12 Days of Christmas - The Final Day!

Do I even have to tell you what we're doing and what you should be doing today?!

Well, just in case:

We'll be opening presents, enjoying a wonderfully delicious breakfast, watching A Christmas Story and probable some other Christmas movie, we'll be enjoying family and friends, laughing, and most importantly remembering Christ's Birth. :o)

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day.

12 Days of Christmas - Cookies for Santa

For me, this is one of the cutest Christmas traditions - and yummiest too of course!
Since my kiddos are still way too young to actually understand what's going on, we're not actually leaving cookies for Santa, but we are making cookies and eating it all up while listening to some wonderful Christmas music.

Here are some really yummy recipes:

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies (my personal fav by far)
Gingerbread People
Lemon Pistachio Wreaths
Thumbprints (this one I want to try out with guava jelly instead, like the casadinhos in Brazil)
Cut out Butter cookies 
Chocolate Pretzels

After all... I'm sure Santa would appreciate some variety right?!

(oh and we're reading The Night Before Christmas... not that we haven't read that book a million times already, but I just love it, and there is nothing like reading it THE night before Christmas.)

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!

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!

12 Days of Christmas

Tomorrow starts the musical countdown to Christmas! And to celebrate I'll be sharing with you, one or more things everyday to make these days extra especial. We'll be doing everything from gingerbread houses, to homemade ornaments to cookies for Santa, everything so we can enjoys as much as we can this 'most wonderful time of the year'!

These are all simple ideas, made with things that you will probably have around the house!
So join in the fun!

Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and seems like some times this is a rushed holiday... at least that is how I feel sometimes. Like " Ugh, can Thanksgiving just go already so we can get on with Christmas!?"

But even though Thanksgiving is not part of my culture, I think it's a great holiday to celebrate - no matter where you are from or where you are! It's about being grateful, giving thanks, being with family and cherising those moments.

So in honor of Thanksgiving, and its true meaning, not just the amazingly good food, and the ridiculous amount of it, the football and all the other stuff that it may be mistaken for... let's take some time these next few weeks and celebrate - what do you think?!

To start off... let's hear some traditions, shall we?! What kinds of things do you do on Thanksgiving day? Decor ideas maybe? Or even activities to do with the kiddos! Do you have any traditions in terms of food making, or games, or things to pass time with... whatever you've got - share with us!

I have seem some very cute ideas around the blogsphear and am excited to share with you!