Advent Wrap-up

 

This is a little overdue, but I wanted to share our traditional Advent countdown. Once again, I tried to keep my daughter crafting throughout the Christmas season. As I mentioned here, I whipped together a quick advent calendar of craft projects, including the elf ornaments above.

 

With 24 craft projects, I thought I had boredom under control and excitement in store. But this year, some were hits and some were misses! My daughter has moved on from my scheduled craft projects to doing her own thing. She's so quick to say, "Daddy, is that a coffee filter? I'm going to do a project with that!" (He's thrilled!) For the first few days, I was about 0 for 5. 

I started off our craftraganza, by making some decorations for Maddie's room. When we moved, Maddie got to pick out the paint color of her room and surprisingly, she chose Pepto Bismal Pink. It actually does look really cute and she seriously loves it. It looked a little jarring with any of our traditional red and green Christmas decorations, so I figured that she needed something new. I started off with the idea to keep her Christmas decorations whites, muted greens and pinks. The music box above is something that her Grandmother bought for her first Christmas in Germany, and it set our tone for Christmas with nightly rituals of listening and singing along. Surrounding her bed, I plotted out a Christmas tree forest, inspired mostly by the Charlie Brown Christmas tree lot. White trees that I drew on packing paper and we cut out together. Then I gave Maddie a pack of price tag stickers that I found at Target. She decorated in her very typical OCD way (I'm quite sure you can tell which ones I was allowed to do.) When she opened that pack of stickers, she was pretty thrilled with the first day of her Advent calendar. It deteriorated from there.

 

The stickers were a hit. Decorated the trees was awesome.   Hanging them up was apparently torturous. She did not want anything on her walls because then there would be no room for her valentines. I kid you not. I basically went all Grinch on her and hung them up anyway. She got teary eyed the second night they were up. She has since refused to take them down.

Our next two projects were to give Maddie a Christmas tree for her village. I was planning to make this Christmas tree to keep with the color scheme, but Maddie likes primary colors more. (By the way, that book leaning against the wall is the "bookstore". We also made a wreath out of a feather boa and a wire hanger. Easy peasy and also apparently torturous.

Then we started to fall in love with crafting all over again.

Most of our projects this year were some great Pinterest finds. These were Maddie's favorites -- the ones that she got very excited to do. From left to right, top to bottom:  Maddie coloring an ornament, snowflake ornaments, edible Christmas trees, snowflake window clings, pipecleaner garlands that apparently were better as a necklace, global warming snow globes (Maddie didn't want to put any snow in hers!), a gingerbread house that would last inspired by this large scale version (this is so typically Maddie. She loves decorating any box into a house!), the borax snowflakes up close, and a playmat of the North Pole (it's actually Elf-correct with a Candy Cane forest and a sea of swirly twirly gum drops).

This is one of my favorites: Borax snowflakes. So cool to watch crystalize over the course of the day. 

And fantastic for our mobile. We also made these candy trees (which I'm really hoping that I can somehow save until next year??)

As you can probably tell from the many links throughout this blog, this season I was not at my creative best. My lack of creativity may have been a product of a long hard fall. Or maybe it was the fact that I remembered the whole thing on November 29. But regardless of the amount of time I put into doing craft projects over the season, it just magically makes everything so much more Christmassy. Not just making decorations but the process of counting down, building in more quality time during a normally busy time, and handmaking something that will someday mean a lot more than the Popsicle sticks you made it with. 

Let the Countdown Begin Again

Ok, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm kind of wiped out on the inspiration side at the moment. Every year, I pretty much hit a lull during the fall. Though I head into it with all kinds of good intentions, it's my busy season at work and I get drained. I consider it a stellar parenting moment if I can sit on the floor next to Mads while she's coloring and not fall asleep. So I'm warning you, that the posts this month on our annual advent calendar of crafts are not going to be so much in the line of ideas as pictures of the fun that we're having. 

Here's this year's set up: 

 Confession: last year, I almost received divorce papers when my husband woke up on the first morning of advent to discover I had used all his coffee filters. As I was making my advent list I could see him getting nervous, so I opted for a different craft calendar. I used red solo cups this year.

