Advent Season - Keeping the "Christ" in Christmas

If you want a free resource to help you keep the Christ in Christmas...one that's done a lot of the work for you with activities, Bible verses, songs, etc as you prepare your heart, your family and children for Christmas, you may want to check out the Good Morning Girls 4 week study and their ebook on the subject, Advent Study: Keeping Our Hearts Focused on Jesus, which is free when you subscribe to GMG.

I have done a variety of self-created Christmas count downs in the past, but haven't really done Advent, per se, in the past.  I think that this year, I might give it a try - candles and all.  So it's appealing that they have it all compiled for me.

We'll see how it goes. 

I'll also continue my Christmas count down and incorporate the Advent activities into the countdown (because let's face it, there is no way that both will happen independent of each other).

Are we ready to discuss Christmas already?

What do YOU do with Christmas cards after Christmas?

I have wondered this for years.

And for many years I have wanted to make a book of them, so that we could remember who sent us cards the previous year pray for the families during the year.

After making my hubby crazy too many years to count regarding this issue, I finally decided to DO SOMETHING with them this year.

I knew that there with this ring thingy's that could hold stuff together, but had NO IDEA what they were called...and that was oh-so-helpful as I was trying to explain them to the guy at Wal-Mart so I could find them.  {Just so you know, they're called book rings}

I finally found them ($1.50 for a package of 8, and they come with 2 sizes in the package), with the help of another female Wal-Mart employee {I'll leave those comments alone} and I was off and running.

When I made it home, I realized that I don't own a single hole hole-punch.  Or if I own one, I can't find it.  Or didn't look hard enough.  Or was too impatient to look very hard at all.

At any rate, I made do with two parts of my three hole hole-punch.

I gathered my Christmas cards....

Used the two holes from the hole punch and made my holes for my 'book'....then stacked and put them on the rings.

Easy peasy and oh-so-cute!!  So now I have contained and organized what was once my Christmas card clutter.

And I am curious....what DO you do with the Christmas cards you receive once Christmas is over?

Rudolf the red nose reindeer....

...had a very shiny nose.

But the reindeer I made didn't.  They are just regular ole' reindeer.

And they are adorable.

Don't you agree?

Especially considering that the reindeer are thumbprints from my very own wildlife.....

Materials:
Glass ornaments (from Hobby Lobby, sets of 12 for 50% of off 7.99)
Brown finger paint (already had)
Brown paint pen (from Hobby Lobby, 2.99)
Black paint pen (from Hobby Lobby, 3.47 - used for the Grinch ornaments as well)

Instructions:
Paint the thumb of one child, then apply to glass ornament.

Let dry.

Repeat with subsequent children.

Use your creativity and artistic ability (although very little is needed for this project) to draw antlers on your reindeer.

Let dry.

Now gather more creativity and artistic ability (do you believe me now that you don't need much for this??) and draw faces on your reindeer.

Write your precious "dear" names on the back, along with the year and you have an amazing memento.

Now, my one word of caution is to not let one of your precious deer get you sidetracked while you're writing names on the back of the ornament so that you end up starting the same name twice.  Because it's difficult to try to make a "K" turn into a "J" ....Not that I had any experience with that during this project or anything...

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch

A friend of mine posted an adorable picture on facebook of Grinch ornaments that she had made.  They were precious.  Another friend of mine had made glitter ornaments with her son.  They were precious as well.

I decided to go for it....and Kellen and I made Grinch ornaments.

I underestimated how much glitter would be needed for the ornaments, so I was actually really happy that Kellen just wanted to give them to his teachers at school.  Of course, I wanted to keep one for us, so we ended up with just the right amount of glitter for the slightly more than a half-dozen ornaments we made.

Materials
Glass ornaments (from Hobby Lobby, bought a set of 12 for 50% off of 7.99)
Glitter (from Hobby Lobby, 1.47)
Mop n glo (already had)
White paint pen (from Hobby Lobby, 3.47)
Black paint pen (from Hobby Lobby, 3.47)
(Now, most crafty folks may already have paint pens and this wouldn't be an expense for them.  Me, I do not have these things, so I had to factor them in to this cost. Obviously, they are still good and can be used for other projects....)

Instructions
Remove the "topper" from the ornament, pour a small amount of Mop n glo inside, plug hole with thumb or finger and swirl until inside is fully coated.  Pour into container (I used something that I could easily pour from to reuse).

Pour a generous amount of glitter into the coated ornament.  Shake vigorously until all surfaces are covered and coated.

Recruit an adorable a handsome helper and continue to add glitter and shake as needed.

