Day 18 - Candy Trees

We took waffle cones, frosting, and some fun sprinkles and turned them into beautiful, edible, candy Christmas trees!

Katie was even clever enough to cut her gummy fruit snack into a star!

It was lots of tasty fun.

Day 17 - Teacher Appreciation

School is almost out! It's time to make our goodies for our teachers!

We decided on cake balls and chocolate chip cookies.

That's what we decided on but the cookies didnt look so pretty and we ran out of room in our little boxes so each teacher just got a half dozen cake balls instead.

I say half dozen because that sounds so much better than 6. Lol

I forgot to take pictures as usual, but I did manage an after pic of our put together boxes.

The kids are excited to take them to school tomorrow.

I'm waiting for the day that even the teachers aren't allowed to accept homemade gifts. When that day comes, I guess they wont be getting anything from us any more. That'll be a sad day.

Day 16 - Happy Birthday Jesus

Today we celebrated Jesus' birthday!  Complete with a cake and homemade cards!

The kids were a little confused because they said December 25th is his birthday, why are we celebrating it today.  I explained that December 25th is the day we celebrate his birthday as a culture, but it is not his actual birthday. 

This information completely threw them for a loop.  But they understood and accepted it as I explained a little of the history.

Once they grasped that fact, I continued to explain that EVERYDAY we should be celebrating Christ's coming to this earth!  For with him came our salvation, the greatest gift of all!  Because of His great love, we can return to Him to live forever!  If that isn't worth a daily celebration, I don't know what is!

Christmas is more than a day, it's a celebration and we have to keep that in our hearts at all times!

Hopefully, they realize that the daily praises won't always include cake.  haha

The Great Christmas Giveaway

I love the kids' Christmas plays!  It is always so uplifting to see the kids sing praises to Christ accompanied by a cute little story about the true meaning of Christmas.  This year was no different.

This was Katie's last year in the annual play as she will be too old next year.  She was really hoping for a major part, but she didn't get it.  She did, however, get a sweet little solo in a song called, I Give You Me.  So she was happy.

This week we have been battling this sickness and although everyone was doing better, you could still hear the ickiness in their little voices.  Katie was SOOO nervous that she wouldn't be able to sing her solo.  But she pulled it off.  She was a little raspy but still beautiful!

Everyone did such a great job!  I am always AMAZED at how much work the crew put into it!  The set was beautiful and the kids were adorable.  Much thanks to everyone involved to make it possible!  I know a long of long hours and stress was put in to make it such a great success and it did not go unnoticed!

Thanks again to all who came to support my babies!  And thanks to those that couldn't make it but were there in heart!  We love you all! 

Unfortunately, I did not take pictures or record, but LifeChurch did post a few pictures on their FB page, you can see how sweet it was!  And if you look close, you can see my kiddos on the left side!  Katie is the tall one in the back on the floor, Justin is on the top row towards the middle and Ciara is right below him.

Calendar Catch Up

Day 12 - Sick day

My house has been full of sickies. Thursday was kind of the peak of it. So far I am the only one who has bypassed it, I swear by the power of zinc! Zinc and prayers, that's what's saved me.

But even though I was not sick, the rest of the house was full of fevers and overall general ickiness. So we took a day off from our daily activities.

Day 13 - Cinnamon Tree
I found an amazing cinnamon bread on Pintrest (that's where I get most of my ideas these days) and was SO excited to try it.

I pulled out my trusty KitchenAid and got to work.

It was at about the 4th extra cup of flour added when I realized that there must be something wrong as it still was not turning into dough.

I decided to put dough in the oven to rise while I took the kids to Misty's. ( was babysitting for me while I volunteered to usher for The Forgotten Carols.) When I got back and opened the oven to find an erupted volcanic mess of gooey nasty stickiness, that still resembled anything but dough. I thought about taking a picture of the horrific scene but declined because I didn't want to show you all the nastiness that is my oven.

So the sweet bread wasn't going to happen.

My guardian angel was looming after me because time literally stopped as I cleaned the mess. I still don't know how I got everything done.

