Thumbprint Reindeer Ornament

Running out of time to make a homemade Christmas gift for family members?  Here's one that takes no time at all!

Michaels has some flat, paintable ceramic Christmas tree ornaments.We used them to make thumbprint reindeer and then let the kids paint the other side however they wanted with acrylic paints.

Christmas Lanterns from Baby Food Jars

Throwing away babyfood jars is something I like to avoid when I can.  They are a nice size and really so pretty without their paper.  MaryAnn F. Kohl has a brilliant craft idea for them in her book Scribble Art.  I did this project with a group of 3 and 4 year- olds and several of the lanterns turned out very pretty.

We covered the jars with tissue paper and mod podge.  I cut letters out of black construction paper for the kids to glue on to make them more Christmas-y.  (I had intentions of making a "love" lantern and a "peace" lantern as well, but haven't quite gotten around to those yet)

Mod Podge is non-flamable; so you could fill the lanterns with regular candles, but for kids' projects I really love the battery- operated tealight candles you can buy now.  They are safe and pretty convincing.

Any other fun ideas for reusing baby food jars?  (especially Christmas related would be fun!)

Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows

I've never been a huge fan of marshmallows (I'd rather do a sink full of dishes than eat a Peep), but for some reason the idea of making them myself fascinated me from the first moment I heard it was possible.

Since so many imitations of processed foods are mediocre at best, and me not being the most careful of cooks, I half expected my marshmallows to turn out a puddle of white goo on the counter that I would reluctantly allow my girls to lick up and sicken themselves upon (so it wouldn't be a total waste).

I was definitely encouraged when several of you on facebook mentioned having good experiences with marshmallow recipes, and the girls and I promptly set off to make our own.
Peppermint Marshmallows
(adapted from Martha Stewart)
Ingredients

•  cooking spray
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 4 packages (1/4 ounce each) unflavored gelatin
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 teaspoons red food coloring
• powdered sugar for dusting

 Directions

1. Coat a cookie sheet  with cooking spray; line bottom with parchment paper. Coat the parchment with cooking spray, dust with powdered sugar and set pan aside. 
2. Put sugar, corn syrup, and 3/4 cup water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Stop stirring; let mixture come to a boil. Raise heat to medium-high; cook until mixture registers 250 degrees on a candy thermometer.
3. Meanwhile, sprinkle gelatin over 3/4 cup water in a heatproof bowl; let stand 5 minutes to soften. Stir in extract and set aside.
4. Beat egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until stiff (but not dry) peaks form. Whisk gelatin mixture into sugar mixture; with mixer running, gradually add to egg whites. Mix on high speed until   very thick, cool and glossy, 15 minutes or longer.
5. Pour mixture into lined pan. Working quickly, drop dots of red food coloring across surface of marshmallow. Using a toothpick, swirl food coloring into marshmallow to create a marbleized effect. Let marshmallow stand, uncovered, at room temperature until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight. Cut into squares, using a pizza cutter or sharp knife.   Roll in powdered sugar.

Thoughts:

1.  Definitely tasty.  Lighter and creamier than storebought marshmallows.

2.  The red marbling did not work out so well for me.  You can see that rather than artistic red swirls, I ended up with what looked a bit like a snowy battlefield.  

3.  Very fun process!  It was fun to watch the sugar mixture foam up when we added the gelatin, fun to watch the Kitchen Aid poof up the glossy white marshmallow fluff.  The girls also enjoyed cutting and rolling the marshmallows at the end.  

4.  Ever since we made them my mind has been racing, thinking of useful variations of this recipe.  I've heard that coconut flavored marshmallows are very delicious roasted over a campfire.  Apparently, cookie cutters can also be used to make fun shapes.  We gave out these marshmallows as a gift to some friends and family along with some homemade White Chocolate Peppermint Hot Cocoa.  

Festive Mini Pretzel Rods

Inspired by my friend Carissa at Carissa's Creativity Spot, the girls and I decided to make some quick Christmas gifts for the mailman and the new neighbors across the street (and of course there were all of those not-quite-perfect little rods that we felt compelled to eat ourselves :-)

1. First we crushed candy canes in a ziploc bag with a heavy rolling pin.  (The girls enjoyed doing this part, but needed quite a bit of help to get the pieces small enough.

2.  Then we melted some white chocolate chips in a makeshift double boiler on the stove.  (Large saucepan filled with hot water with a smaller saucepan nested inside filled with the chips)  I think doing it this way worked better than the microwave because it kept the chocolate smooth and melted for long enough for us to dip a lot of pretzels

3.  Next we dipped small pretzel rods into the white chocolate and sprinkled them with the candy cane pieces.  (This part was very fun for the girls too, but they needed some help making sure they let the excess chocolate drip off before they rolled them.