 I actually remembered that advent was coming far enough in advance to buy all my supplies and get organized! It was actually very easy to fill the solo cup with as many supplies for that day's craft as would fit, then glue on a circle of white paper. I wrote out my numbers on white gift tags and used some polka dot "washi" tape (psst... it's not really washi but super cheap fake washi from Target!)

Maddie has loved ripping that circle off the cup for the day. Stacking them up as a Christmas tree has been a little cute too!

More on our crafts throughout the month!

Beaded Snowflakes

Huge hit. Huge! This craft came so close to being skipped because we opened it on a busy day. But then one quiet day we went back to it, and we've made about 20 of these beaded snowflakes.





You can not beat beads for a three year old. They're fascinating!



Plus, Maddie has a helper.



Maddie shows off her handy work.


Super easy: Cut a pipecleaners in third and twist in the middle. Add beads and curl each end.




This was such a nice quiet activity.


Then we got a little wild and crazy and tried an ornament.

Angel Wings

Super easy craft! Cut out some wings out of white paper and glue on feathers to make angel wings. Voila! Messy and fun.









Can you tell glue goes over big in this house?

Angel Ornaments

An easy quicky craft!



Angel ornaments.


In the craft bag, I put large white pompoms, white cupcake wrappers and gold sparkly pipecleaners. Each angel takes one cupcake wrapper that is cut like angel wings (just take a triangle out of each side while folded in half) and one whole cupcake holder.


Maddie got to work coloring the cupcake wrappers for our dress and wings.

Then I hot glued our pompom to the skirt and wings to the back. Top it off with a circle of pipecleaners and voila!

A Little Christmas Village

I have never had a Christmas village and always wanted one. Given that we have limited storage in our current home, that's probably a good thing. But that doesn't mean we can't make a little village for this year!

I found the idea for this Christmas village in Parents magazine (December 2012). Then I simplified the plan to make it more preschool friendly.

I thought Maddie would get the most fun out of using sparkly paper for the details, so i made the foundation the night before. I gathered some boxes (sample cereal boxes and larger cereal boxes that I cut down.) I cut off the tops and bottoms before gluing white paper around the outside edges. Lastly I cut eves into the top edges of my houses.


The next day, Maddie got to glue on windows and doors (turns out she's a bit Spartan in her design style!) and glue on sparkly roofs. These pieces I had precut and put in her advent calendar envelope.



We put each house on a bed of white felt, and decorated it with cotton balls for snow, our pinecones Christmas trees, and a few snowmen for the fun of it.




What village would be complete without a train?


And a village Christmas tree! This tree was a gift from my friend Libby that she brought back from Germany. It's a music box that plays "O Christmas Tree."

As a child, I used to love decorating for Christmas. My mom let us put up a strand of Christmas lights (that had to be turned off before we fell asleep!) and an old "Charlie Brown" fake tree. I still remember laying in the dark looking at those lights and how exciting it was.

This village was my way of giving Maddie something of the same wonderous feeling. Lets just hope she doesn't ask me to take it away tonight, like she did with the Christmas decorations last year!

Star Ornaments

Thinking back on my childhood Christmases, I always remember my grade school Christmas celebration. We had a huge Rockefeller Center-sized tree in the library that we would all decorate together.

Each class made a themed ornament during art class. I remember one year my brother had to make a shepherd out of Papier Mache and fabric. That thing was ugly as sin, and He knew it.

We would be called up each class at a time to hang our ornaments on the tree. Before Christmas vacation we all got to take our ornaments home. And that's why I know there is evidence of my brother's sad little shepherd.




For some reason, I sooo loved my kindergarten ornament. An equally sad little paper star. With staples and glitter, complete with "La Estrella" written on the front.

With this in mind,Maddie and made some star ornaments for our tree.


I cut out stars (pointy and rounded, though Maddie quickly started calling those flowers), and let Maddie decorate away. She liked using brads, glitter glue and markers.


But this child is too creative for me. She decided to take this project in a different direction and started glueing paper pieces together.


Thus creating this mosaic ornament. That looks a heck of a lot better than what I made in kindergarten.

Cotton Snowmen

Bonus time! This wasn't even on our advent calendar list! Because sometimes the craft I come up with is too boring for Miss Maddie and a little improv is required.