I promised the kids I'd have the bread finished when I came to pick them up. What to do, what to do?

I pulled out a couple of cans of refrigerated cinnamon rolls, pressed them together and squished them, manipulating them to form the shape of a basic tree, sprinkled some extra goodness on top and threw them in my newly cleaned oven while I quickly got myself ready for my work at the play.

After I threw on some cream cheese frosting and sprinkles, I was very pleased with how it turned out.

When the kids came home, they were impressed too. Mostly , I think, because they saw the sticky mess that I was trying to work with before I dropped them off.

Day 14 - The Forgotten Carols

Because I shared their stuff on FB, put up fliers and ushered for two nights, I was able to score 4 tickets to the play. This humble play touches my heart each time I've seen it. This was my 4th time but I haven't ever taken the kids. (I think Katie came once as a babe in arms, but that hardly counts.) So I was THRILLED to share this with them. The girls live going to the theatre but Justin hasn't grown an appreciation yet for "the arts" so he wasn't as excited as I was. Intact, he looked at it as a time for a nap. Or at least, that is what he said as we were seating. When we were leaving though, he sang a different tube. He enjoyed it and even said it was pretty funny. Ciara made a comment about too much clapping and Katie can't wait to learn the music on the piano. Overall, I'd call that success.

Day 16 - Christmas Angels

Today was another craft. And as you all know, easy peasy is my favorite kind.

Using some cheap paper plates, ( know - the kind that actually required a whole handful of plates to act as one regular paper plate) some tape, and dollar store ribbon.

The craft itself only took a fee minutes and clean up was a cinch. I think they turned out pretty cute too!

Day 11 - Snowman Marshmallows

Today was short and sweet. we made hot chocolate with marshmallow snowmen!

I found these fun edible markers (that's I used to make the veins on my deviled eyeballs from Halloween) and it made this activity fun.

Katie tried to actually go above and beyond by drawing different things, but the marshmallows are not a very forgiving canvas.

I think the "snowmen" turned out best.

Day 10 - Mistletoe

I grabbed some red and white "berry" flowers and a couple of rolls of cheap ribbon and viola! Instant mistletoe.

The kids loved it! We are a big kissy family so this is right up our alley. Each kid hung their mistletoe over their bedroom doors and we have one in the hallway and one in the kitchen. I like the subtle "kiss the cook" innuendo.


A cute little, sad story today. Ciara had to come home from school early cuz she was sick. She has a fever and just general ickiness. Shawn has been battling the same thing since Sunday night. So I was cuddling with CiCi and I asked her if daddy liked her mistletoe. She said "Yes, but he wouldn't kiss me because he's sick. So now that I am sick too I am going to kiss him all day long under the mistletoe."

PS - I am blogging via text message on my phone so I cannot choose the layout of the pictures. I'll try and go on soon to fix it but I may just leave it as is. I am struggling with pictures on blogger right now. I can't seem to ever get them how I want them anyways.

Day 8 and 9

I try to get on every day, but some days I just get too busy or too tired.  And since no one is counting on my posts to live, I might wait a couple of days before posting. 

Day 8 - Christmas Legos

We pulled out our Legos and made Christmas scenes.  We tried making reindeer and snowmen, even Santa Claus but it was a bit more difficult than we thought. 

We ended up making houses with Christmas trees and lights.  It was fun!


Day 9 - Christmas Wreaths

We made wreaths using our hands and construction paper!  It was a fun, easy activity!  We ended up putting the wreaths on the tree, but I think I am going to try to talk the kids into handing them on their bedroom doors.

Day 7 - Hot Apple Pie and Hot Apple Cider

It was pretty cold outside today so it was exciting to pull out today's activity!  We made apple pie and apple cider!

It was such a nice warm treat after dinner!

We were able to play some card games and enjoy our treats after dinner!

I love my family!

Why I will not participate in Elf on the Shelf

WARNING: May contain adult concepts not suitable for children.

