New Year's Eve: Organizing life after Christmas

I love Christmas time but I also love cleaning up after Christmas.  Some of you out there are thinking that I am crazy but while putting away Christmas decorations and finding new places for all the new gadgets and toys, Jon and I tend to re-organize our house.  Sometimes this means completely rearranging furniture in rooms or just cleaning out various spaces around the house.
I love the way organizing our house gives us a clean start into the New Year.  A clean start is also the reason we all make New Year's resolutions.  We want to organize our entire life for a clean start this coming year as well.  Jon and I have been reflecting as we clean house about what we want to change in ourselves this coming year.  Our resolutions are made and we are excited to greet the year.  2012 will bring new additions to our family in the form of a new brother in law and a new baby in our house.  In whatever happens this year, I wish you the happiest of New Years!

Homemade Marshmallows

Yesterday Buddy, Sweetpea, and I made homemade marshmallows for the first time.  We had a great time making them though Buddy and Sweetpea primarily measured ingredients.  I laughed at the idea of homemade marshmallows at first but they really do taste so much better.  It takes time to set up but they enjoyed licking the marshmallow creme off the beaters while they were waiting.

We used the star cookie cutter to cut out our marshmallows and they were awesome in hot chocolate!  I think these marshmallows would be fun as a small gift for people or even just as a treat for your family to munch on.

Making Christmas Memories

One of my favorite things about Christmas are the traditions and memories that are made!  One of our family traditions has been to make and decorate sugar cookies.  Buddy and Sweetpea had a blast this year and enjoyed every step.  Sweetpea's favorite part though had to be adding sprinkles to the cookies and I'm still sweeping up the little ball sprinkles!

  Buddy's finished cookies

 Sweetpea's finished cookies

Tonight, we tried a new Christmas activity and made a family gingerbread train!  Buddy and Sweetpea were enthralled through the whole process and, I have to admit, they snuck a lot of candy to eat.  It was a lot of fun and they are proud of their train!

 Gotta love the gingerbread conductor!



This is one of the reasons that Christmas is a favorite season!  I love all the memories that we take time to make and the joy of my children.  I hope Buddy and Sweetpea remember these days as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Christmas Crafts

The Amazing Mess has great ideas for Christmas crafts to do with young children.  This is the beginning to her series 12 Days of Christmas Carols and Crafts from last year.  I saved several of the ideas to use this year with Buddy and Sweetpea. 

2 Teaching Mommies posted a Christmas Tree preschool pack.  There are really fun learning activities with a Christmas focus.

Little Blots of Faith has a sensory Baby in the Manger craft.  I hope to be able to make this with Sweetpea since she'll have to handle things like sandpaper as we work. 

I hope you have fun making Christmas crafts with your children!   I know Buddy and Sweetpea are going to have fun as well.

Enjoying Life

Today I had a list of errands I wanted to run and things I wanted to accomplish.  Then it began to snow, which for where we live is really awesome!  Instead of staying out running around, Sweetpea, Buddy, and I came home.  During nap time, I was beginning to stress about all the things that need to be done this Christmas season and made list after list. 
I promised Buddy we would play in the snow when he woke up so we all bundled up and went outside.  That's when I started to relax and enjoy that moment!  We ended up having a great rest of the evening as a family.  Jon surprised Buddy and Sweetpea with new fleece blankets and we had hot chocolate stirred with candy canes and s'mores for dessert.  Suddenly, my list of things to accomplish didn't seem so important and I soaked in the smiles and laughter.  Even spilled hot chocolate was okay because everyone was having a good time!  I hope we have lots more time this Christmas season to have moments like this.

Snow!

Hot chocolate and candy canes...yummy!

S'mores

Enjoying every last drop!

Advent Calendars

I've been wanting an advent calendar for our family but have not been able to find exactly what I was looking for in stores.  So I finally made our own out of felt.  Overall, I was ultimately pleased with the way it turned out.  It isn't perfect but it is ours and I'm looking forward to putting it to use.  Inside each pocket is the daily reading from I Can Teach My Child and scattered throughout on selected days, I've added special things to do like "Bake Christmas Cookies" and "Drink Hot Chocolate". 
I hope this helps keep our focus on the true meaning of Christmas!


We also made the advent chain from Spell Out Loud.  Buddy and Sweetpea had a blast helping me glue the chain together.  This is a little simpler for Sweetpea to take apart and is more of a visual countdown for both of them.    The Scripture verses are a little longer but that is okay since we are working on.

getting Sweetpea to sit still through longer readings.

If you are looking for another advent chain Spell Out Loud also has a Names of Jesus chain that I hope to use one year in the future. 