4.  Set to dry on a piece of wax paper.  (Only takes about 10 minutes)

(Yes, M has a tin bucket on her head.  Not sure why :-)

For our packaging, we tried a cute idea I saw on Pinterest a while back.  We just used small ziploc bags and stapled some holiday scrapbook paper on the top.  They turned out cute and tasty- the girls were proud to stick them in the mailbox.

   (We wanted to give some to the garbage man too as a Christmas thank-you, but couldn't figure out how to do that without getting up at 6:30am when he usually comes- any suggestions?)

Child Made Gift: Tile Coasters

A friend of mine had some moms and daughters over the other day so we could all make homemade Christmas gifts together.  She had everything purchased and laid out so we could make sets of tile coasters- It turned out to be a simple and surprisingly inexpensive gift.

Materials:

Ceramic tiles (from the kitchen and bath section of the hardware store; they only cost about 14 cents each!)
Mod Podge
Scrapbook paper
Scissors
Foam brushes
Polyurethane (the most expensive part of the craft.  A quart costs about $16 but can make a TON of tiles)
Hair blow dryers
Adhesive cork

1.  Cut scrapbook paper to the size of the tiles.

2.  Mod podge the paper on to the tile and wait about 15 minutes for it to dry.  It's important to wait because otherwise the paper will bubble.  (I found out the hard way)
3.  Cover the paper with 3 layers of polyurethane.  Make the layers thin and smooth, and allow to dry completely between coats.  You can use a hair blow dryer to speed the drying along.  Air drying usually takes a couple of hours for each coat.  When you use the hair blow dryer it takes about 10 minutes for each coat.

4.  Cut cork for the size of the tiles, and stick onto the backs.

M was able to help with each step of the process, but it got a little tedious for her, and so she only did one or two all the way through.  I thought the coasters turned out quite nice for being something that young children can help so much with!

A Daring but Good Christmas Present for a Child

Every year, thousands of people receive Christmas presents in the form of donations in their name to organizations like  Heiffer International, World Vision, Compassion, etc.   It seems to me though, that most often the kind of person who tends to receive this kind of present is someone who is difficult to buy for- someone who already has everything they could possibly want.

That 's why I thought it was really surprising when, this past summer, my parents chose to buy a goat for a poor family through World Vision as M's fourth birthday present.  M definitely is NOT difficult to buy for- she has lots of things she would have liked!

But how neat that my parents would trust a little girl to be compassionate and mature enough to be able to see this as a good thing.  My mom also gave M a copy of the book Beatrice's Goat which tells the story of a family in Africa who receives a goat and is able to use the benefits from it to make a better life for themselves.  It is told from the perspective of a young girl who would really like to go to school, but whose family cannot afford the cost of a uniform.

My mom read this book with M and talked about it with her to help her understand the present.  In the end, M did seem to understand, and she smiled and talked about it positively.

I think it was really special that my parents would want to give M the gift of helping her to develop compassion and empathy for others.  That's really an investment in her character, and something that could really make a lasting impression.

Certainly, my parents don't always give this kind of present to my kids.  There's a place for giving them fun, traditional gifts too.  (It also seems like you have to know the child and their situation pretty well.  There are definitely some situations in which this kind of gift would be a really poor choice)

But if it does seem like a good idea for a gift for a child on your list this year, here are some ideas for making it a good experience:

1.  Look at the catalogs. Many companies like World Vision put out catalogs of gifts like this that can be given to families all over the world.  It might be neat to pore over one of these books with a child to pick out something together.

2.  Pray for the family who will receive the gift together with your child.  

3.  Research the country or region where the gift will go and locate it on a map.


4.  Buy a stuffed animal to match the kind of donation as a reminder of the real animal.


5.  Encourage imagination.  Let your child imagine what the family might name the animal, how they would feel upon receiving it, and what that animal might be doing, etc.

Have you ever tried this sort of present with your children?  What suggestions do you have? 

Gingerbread Day

The other day my girls and I wandered into the lobby of The Four Seasons Hotel here in Austin to see their annual Gingerbread Village display.  (a little awkwardly, I might add.  It's usually apparent enough that we don't belong at The Four Seasons, but it happened to be pouring rain that day, and we looked particularly bedraggled and dripping down mud.  But- oh well...if they are going to display fancy candy houses, they're going to have to expect a little preschool riff raff :-)

This year they are displaying replicas of Austin landmarks.  We even got to see a gingerbread version of the hospital where I'll be delivering little baby J in a week or two.