It looks like we might be headed for another green Christmas in snowy old B-lo. I'm still hopeful, but my poor little one is getting kind of desperate. She's practicing snow angels on the carpet, for crying out loud.

So today we made some little snowmen. On the spot! Just cotton balls, a black Sharpie, glue a couple of felt strips for scarves, and felt triangles for carrot noses.

Oh, and these top hats.




I'm not going to pretend -- it is bizarre that I have these in my home, and I know it. Here's the story. Years ago, my mother-in-law used to put these on her toes and do a little puppetesque routine which freaked her daughters out. Fast forward to two years ago, my sister-in-law saw these online and shipped them to Maddie-- a package of over 300 top hats. Ha ha, Natalie. Jokes on you because I finally found something to do with them.




So we just glued our cotton balls together. Glued on a carrot nose and top hat. Tied on a scarf and drew on our coal eyes and buttons. Voila!

Now we'll know how to do it when the snow comes... Any day now.

Pinecone Christmas Trees

Super easy and super fun craft. We had gathered pinecones in the yard forever ago.




Just use Elmer's glue (or a hot glue gun) to decorate it with pompoms. Maddie was determined to get a pompom on every single "branch". Very festive!

Dab It!

This was my easy craft day! Give a child a Bingo Dabber and you pretty much have the day off.


I cut out some Christmas trees out of green construction paper and glued them to a white background. I gave Maddie three Bingo dabbers and told her to decorate away. My work here is done!

Dear Mr. Santa Claus

This is Maddie's first letter to Santa, and boy she totally got it. She told me to write, "Dear Mr. Santa Claus..."

I wrote, and she decorated. I had picked up lots of stickers and embellishments so we went to town with this one.



Even Dad got in on the action. I think he's getting coal for Christmas. His letter went something like, "Santa, Sup? Gimme an iPad."



I saved both of their letters for when they grow up.

Cutout Ornaments

Ok, I confess: I made the reindeer ornament. And I'm really proud of it. Maddie's ornament is hanging in the background, hidden behind some branches. Ah, a mother's pride.
We've made salt dough before, but I had never actually made ornaments from it. Maddie is SO into play-doh and rolling and cutouts that this seemed perfect!




I used this recipe from The Imagination Tree, and added in color dye. I wasn't really keen about using paints, so this saved me a step of mess. Until I looked down and noticed the bottle of green dye had exploded in Maddie's hands. You should have seen the look of panic when I told her I couldn't get the green off her hands. Time to read the Grinch! [I jest, it's been four days and her hands are back to their normal marker stained best.]




Once baked we decorated using markers or painting them with glue (1/2 glue and 1/2 water) and glitter.




I think they turned out pretty cute! I may actually be able to save some of these as we build up an ornament collection for Maddie.

The Family Tree 2011

So I had this great idea to share one of our family Christmas traditions with you all, my loyal readers (most of whom are actually in the family and already know of the tradition). And then I got a sneaking suspicion... So I looked back a year and yup... I already blogged about this here. But guess what, I'm going to blog about it a little more because I love this tradition and because it's very timely at the moment.

About 16 years ago when I was in high school (yeah... that's how old I am), I got this idea to make a new family tradition. The truth of the matter is that though I had a lovely childhood, we sadly lost a lot of family members during my preteen and teenage years and my cousins and I often felt that our family was ever shrinking instead of expanding -- not a very joyful Christmas concept. I wanted to do something that would honor each member of our family and find a way to keep them with us even when they couldn't always be there. Truthfully, I wish I had done it long before we had lost so many of those family members.

That first Christmas I spent weeks and weeks up in my room in the attic, painstakingly (but truthfully clumsily) crafting one ornament for each member of the family using glass ornaments, paints, glitter and an oh-so-difficult-to-use-without-burning-yourself glue gun. I tried to make each ornament reflect an aspect of that family member. Seashells for my mother who loves Long Island and the beach, western theme for my cousin who rides horses, music notes for my brother and sister-in-law who play piano, etc... I cried tears of frustration trying to get things to stay glued and get the letters of names to look just right (as I said, I am never too neat with crafts though I wish I could be).



