December 12 & 13: Sugar Cookies

Over the course of these two days we mixed the sugar cookie dough (new recipe this year from food.com), cut out and baked the cookies, and decorated the cookies.  Every year I think making and decorating sugar cookies with the kids is going to be so much fun, and every year I'm reminded once we're in the midst of things how not-so-much-fun and time consuming it can be.  They boys need to cut out and decorate 3-5 cookies and they're set...no need to do more.  So I'm left to cut out and decorate the remaining cookies.  And the 3-5 cookies they do decorate tend to be quite the ordeal...like Koen dumping half the bottle of sprinkles on one cookie or Tysen just eating the candy rather than using it for decoration.  I suppose eating the candy should be part of the fun. :) 

One of my frustrations each year is the frosting...if you have a recipe for decorative frosting that doesn't drip and run everywhere I would love to have it!!!  It always hardens just fine, but it runs all over the place first (see picture above). 

Eating the cookies, of course, is the best part of the whole process for the boys.  With all the other delectable cookie choices, they ALWAYS pick a sugar cookie. 

December 11: Picking out a present

I had something else planned for today, but Koen had his own ideas.  He is so excited to wrap up and give other people presents!  Of course, his gifts come from what he already has...a favorite toy, a book, or anything he stumbles upon around the house that looks like a good gift.

Today he insisted on wrapping a present for Tysen.  It's currently sitting under the tree waiting for Tysen to unwrap it on Christmas.  I loved seeing Koen get so excited about giving something special to someone else!!!  And this trend has continued.  As I write this a number of days after December 11, he's since discovered gift bags and tissue paper and has been gifting and regifting at a steady pace.  Now he wants the person receiving the gift to open it immediately.  I wish you could hear Koen and Tysen's exchanges and their enthusiasm in these gift givings...completely joyous and sincere...just the Christmas spirit!

December 9: How The Grinch Stole Christmas!

My boys had never seen Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!  I had planned to watch it with them during our 25 days of Christmas activities but hadn't figured out when that would be.  I decided to go ahead with it one afternoon when we had 4 other kids over.  (It was a nice break for the kids and for me!)   Koen and Tysen both LOVE this story!  We own the VHS version from when I was teaching (a great way to teach the parts of a story), and, I'm not sure why, but we also own the CD with the story and songs.  Since seeing this movie they've listened to the story at bedtime every night as they go to sleep!

After watching it the first time and after our friends left that day we talked about it a little bit.  They relayed what the Grinch had done both before and after he changed.  I asked them if Christmas was really all about presents, food, and Christmas trees.  They answered no, and when I asked them why Christmas is so exciting and so important, Koen was excited to share that it's Jesus birthday!  I only hope we can continue to keep Jesus' birthday celebration in the forefront throughout this and other holiday seasons!!!  

December 8: Taking a break...

I wanted to take the kids to NiteLites for this day's Christmas activity and talk about how Christ is the true Light of the World, but they didn't want to go.  The original book I'd looked at for doing activities for keeping Christ in Christmas suggested that I not force activities, so I didn't.  I didn't think that forcing everyone into the van would lead to a fun night out for the family.  It also saved us a little money as there was an entrance fee.  Maybe we'll get there another night yet, but today, we just took a break from Christmas activities.  Maybe next year we should just to the 12 Days of Christmas for activities rather than the full 25 leading up to Christmas Day. 

December 7: Candy Cane Ornaments

Another ornament day.  The boys each made a candy cane based on the instructions from

http://crafts.kaboose.com/candy-cane-ornament.html.  I purchased the tri-beads from Jo-Ann Fabric, but I was disappointed that I had to buy a multi-color bag as they didn't have bags of all one color, like red.  Because of this, Ty made a red and white candy cane while Koen had to make a green and white one...there just weren't enough red beads.  This is a perfect craft to practice patterns, though Ty didn't seem to think the pattern was super important as you can see in his finished product.  A note about this craft...I needed to pull out a needle nose pliers to help finish the ends so there was no sharp edge sticking out.  The instructions didn't mention anything about it, but I found it to be helpful.   

Ty's Candy Cane

Despite Koen's green candy cane, I read the following poem to them:

Look at a CANDY CANE, what do you see? 
Stripes that are RED like the BLOOD shed for me! 
WHITE for my Savior, Who's sinless and pure! 
"J" is for JESUS, My Lord that's for sure! 
Turn it around And a staff you will see --- 
Jesus, my SHEPHERD, Is coming for me!
http://dltk-holidays.com/xmas/candy_cane_poem.htm

After a little research, I found that the meanings associated with the candy cane were not the reason for its creation as some believe, but it's still a neat little poem to remind us about the meaning of Christmas. 





Koen's Candy Cane



December 6: Jingle Bell Wreaths

Originally I was planning on making jingle bell bracelets with the kids, but decided I'd rather not hear the jingling all the time.  I came across another idea of making this jingle bell wreath on http://www.allfreecrafts.com, but I didn't want to mess with the heavy gauge wire and wire cutters with the kids, so I decided to combine the ideas and make jingle bell wreaths using pipe cleaners instead of the wire (after the fact, someone else posted this idea in the comments section of the site). 

We went to Jo-Ann Fabric's and Ty picked out a package of blue jingle bells (a variety of sizes) for him and a package of red ones for Koen.  We already had the pipe cleaners at home.  I first had the boys sort the bells into three piles:  small, medium, and large.  We started by stringing the large bells on the middle of the pipe cleaner.  It was pretty easy for the boys to do it for themselves.  We then strung half of the medium bells on one side followed by half of the small bells and then repeated that on the other side.  Once all the bells were on, I twisted the remaining pipe cleaner around so it wouldn't come loose and viola!  We had our jingle bell wreath ornaments! 

I actually ended up making most of Koen's wreath as he bailed on the project, but Brielle loved the finished product!  Of course, once it was finished Koen wanted it back, so we decided that he and Brielle could share that wreath. 

After they were hanging on the tree, I asked the boys why they thought bells were a Christmas symbol.  After the pat, "I dunno," answer, I explained that bells on churches rang when something wonderful happened, and Jesus being born was certainly wonderful! 

I thought these turned out really cute!  One of the better projects we've done! 

December 5: Gingerbread House

I've always enjoyed making gingerbread houses at Christmas time!  Because of this, I've purchased a gingerbread house kit for our family to make for the past few years.  I usually leave the construction and design to Daddy and the boys while I snap pictures, but I have to admit, I miss making them...maybe next year I'll have to buy one for me and one for the kids.  I've also wondered about making our own gingerbread and creating houses that way, but that hasn't happened yet. 

The boys were super excited to decorate with all that frosting and candy!  It was fun to put together, despite the sagging roof (Ty cracked the roof piece and we had a hard time putting it back together).  While they were working on the house, I asked the boys if they thought Jesus would have made a gingerbread house at Christmas time.  Both said "no" in a that's-a-silly-question kind of way.  But then we talked about how Jesus didn't celebrate Christmas with his family.  How blessed are we that we can celebrate the coming of our Saviour!?!  Merry Christmas!!!

Brielle enjoyed the fun, too!