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Holiday Stroll--Happy Family Times #36


Have you done something fun with your family this past week? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I would love to hear about it. We are collecting different family activities to inspire us all to have more time with our own families. Please share yours below and visit some of the others to get new ideas of things to do.
Ready to go to the stroll.
This weekend our town held its Annual Holiday Stroll. The schools and many churches have different events at them--mostly on Saturday. We went to check out three of the four elementary schools in town. The first offered a Breakfast with Santa which we caught the tail end of. Right when we walked in the door we saw Santa and Hazel got her picture taken, but we won't get it until Wednesday. She however was a big girl and sat on Santa's lap for the first time. I had to walk her over, but she did sit on his lap and had fun. 

Then we went to check out the crafts and what not. Hazel wrote a letter to Santa which she put in her magic mailbox and she heard back from him already. Then she got her face painted.
Next we went to the school Daddy had gone to as a child. There we had lunch and then Hazel made a sand art.
Then she made a felt mouse candy cane holder. They didn't give candy canes with it though.
Then we checked out the craft fair and of course Santa followed us there and was posing for pictures again. We didn't do it twice in one day though. Steve and Hazel stopped to buy a soldier some socks and send a note and then Hazel and I picked out an ornament where the money went to support the K-9 unit at the police department. Sorry for the blurry picture.
Then we went to the third school. By this time we were getting a bit tired. Santa was there as well. He just seemed to keep following us. I was hoping Hazel wouldn't ask how he could be at all three schools like she did about the malls a few weeks ago. Here she decorated a gingerbread man. Sorry I got the picture after she started snacking on him.
Then she decorated a wooden ornament. She chose a penguin frame ornament.
While she and Steve decorated these I checked out the crafts. We bought some cookies from the PTO and then went home to rest. Hazel had the best time and we decided it was a fun annual event to do. We liked supporting the underfunded schools and just getting out as a family. Maybe next year we will plan it better and actually make it to the Breakfast with Santa for breakfast.


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.


~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun


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~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas



Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!

Advent Calendar Round-Up

As I posted the other day, Advent is one of my favorite times. I have wonderful childhood memories of my Advent calendars as well as the Advent wreath on our dining room table. For my post on Advent wreaths visit here. However here is one that Hazel made this morning. It is made from a printable at First School.

A few years ago, my parents gave us this beautiful wooden Advent calendar for a Christmas gift. I absolutely love it and Hazel gets so excited to open a door. Last year I filled it with needle-felted nativity figures and this year we filled it with Nativity story stones.
Now when we were teenagers, my mother made my cousins an adorable quilted Advent calendar. I am hoping to make one at some point. I bought the fabric last year, but haven't gotten around to it. So sometime in the future I will make one. However there are many simple and creative ones that you can make that have been shared the past month or so on Sharing Saturday. Here are some of them.

First two I couldn't get pictures from:
From Life on the Gravelly Road has a wonderful homemade one with each card having a scripture reading and a fun activity.

From Mummy Mummy Mum! has a wonderful felt ornament tree Advent calendar.

Now for some that I could take pictures:

1) From Little Wonders' Day: Easy Door Advent Calendar
2) From Wesens-Art: Star Advent Calendar
3) From Making Boys Men: Magnetic Advent Calendar
4) From S.O.S. Mom: Advent Calendar
5) From Wesens-Art: Advent Calendar
6) From Living Montessori Now: 40+ Advent Activities Round-Up

A Few More...
Here is one from an Advent Workshop at our church last year:
For each of the 24 days before Christmas you glue on a holly leaf to make a wreath.

From Catholic Mom: 2012 Printable Advent Chain each day the chain has a kind activity for the child to do and the instructions suggest paper color to tie in the colors of Advent.

Do you have any more DYI Advent Calendar ideas? I would love for you to leave a link in the comments!! Or even better share at Sharing Saturday!



Advent Wreaths


Advent is one of my favorite times of the year. Advent in Western Christianity is the time to prepare oneself for the birth of Christ or for Christmas. It is a time I think we need to do less and spend more time with friends, family and God. However our society is one of making it all about the parties, the sales and the things that must be done and often one does not enjoy or prepare as well as we should.

