Christmas Craft

Last year it seemed like we made a different Christmas craft every day during the holiday season. This year has been a bit different, so when our activity for the day was "make a Christmas craft" I was kind of excited.  We pulled out an easy one Elijah had picked out from the dollar store and we added some of our own favorite decorations to make these lovely snowmen.

This was Megan during our crafting time. She is so patient while we do our activities.

 Of course stickers are a huge hit, especially the candy-shaped ones this year ;-) Elijah put 10 of them on his snowman (Monk's favorite number).

And here are the finished products.

Candy Canes

I got so tired last night I forgot to post our activity. For some reason Elijah absolutely loves  anything peppermint, so you can imagine how much he enjoys candy canes. At the store I found some fun different flavors with TV characters that he enjoys (Diego, Dora, etc.). So last night's activity was "Try a new flavor of candy cane."

You can't quite see his face very well, but he was ecstatic to see the candy canes.

The flavors were: Sour apple, Watermelon, Blue Raspberry, and Strawberry.

Elijah chose Blue Raspberry, I chose watermelon, Jerod had the sour apple and Grandma Lupe had strawberry.

He surely LOVED that candy cane. It even turned his tongue blue.

This was Megan during candy cane time...she loves to "help" me with the dishes.

Elijah really wanted to take a picture of us.

Megan's 8 teeth (I love that Elijah was able to capture all 8 of them)

Gingerbread Houses

For the past two years we have gone over to my friend Christa's house to make gingerbread houses with our kiddos. We love our little tradition that first started out as a spontaneous activity to do with our children and is now something we both really look forward to. This year Matthew was old enough to join us in the festivities and Megan had fun crawling around on the floor opening cupboards in Christa's kitchen.

My friend Christa is very patient and kind-hearted. She does such a good job rallying in three very energetic boys.

 Matthew (age 2) is putting together his cute little "A" frame home (his first gingerbread house that I'm aware of).

Elijah loves putting the candy on...maybe it's the anticipation of being able to eat some later that makes it so exciting :-)

Josh has gotten very creative. He even added a little gumdrop path leading up to the house.

Brothers hard at work.

Elijah's finished product!

 Matthew's finished home.

Josh's finished house (the boys were already off playing right after they finished so I wasn't able to  get their picture next to their home).

Red White and Green Dinner

Tonight's activity was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. First, Elijah helped me put together a list of different foods that were green, red or white. Then we died some rice green (you'll see why in a minute). After nap time we walked to the store and he helped me get all the items on our list. Back at home he helped me wash the fruit and arrange everything so it looked nice. Here is our feast (with Elijah making a silly face in the background).

Here are some red and green grapes

Some sourdough bread that I used a snowflake cookie cutter on

Some raspberries on a fun plate we only use once a year

And for our protein...some chicken kabobs with red and green bell peppers and mushrooms

And of course we had to have strawberries and cucumbers (both Megan and Elijah love them)

This next one was one I came up with on my own and wasn't sure if it would work, but it turned out better than I had hoped. We put green food coloring in our rice while it was cooking (much more food coloring than I think we should have) and then shaped it like a wreath and put red hots on top.

We also had broccoli and tomatoes but they didn't look as fancy so I didn't take a picture of them.  Elijah also helped make a special cherry limade Crystal Lite which he drank from his reindeer cup.

 And here's Megan stuffing her face with broccoli! I wish I loved broccoli like she does when I was a kid ;-)

Here is Elijah stuffing his face with strawberries.

After dinner the kids just chilled on the chair together looking at the Christmas tree. (You can see the effects of the red drink on Elijah's lips).

Build a Snowman

Tonight was an activity that involved some creativity and some yummy samples afterwards ;-) We got to build a snowman! Since we don't live where we can easily get to snow, we decided to build our own snowmen out of marshmallows.

Unfortunately I didn't think this project through all the way. At the beginning of the month I had purchased mini marshmallows for our hot chocolate and figured those marshmallows would suffice for our snowman activity. In hindsight I should have also gotten some larger marshmallows, but it did force us to be more creative.

At first I tried to make one that could stand on it's own (it sort of looks like he has two friends behind him ;-)

Elijah had his laying flat on the table which worked much better than my idea.

Here's my attempt at another snowman. Elijah took one look at it and asked me why I built a rocket when we were supposed to be building snowmen. LOL!

This one is Jerod's snowman (he looks very lively to me, like he wants to start dancing)

And for all you Dr. Who fans, this is Jerod's rendition of a Dalek.

Here's my sweet girl who couldn't join in this activity but who enjoyed playing on the chair next to me and under the table.

Extra Fun Day

This morning Elijah was sad that he wasn't able to "pick" his activity as we usually do (I have all our activities typed out, folded up and in a jar that he picks from at random). But tonight was our church's children's musical, so it was a pre-planned activity; no random choice involved.

However, even though he thought at first it would not be a very fun activity, he loved seeing all his friends, watching them sing and he especially loved the cookies, hot chocolate and all the running around with his pals afterwards.

I forgot my good camera at home, so all we had was our camera phone which doesn't do as well in a dimly lit auditorium, but here we are getting ready to watch the musical.

After the musical I checked my calendar and realized Elijah has a special "Cookie Exchange" at preschool tomorrow and that I needed to have 2 dozen cookies made for him to take to school in the morning. So, our "activity" for the evening wasn't completely over. We decided to make snickerdoodles which are my favorite cookie. Here are some pics from our impromptu cookie making extravaganza.

 Mixing...Elijah's favorite part!

 Pouring the flour

 So many yummy cookies just waiting to go in the oven.

Elijah loved rolling the cookies in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

The cinnamony-sugar goodness after completing our task.

And because I want to give my husband some props, I'd like to tell you another fun part of my day. My sweet husband let me have a 2 hour break from the kids and I truly had fun "getting out of Dodge." A cute little spa place just opened up near our house so I thought I would go check it out. They had a 30 minute foot massage for only $15 so I decided to give it a try. It was AMAZING! While my feet were soaking in warm water, my temples, face, neck, head and shoulders were gently massaged and acupressure was applied. Then my feet went to heaven during the massage and they even rubbed my calf muscles and lower legs. It was fabulous all the special treatment I got, all for only $15. I am definitely going back! Then I went to a new bridal shop that opened up across the street from our place. I was sorely tempted to ask to try on some dresses but suppressed the urge, mostly because I just felt silly asking when I wasn't going to actually be buying. Thank you, Jerod for such a fun little get-away which helped to refresh mind and body!

Watch a Christmas Movie

Everyone's gotta love "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Tonight we microwaved some popcorn, sat on the couch together and watched a classic. Elijah's favorite parts are when Snoopy makes funny noises, makes people fall down and when he licks Lucy's face. What can I say, the boy loves slap-stick!