My Favorite Ornaments

I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ornaments. I love photo ornaments, and ornaments that have a story behind them :)
I made this ornament for O's 1st Christmas. I found the HUGE stocking at the dollar store, and we took LOTS of pictures of her laying on the couch in it before I was satisfied :) Then I cut out the picture, glued it to foam core board, cut it out with an x acto knife, decopaged it, and added a ribbon. It's a great keepsake, and O really loves it!

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This is O's 2nd Christmas photo ornament. I made it the same way that I made the first one. I need to start the 3rd one soon!

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We always try to buy an ornament when we travel, and this little wooden angel is from Poland. We bought her after hiking (and almost falling to our deaths) in the snowy mountains of Zakopane.

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This ornament came from Prague, which is one of our favorite cities. It opens and there is a tiny nesting doll inside.

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I love this felt frog. He came from Costa Rica where we also had a very scary experience. This was the trip that helped us decide to give up traveling to have a baby!

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We forgot to buy an ornament when we camped in Maine for our 2nd anniversary, so I had one made for Elliott for Christmas. This was our favorite vacation, and we can't wait to take O back one day!

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Here's our little tree. It's small and simple, but we love it :)

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A Felt Gingerbread Village

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I'm so excited about this felt gingerbread village! I've wanted to make a felt gingerbread house since I saw one last Christmas, but I didn't know how to get started. I was thrilled when I saw the village and directions in Family Fun magazine. This time I did follow the directions (for the most part anyway)! I was happy with how quickly this came together. I made the houses during O's nap yesterday, the trees last night, and then I cut out all of the decorating pieces during today's nap. I hope she likes it as much as I do!

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To make the gingerbread houses,you need brown felt, glue, an empty milk carton, and white ric rac. I cut the bottom third off of my carton so it wouldn't be so tall. 1st cut the top lip off of the carton. I also had to cut off the plastic pouring spout, which was easier to do than I anticipated.

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Then I just laid the milk carton on the felt to draw my pattern. I cut the felt and glued it to the carton. It looks nicer if you let your felt overlap a little on the roof and on the sides (but not the bottom). Oh, you also need cardstock for your roof. It's easier to add the ric rac BEFORE you glue on your room, btw :)

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I used a small half and half box for the small cottage. I should have used smaller ric rac, but I didn't realize that until I'd glued it all on. To make the trees, I used styrofoam tree forms that are covered in green felt. I cut a 9 inch square since my trees are 6 inches tall. Then I wrapped the tree in the felt diagonally, cut the excess felt off the bottom, and glued the overlap (and also cut off the excess here). (I didn't follow Family Fun's directions for that part) I added a cotton ball in the top to make the point. Then I mashed the point together, glued it, and held it together with a clothes pin. It's not perfect, but I love it :)

Charlie Brown's Christmas

For O's 8th day advent activity we all watched Charlie Brown's Christmas together. This was a special treat since O only watches tv on special occasions. She was very excited, and she enjoyed the show. Elliott and I weren't thrilled by the kids on the show calling each other "stupid," hitting, and just acting mean. Hopefully, O didn't notice those parts of the story :)

Baking with Mama and Daddy

For the 7th day advent activity, Elliott, O, and I baked sugar cookies. This was a lot of fun since we rarely all bake together. O's grandparents left a bowl of sugar cookie dough at our house, so that made this activity so much easier :) We had a great time making the cookies, and then Elliott and O had fun dunking the cookies in milk (like Santa Claus!) before they ate them (I was out in the garage painting O's doll cradle while they ate the cookies).

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Snowflake Window Clings

Our 6th advent activity was to make snowflake window clings using glitter glue. This activity was a dismal failure! The *idea* came from Family Fun magazine, but I didn't follow the directions :( I usually prefer to make up my own directions, and this time it backfired :) To make the window clings I spread out my version of wax paper (an unfolded, washed cereal box bag. I use this every time anything calls for wax paper!), and we squeezed the glitter glue onto the sheet in different designs. O was curious about the activity and helped make the designs for the first minute or so. Then she had a VERY unpleasant look on her face, and her nose was scrunched up. She declared that the glue "stinks!" She stood behind me holding her nose and wanted nothing more to do with the activity. O has an extremely keen sense of smell, so I figured I'd be able to smell the glue in 10 minutes or so. I was right, and so was she. It REALLY stank! I was a little shocked by the horrible smell, and Elliott was horrified :)

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I was able to convince O to come back to the table briefly, and I traced her hand with the glue. She'll usually participate in anything if it involves tracing or painting her hands :)

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You might can tell that the snowflakes turned hard and do not stick to the window at all. However, she can play with them since the smell is gone :) I know I read somewhere that you can use glue to make window clings, but evidently I used the wrong kind! I guess I'll follow the directions next time :)

Sometimes Blogs are Stressful...

