MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Program

Casey (the angel) & Cody saying her verse

Casey (in the middle)

The girls were in the choir Christmas program again this year, and again, it was spectacular. All of the kids were adorable and there is so much talent in those young people! They sang, danced and acted wonderfully, it was a joy to watch them all!
Cody stepped up to the microphone and said her verse, right on cue. Casey knew her lines, her song and dance number and her solo - she was the "Hipp. She was also beautiful as an angel in the last scene.
We are very proud of our girls and SO blessed to be in such an amazing church that helps them fine tune their talents while teaching them that those talents are God-given and should be used to glorify Him!

New Tradition

This year we have started a new Christmas tradition at our house. We bought a small pre-lit tree and put some very special ornaments on it. All of these ornaments belonged to either my maternal grandmother, my paternal grandmother, or Joe's maternal grandmother. As we hang the ornaments on the tree we tell the girls about our grandparents and other Christmas memories we have from our childhood. It was a lot of fun and it was cool to see that our grandmothers had some very similar ornaments. The girls enjoyed it this year and we hope this is a tradition that they can continue when they have children of their own!

Spiced Tea

Today the girls made spiced tea to give as gifts, they also decorated the tops of the jars by hot-gluing beads onto some padded fabric. I think they came out really cute!

Here is the recipe:

1 cup instant tea

1 cup Tang

1 cup lemonade mix (w/sugar already added)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

Add 2 spoons of mix to a coffee cup of hot water & enjoy!

New Ornaments!

One of the girls' favorite Christmas traditions is getting to pick out a new ornament each year. They tend to choose ornaments that reflect their interests or activities for the current year. Casey's have gone from frogs to soccer to photography. Cody's have gone from princesses to Rudolph.

I love having that history of their interests hanging on our tree each year, even more so this year as we hear our dear friends talk about losing every ornament they owned in a fire. They lost every keepsake and each child's hand-made ornaments. Our homeschool group rallied together and got them a tree and each family placed a special ornament on it so that they would not have a bare tree this year. It was a really neat idea.

This year Casey chose a silver picture frame with 2008 on it since she loves photography. Cody chose a Rudolph ornament that lights up, she absolutely loves it! It will be neat for them to have lots of ornaments to hang on their own trees at some point in the future, I may need to start buying doubles so that I can hang onto those treaured memories when that day comes!

We also made the wonderful smelling cinnamon ornaments last week, you can see how they turned out!

On The First Day of Christmas!

As you may have read on an earlier posting, the girls and I are trying to do a different Christmas activity each day this month. We actually started early and evidently I did not pick out enough stuff for them to do because they keep asking, "What are we doing next!?"

So far we have made Cinnamon Ornaments, decorated the tree, made a Christmas Town out of boxes we would normally recycle, and made our own (frugal) decorative soap! For the soap all we did was grate a bar of soap - please use caution as I almost grated the tip of my finger off! :( Then we added 1/4 of water, stirred it well and pressed the mixture, tightly, into cookie cutters. Oh yeah, be sure to do this on waxed paper or cling wrap. It is not too messy and cleans up with water, it already has soap.

We are looking forward to many more activities and hope to add "Playing in the Snow" to our list as it is flurrying right now!

Today we will be letting the girls each pick out an ornament to buy. Casey wants one with a camera or at least a Christmas photo frame since she is so into photography this year. Only Cody knows which one she will choose this year!

Looking forward to posting new pictures tomorrow!

Cinnamon Ornaments

For those of you who asked, and those of you who didn't, here is the recipe for cinnamon ornaments. They smell SO GOOD! And are SO EASY!

1/2 Cup Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Store Bought Applesauce (homemade may be too watery)

(Or any equal parts of cinnamon and applesuace)

Stir together until dough becomes stiff.
Then use your hands to make a ball of dough.
Put the dough on waxed paper and flatten a little with your fingers.
Put a second sheet of waxed paper on top and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick.
Remove top sheet and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes.
Remember to put a hole at the top!
Let air dry at least 24 hours.
They look great with a gold or silver ribbon through the hole.

ENJOY!!!

Christmas Activities!

We end our school semester on the last day of November and this year I want to try something a little different for the month of December. I want to come up with at least 1 Christmas project or activity for each day in December!
I NEED YOUR HELP! Below is the list of things we have come up with so far, but we need more ideas! Let me know some things your family or friends have done. Here is what we have so far.

Decorate the tree & house with music playing & hot chocolate
Make a Christmas Town out of our recycling, using boxes, cans, bottles, etc.
Go to the Gaylord Hotel to see the lights
Make cards for families we have "adopted"
Make paper chains with blessings written on each link
Let each of the girls purchase an ornament for this year
Make spiced tea to give as gifts
Read How The Grinch Stole Christmas & do related activities
Christmas Movie Marathon - Elf, The Santa Clause (1,2, &3), The 12 Dogs of Christmas
Make microwave s'mores
Make Gingerbread Houses
Make cinnamon/applesauce ornaments
Pajama Board Game Night
Make Christmas cards for our friends
Wii Competition
Learn the meaning of The 12 Days of Christmas Song
Fondue Party
Make birdfeeders
Make ribbon angels
Drive around and look at Christmas lights
Make and Advent Calendar (use post-it notes and have clues on where to find the treat)


That's only 21! Give me some ideas, PLEASE!!!