Reinsert "topper" on the ornament.

Decorate the Grinch face to the best of your decorating abilities.  Start with the whites of the eyes, then add the other features and the pupils of the eyes after the whites have dried.

Enjoy your oh-so-cute ornament!


And in case you need a trip down memory lane......

You're a mean one Mr Grinch
You really are a heel
You’re as cuddly as a cactus
You're as charming as an eel
Mr. Grinch
You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel

You're a monster Mr. Grinch
Your Hearts an empty hole
Your brain is full of spiders
You’ve got garlic in your soul Mr. Grinch
I wouldn’t touch you with a
39 and a half Foot pole

You’re a vile one Mr. Grinch
You have termites in your smile
You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile
Mr. Grinch
Given the choice between the two of you
I’d take the a seasick crocodile

You’re a foul one Mr. Grinch
You’re a nasty wasty skunk
Your heart is full of unwashed socks,
Your soul is full of gunk
Mr. Grinch

The 3 words that best describe you, are as follows, and I quote
Stink, Stank, Stonk

You’re a rotter Mr. Grinch
You’re the king of sinful sots
Your hearts a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots
Mr. Grinch

Your sole is an appalling dump heap
Overflowing with the most disgraceful
Assortment of deplorable rubbish
Imaginable, mangled up in tangled up knots

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch
With a nauseous super naus
You’re a crooked jerky jockey and,
you drive a crooked horse
Mr. Grinch

You’re a 3 Decker sour kraut and toad stool sandwich
With arsenic sauce!

Oh Christmas Tree.....

oh Christmas tree,
how lovely are thy branches.

Tatum enjoys crafts. Really enjoys crafts.

So when the girls and I were home sick (her with the cough and fever and Jacey with RSV and an ear infection) I made the time to let her do crafts.

She decorated these foam Christmas trees that I have had for a while and got them ready to give as gifts.

She had such a fun time doing this and made a list of everyone she wanted to give them to for Christmas.  Let's just ignore the fact that they all haven't been given out like Mommy was instructed, ok?  I'm getting there!

Christmas Wreath

Now that Christmas is over and we're in the process of taking down decorations, I thought I would finally take the time to share the Christmas wreath that I made this year.

A co-worker of mine donated a large box of Christmas decorations to me and I had many wonderful ideas for things to do with them.  Their still great ideas, but for most of them, that's as far as they got.

I did; however, end up making some Christmas wreaths using materials currently existing in my Christmas decorations.

Take one wreath, one strand of ribbon (originally used in my wedding and now used in Christmas decorations), some gold nonbreakable Christmas ornaments, plus one adorable snowman ornament and viola'.........

You have your very own Christmas wreath!

Christmas Count-down calendar

I'm not calling this an Advent calendar, although that's where I got the idea, because I'm not following all of the Advent rules.  So, the original idea for this came from my crafty blogging friend Kendra, from this post she did last year.  Yes, I've been thinking about doing this for a year.  So a few weeks ago, I started collecting our finished toilet paper rolls and asked that Maw Maw and Paw Paw do the same...and then I kept our paper towel rolls as well.

And today, I started and completed the project.  In my opinion, it's not nearly as cute as Kendra's, but hey...I happen to like it!  (And by the way, if you agree that it isn't as cute, you don't have to post a comment to that effect...but you're welcome to tell me if you like mine or make additional suggestions about activities to include, even though I've filled out the days...I can always add activities and scripture to days throughout the month!!).

So here is a photo journal of the project!

Phase one...wrapping the individual rolls...3 per color of wrapping paper.

Laying them out in the pattern....

Beginning the assembly.  My first attempt was failed and this was actually the back-up, which worked much better.  Ribbon was used to tie the rolls together, with the edges of the ribbon sticking out on alternating sides.

Assembly is complete, and it's now hanging, with the use of a zip-tie.  (Matt's gonna wonder where all of his long zip ties have gone, because they're coming in handy for a variety of projects now-a-days).

Close up so that you can see the ties and wrapping paper.

Dates are now on the individual rolls.  Thank GOODNESS for sticker numbers!  And an even bigger thank GOODNESS for ones that I already had in my existing supply!!!

Now there are "to-do" items in each of the dates, corresponding with things that already exist on our calendar and I tried to think ahead (i.e., the Christmas farm we want to go to is ONLY open on the weekends, etc...).

So there it is...our Christmas count-down.  And yes, we do have another one that you move the numbers along and we'll be using that one, too.  You know, once I get it out of the Christmas decoration box.  I can't remember which day I put "put out Christmas decorations" on....