In the church Advent starts the fourth Sunday before Christmas, December 25th. So Sunday is the first day of Advent. An Advent wreath is often used in churches as well as homes to help with the celebration of Advent. Each week a new candle is lit to represent different parts of the coming of Christ. The first candle is a purple one and is hope, the second also purple is peace, the third is pink and is for joy, and the fourth is purple and is for love. The candle in the middle is white and is for Christ. It is traditionally lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Typically the Advent wreath is made with evergreens. I remember my mother always having one with greens. She actually had a pottery wreath holder that held water for the greens with holes for the greens around it and the four candle holders built in. I bought the metal one pictured above and do not add the greens since we do not have a real tree. However there are many simple ones you can make as well. For example, pictured below is an Advent wreath we made at church during the Advent Workshop a few years ago. It is a Styrofoam wreath wrapped in green crepe paper and then with fake greens and berries glued on and the candles just pushed into the wreath.
The evergreens symbolize everlasting life and the circle symbolizes God's love with no beginning and no ending. (Source) Purple of Advent represents penance in the church. (Source) The pink candle represents joy. The tradition of the pink or rose colored candle for the third Sunday comes from the Catholic Church when the Pope was known to give a rose at this mass to help break the solemn mood of Advent. (Source)

There are many crafts for children having to do with Advent and Advent wreaths. Here are a few I found.
Another favorite part of Advent is the Advent Calendar. I will share more about this tomorrow. The calendar starts on December 1st. Hazel opened hers today and got a Mary story stone. I have all the Nativity story stones in hers. I try to give her something to play with as we tell the story.


Sharing Saturday #48


Once again, there were some amazing ideas shared last week. If you have not had a chance to check them out, please do so! There were many Thanksgiving crafts and ideas shared. I know I pinned them for next year. Click on the Most Clicked picture to see the post!



With December starting, I know I have Christmas and winter on my mind. Plus Sunday starts Advent this year, so I decided to feature a few of the Christmas/Advent/Winter posts shared.
1) From Wesens-Art: Advent Calendar
2) From De Gulle Aarde: Cup Cookies
3) From Making Boys Men: Using Kids Art for Christmas Cards
4) From Taming the Goblin: Snow Play (Indoors!)

A few of my other favorites as well:
1) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk, Native American Salt Sticks Evaporation
2) From E Strea Chikitu: Needle Felted Star Tutorial
3) From I'm not a trophy wife: Fun Word Cloud Project (introducing another free word art site like Tagxedo)
4) From Ziezo - Crafting and Living in Kenya: Dyeing Wool with a Child

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.
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Winter Pants: Yellow Ducks and Red Snowflakes
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Christmas Gifts

Since we put our tree up early, Hazel is so excited about Christmas. It is a good thing the month of December is so full of fun activities or it might be a very long month for her. She has been wanting to wrap Christmas gifts for months, so yesterday I gave in and let her do some wrapping.



Over the summer we made some of the poured paint flower pots for all of our family. (We followed the tutorial at Dily-Dali Art.)Hazel has been wanting to make paper flowers, so we decided to make some for the flower pots and then wrap them. We kept it simple with cupcake liners and pipe cleaners.
I got a bit fancy with some of the flowers and different size liners, but for the most part we kept them simple. Oh, a word of advice in poured pots--don't store them stacked. They stick!! We only broke one getting them all apart, but it was not fun.
After making the paper flowers we wrapped them in sparkly tissue paper and tied them with a pipe cleaner. (Our cats eat the ribbons and get sick so we don't use ribbons when the gifts will sit in the house for any amount of time.) Then Hazel wanted to wrap more gifts, so I pulled out all the gifts for Daddy, Mimi, Pop and Nonni that we have already bought or made. We wrapped those including Pop's birthday gift. Pop's birthday is Christmas day, so it is always a double celebration. Actually now four of my family's birthdays occur from Christmas until January 10th and then we get Steve's and his mother's in February. We basically have three months of celebrating.

Hazel still wanted to wrap, but all I had left are gifts for her (and stocking stuffers) and most of them are from Santa so she definitely cannot see them. I did leave the wrapping paper in Steve's office and when he got home they wrapped the gifts I have bought for myself so far.

Now I need to get sewing her big Christmas gift from us and her birthday gift. I'm off to sew. How is your holiday shopping going?

Morning of Baking and Snacking

Wednesdays are our day of rest and play. It is the day this year between her two school days, so I try not to plan too much. This week, we finally baked the pumpkin apple cranberry bread recipe we wanted to try. We used this recipe from Joy the Baker. Since it makes two loaves, we brought one to school. Since there is a no nut rule, we did not add the pecans to one of the loaves, but besides that pretty much followed the recipe. Oh, and I was told that I was the assistant that day and she was the chef. We change roles often.
My chef measuring brown sugar.
Stirring
Then we baked it and waited. Hazel did not like the waiting because I promised her we could have some hot chocolate with the rest of the homemade whip cream with a slice for a snack.  She did however enjoy the snack.