No matter what your family does this month, I hope that as we enter into December, that our focus remains on Jesus as the reason that we celebrate!  Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Our travels went very well!  Buddy loved the Snowman craft that I made for the flights.  Each flight he wanted to pull it out and make a different snowman!  Even the minibooks that I made for him were perfect for him though he did not want to color them at all. 
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!  Enjoy the time with your family tomorrow and remember Isaiah 9:6, 'For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.  And the government will be upon His shoulder.  He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace'!

Praying for our Husbands

Something I've always wanted to do was to pray for Jon in a specific manner but I normally end up praying something like, "Lord, please be with Jon today with whatever he needs."  I came across a great idea on Better Life Bags to make a flip book to pray for my husband.   Rebecca has made 31 days of prayer cards and has a tutorial to make a neat homemade flip book.  Surprisingly it was really simple to make.  I made a few changes and used contact paper to cover my cards and temporarily have ribbon tying them onto the book.  Binder rings escaped me at the store so ribbon was a great stand-in.  Here is the final product! 

If you'd like to make one for your husband, go to Better Life Bags and either become a fan of the blog or like Better Life Bags on Facebook.  Send a message to Rebecca and she'll email you the cards.  They are gorgeous and have Bible verses to go along with the topic.  This is a perfect reminder to pray for our husbands in the New Year!

Last minute ideas

If you are looking for a few more ideas to do with your child for Christmas, here they are!

Adventures in Savings has a great gift idea or a fun twist on marshmallows!  Buddy loves marshmallows but I will probably wait until the new year to try this with him.  I love hearing him say "marsh-a- mo!" 




BabyCenter has two great ideas: 

A Gingerbread man out of felt makes a cute decoration on a tree or some garland. 

Reindeer Magnets would be adorable on your refrigerator or small gifts for a friend. 

Trillustrations has a Paper Christmas house that would make a pretty tiny decoration or she says that you can use it as a 3-D gift tag.  This would be fun for an older child to put together but younger children might have trouble with the size. 

Finally, for our travels, I am going to be making Buddy a fun Snowman dress-up craft.  I have a few circles of Velcro that will be perfect to keep the pieces from getting lost on the plane. 

Hope these ideas help you out this last week before Christmas!

Following in Daddy's Footprints

Because we are traveling for Christmas, we are having our family Christmas tomorrow.  Jon's present from Buddy and Sweetpea is a sign to hang in his office that we made together.  I used the Self Hardening Clay recipe to make a rectangle. 




Buddy's foot was painted blue and we pressed it lightly onto the rectangle.  I then painted Sweetpea's foot pink and also pressed lightly onto the surface.  As it was difficult keeping paint off of our floor, there are no pictures of this step!

I then touched it up a little by painting around the edges in red and painting "Following in Daddy's Footprints" in black.  The children's ages are painted in white on their footprint. 

The sign was clear coated in a sealant and wrapped to be opened underneath our Christmas tree!  I can't wait for Jon to open it tomorrow!  He'll be able to either use a plate stand to display it on his desk or use a ribbon to hang it on his office wall.  I love these crafts that immortalize this point in our children's lives!

A Card for a Soldier

A week or so ago, Jon's grandmother sent me the following email:

"When filling out your Christmas cards this year, take ONE CARD and SEND
it to this address:
A Recovering American Soldier
C/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001.
If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards
these soldiers could get to bring up their spirits.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!"

I saved it fully intending to send one quickly but I was cleaning out my inbox and came upon it again.  We got right to work when Buddy got up from his nap.  I found the Nativity Pop Up Card on http://www.biblestoryprintables.com/ and decided that would be perfect.  Before Buddy woke up, I printed and cut out the card template and gathered all of our supplies.

 

 Buddy helped me to apply the glitter glue to the star.  We put it out of sight to dry.

 Sweetpea decided she wanted to know what was happening on the table.

 Buddy didn't want to share his craft.

 Buddy finished coloring and gluing the card together.

 

After the star was dry, I glued it onto the wire and attached it onto the Nativity scene.  I hope that the soldier who receives our card knows how appreciative we are for the way they have served our country!

Hidden Vegetables

Hidden Vegetables:

I was chopping up carrots for dinner and as I threw them into the taco meat, I thought "I am a sneaky mom!".  Before having children, I always told myself that I would never hide the vegetables in other foods but that my children would eat them.  Ha!  Buddy was a really good eater until around two years old and then he started balking at the vegetables on his plate.  Jon and I started trying to sneak them by him in with other bites but he eventually caught on to that trick.  Instead of having a huge battle at supper time over eating carrots, I started sneaking them into other dishes.  I still offer them to him on the plate but I'm not as worried about making sure he eats them because I know that the main dish has a serving of veggies for everyone. 

