Merry Monday: Sweet Holiday Picture Books

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Can you believe Thanksgiving is this week? The holiday season is upon us. Today I am going to share with you five holiday picture books. These books have stories that are sweet. I am referring to them as holiday books because of one of them is a Hanukkah book. It combines the parents' cultures--Jewish and Indian. Talk about a multicultural mix It is Queen of Hanukkah Dosas by Pamela Ehrenberg and illustrated by Anjan Sakar. 

Decorations and Gift Crafts & More from Oriental Trading -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these items in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own. 

Are you getting ready for Thanksgiving this week? Have you started to look towards Christmas? We have gone a bit Christmas crazy here and have been loving it. Today we are going to share some crafts and other things that are great for gifts and Christmas decor. All of it came from Oriental Trading and their amazing Christmas items. Earlier this month we shared crafts and items that focus on the nativity. Today's are more non-secular. Hazel LOVES Peanuts right now so several of them will be Peanuts themed including this fun Peanuts® Christmas Wreath Craft Kit. 

The Grommet -- a Place to Shop for Unique Gifts

Disclosure:  The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share! I was also paid small stipend to write this post. All opinions are my own.

Do you have those people who seem to have everything and you struggle to find them a gift? You know the type. Those impossible to buy for people. They don't need anything and you have no idea what to buy for them. A place to go for something they do not have is The Grommet: Discover What's Next. It has unique things that are just hitting the market. 

Merry Monday -- Where to Shop for Educational Gifts & a Quick Craft

Disclosure: MindWare sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Even though we had our Multicultural Monday post this morning, I wanted to be sure to share a Merry Monday post with you. Instead of books this week I thought I would share some educational gifts and where to buy them as well as a fun and easy hack on a decoration I saw at Michael's today. Now one of our favorite places to shop is Mindware. Mindware sells different brands however our favorite category is the Created by MindWare one. We chose three products this year to share with you. However I have to mention that we have gotten some amazing products from them over the years including one of our all time favorite games--DestiNation USA, which everyone we have introduced to this game loves it. 

Gift Boxes to Decorate and Make: Christmas -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Candlewick Press sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Looking for a fun way to present gifts instead of the usual wrapping paper or gift bags? Check out this amazing book--Gift Boxes to Decorate and Make: Christmas illustrated by Sarah Walsh. This book has 24 pages that turn into a gift box and sticker tags to seal them.

Merry Monday -- Christmas Picture Books Featuring Holiday Songs

Disclosure: I was sent these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Ok, I know we still have Thanksgiving coming up and many people do not want to think about Christmas yet, but I am in a bit of a Christmas mood and have some fun Christmas books to share with you (there has been a pile on my shelf for quite some time). Now I know in the past I have done many round-ups from my Must Read books (featuring religious ones), Multicultural books, Christmas Trees & Classic stories, Advent stories, and so many more!! Today we are going to focus on Christmas music or should I say picture books about Christmas music!! The first item is actually a personalized gift set. Now we have reviewed several amazing personalized Christmas books as well as non-holiday ones over the past couple of years. Hazel's comment about this one was, "This is the best one yet!"

Christmas Crafts - Focus on the Nativity with Oriental Trading - a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

So yesterday we had a Holiday Preview Party at work. We had to be festive even though it is only the beginning of November. I still have holiday nail stickers on. Yes, Santa is on my thumbs. It was fun though and it got me into the mood. Of course it also helps that Hazel has been pulling out holiday DVDs to watch for a couple of months now. Well I always like to find a way to bring the religious side into our holiday and am going to share some crafts and products that do just that. Now Oriental Trading has an amazing collection of religious Christmas products. Hazel and I looked through and choose a few fun things which mostly were crafts. I fell in love with the DIY Unfinished Wooden Nativity & Stable Set, which is no longer available. See their religious Christmas crafts for other ideas. 

Dollar Tree Christmas Crafts including Cheap Doll Finds -- a Crafty Weekends Post and Link Party

Disclosure: I am receiving a small stipend for writing this post and will receive a small percentage from any purchases made from the Dollar Tree links. All opinions are my own!

I know Halloween is coming fast and once it has come the holiday season has begun. I love to focus on Christmas since it is one of my favorite holidays. So yes, I am sharing some Christmas crafts and items. The best part is the supplies are from Dollar Tree where everything is $1!!  And like most stores, they already have Christmas items out!!

Those Hard to Buy For People -- Holiday Preparations -- Gift Buying

Disclosure: Uncommon Goods sent me these products in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. All of the pictures are from Uncommon Goods website. 

Have you begun your holiday shopping yet? Now I know there are 68 days still before Christmas. However I for one like to have my shopping basically done by Thanksgiving. Why? I like to be able to relax and enjoy the Advent season plus I work in retail and my work schedule gets a bit crazy so I honestly don't want to shop and deal with the crowds. Plus there are so many fun things to do besides shop during that time of year. Therefore I start early. The best part of shopping early is you spread out the bills that come in from holiday shopping!

