Quick and Easy Gift

Saw this awesome tutorial and thought I would try it. They are fast, easy and cheap.

1) buy a few 1/2 yards of fleece in different colors/patterns
2) cut them into 6" widths (the length of the fabric)
3) sew 2 of them together right down the middle (just eye-ball it)
4) cut fringe the whole length (making sure you don't cut through the middle)
ENJOY!

That's it. So easy. When fleece is on sale, you can make these for less than $1 each! The girls are making these for their friends. They have helped me sew them and are cutting all the fringe. Have fun and try lots of different patterns/colors together!

For more ideas, visit WORKS FOR ME WEDNESDAY!

Still a few Days Left

If you celebrate Hanukkah, or are celebrating with someone who is, you MUST make these. They are in the current issue of Family Fun, but I can't find it on their website.

Anyway, they are so easy. They whole container of Fig Newtons took about 20 minutes to turn into these awesome dreidel cookies. Four simple steps:

1) cut fig newton into point on one end (save the pieces, they make a great snack!)

2) outline the cookie in white icing

3) try not to mangle the Hebrew letter that you copy from the magazine in blue icing

4) stick half a pretzel stick in the end

Voilà! Aren't they so cute? We got so many comments on them, and sooo easy. So get out there and treat your friends to some quick and easy Hanukkah joy!

One Last Advent Tradition

This week I also was rushing to get ready for one last Advent tradition. Each year I gather up all our Christmas-themed books, wrap them up, number them, and stick them under the tree. Each day of December a kid opens one of the packages, and that book is added to our nightly reading.

The kids love it, and I try and add a few new books every year.

I should note that this is in addition to reading the little bear Christmas story - The Advent Storybook. This book is awesome. It has a short (one page) story for each night of Advent, that tells about a little bear's journey to Bethlehem. It is a really cute story, and has some great lessons.

Advent Calendar Just Like Mom

In the 70s, my mom made an advent calendar out of felt that we used every year when I was growing up. A few years ago, my Dad and I searched the house and couldn't find Mom's calendar. I was bummed, but made due with other stuff. This year, I decided I would make my own.

Of course, I decided this abourt 4 days before December 1. Not much time. But thanks to my friend Kathy, and the Dollar store, we got it done just in time. My calendar isn't perfect by any means, but I think its cute, and looks a lot like Mom's. I did cheat and use about 6 ornaments from the Dollar store, which I may replace before next year. Each day, a child will remove an ornament from the grid, and add it to the tree. The star goes up last, on December 24th.

We did this free hand with random felt, glue and string. Very easy. Enjoy!

Advent Fun

I posted about this last year, but still love it, so here it is again. An Advent Joke Tree. This is a fun and easy craft that will take you less than 1/2 hour and your kids will LOVE it. All you need is a single sheet of 25 jokes (each joke on its own line), a piece of green construction paper, an exacto knife, and buttons or small plastic jewels.

All you do is form the construction paper into a cone and tape it together. You may want to cut off the bottom to make it stand even. Then make 25 slits in the sides with an exacto knife.
Then cut your jokes into thin strips (leaving white space on the front or back end). Then attach a small button or jewel to that white space.



Next, slide the jokes into the slits of the "tree", pulling from the inside to help. The inside will look like this.
Tada! An Advent Joke Tree.
Each day you child can pull a joke and read it. Then will then repeat it to all their friends at school and be the hit of the playground!

Making Xmas Gifts

K started a knitting class last week, and is hoping to make some scarfs for Christmas gifts this year. That got me thinking that I should get all 3 kids involved in making some presents. We are going to do these to start.

1) Marbled Paper (with shaving cream!!) We did this years ago, and ended up losing all the papers we made accidentally. Will try this again. Directions here.

2) Bottle cap necklaces. I think these are so cute. We made a few this weekend and will be working on more. Great gifts for the girls to give their friends! Cheap too!

Any more ideas?

Crafting it Up!

I have been doing all kinds of crafts for Christmas. And there are so many great ideas to be had online. My favorite one is One Pretty Thing. It finds all the best ones from the whole webisphere and puts them together. Great ideas every day - without having to visit millions of blogs.