I don't blame Buddy though, I grew up in the South and discovered that the only way I truly enjoy to eat veggies is soaked in butter, dipped in ranch, or sprinkled liberally with salt.  Jon on the other hand just likes the taste of the vegetable by itself.  Sometimes, hiding the vegetables in our dishes is as much for me as for Buddy.  On the plus side, Buddy ate his entire soft taco tonight and had a full serving of peas and carrots without blinking an eye!

A few examples of where I hide veggies:
Lasagna, Spaghetti, or anything with a tomato sauce -- finely diced or pureed carrots
Enchiladas -- finely diced broccoli and carrots
Tacos -- finely diced carrots in the meat and pureed peas in the soft taco
Grilled cheese -- finely diced broccoli

Minibooks:

We'll be traveling for Christmas and I've been working on finding Buddy a few small and light activities to pack in our carry-on and for layovers.  I found some great Minibooks over at BibleStoryPrintables.com that print on one sheet of paper and fold into a book.  (How to Fold Tutorial)  I printed them in black and white and plan on coloring them ahead of time or even allowing him to color as he reads on the plane.  If you choose, the books can be printed in color also.  Buddy just was not thrilled about coloring today. 

If you have any great ideas of you get your children to eat vegetables or activities for travel, I'd love to hear from you in the comment section!

For Unto us a Child is born

"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  - Isaiah 9:6 NKJV

This is our focal verse with J from now until December 26th.  I'm a little nervous because this is the longest verse he's attempted to memorize.  I thought about only doing the last section starting with "And His name will be called..." but I really want J to learn entire verses.  J really has an amazing memory and it may take him a little longer, but I think he can learn the full thing. 

To have a visual, we're going to use The Names of Jesus ornaments from BibleStoryPrintables.com.  I've printed the names listed in the verse in black and white to let J color them the way he wants.  I'll cover them with contact paper and we'll hang them with ribbon onto our mantle.  When J memorized Galatians 5:22-23, it helped him to have the apple garland that we made from I Can Teach My Child. 

Helping J learn his Bible verses has challenged me because I have to know it before I can teach him.  This has shown me that I can memorize scripture easier than I thought when I set my mind to it!  And that I need to stop whining about how hard it is and just get to work.

On a side note, a friend suggested making the blog a little more personal by using nicknames for my kiddos.  At home, I call J "Buddy"  and H "Sweetpea" so from now on that is how I will be referring to them.  I like that better than just using the first letters of their names. 

Baking Christmas Cookies

J and I made our Sugar Cookies today and we had a blast.  He loves to bake, especially measuring and dumping in flour and sugar.  Today he discovered a new love of baking...while my back was turned he reached in a grabbed a handful of the creamed butter and sugar.  I turned around when I heard "MMMM!" to see him starting to reach for more! 

We rolled out the cookies and used our new cookie cutters to make the Christmas cookie shapes.  J's favorite was the candy cane because to him it was simply the letter J!

After baking the cookies, we made our icing and finished the cookies. 

J's favorite part is obviously adding sprinkles. 

And of course, most of all, eating them!

When I was growing up, my mom and aunt would make these cookies for my siblings and cousins to decorate.  We probably ate more icing than what made it onto the cookies but we always a great family fun time together.  I have lots of wonderful memories of decorating cookies with my family!  This is a tradition that I continued with J last year and will continue into our future as a family.  It is a great time together and fun for all.  I can't wait for H to join us next year!

And if you'd like our recipe for sugar cookies, check out my Recipe page.

Born in the city of David and Goliath???

J's Bible verse has been Luke 2:11 for the past two weeks.  He done amazing with his Scripture Memory and never fails to amaze me at how quickly he can memorize his verses.  Recently, we went to the library and checked out several Christmas books and each of the books has a version of Luke 2:11.  When I read to him, I changed the version to how J learned it and he lit up!  He looked at me and said "Did he just say his Bible verse?"  In every book, he recognized his verse and I think these books helped to emphasize his learning even more

Here are the books that we are reading and loving!



A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Schulz
This was a childhood memory for me and I love Charlie Brown!





While Shepherds Watched by Jenni Fleetwood
The story of Christ's birth from a young shepherd's perspective.  This is a very sweet book.





The Story of Baby Jesus (An Alice in BibleLand Storybook) by Alice Joyce Davidson.  The Christmas story is told in a rhyme with beautiful pictures.  J liked the rhythm to this book and we had to read it three times in a row the first day.





The Gift of the Christmas Cookie: Sharing the True Meaning of Jesus' Birth
by Dandi Daley Mackall.  J and I are making Christmas cookies tomorrow so I like how this book will tie into our activity. 






On a funny note, J recited Luke 2:11 "For there is born to you this day in the city of David and Goliath a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!"  This coming from the same little boy who passionatly tells the story of Jonah on the Ark while Jesus walked on water!  Love the boy!