Merry Christmas!

The turkey has been eaten and all the presents have been opened.  It's been a great Christmas.  Hope you all enjoyed this special time with your families, and all the best for 2016!

xoxo

Advent Calendar Revisited

Two years ago, I had made a pom pom advent calendar.  Once Christmas was over, I stored it away in the basement and we couldn't find it last year.  Oops.  This year, #1 found the pom poms and asked if we could do advent again because he enjoyed it so much last time. 

I didn't have time to print out new envelopes.  I just printed out the numbers on a sheet of paper.

Then I wrote the advent activity on the back of the paper.

Then attached them to the garland.

The kids love it and I have to admit, it's fun thinking of ideas for them to do after school.  So far we have gone to the Lego Store, we've done scavenger hunts, art projects, and eaten some chocolate.   My lucky children are going to see the new Star Wars movie with my mom today.

It's been difficult to top all the fun from November.  

We visited Santa's House at Scarborough Town Centre.  IMO, the best Santa house in the GTA.

Then skated at the Air Canada Centre.  Go Leafs!

Got to meet the Octonauts!!!

Went to the Christmas Market for carols and a sleep over at my sister's place.  #2 really wants nesting dolls to hide his stuff.

I'm definitely keeping the little sheets of paper for ideas for next year!  

Easy Jingle Bells

Our school was participating in a Christmas parade and the kids wanted to sound "jingly" while walking the route.  I thought about making a small jingle bell wreaths for them to hold, but sometimes life gets busy and there's no time.  Especially when the kids ask for something last minute.

I had already been at the store and bought some bell ornaments (for what?  I don't know... something made me buy these) and I already had the jump rings at home. 

It really doesn't get any easier than this:  hook the jump ring through the bell and attach it to a jacket zipper.  Done!!!

If you have extra time and patience, you could also hook in some smaller bells and make what the kids call, a "Mickey Mouse".

Sometimes crafting doesn't have to been overtly complicated.  I love the fact that these went onto the zippers (all 4 of them) and I didn't have to hold anything.

In the end, the kids got to sit on the float so there wasn't much jingling going on.  Afterwards, they met up with Santa who was very kind, and spent quite a bit of time chatting with his two little elves.

As I write this post, I can't help but hum...  Jingle bells, jingle bells...

DIY Ornament Wreath

I made this wreath in under an hour with the help of my two little monkeys. I have a beautiful wreath that my mom made years ago, but I like to keep that one inside the house vs outside.  This year, we haven't had any snow yet but I really do like the look of red on white for Christmas.

I had seen this wreath at Ikea  but didn't like the colours. 

Photo Credit:  Ikea Canada

So, I went to the Dollarama and armed myself with a bunch of red Christmas ornaments.  I chose some small ones, some medium ones, and some patterned ones for texture.  I then took an old dry cleaning hanger (white), opened it up, bent it into a circular form, and had the kids insert the ornaments from both ends.  When the ring was full, we twisted the wire back up.  I also added some gold ribbon to the top to cover some of the hanger as I ran out of ornaments.

Here it is from street view:

So easy and a nice addition to our front door! 

Happy decorating!

Cookie Overload

There is such a thing as too many cookies. I am done... for now.

Here's what I baked this past December:  sugar cookies, gingerbread, chocolate chip, and almond paste cookies.

Then I layered them in jars to give out.

I also tried meringues for the first time.  The kids loved it but I'm not really a fan.  Maybe I'll try it again but use some chocolate chips for different texture.

 
Then went overboard trying to make the perfect whipped butter cookie.  Am still trying...  then I moved onto chocolate meringues, polenta cookies, and more gingies.

It's not Christmas if I don't make big fat gingies.  Just like last year...  Although this year, I tried some hair for the girl gingie.  It didn't go over too well.

 I made walnut cookies for my mom

We don't do food treats at the new school.  Maybe that's a blessing in disguise, remember these cookies I made for Valentine's last year?  Would have been easier to buy stickers... 

We did give treats to Joshie's teacher along with a special card.  His friends got stickers, a pencil, and a stamp.

Somewhere along the way, we made some ornaments.  We also made some with clear glass balls but forgot to take a pic.

Then the ice-storm hit and we lost power just as these almond cookies went into the oven.   I forgot them in there and 2 days later, retrieved these sad looking cookies. 

As I write this post, I'm eating a polenta cookie.  Due to the ice storm, the cookies are staying here in our house and I will probably bake again when hubby's family reschedules our Christmas Eve dinner. 

Hope you're all enjoying your own Christmas traditions!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is coming up pretty soon so we've been doing lots of Christmas-y things at our house.  Sewing has taken a bit of a backburner as a result.

We don't have snow but we have a Christmas Tree!

We took the kids to see Raffi at Roy Thomson Hall.   Hubby and I grew up listening to songs like Baby Beluga and Bananaphone.   Now our kids are listening to him.  It was a fantastic show!

Made a couple (or more...) trips to visit Santa

We mailed out our Christmas cards early this year.  I got some fantastic cards from Thunderpeep Designs, a local Toronto shop on ETSY.

We wrote letters to Santa

Then to practice his handwriting, Josh wrote Christmas cards for his classmates and we stuck some candy canes onto the envelopes.

I got presents for his teachers... nothing handmade this year but maybe next year with better planning!

In between all of that, we got a new front door!

Happy Christmas and hope you're spending some time with family,

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012!

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas!   This year has been wonderful for us and can only continue to get better.


The kids are really going to miss seeing Santa at the Scarborough Town Centre:

They had a blast playing with their stockings:

They had fun writing to Santa and getting a letter!

We baked and ate a lot of Gingies:

But as parents, nothing makes us happier than watching the two of them play together and take care of each other.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!