Of all the things we have found, so far we have made this:

• gorgeous ornament wreath - so easy
• awesome Christmas joke advent calendar - the kids will LOVE this
• christmas tree made out of ornament balls
• these awesome snowflakes - fast and easy

Lots more to go!

Still want to make these: boa feather tree - the girls will LOVE these!, memory ornament - isn't that the best idea!!, awesome ornament for some new babies friends are having,

Happy to get betting my crafting groove on again! That's what works for me this Christmas! For more Works for Me Ideas - visit: http://www.wearethatfamily.com/

Present? What Present?

So a few weeks ago we went to play Rock Band 2 at a friend's house. The kids loved it and immediately wanted it for Christmas. We had already talked to Santa so they were worried he wouldn't bring it. We suggested we could ask Nana or Grampa or someone else for it. About a week ago they told Nana she was bringing it for them. lol. On Christmas eve they mentioned it several times and said they really hoped they would get it.

Well, Christmas morning comes. Nana had brought Rock Band and we just covered it with a blanket. They opened everything and were happily playing all day and never mentioned it. We asked them several times if they got everything they wanted and they assured us they got every last thing. Finally last night, DH and I wanted to play it. We asked again if there was anything they didn't get. Nope. I said, really? Like a game you wanted us all to play together? blank stares. Finally K says "Hey! we didn't get Rock Band". We said, are you sure? We had pulled the blanket off it hours ago and nobody had noticed. They walked around a big and finally saw it. So we got in a few games last night. It really is a blast. It will be great when the girls learn more songs than just "we got the beat".

Christmastime Is Here

We have been being very Christmasy for the last few days.

Over the weekend I took the girls to a local production of the Nutcracker. It was a big step up from the very streamlined production we saw last year. This had scenery, and all the acts, and gorgeous costumes. We all loved it.

On Tuesday I found this great website that lists local houses with over-the-top christmas decorations. It was awesome! We went to about 6. The best were the house with probably 150 inflatables and a porch full of decorations. We got out and were able to walk all through it - very cool. Then the most beautiful house I have ever seen. SOOO tasteful! They even broadcast on their own FM station with synchronized music. We got out and stood in front for about 15 minutes. Truly spectacular!!
Then on Wednesday, we went to see the Water-skiing Santa. Oh yeah. There was a Frosty in a dinghy that got chased by the Grinch on a waterski. Then some elves, and a penguin (and a panda?!), and finally the reindeer leading Santa (all on water skis!). Really funny.

Then of course, we went out for Christmas dinner, and to church (where the kids were great). Before bed we called Norad and talked to a very nice elf who assured us that Santa was presently in South America but would arrive in Arlington, VA in just a few hours so we needed to get to bed ASAP.

We had a fabulous Christmas morning and day with family and friends. And then last night we all went down the National Christmas tree so the kids could throw pennies in the trains that run around it.
All in all a perfect Christmas holiday. Hope you and yours had an equally delightful time!

Who is this Crazy Cookie Lady?

In the last 5 days we have made:

1) Glazed Lemon Cookies
2) Rollo-pretzel Turtles
3) Sugar Cookies
4) Muddy Buddies (snow pillows)

Its been a little crazy, but fun. Highly recommend all the above recipes. Easy and great! And if you think you know sugar cookies - the Pioneer Woman's are awesome! And the egg glaze she uses to color them make for really pretty cookies!! This weekend I hope to make her chocolate candy cane cookies and my mom's favorite - buckeyes!

I usually make one of the above, and that it is. Not sure what has gotten into me. But the girls have been having fun. Even Big Man helped with the muddy buddies!

Merry Christmas to Me!

Yayy! I got my Christmas ornament(s!!!). Julie was hosting the 2nd annual ornament swap. Last year was so great, so I was excited to do it again.