It was fun to look, but I realized that the whole experience was a bit of a tease for the girls when M turned to me and said, "NOW, can we eat them?"

Thankfully, I had previously frittered away invested some time on Pinterest looking at holiday ideas, and remembered a pin for a site with instructions for making super easy graham cracker gingerbread houses.  It seemed that the next logical thing to do was to stop off at HEB for some graham crackers and candy.

The bulk candy aisles were particularly fun because we were able to purchase just a few pieces of a big variety of little candies.

While the girls napped, I set to work constructing the graham cracker houses.  The site from Pinterest really has amazingly good and detailed instructions.  I was especially thankful for her suggestion to use melted chocolate instead of the royal icing I would have used as a default.  Royal icing takes a lot longer to dry and so leaves the little house pretty susceptible to collapse for a couple of hours.  The melted chocolate dried quickly and solid.

The only real trouble I had was in making sure I had enough graham crackers.  When I opened the package I found that half of the crackers were broken.  (may have had something to do with the fact that little G was in the basket with them at the grocery store) In the end, I was able to salvage enough for two little houses.

It looks a little messy, but white melted chocolate looks enough like snow and icicles; so in the end I was happy with them.  And, of course,  the girls thought they were amazing!

Decorating the little houses was an absolute dream come true for them.  They spent over an hour intently decorating, and then only stopped because I made them get washed up for dinner.  For the candy decorating we did use royal icing.  It would have been hard for them to decorate fast enough before the chocolate hardened.

It was a great day, and I'm excited to continue the gingerbread tradition next year.  Of course, the massive amounts of candy are a bit troubling, but we've been eating them slowly, one piece at a time (as rewards for potty training)  Still, it would be fun to come up with a healthier version of a gingerbread house...maybe with dried fruit, etc.  Or would that take all the fun out of it?

 I think it might be fun to host a gingerbread house decorating party next year.  Have any of you done that?  Any tips?   Any fun books to go along with the activity?  (I considered Hansel and Gretel, but the part about throwing the witch into the oven always makes it a bit of a disturbing story to me :-)   
 
It would be great to get other suggestions!

An Easy Stained Glass Craft Technique

I'm really tickled to have found this simple stained glass craft.  I had been looking for a pretty and quick way to make all the symbols for our family's advent devotions, and after poking around on the internet for a while yesterday, I found something I was happy with.

1.  Print a black and white silhouette picture out on regular paper. (you'll notice the picture I found on google was a tattoo pattern.  Ha!)

2.  Heat a cookie sheet in the oven until its nice and hot.

3.  Take the cookie sheet out of the oven and use and towel to cover part of the sheet so little fingers are less likely to get burnt. (I told the girls to be very careful, and we didn't have any problems)
4.  Place the silhouette paper on the cookie sheet upside down and color with crayons.

5.  Frame the picture with strips of black construction paper.

That's it!

If you want it to have less of a "mottled" look then make sure not to melt the crayon on too thickly.

They look surprisingly nice on a brightly lit window or on the outside of a candle holder (we're doing it this way for advent devotions).

It's Playtime!

Journey to Bethlehem Dinner

I'll probably end up reposting this idea every year in December- just because it's been such a meaningful, unique tradition for my family for so many years.  

A lot of people try to imagine what the first Christmas must have been like. Not as often, I imagine, do people think about what the first Christmas Eve was like. One of my family's Christmas traditions centers around that very idea.

Every year since I was little, my family has held a "Journey to Bethlehem" dinner on Christmas Eve when we think about Joseph and Mary's long trip before Jesus was born. We try to only eat foods that would have been available to them at that time and that people might be likely to eat when they are traveling and don't have time for a lot of preparation. For example, figs, dates, olives, goat cheese, nuts, grape juice, dried meat.

We also turn off all of the electric lights and use only candles and lanterns for the rest of the evening. Not only are the lanterns a good reminder of Mary and Joseph, but they also set a certain atmosphere that is very conducive to family-togetherness. Usually, after we are done reading the Christmas story from the Bible and sing some Christmas hymns, we spend the rest of the dinner talking about old family memories. It's always a special time.

A couple of years when all of us kids were little, we actually filled the basement with straw and slept on it overnight. Now THAT was a memory- very messy clean-up afterward though, as I remember!

Christmas Card Puzzles

Before you throw away the Christmas cards from this year, take a moment to cut a few of them into simple shapes to make little Christmas puzzles for next year. Stick each little puzzle in a ziploc baggie and tuck away in the Christmas decoration boxes. When you open those boxes next year, you'll have a quick, fun activity waiting for you!