Writing my own blog is nothing but fun for me. It takes very little time (about 15 minutes a day), and it's really just an extension of what I love to do anyway (documentation). I can't remember a time that I haven't had a camera in my hand and a pen ready to write in my journal. So writing a blog is the obviously a perfect fit for me. It's so much easier than writing in a traditional daily journal or making a traditional scrapbook. So... MY blog doesn't stress me. It's all the other wonderful blogs out there that cause me anxiety :) There are SO MANY fantastic ideas out here in blogland, and I want to do ALL of them. Obviously, there's not enough time for that. I'm really thankful for google reader since it enables me to star blog posts and go back to them later. So...thanks to all of you wonderful bloggers out there (even though your great ideas cause me stress!).

Just a Reminder...

If you ask me a question in the comments section, then I answer it in the comments section...so don't forget to check back! I read ALL comments, and I try to answer all questions. However, every few weeks, I'll notice that a comment has been sent to my junk mail, so it's possible that I don't get all of them (I only read them through email, not on the blog...I don't read my own blog :) Also, I am often in a hurry when I read my email, and if I don't respond immediately, I sometimes forget to respond at all. If I never respond to your question, PLEASE ask again! My lack of response was unintentional, I promise :) Thanks, everyone, for reading and commenting! I'm still constantly surprised and thrilled that people are actually reading this blog and using some of the ideas/activities that we've enjoyed :)

Our Simple Christmas Tree

Elliott and I are not very enthusiastic decorators for holidays, which makes things much simpler and,for us, more enjoyable (since we don't enjoy decorating). We have a 4 foot hand-me-down pre-lit (with colored lights) tree that we LOVE. It's easy to store and super quick and easy to set up. O was excited, and she loves the tree, too. I started to feel a little guilty that we don't go all out with decorations, but then I remembered that O's Guh-guh and Granpa decorate enough for all of us, so I don't have to feel guilty at all :) She (and we) can enjoy their decorations, and we can also enjoy our simplicity! Since our tree is so small and our storage space is so limited, we are simplifying even more. As we were decorating the tree, I was culling ornaments from our stash. We kept the handmade ornaments, ornaments from our travels, ornaments with special significance, and the ones that we just really like. All of the rest have to go! I think that about half of the ornaments that we own went in the donate box :) Hurray! We're also getting rid of most of the decorations that we own unless we absolutely love them. I really want the vast majority of our decorations to be handmade, so the first step is getting rid of the store bought stuff. Then I've got to get to work!

Elliott was at the computer trying to find Christmas music to play when O requested "ap" music. Ell put on "you dropped the bomb on me" (not "ap" but still danceable) and cranked up the volume. O loved every second of it (and hopefully our neighbors also like 80s music!). They danced and danced and our decorating was a bit delayed :)

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She's a nonstop dancer!

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Ummm...did somebody teach her to break dance?

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Still dancing! O was much more interested in dancing and then popping the bubbles on bubble wrap than in decorating the tree :)

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Gingerbread Playdough

For O's day 5 advent activity, she and my mom made gingerbread playdough (I was at work again). It smells delicious, and they added food coloring and glitter, so it's very pretty. We LOVE homemade playdough!


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After making the playdough, Guh-guh had to go home,so O and Elliott took the kayak out for a spin on the lake :) I was not happy when I called to check on them, and Elliott told me that they had gotten close to a mama alligator and her babies!!! When he realized how upset I was, he quickly changed his story and said they weren't really close at all. I believed him after he showed me the pictures (from his phone). You couldn't even tell they were alligators. But I'd still rather my child not be ANYWHERE near alligators!


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Baking Cookies

For O's 4th advent activity, she and Guh-guh baked cookies (I was at work). They planned on baking gingerbread cookies, but they realized at the last minute that I didn't have the ingredients they needed. They improvised and baked peanut butter cookies. They had fun, and the cookies are yummy :)

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