers,” another got a little lost in working with smudgy intense oil pastels for the first time. He covered one sheet of paper with a few patches of color then started on a new one with just black, telling me it was a rainbow. Finally, when everyone was done, this rainbow child refused to let me take his picture home with me so I could frame it for him. “I have like 29 frames at home,” he told me. Yes, this is where the presence of their lovely, calm and authoritative regular teacher would have come in handy…

Anyhow, here are some of the pieces the kids created and let me take home to mount onto construction paper for them. Few of them remembered to do the background work so I took the liberty of painting a light watercolor wash over them to help them look a little more finished (both sides needed to be painted in order to avoid paper curling).

I love the vivid colors on this one -- she really pressed hard to achieve that intensity from the oil pastels

This young lady was extremely detailed all the way down to the Puma logo on her shirt

This little guy didn't want a self-portrait without light sabers

This clever young lady remembered to do a background and also discovered she could blend multiple colors to get her hair just right

and for the grand finale... my darling son decided to do a nude