Oriental Trading's Fun365 --a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Oriental Trading sent me these items in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Have you discovered Oriental Trading's Fun365?  It is a site that has different craft projects and articles. There are choices of Party Ideas, Craft Ideas, Wedding Ideas, and Classroom Ideas. I was inspired by ideas from the Craft Ideas and Party Ideas. I had so much fun exploring the many ideas there. I let Hazel look and help me pick what we would try. In the Party Ideas section there is a Rainbow Party and one of the crafts is a DIY Rainbow Coin Purse. Instead of doing the coin purse we used DIY Totes. (See current available totes here.)I asked Hazel to paint a rainbow on one for me. She wanted to use the Pearlized Acrylic Paint (available paint). Then she wanted to do a heart rainbow, but hers turned out more like a circle. She also did a square but wanted to use the pink on it.  I did a heart one for her as well as a star and an H. 

Create-Your-Own Handmade Christmas Cards -- a Relaxing Saturday Review

Disclosure: Storey Publishing sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Ok, I know it is way too early to talk Christmas, however if you are a crafter you probably are already thinking about it. So today's review is a coloring book to make your own Christmas cards. And if you want to make them all to send out, you need to get started soon. Now I should mention that the past couple of years we have had a bit of Christmas in July since we have visited Santa's Village each July. Here is a picture I think might go on our photo card this year. What do you think?

Merry Christmas!! Crafty Weekends contines this week...

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all celebrating!! We will be enjoying time with our family, so there will not be a new Crafty Weekends this week. However last week's party continues!! There are plenty of great holiday ideas shared already!! I hope you will share your latest creations with us!!

A Doggone Christmas -- a New Christmas Movie Review

Disclosure: I was sent this product to review free of charge by Vision Films, Inc. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

So many new movies come out each Christmas and some are worth seeing, but many are not. Today I am going to share one that we love. In fact Hazel wanted to watch it again right after watching it, but waited a couple of days and brought it to my mother-in-law's house today and my mother-in-law kept telling her to be quiet because she wanted to watch the movie. She loved it!! The movie is A Doggone Christmas starring Just Jesse the Jack. 

Krazy for Christmas -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

Disclosure: I was sent this product to review free of charge. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Now we all know that Krazy Glue works great at fixing broken things. In fact it is Steve's go to glue for fixing all the broken toys and things in our house. And I used it to fix Hazel's clay ornament that she made in her arts and crafts class at school the other week. The trunk of her Christmas tree fell off and her Christmas tree was her favorite ornament she made.

Sharing Saturday 16-49

It is time for Sharing Saturday!! This is a link party to share all of your child-oriented crafts, crafts made for kids, activities and lessons as well as your parenting and/or teaching posts. On Sunday night we also host Crafty Weekends for all your crafts (done by any age), patterns, and craft product reviews! It is the perfect place to share your creative side!! And for all of your cultural posts come share them at the monthly Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop (a new one starts this week). We also are hosting a Virtual Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World. Stop by to share your cultural treats and learn about various holiday traditions & recipes!!

Thank you to everyone who shared with us at last week's party! With the start of December we have a large number of Christmas posts being shared. Our features are just a sampling of them so if you haven't checked them all out, you should! This week we have two groups of features: Christmas Books, Christmas Crafts & Activities, and Non-Christmas Features.

MindWare Gifts -- Perfect Gifts to Get Them Thinking!!

Disclosure: I was sent these items to review free of charge from MindWare. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.

I have been sharing some of our favorite places to get gifts and tonight I am sharing a new one. MindWare has many educational and fun gifts. They are connected now with Oriental Trading. You can get your party supplies and gifts in one stop!! The first thing I knew I wanted to check out was Qwirkle. I had heard of it but never played. 

Christmas in Nigeria -- Jollof Rice

Today we get to share our post for Christmas in Different Lands. Before we do, however, I want to share a quote from Hazel: "Next year you should pick four countries and cook something from each one for each week of Advent to post on your blog."

We decided to explore Nigeria because Hazel wanted to learn more about it. One of her best friends' family is from Nigeria, so I asked her mother for information. So much of this information is straight from someone who grew up there and still has family there.

Crafty Weekends Link Party & Christmas Crafts

This week has been busy with various things, but I am not ready to write a craft review for you. I will share a couple of crafts we have been working on though. Every Christmas Hazel's school has each class adopt a child in a battered women's shelter. The list for the four-year-old boy her class has this year included wanting a quilt, so I decided to make a quick one. I bought a set of flannel squares at Joann's and cut some more from other flannel I bought and had. I quickly stitched them together using my serger. 

Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World -- a Multicultural Link Party

Christmas time always brings cookie swaps and I thought it would be fun to have a virtual one around the world. Cookies have many different names around the world like biscuits in England and Australia and galletas in Spain.  The idea of Christmas cookies probably started in the Middle Ages. The use of spices started in Europe during the Middle Ages. Cookies have probably evolved quite a bit since then, but think of some of the heavier spiced cookies like gingerbread that we associate with Christmas. (Sources: What's Cooking America and History Channel) To make this swap happen I asked my fellow Kid Blogger Network and Multicultural Kid Blogs members to join me. A few signed up and I am hoping you will join us as well!! Then I googled our favorite kind of Christmas cookies--thumbprints and discovered they are from Sweden!!

First Words of Jesus -- Mommy Time Review

Disclosure: I was sent this book to review free of charge from Worthy Publishing. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  The links are affiliate links where I will receive a small percentage of any purchases made through them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

 As we enter the busy holiday season, have you taken time to consider the Greatest Gift of all? We often hear this time of year that Jesus is the Greatest Gift, but what does that gift mean to you? Stu Epperson, Jr. helps explain and explore this in his new book, First Words of Jesus.