Christmas Storytelling

One of my favorite moments from our extended family Christmas get-together this year happened during our annual Christmas Eve Journey to Bethlehem dinner. After we had finished eating, one member of our family started telling M and G the true story of Christmas. After about 3 or 4 sentences that person stopped, and the next person picked up where they left off. We continued this way around the table until we had finished the story.

I think it was easier for M to pay attention when the story was told by multiple storytellers, and it was an opportunity for all of us to really focus on what we were celebrating. Hearing my brothers and sister (who do not yet have their own children of their own) simplify the story down to a 3-year-old level was an especially unusual treat!

Ways to Involve Little Ones in Christmas Gift-Giving

I'm always trying to think of ways to include my girls in the gift- giving side of things (the receiving end is all too easy :-)

These are some ideas I've used for past and present years.  (I'd love to hear more ideas!)

1.  Make an edible gift and involve the preschooler or toddler in the process.  This year, we made peppermint bark, and M helped me open the peppermint candies, crush and sprinkle them.

2.  Involve the child in the gift-wrapping process.  Let them use stickers to decorate an already- wrapped present, color a white sheet of wrapping paper with markers, or use paint to make hand or foot print wrapping paper.  Use a little craft that they've done as the "bow."

3.  Help the child memorize a little poem for the recipient.  Here is a cute one for grandparents.


Grandparents Are Nice

Grandmas and Grandpas are everything nice. 
Like presents and candy and raspberry ice. 

And chocolate fudge sundaes, with cherries on top. 
And popcorn and peanuts and grape soda pop. 

In winter or summer, in rain or in sun, 
Grandmas and Grandpas are wonderful fun!!!
-Anonymous


4.  Make a coupon book full of coupons to be redeemed for hugs and kisses from the child.

5.  Help the child make a little jar full of things that they like about the person.

6.  Have the child do little chores around the house for money to buy a small gift.

7.  If the recipient is long distance, make a video of the child doing some of their favorite things and include a personal message from your child to the recipient at the end.

Hmmmm, that's all I can think of right now...any other thoughts?  Also...if you know me, pretend you didn't read this post come Christmas day :-)

Daddy Daughter Christmas Date

For M's main gift this year she got to go on a little date with her Daddy. They went to dinner and then to a store to pick out a Christmas dress together. I just had to smile when M told her father that day, "Daddy, we're going on a date tonight, and I've never BEEN on a date!"

R's cousin does this every year with his daughter as a tradition at Christmastime, and we thought it seemed like a neat idea. We're like the thought that the sweet memory from this time will hopefully outlast the enjoyment from many of her toys.

The Ghost of Christmases Past

 

To celebrate the first day of December (which here in Texas is appropriately COOOOLD!) I'm reposting some of the December and Christmas ideas that my family and extended family have done in the past. 

And...for some reason I'm particularly excited about Christmas this year so look for lots of Christmas-themed posts in the next few weeks.  (Hopefully I'll find time for posting them!)

Advent Log with candles, Scripture reading and singing (If you would like me to send you a copy of the list of Scripture passages, symbols, and corresponding hymns we sing each night please feel free to email me at kmagill1212 at gmail dot com)


 Sugared Cranberries

Journey to Bethlehem Dinner

Christmas Present Store

Aromatic Christmas Counters

Hand and Footprint Wrapping Paper

Jesse Tree Family Resources

For a long time I have been intrigued by the Jesse Tree tradition that a lot of families and churches participate in during Advent. It seems like a neat way not only to focus on Christ in anticipation of Christmas, but to also remember what His birth means in the context of the rest of the Biblical story.

If you are interested in possibly starting this tradition in your family, you might take a look at these blog posts from families who have done the Jesse Tree in their homes. I think it's really interesting to see how each family has tailored the basic idea to fit their family's personality.

Also, at the end of this post you will find a collection of resources (printables, devotions, etc) for help in making your own Jesse tree.

Just Five More Minutes

As We Walk. Tired, Need Sleep (also has free Jesse Tree printables)

Catherine Fournier

SugarFishFrancisco Family Blog

La Dolce VitaThe Homespun Heart

Motherly Loving

Other Resources:
A list of Scripture readings and description of the tradition from CRI
Devotions for Children with corresponding questions from the Reformed Church in America
Patterns for the Symbols and directions for making the tree also from the RCA
Coloring Pages
Ready to Print and hang ornaments
Calendar with suggested additional activities