Some of those ornaments have seen better days, and periodically I need to make an update or too (One of my most loyal blog readers gets an upgrade next year!) I've also joyfully had to make a few additions. My sister-in-laws parents, my new cousin Tom, and of course three new ones for our newest little ones: Maddie, my niece and my nephew.
Here's my aunt Luann's which I talked about recrafting last year, designed to look like a patchwork quilt -- go ahead and name that pattern.

Each year that Christmas is at my Mom's house, she graciously allows us to hang the ornaments on the tree. I get the joy of handing an ornament to each person and watching them put it on their branch. (Yes, Rob and I are the only ones I think who follow the true Days of Our Lives tradition and put ours in a cluster. Mine's the clear glass with a little hippie-ish beading for my PP&M-loving soul. Rob's is decoupaged newspapers for as Rob says "Remember when I used to read newspapers?" and Maddie's is ducky-themed since she never appeared without a duck until she was 2. I'm sure she'll love that as a teenager.)


For those who couldn't make it to our Christmas or who are no longer with us, we still hang their ornament on our tree -- a way for them to be present even when they aren't physically there. My aunt who lives in Africa every year has an ornament hung on the tree by her sister -- and next year, she'll be home to hang her own.

My mom likes a simple tree, nicely flocked with very few ornaments and I know this tradition makes her a little edgy to see such a cluttered tree. Plus the whole effort of getting people to climb over people to get to the tree can be a little crazy. This year we had 16 plus three little ones so it was indeed a bit chaotic. It may be selfish of me, but I love it. Because every time I see all those ornaments, I think about how we started with 11.

***

Now here's the part where nice, sentimental Christmas turns into expose your inner crazy soap geek, Alex. Yes, this tradition originated with Days of Our Lives -- and believe me, I have taken no small amount of teasing for this fact. Since it certainly seems to me that we may be nearing the end of the soap opera genre with all the recent cancellations, I'd like to take a moment here and tell you why I frown at all you who poo-poo the Days of Our Lives ornaments! [Of course, if my explanation of the tradition left you cold, you can just skip this part altogether, because you are not the sentimental type!]

I grew up watching DOOL, and occasionally still watch it today. From the time I was three years old, I watched Days: since I wouldn't nap, my mom would let me sit quietly next to her while she watched her soap. Some of you sceptics may not like to hear this, but I think watching soaps made me more creative, better at multitasking, more able to focus (come on how many conversations can you pay attention to at one time? I'm known to follow three or four), and analytical (you have to be able to think through how Stefano could have died seven times).

But at this time of year, I always love to watch soaps and I usually watch a few more shows than usual. There's something magical about a soap opera Christmas episode that always puts me in the mood for the holidays. Watching the Days' Horton family hang their ornaments, or the GH Twas the Night Before Christmas reading (which I think they skipped this year!) is just like watching those old Christmas classics on television. I still remember seeing the Cory family celebrate around their tree (in their mansion) on Another World and thinking someday I want that. And it's nice to know that as this stage of my life, I have my own little soap opera Christmas moment (still no mansion, though). So Viva La Soap -- seriously, do something right for your brain and indulge in a little romantical education daytime television today.

If you're not familiar with the Days Christmas tradition, here it is. I cannot believe they have this one on YouTube. Hello, 1976!

Merry Christmas!

Darned if this doesn't happen to me every year... I really had a tough time feeling like it was Christmas this year. That's what happens when you live in Buffalo and have a green Christmas.

Plus, this year I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas night on my lonesome (after Maddie went to bed that is.) That didn't really help with the post-Christmas letdown.

But guess what! It's snowing!
And guess what! I'm in the mood for Christmas.

So here are a few last Christmas wrap-up photos to enjoy.




Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Maddie's Christmas book that has a working street lamp and plays We Wish You A Merry Christmas; Maddie shows her new Cinderella doll (and box of art supplies) the new fallen snow; Mommy's boots, Baby's boots, Lalaloopsy's boots; Our tree all aglow with Santa's Little Helper wearing her awesome Christmas jammies.

Plus, Santa came to visit me. I found $50 in my sock drawer which apparently I was saving towards Christmas gifts... to myself. So Merry three-days-after Christmas, everyone!

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