About 2 weeks ago, I got an adorable little pear ornament in the mail. No letter, nothing. Then I got a comment here from my secret santa saying more was on the way. Well, the rest came yesterday. Kristen was my secret santa and she sent me the coolest stuff! Not only did I get my pear - but I got a cute green snowflake and a gorgeous acorn. My kids LOVED playing with the bubble wrap - and point to the pear when the sing the 12 days of Christmas (which is CONSTANTLY!) The acorn also came in a GORGEOUS box that I will be immediately wrapping a gift in and passing on! Also, she said most of the stuff came from Etsy, a site I ADORE! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Go check out the ornament exchange - some great new blogs to read!

Don't these look great on my tree?

High Kickin'

We took the kids (along with a bunch of our friends) to Baltimore last weekend to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. And I have to say it was. Very cool show - amazing stage design - nearly all the staging was done through this gigantic big screen that took up the entire stage, and provided all the backgrounds and some cool special effects. It was really very well done. Everyone enjoyed it. Even Big Man who kept yelling "Santa" every time he saw the big guy. Will be interesting to see how the breakfast with Santa at church goes this weekend.

We have been trying to plan a trip to NYC to see the Rockettes at Radio City for several years. Even though we started in April last year, it still didn't work out. We have 18+ people all together and the logistics are just insane. Maybe next year. But this traveling version of the show was really great - I highly recommend (and we were sitting literally in the highest row of the whole joint and it still was great!)

Phil Collins - watch your back!

yes, I realize how much I am dating myself in the title!

So on Sunday we went over a friend's house to play Rock Band 2. Oh my gosh - I LOVE this game. Seriously, it is AWESOME. We have Guitar Hero already - but this is SOOOO MUCH better. The kids loved it too! I love the karaoke aspect..and I really loved the drums. ALOT. The drums were so much fun to play and I was much better at them than I expected. I played instruments when I was growing up (piano, violin, guitar, and finally trumpet for about 6 years), but never percussion. It was so fun playing the drums. K loved to sing and B liked the drums too. Big Man just wanted to do or "help" with anything.

We are really hoping Santa (Nana) brings us one this year.

Homemade Christmas

So I am working with the kids to try and make their presents to family, friends, teachers, etc. So far we have made:

1) String Bowls. These are cool. You take colored yarn and drench it in white glue. It takes a LOT of glue. Then you blow up some balloons and attach them to a paper cup or bowl to stabilize them. Then you drape the strands of yarn all around the top half of the balloon. After it dried, we also painted more glue on so it was crunchy (I have also heard you can use fabric stiffener). When all that is dry you pop the balloon (which does this cool crunchy deflating thing), and detach it from the bowl. Waaalaa. Very cool. We are going to make more of these.

2) Felt Animal Pens. I saw these here. Basically they are just ballpoint pens dressed up to look like animals. We made a dozen or so over Thanksgiving.

We also plan to make:

1) homemade melted crayons - I have been collecting old crayons to make a bunch of these babies.

2) Rollo Turtles - These are soooo awesome. Seriously. Oh my GOSH they are so good.

Any other cheap and easy ideas?

Still Alive

So I caught a horrible cold on the trip back from MA from Thanksgiving. We had a great Thanksgiving visit with my Dad. Dad and DH played bridge a few times at the National Bridge Tournament that just happened to be in Boston while we were there. We went to see Plymouth Rock and Mayflower II after K went on and on about the story of the first Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims coming over to Plymouth Rock. So we were actually educational. I joined the crazy mobs on Black Friday morning. I hadn't planned to, but couldn't sleep all night and found myself wide awake at 5am, so I figured - what the heck. I am now done Christmas shopping for the kids. Oh yeah!

I have pretty much been a slouch since Sunday. I went to work on Monday, stayed in bed all day yesterday, and am back at work today. I feel like I am on the mend, but will be much happier when I am well.

On the plus side, this is helping with my weight loss. I started the carb-deplete cycle of my diet plan again this week, and being sick I am not even hungry!

Count Down til Christmas

Disclosure: I am completely stealing this idea from Anastasia at The Gift.

I know, I know. Its just Thanksgiving. But really - Christmas is only 27 days away. I LOVE Christmas. I like the shopping, the traditions, the lights, the music, the excitement, the Nutcracker, family and friends celebrating - really everything about it.

