Christmas Catch-Up

Well, I didn't get a chance before Christmas to post about a few fun things we did recently so I am doing it now. (:

The last week before Christmas was pretty busy, filled with all the "fun" things that I had been planning to do, but with shopping and wrapping and parties, it all got a little postponed until a few days before the holiday.

On one day we made beaded ornaments. I think they are originally supposed to be snowflakes, but the kids thought they looked like stars too. I got the idea from here. I originally had the regular fuzzy pipe cleaners (sorry, chenille sticks), but either the beads I had were too narrow or the sticks were too thick, but it just didn't turn out right. So I eventually found the silver tinsel sticks and they worked great (that's what I get for not following directions!). Anyway, the kids did a great job with these and kept saying they wanted to make more. We only had enough materials for two and we gave them as gifts. I want to definitely do this again next year so we can have some for our tree!

Here they are threading the beads on the sticks.
The finished products!!
That same day, we also made gumdrop trees. Katelyn saw me looking at this post about them and really wanted to make her own so I found all the materials and let her go at it (note- I read that you can find the Styrofoam cones at the dollar store but I couldn't, so I got mine at Joann Fabrics and used a coupon. Those babies are not cheap!). At first Zach didn't want to do another craft but once he saw we were using gumdrops, he joined right in! At first I put a gumdrop on a whole toothpick and quickly realized that wasn't right because they kept poking through the other side! Duh- you have to cut them in half first (again, WHY do I not read the directions!). So I got to work cutting the toothpicks and the kids stuck on a gumdrop and pushed them into their trees. They liked the activity and they did it for a long time. They actually didn't even fill up the whole tree before they got tired. The cones were 6 inches and I got 2 lbs of gumdrops and I think they would have needed all the gumdrops to fill the two trees. They said they would "fill in" their trees later but we ended up eating them off the tree instead! Yummy!
As for Mommy projects, I decided to make some chocolate candy for gifts. I wanted to make chocolate pretzel bark and reindeer suckers for the kids' homeschool co-op teachers and classmates. My mom and I worked feverishly for 5 hours to make 2 lbs of bark and 2 lbs of chocolate for suckers. Both were fairly easy to make, just time consuming. For the pretzel bark, you have to melt the chocolate (I buy in bulk at a candy supply store), then stir in the broken up pretzel pieces and spread out on parchment or wax paper to "dry". After it is dry, you simply break it into bite sized pieces. It took about an hour for the chocolate to harden enough to break apart. For the suckers, I again melted chocolate (by the way, I melt one pound at a time for easy management) and then used a tiny squeeze bottle (from the candy supply store) to fill in the reindeer mold. Add some sucker sticks to the back, and then put the mold into the fridge for about 20 mins to harden. Then you just pop out the suckers when they're done. We added red hots for the nose (using a bit of chocolate as the "glue") and sugar dots for the eyes. We then wrapped them in a baggie tied with some ribbon. Voila! The students and teachers really liked their chocolate treats! Of course, we made sure to keep some for ourselves and family too! (:
Some other fun things we did:

Went to Bronner's Christmas store to look at all the decorations

Decorated Christmas cookies with Grandma

Went to my side of the family's Christmas party

Did a hand print stepping stone of all three kids' hands

Read What God Wants for Christmas- this is a neat Advent activity that tells the Nativity story by opening a box each day for the last week before Christmas. Throughout the week, we talked about why we give gifts at Christmas and what gift we thought God would want for Christmas. In the last box, the kids learned that God wants US for Christmas- our hearts, our lives, our love. It is a neat activity that I think will become a new addition to our Advent activities.

Whew! That was alot for one week! I wanted Christmas to come just so I could relax! LOL! It was fun though and it's sorta sad that it is over. That's okay though, I am already planning activities for next Christmas!! (: