Holiday Season

Before I get into our fun and maybe some ideas for you, I just want to do the Mommy feeling vent thing-
In light of the recent terrible events we are extra attentive to our little one. Kids are sensitive to the world around them and as much as I'm trying to guard her from the news I know she has picked up on somethings. We had to speak of evils and what do if she should see "a non-police man with a gun," just lots of conversations we weren't ready for or even wanted to discuss. The event has made us look a little more at what a gift our child is. I didn't think we could possibly love her anymore then we do, but I think sometimes as a parent we take everything for granted. For every bath-time and repetitive story reading there's another parent out there missing out on such things or wishing and wanting for their little soul to come into their lives. So hug your little one a little more and try to make the most out of the moments we are so lucky to have.

Now down to business, SORRY! It's been far too long between posts, but we've been busy busy making the most of the Holiday Season.

Photo Courtesy of Maximo Photography

This year it's been us taking advantage of everything there is near us. We live in San Diego so we have plenty all year round, but I'm sure you can find enough free, cheap or worth the price things to get into!

If you live in our neck of the woods, check out San Diego Family Magazine, lots of listings of what's going on.

We must admit it's pretty awesome living near a ton of major theme parks. Thanks to radio and news stations there always seems a chance to win a few tickets here and there. The biggest key is have a Facebook and follow each, they normally do additional giveaways on there if you can't always be near a television or radio with your phone in hand.

We got lucky this year and my sister also won tickets to SeaWorld San Diego's Christmas Celebration (lasts until Jan. 5th) so we all got to go as a family. It was raining and cold, but nothing a good jacket and some rain boots couldn't help! The whole night was tons of fun, lots of Christmas decor and characters at every turn. The penguins and Wild Arctic just made us feel that much more in the winter spirit. If you are close to one I really recommend trying, if you can swing it in your budget check into their Fun Card program, it's a price of 1 day but covers a year minus a few of  their busiest days. They also are offering a deal on a 2 year membership, but I really don't know the details.

One of the greatest things has to be "Holidays at Disneyland!" It lasts until Jan. 6th. Last year was not only my kid's first time seeing the park during the Holidays, but mine as well. Totally AMAZING! I must admit this year with Cars Land now open at California Adventure it's even better! But, my absolute favorite has to be the "Nightmare Before Christmas" take over of the Haunted Mansion. As you see from my shirt, I'm kind of a geek for that stuff.

The best of this season has to be another "Thanks to Groupon!" Every year they seem to offer discounted tickets to The Nutcracker Ballet and this year Riley was finally old enough to be able to attend. It was fantastic! We all got to dress up and head out to the Theatre and enjoy a show. As you see Riley even got to meet a few Ballerinas  Since that night it's been non-stop "Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker" music and a little dancer all over my house. I love it! I'm all about supporting her love of classical music and dance.

One of the biggies in this town is "December Nights" in Balboa Park, if you follow our Facebook page you may have seen a link for it. It's lots of fun but getting more an more crowded as the years go by, so the park has been trying to offer shuttles to help. But, to be honest we skipped it! I know the pics lead you to believe we didn't but we totally did. But, we couldn't be more fortunate to be part of a awesome Church that happened to have a Christmas event in Balboa Park, right before the "December Nights." 

It was a great night of hot coco, gingerbread men  Christmas decor, a Nativity Set, and Riley preforming her heart out to "Jingle Bells," and a little time with Santa. Up until this year I haven't thought twice about the whole Santa thing. I don't mean the telling of him, I mean the debate that Christmas is for Christ and has no room for Santa. Honestly, I never even knew this was a train of thought but as I read more and more of other people's parenting philosophies there are some things that take me by surprise. If you feel this way and it works for you, great, but it's not for us. I believe in letting Santa be. in my mind he s kind of a symbol of childhood. A symbol all about embodying the giving and loving spirit with a little bit of hope an magic, plus he was a real man once upon a time.

Art Project from her Sunday School

It's all about balance and letting the focus fall on the history and explaining why we celebrate it. Our Riley doesn't run around the house saying "I can't wait till I GET presents!!" But, she actually runs around the house saying, "IT'S ALMOST JESUS' BIRTHDAY!!!" She gets it! Also it may help that we put more emphasis on the giving, less on the receiving.

What we've been doing to make it more about the giving is for the past few days it's been a crazy mess of baking and lot's of hammered candy canes! Yesterday, we finally were able to package up all our goodies and drop them by some of our awesome neighbors, friends and family. The best part is that people don't expect anything from us and though it's not much everyone was so gracious and Riley just beams after every delivery.

One of our Christmas traditions is a gingerbread making night. Lots of fun, if you aren't already doing so, start tonight. Riley is becoming a pro at this, less and less messy as the years are going by. It's the fun of letting your kid do some more in the kitchen and as a family getting creative. It's great for kids to learn how to use tools and it works for some bonding time. The awesome thing about this year is we got to use these cookies for her class' cookie exchange, talk about killing 2 birds with 1 stone. 

Just in case you were looking for something a little less mess and extremely easy, but will occupy hands, get out your white coffee filters and scissors. Cutest snowflakes, hands down! Let the little ones go to town. We folded them down to a nice triangle and started with the cutting. My kiddo felt her's needed some color so I let her. They look great in the windows and were fun to make. I actually enjoyed doing and looking at these way more then the old paper way. It's also easier on little hands because it's thinner and easier to cut then paper.

Last but not least. this year we lost a loved one and I wanted to do something a little special just to keep the memory of him. If you remember last year I made a few beach themed ornaments, well this was kind of similar. For this funeral we traveled to Chicago, my husband's hometown and where most of his family still is. Well it was that perfect time of year in the Midwest, when it was just starting to turn all the colors of fall. During one of the days with the family my husband grabbed a branch so my daughter could show her class all the beautiful leaves once we got back home. We keep them and they dried so nicely. Well I took a trip to the craft store, got me a clear plastic ornament and some white paint pens. I stumbled upon this quote and saved it before I knew what/or exactly how I was going to do something, "Because Someone we Love is in Heaven there's a little bit of Heaven in our Home." It was too perfect, so once I filled the ornament carefully with some of the leaves I wrote the quote on one side with a heart and the other side with "Grandpa Archie" and his birth year and parting year. I hope you didn't lose anyone this year, but if you did this maybe a great idea to hold them close. Just fill it with something special to that person or maybe some dried flower petals from the service, even pictures. Do what feels right in your heart.

Just remember this is, 

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time." - Laura Ingalls Wilder  

On that note, Merry Christmas everyone! An don't forget to take advantage of any neighborhood light displays let your inner child run free. ;)

DIY Christmas Gifts

First let me start by apologizing for my absence. I may have the Facebook going for quick thoughts or fun links but I haven't got a post up in awhile. I actually have a lot I was dying to share with you guys but unfortunately I could not risk ruining the surprise for my Christmas gifts this year. But, hopefully this blog will get your brain churning for the next go around.

Here's a few awesome ideas I had stumbled upon thanks to Pinterest (btw, I am on that site to):

Today's Fabulous Finds Blog was full of cute little gifts with the perfect tag to make it all tie in. I just loved the "We 'WISK' you a Merry 'KISS'mas!" This one was cheap & cute, just perfect for my family's White Elephant Game. All you need is some scrap paper, a little plastic bag, ribbon, a wisk and some kisses. I went for a color theme so I got the Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses.

Now to my special DIY Ornament finds:

Your friends and family can't get to the beach, bring the beach to them. ;) Just felt like it was sending a piece of home to our loved ones. Check out Completely Coastal & One Art Mama Blog.  Honestly, there were a few versions I saw floating out there, but these two sites have generally what I did. I really just went off the images I saw an went for it. We had a fun family day walking along the shore collecting shells then letting my daughter sift into her bucket some of the best sand. Craft store plastic ornament made it a lot safer to ship and to handle the weight. We placed each ornament in one of my daughter plastic cups so we did not have any rolling accidents as we got started. I let her pour the sand into each with a funnel then we added the shells just right through the top. Now, this is where their instructions an mine may differ, I cut tape to place on the top part of the ornament. The very top, silver (maybe gold in your case), the part where the hook and wire is located. You may notice there are small holes where the wire goes through the top and I really didn't want the sand to escape. After taping it, I added some craft glue in a generous amount to make like a plastic coating. After it dried I painted on some more of the glue around the top rim of the plastic ornaments so when I would pop on the top it would help glue and permanently attach the top. Then used Fabri Tac Glue to hold my ribbon in place with the tag. In my case I did one side of the tag with the beach we went to, Mission Beach and on the other side the city, San Diego. 