I have tossed the idea around for a couple of years.  Do I let this Elf into my house to terrorize me and my children in the hopes that it'll keep them good?  The answer is a clear "no" every time I even try to consider it.

And here is why:

1) My kids are older, only Ciara still does not know that her Santa presents come from her parents, although this will be the last year for that as kids around her keep telling her that the Big Man is not real.  Makes me sad.  I try and let the kids in on the magic at 8, but it looks like it's going to be 6 for my CiCi girl.

Side Note:  I like to present Santa as the Spirit of Christmas.  I explain how he was a man who lived hundreds of years ago who gave toys to young kids and his spirit comes alive at Christmastime.  He is a feeling of joy and magic that lives in your heart.  If you carry that magic of Christmas with you, then he is very much real, even when you outgrow the fairytale part of Santa Claus, that magic is something that can stay with you forever. 

2) I cannot for the life of me figure out how an Elf who is supposed to be reporting to the Man in the Big Red Suit, if the children are well behaved gets away with doing so many naughty things!  He should be fired!  Mixed messages, Santa.  We have enough double standards in the world, let's not bring you into this as well.

3) Speaking of naughty things, I have a hard time picking up after my own kids messes, why would I want to pick up after Mr Jingles too?  Um, no thanks.  You made this mess, you clean it up!

4)  I love my sleep.  I have a hard enough time staying up at night to a reasonable hour before sending my kids to bed so that I can go to bed myself.  Once that time has come, I really don't want to have to stay up even later to "set up" Elfie (I am just going to call him random names throughout the post.  Hope you don't mind.) just so that I can clean up after him later.  Yay!  That sounds like so much fun for me.  Yeah, not so much.

5)  I naturally have a dirty little mind (I know, big surprise!)  Some of the things I would want to set up Buster doing would not be kid appropriate.  I think hiding him under Barbie's bed would be HILARIOUS!  I would have a hard time resisting those sorts of temptations.  And that just opens a whole big can of worms that I really don't want to open.  I must resist those sorts of temptations.

6)  I do a lot as it is.  I sometimes think that maybe I over do the whole Christmas thing.  I enjoy the season so much, I want to cram as much Christmassy things in as possible and it can ruin the fun. 

7)  It costs money.  You can spend upwards of thirty bucks for that stupid doll!  I know it would only be a one time investment and I have spent money on stupider (yes, I just said stupider and guess what?  Spell check didn't correct it!  Has it actually become a legitimate word?) things, but this time of year, every penny counts and I just don't think Peppermint Pants is worth it.

8)  And last but not least, Fruitcake is just a tad too creepy for me.  He has got this horror movie twinkle in his eye that just doesn't sit well with me.  And the thought of him looking after my children gives me the heebee jeebies.

So there you have it, 8 solid reasons why I will not allow Buddy the Elf on my shelf.

Day 6 - Chocolate Oranges

We interrupt your daily advent calendar to say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAILEE!".

Today's "poke" reveals that we are making Christmas Oranges.

We read the story of the Christmas Orange and made our own chocolate dipped oranges!

We peeled several mandarin oranges and dipped each section in melted semi sweet chocolate.

Mmmm mmm!

Again, I forgot to take pictures!  Darn it!  But trust me, they tasted delicious!

Day 5 - Snowmen

Okay, I am loving this advent countdown. We are having so much fun!

Each day the kids can't wait to "poke the hole" to find out what fun thing we are going to be doing. They get their homework done, everyone eats whatever I make happily, and chores are being done super fast and without any arguing!

Tonight's fun activity was making snowmen out of empty milk jugs. I wasn't quite sure how I was going to do it but I did some dumpster diving in my recycle bin and found 3 empty milk jugs and an empty Clorox wipes container. So I washed everything up and we made our craft.

I used the Clorox container as an example to show them some ideas on what they could do and gave them a bunch of random supplies.

The outcomes couldn't have been cuter! I love how they each had a different idea on what they wanted to do and they all used different angles of the jugs for their faces!

I love them! I wish there was a way to save them after the season, I just don't know how to do that yet, but for now, I have 3 smiling snowmen faces in my living room!