Then to share one more surprise, I made Hazel another new pair of pants. She has been asking for a new ducky outfit since she has outgrown the one I made her. I had bought this flannel when I bought the other ducky fabric, but Hazel has been playing with it. I used it finally to make her pants and want to make a matching top. I took the pattern I used the other day and changed the pockets to ones for a jacket on a pattern I had. I also added some elastics in the ankles to help keep her legs warmer.


Dressed for School



New Pants


Last night I decided to use some of the flannel I bought recently and made Hazel some pants. I have started a top to match, but haven't finished it yet. The top is mostly the solid red.

I used the pattern and instructions in Little Girls, Big Style by Mary Abreu. I added the pockets and the lace.

Ok, my only downfall with these pants. Hazel wore them to school today and we had snow flurries and rain showers all day. The flannel absorbed the water (I didn't realize it was suppose to start so early so I did not have her wear her rain or snow pants), and the ruffle made them a bit too long and got covered in mud. Luckily they washed out. Oh, well. The next pair will be shorter and maybe tighter on the legs.

Happy Family Times #35--Thanksgiving

If you want to share a child-oriented craft please visit Sharing Saturday!!
 Did you do something with your family that was fun? Kelly from Happy Whimsical Hearts and I are collecting family activities. Our hope is to have a fun list of activities to inspire all of us to have more quality family time. Please share yours below.

Well seeing how our Thanksgiving was last week, I cannot think about sharing anything other activity this week. To me Thanksgiving is all about the family. The food is great, but we focus much more on being together. I also decided a long time ago that I love to host Thanksgiving more than travel for it. Plus we always invite Steve's mother--though she never comes for the actual meal, but stops in to say hello later in the day. We at least feel like we are trying to include her.
Playing "This Little Piggy"

My parents and one of my sisters came. They came Wednesday and stayed until Friday. Hazel was so excited. Once she saw my sister, she did not want to let her out of her sight. My father had a new position as second best. Hazel helped me make the beds on Wednesday and clean the guest bathrooms. She also helped with some of the cooking on Wednesday.

My sister worked Wednesday so she came after Hazel's bedtime. Hazel did not get to see her until Thursday morning. She could not wait to go down and see her, but we did not let her wake her aunt up, however, my sister heard her talking to my parents and came to see her.

Now I cooked the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing on Thursday. Hazel and I had made cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie on Wednesday and I bought an unbaked apple pie at the church fundraiser which I baked on Thursday. My mother made roasted vegetables and a salad (though actually all three of us helped with the salad) and my sister made her favorite squash dish. Hazel helped her.
Scooping the squash
Hazel got quite upset when my sister wanted to help in the kitchen rather than play with her. My sister always makes the gravy. Well my turkey cooked like my mother's always did and was done at least an hour before scheduled. Overall the meal went well and so did the food prep. We decided to use our good china since there was only six of us. (We have to hand wash it so we do not use it very often.) We cleaned up and went for a walk around the block before having dessert. Then I made some whipped cream and Steve's mother came over.

Hazel and my sister were planning a ball and Hazel got us all costumes to dress as princesses. Everyone had a piece of fabric for a dress, a crown, a wand and a necklace. When my mother-in-law came, she searched for enough things for her. Even my father got to dress as a princess. We did let Steve dress as a knight, but I did not get a picture of him.
My sister decided to tease Hazel and tried to walk in her princess slippers. It was rather funny. She kept pretending that they fit perfectly like Cinderella's.


After dessert, Hazel decided all the princesses needed to get married and the ball became a wedding. For Hazel the most important part of the wedding was walking down the aisle. Hazel's prince was her pink dog named Frenchy and their aisle was the entire family room.
My sister got Fluffy as a prince. My father and I came late and we decided that my father could be my prince. My mother already had one of Hazel's stuffed animals as her prince.

The next day my sister left early, but my mother, Hazel and I put up our Christmas tree while the men went to the shooting range. We had such a lovely Thanksgiving and I am very thankful!


Now it is your turn to share how your family has spent some quality time lately.


~ please link up (family time oriented giveaways are ok, but please no Etsy shops)
~just crafts will be deleted since this is to share family times ~ use our button so others can join the fun


Photobucket


Button Code:





~ we'd love for you to follow us Crafty Moms Share and Happy Whimsical Hearts
~ check out our Happy Family Times Pinterest board where we will be pinning some of our favorite ideas



Ok, now for our PARTY!! Please share your FUN Family Times!!