Christmas Time's A-Coming!

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY! 

For all that you have done for my family, friends and country, I want to thank you for your serve. I can not express my gratitude enough. Living in our country did not come free, nor does it stay free. So Thank You from the bottom of my heart!

 

Children going through the "Merry Christmas" maze 

Our little town had their annual Christmas Open House. It's an opportunity for consumers to discover local small retail businesses, restaurants and other mom and pop stores. Businesses that participate, decorate their stores for Christmas, put out an appetizer table, some might have door prizes and some discount their merchandise as much as 50% off the original price. Children will have plenty of opportunities to see Santa or his elves roaming the streets. This year, they added a skating rink and a huge wooden sleigh with Santa at the seat for photos. Saturday night was the official Christmas lighting ceremony at one of the smaller parks. I had no idea that Santa and Mrs. Claus would be there to visit with the children. After walking around and looking at all the lights, I asked the kids if they wanted to see Santa. Katie loved the idea. Colton wasn't too sure about the whole sitting in Santa's lap. The fingers went straight to the mouth. He was determined to make sure that Santa knew what he wanted for Christmas. He has been aggravating me for weeks about what he wants for Christmas. Doug assures me that it's a boy thing. My child wants a game called "Pop the Pig." I'd never heard of it until just a few weeks ago, thanks to Colton. If you don't know, the object of this game is you feed a pig sandwiches until he is so full that his stomach POPS. The other game he wants is called Doggie Doo. The object of the game is you feed your dog this green play doh looking food. You roll the dice and what ever number you land on, you press the dog's leash until the dog finally poops out the green play doh food. Can you say yuck? Colton is absolutely attracted to gross things.  He thinks it is so hilarious.  

Sunday after church, we knew exactly where to go during the Christmas Open House to have the kids' picture taken with the most handsome Santa. It's one of our favorite Italian food joints. This Santa look-alike goes to our church and is the sweetest old man. He was Katie's Sunday School teacher last year and is so good with the children. He gave all the time in the world for our kids. Katie and Colton both told him what they want for Christmas, which really isn't all that much this year. A photographer was ready to take $5 photos on the spot. I love it! I'll have to post the picture at another time. We all enjoyed our day yesterday, roaming around and the children didn't want it to end. 

Katie had the day off because of Veteran's Day.  I think we really enjoyed the day together.  The only work I did was pick up the house, wash clothes and dishes.  Everything else was FUN!  The kids played for a little while together.  Katie and I played Boggle, while Colton took his nap.  We made a few ornaments.  They were so easy and cute, if I do say so myself.  I actually got the idea from my latest volume of Martha Stewart's Living Magazine.  She had some felt styled homemade ornaments with cut out silhouettes.  Perfect for one of our semi-Charlie Brown Christmas ornaments.  

   

Katie and Colton's Christmas Ornaments
-Ballerina, fawn, Christmas Nativity and bear-

How Did I Do It? 

I purchased some small square glitter felt, for the background, in the craft section of Hobby Lobby and 4 different colors of plain felt for $1.  I wanted the background to have a pretty border, so I turned on my computer and went looking for border clipart.  {Wha-lah!} Next, I go looking for silhouette characters.  Colton wanted a deer and bear.  Katie absolutely had to have her ballerina.  I may have cut everything out, but the kids helped me glue the silhouettes to the backgrounds.  I used fabric glue for a secure contact.  The next thing I did was the fun part, putting a little character to the silhouettes. At first, I tried sewing eyes on the deer and bear with brown thread.  No matter how many knots I sewed on the felt, it still wasn't thick enough to see.  I needed a thicker thread count or use yarn.  I didn't have either one of these items on hand.  So, I pulled out the paint.  I always have paint on hand.  The bear and deer's eyes and nose are painted with Maple Stain brown.  I also added the Maple Stain to the deer's hoofs.  For the deer's white spots and other white accent, I glued a little white cotton from a cotton ball. Easy!  Martha Stewart's magazine showed pulling a gold thread at the top and creating the loop to hang on the tree.  Not me.  I wanted ribbon.  I took my scissors and cut a small X at the top, where I want the ribbon to string through.  Once the loop was tied off.  I tied another bow along the bottom portion of the loop.  I think it just makes it look pretty.  

Looks so darn cute!

Katie and I feel in love with the fawn, so much that we will definitely be making more of these.  I have other silhouettes printed that I will make into ornaments as well.  I've got so much felt that I've got to use it up.  LOL!

I've gotten so many homemade ornament ideas from Pinterest.  I've had a lot of fun bookmarking all my favorites and can't wait to go back to them and look at the craft more closely.  If you have a craft idea for our semi-Charlie Brown Christmas tree, please comment and let me know or add a link to the website.  I do appreciate it.  Please remember I have two small children, no sewing machine and I can't knit.  Yeah, I'm one of those.  Sorry!

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the Christmas craft idea and I will be bringing more as the season goes into full swing.  It will be easy to get into the Christmas spirit because we are suppose to have some COLD weather all week.  The highs are only going to make it to the upper 60s.  BRRRR!  I LOVE IT!  Katie and I love it so much that we brought out the mint hot chocolate today.  How do I make my hot chocolate?  I fill up our favorite coffee mug with skim milk (not to the top), heat it up in the microwave.  Katie's mug, I only heated for 45 seconds.  My mug, I went for a minute and 15 seconds.  Just right!  Not too hot that it burns your tongue.  Take your tablespoon and scope three and a half heaping spoon full of cocoa and place in the hot mug.  Stir until all the powder is gone.  Nothing!  Now, add the marshmallows.  This time, I found Jet-Puff had the tiny mini marshmallows in a container for sell.  Yeah, the tiny marshmallows that you get from the packets of hot chocolate.  Now, you can just buy the marshmallows because I don't think they put enough marshmallows in the packets.  Katie LOVED the extra marshmallows.  Ahhhh!  Our stomaches were warmed up on this cold rainy day.  She told me that she couldn't wait to have another cup.  LOL!