Last but not least, for those Harry Potter fans on your list, A Golden Snitch. This was not the easiest. The ornament also required a lot more time. Each step required it's own dry time. I followed Tiny Apartment Crafts Blog's tutorial as close as I could. I also did lots of google images of the snitches. This was about as close as I could get it. Mine did not look like the blogs, but my cousin seemed to really enjoy it, so maybe your fan will to.

Remember gifts from the heart are sometimes more special. 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

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Gingerbread Men Decorations

QUICK & CUTE!

Your choice: ornament, magnet or BOTH!

We bought a little pack of foam gingerbread men, foam Christmas stickers, and googly eyes. To work on these little masterpieces we got out all our puffy paint and glitter glue. I just sat by and let my kid go to town, every once in awhile she let me put a sticker down. 

Once she deemed it as done, I got my favorite scrapbooking hole puncher out, a star. I thought it was fitting for the Christmas spirit. I punched a little hole at the top of his head. If you are choosing to make a magnet do not add a hole, just let it dry. NO HOLE.

Once it is dry, you can either bend a Christmas tree hook to hold your man, or the way I preferred was to get out some of my Christmas ribbon. I left a little room so I could slide a branch through my circle and tied a couple little knots. Then curled the edges of the ribbon. 

If you were wondering how we decided which was what, well we thought the one with hair would look better as a magnet then a ornament. We didn't want to put a hole in his pretty hair.

Now for the other option. Once it is all dry get one of those ready to stick magnet strips and cut it down to a size you feel comfortable with. Peel and place hard, you want it to really be stuck (*TIP* - this also works for those cute gift cards that are to awesomely cute to throw away). I just added two strips to ours so it laid nicer against my fridge, do to size. They are extremely light so I am sure you can get away with one, if you wish. 

Have fun placing on tree, putting on fridge or giving as a gift.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

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Cotton Ball Snowman

Fun Project with stuff around the house. Bust out some scraps of paper, some round objects, a few toothpicks, glue & lots of cotton balls.

This one I actually did some prep work. I personally love the foam sticker sheets we have so I cut out some shapes. I figured it would cut down on time and impatience. Honestly though, just cutting out the carrot nose, pieces of coal, and top hat would be just as easy & cut if you use construction paper. The fun thing about coal is I din't have to worry about tiny little perfect circles. The hat ended up looking plain so my daughter pulled out one of her Christmas shaped foam stickers an added to the top hat. Other then that we we're pretty prepared. I wouldn't had minded busting out some little bit of ribbon for a scarf, but she felt it was good.

I used one of my daughter's old scribbled up poster boards to trace. I found three small similar, but not exact same circle shapes.  In our households case a toilet paper roll and two of her snack bowls. I did that just so she had a easy reference of where we would be gluing all the cotton balls, but you can also just trace the circles straight onto the color of chosen background construction paper. I also did this just to give a little more strength encase my toddler went over board with glue it wouldn't rip up the paper. When tracing let your circles overlap a bit. i tried to remember a real snowman wouldn't have very perfect circles. Then cut out my snowman outline. After all that pre-cutting and gathering of tools I let her get to it. First she used that good old fashioned white glue to place the small poster board snowman shape on to the background color of her choice (the bigger one just served to be under the project just in case, I also wasn't sure what size she would want to do). After that as glued to the paper, then more glue on top of the snowman shape. This is up to your kid, mine is more into mess but yours may like placing glue on each cotton ball as he/she goes. Since the glue was there she dug right into the cotton balls and got to sticking. Covering as much of the dark blue as she could see. Next she got to sticking the hat on, followed by the eyes, then nose, next the smile. She chose to save the extra pieces of "charcoal" as the buttons. She then glued toothpicks to each side for stick arms. That's when she thought the hat needed more & we found the candy cane sticker. I put away the good old white glue when she went to work at ripping apart some white construction paper to use as snow. She used a glue stick to place those about. She said the small ones were like snow flakes and her bigger chunks she felt looked better on the bottom like a sign. In this project order doesn't really matter, so if you wanna cut the harder shapes while your little one works on the tearing and gluing that would work, well as long as your kid doesn't mind the snowman covering some of their background master piece.

We will probably be doing this project again on a smaller scale so I can turn it into a ornament. Instead of the background she can decorate both sides of the board with cotton. Where the hat is I will continue the board so I can add a hole punch an a piece of cute ribbon. 

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