I have decided to put up some version of my Christmas Village this year - you know, those Department 56 ceramic houses that crazy old ladies decorate with. LOVE EM! I haven't put it out much in the last few years cuz I have these crazy kids who would break play with them. But this year I am going for it. We finally got our plasma tv hung on the wall (after about a year), so there is room to put some on the entertainment center. We just have to keep them out of the reach of Big Man (and probably B.)

We are putting up our tree on Sunday. I can't wait. I also promised the kids we could bring out blankets and sleep under it the first night too. Not exactly what I planned as a school night, but ah well...

I have a bunch of shopping done, but still more to do. But I love it. I know there are people who don't, but I do. I love picking out just the right thing for each person. I am even making a bunch of my gifts this year. I even love wrapping. And seeing all the gifts under the tree.

So bring it on - I love Christmas and am glad the season is here!

Santa - Come Back!

So in Kindergarten, K was somewhat isolated from older kids. They didn't eat in the cafeteria with the older ones and separated them in extended day. But K started day camp last week. The kids are more mixed K-5. On the second day, K lost a tooth. When she was putting under her pillow at bedtime she says to me "Mom, do you give me Christmas presents?" I said of course. She says "But does Santa give me presents - or is it just you?" I was so sad. I thought we would have more time!!! I said, "why are you asking that?" She said "A boy in my camp says he doesn't get presents from Santa, they are all from his Mom and Dad. He says Santa isn't real" I said, "well maybe he isn't a very good boy, and that's why Santa doesn't bring him presents." She thought about that and said, "he seems ok". I asked her what she thought. She said "I think Santa is real" and I said, "well, there you go".

I think she is ok for now..but I was so sad that it happened so quick. And its summer -what were these kids doing talking about Santa anyway???? Sheesh!

we are off to the beach for a few days....will try and post....

Fun Stocking Present

So in my Christmas stocking, I got these awesome camera filters called Jelly Lens. (Ok, I put them in my stocking, but anyway...). I have two -- the starburst and the diamond. They are little plastic sticky things that you can put on the lens of any camera and get these cool effects. Aren't they great??

I would tell you that you could find them at the Container store for like $4 each, but they are way sold out. I found more on Ebay.

An exercise in excess

Christmas was great. Everyone got what they wanted and MORE. LOTS more. Here is the evidence. In our defense, the pile of pink boxes are the closet organizers. But all the bags and boxes, etc. All Christmas remnants. Horrifying really. The good news is that before Christmas we had the kids go through their toys and we got rid of a minivan full of stuff. Nana and Grampy took it to the Food Pantry where they volunteer and donated it. Even still, more will be going in order for it to fit into our already WAY over-burdended play room. It will be great when Big Man gets big enough that we can actually get rid of an entire class of toys. Having three kids so closely together means we have toys for all ages. From infant up to 6. We've never grown out of any of them. We are finally getting rid of the infant stuff now that Big Man is 17 months old. But really, the toy situation is out of hand.

I apologize

I have been a bad bad blogger. Completely ignoring this for the last two weeks. Sorry. Especially after I send out my blog address in my Christmas cards, then I fail to publish. In my defense, things have been crazy. HUGE kudos to all the stay-at-home parents out there. The last 11 days have assured me I could NEVER do what you do. Seriously. Being home with my kids 24/7 for the last 11 days was EXHAUSTING!!!! I mean, it was great, but it was also very exhausting. I was so relieved to be going to work today.

Part of it was probably due to expectations. We moved into our new bedroom and great room about 5 days before Christmas. So while we were off from work all the time, we figured we'd get the closets all put together and clothes and everything moved. We did get much of the closet work done. Some clothes are moved. We are sleeping in the new bedroom, and hanging in the new great room. So, all in all a victory. But trying to do these things with three kids running around who want to play was nearly impossible.

At about 4pm yesterday DH said he really didn't think he would make it til the kids bedtime. So, we went out. Thank God for malls with play areas. We let the kids run around, got a bit of a break, had dinner out and were ready for work this morning.

Will probably be updating a lot this week, as I had much to say, just no time to get it all down.