Naitivity

My Nativity Sets are really special to me, plus they are fragile, so I decided to not put them out this year.

After a few days I started really missing them. So we made this: Our own little kid-friendly-non-breakable-recycled-nativity set!

I used a basket we had laying around, some toilet paper roll, tissue paper and construction paper, and a glue stick and marker. Just glue it up and place it how you wanted. I had plans to also make a sheep and a cow a shepard and the wise man, but we ended up just doing the "main characters". But it was fun and super easy. My two year old loves playing with them, moving them around and I love that I can let him!

Christmas Lights

Less than a week!

Bundle up and go see some Christmas lights! And watch these videos of musical christmas lights - they are so cool!

Hot Chocolate and Christmas Movies

 There are SO many Christmas Movies out there, that it's hard to pick a favorite. Here is a list of a few that are worth checking out this Christmas.

And then... why not pair it all with some delicious hot chocolate?! Check out Our Best Bites and their gourmet hot chocolate recipes, and be sure to check their smores hot chocolate!

Satined Glass Cookies - Snow Globe

Have you seen these around blogosphere?! I think they are just daring!!!

Great for eating, but I also saw this great idea - stained glass cookie snow globe. It's genius!

Damaris at Kitchen Corners give a great little how on it. Go check it out... it's actually quite easy!

CHRISTmas Ornaments

We're up to the 9th day! Can you believe it?! Christmas is just around the corner and with that, the end of the year...

So I wanted to also bring a little more CHRIST into our Christmas, and really try to teach my two year something about the true meaning of Christmas. So we made some CHRISTmas Ornaments for our tree.

 Again, this can be as involved or as simple as you'd like it to be. I just cut out some pictures of Christ from the Liahona, and together we glued it to some construction paper, then I taped some ribbon to the back and that was that!

 I let him color the "frames" and then put glue the pictures on them. As we were making the ornaments I started telling him that Christmas is Jesus "happy birthday". I think he at least understood that Christmas and Jesus go together, and that it's special (he knows birthdays are special).

 So then, we even had a second activity which as totally his idea - he decided to make a card for Jesus. You see, for my husbands' birthday we made cards and porters and put them all over the house - and that's what he wanted to do! So we did it -I thought it was so cute of him, and that it really was a great idea... after all - it really is Jesus birthday!

Cheri at I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar also has a great idea on how to make these a little nicer/classier/long lasting.

Ginger Bread House

I actually opted for a faux-ginger bread house this year (aka foam house). I just figured it was WAY too much candy for a two year old to be dealing with, because, I am pretty sure he (and I) would just eat all the candy, and the house would be left bare... 

You can either get your own foam sheets and make this yourself, or buy a kit like this one where everything is ready to assemble - just peal and stick. I know, not half as fun as a real ginger bread house - but it will yield lots of fun for your kids just the fun! I know we had lots of fun. 

Another thing you do, is do something like the paper stocking on the previous post... cute out a house and have your kids decorate it with whatever you have at home.

Or... you can go for the real deal.

What you'll need:

• 7 graham crackers
• Frosting for glue (recipe below)
• Assorted small candies for decorating
• Ribbon
• Pastry bag and tip or Ziploc bag and scissors

Frosting

• 1/2 pound confectioner's sugar
• 3 tbs. butter/margarine
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 1/2 - 2 tbs. Milk

How to make it:

1. Mix all the ingredients together until smooth and easy to spread, but not runny. Add more sugar if too runny.
2. If you have a pastry bag, place frosting in bag and use a small tip. You can use a Ziploc bag cutting a small hole in the corner.
3. Place one graham cracker flat on the table, squeeze a little frosting around all edges. You may need an extra pair of hands.
4. Place one cracker on each side standing up. It now looks like a box without a top.
5. Carefully squeeze more frosting on all outside corners from top to bottom and around the bottom of the box.
6. Let stand for a short while to let frosting harden a little. This will make working with the roof a little easier. (a tip when doing this with kids is to make the house ahead of time!)
7. Now squeeze frosting on two of the top edges of the box and place the last two graham crackers in a V shape on as the roof. Looks like a triangle on a box now from the side. It may overhang if you can get the frosting to hold for you.
8. Squeeze frosting along the top of the roof where crackers join. Let stand again until frosting hardens a little.  (a tip when doing this with kids is to make the house ahead of time!)
9. Now comes the fun part - with leftover frosting, cover the roof to look like snow. (two sides are left open) Then squeezing small amounts on candy, place candy on the house to decorate. You can use the frosting to add things like doors and windows. Just use your imagination.

So, don't be lame like me, make real gingebread houses! 

Paper Stockings

This activity hardly needs a how-to, and it's so simple and so fun and to make it even better - the possibilities are endless!!!

I simply cut out the shape of a big fat stocking on a piece of construction paper, got out some glitter glue (because, believe it or not, that's the only kind of glue I had) squirted all over the place and let my 2 yr old go wild with scraps of xmas fabric.

He had a blast, and I had a blast helping him while I made some real stockings for our family - aren't they cute?!

So like I said, possibilities = endless! You can just let them color, or finger paint. Or you could use magazine cut outs, or junk mail cut out, or just other colors of construction paper. You could do this in felt. You could add other things to the party life buttons, pompoms, glitter (if nor not using glitter glue, or if you just want MORE glitter), stickers.

You could plaster the stocking with glue and then let the kids make scrunched up balls of paper or tissue paper and let them place it wherever.

You could use popcorn! Or macaroni! Or cereal!

See... endless possibilities!