Fun Facts about Advent Wreaths

It is hard to believe it is time to pull out the Advent wreath. I thought I would continue our Fun Facts Series and share some fun facts about Advent wreaths today. Be sure to check out our Fun Facts about Advent. 

Sharing Saturday 17-47

It is time again 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. So glad you joined us!!

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.

Fun Facts about Advent Calendars

It is hard to believe it is time to pull out the Advent calendar. I thought I would continue our Fun Facts Series and share some fun facts about Advent calendars today since it is the first day to open a door on yours. Be sure to check out our Fun Facts about Advent. 

Gifts of Books -- Ideas for All Ages -- Crafts, Activities and Non-Fiction Books

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

Do you love giving books as gifts? One of my sisters always gives Hazel books for a gift. I know I tend to love giving books to friends' children as well. Today I am sharing a variety of books for different ages and people in your life.

Books for the Younger Kids

Let's start with the youngest. Our first book is Hey, Baby! by Stephanie Warren Drimmer.

Fun Facts about Advent

Now that Thanksgiving is over it is time to get ready for Christmas!! Advent begins a bit later because of how the dates fall this year. In the western world it begins on Sunday this year. In honor of that I thought I would share a bit about Advent, its history and other fun facts!

Merry Monday! Religious Reviews & a Middle Grade Christmas Book

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

Happy Merry Cyber Monday!! Have you been doing your on-line shopping? Be sure to check out my post from Friday of my favorite places to gift shop! Today I thought I would share with you a few religious products and a really sweet middle grades chapter book (which is not religious). We will start with the non-religious chapter book. It is The Nutcracker Mice by Kristin Kladstrup and illustrated by Brett Helquist.

Create and Play Christmas Products for Kids -- a Crafty Weekends Review & Link Party

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

Thanksgiving is over and now it is time to focus on our next holidays. For us that is Christmas. Today I am going to share three fun craft "books" for kids. Hazel has been having so much fun with all of these!! The first one is Press Out and Color: Christmas Ornaments by Kate McLelland. (Be sure to check out our reviews of other Press Out and Color books.)

Sharing Saturday 17-46 Continues...

Last week's Sharing Saturday continues this week!! Please remember 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. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday next week, we are going to keep this party open for a week and a half and have extra features in two weeks!! Be sure to come back and share again as well. 

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.

Where to Shop This Holiday Season

Disclosure: Some of these links will pay me a small percentage of any purchase made when clicking them at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crafty Moms Share!

Can you believe it is already Black Friday? Do you know why today is called Black Friday? Traditionally this is the day stores would finally show a profit for the year or they would be in the black instead of the red (loss). Can you imaging running a store for almost the entire year in a loss? In honor of Black Friday I thought I would give you some suggestions as places to shop or at least some of our favorite places to shop. A few of these are affiliate links and will provide me with a small payment if you shop there, but most are just places I find amazing and want to let you know about them. Next week I will do a post on our favorite things from our reviews this year with gift suggestions for people of all ages!!

What I Am Thankful For This Year -- Happy Thanksgiving!

This year for Thanksgiving I thought I would share what I am truly thankful for this year. It has been quite a year with many changes in my life as well as my family's. In many way this post is my own reflection or journal entry, but there are many things that I have been thinking about sharing here, so it is the perfect time to do it.

The first thing I am thankful for this year is my family. We have had a tough year with the choice to pull Hazel from her school in April and homeschool her for the rest of the school year. Then finding a new school for this year. Can I just tell you what a difference finding the right school makes? She wants to go to school now. It is not a fight every morning to get her moving and to school. In fact she gets upset if we are running late. 

Within this great choice also came new friends for Hazel. This has been huge for her. Her classmates are supportive and caring. They are not competing and putting her down like her previous ones. The entire school is full of people who are more down to earth and caring. The environment is homier. It is a wonderful place for her and I love visiting the school and helping out there. 

The next thing I am thankful for is my family and how we made the choice for me to quit my job at Paper Source. I loved my job there. It was truly my happy place, however due to a staff shortage my hours increased to a level I could not keep up with my family responsibilities. I have worked almost every weekend since June and I just couldn't continue that and be the mother and wife I want to be. I am thankful that I can stay at home and be the mother and wife I want to be without really worrying about finances. Let's face it everyone tends to have some struggle, but I know we will be fine without me working. I feel so blessed because of knowing that. 

I am also thankful for my sisters, parents and mother-in-law. I love how close they are with Hazel. Hazel's favorite thing is to be with family. She truly loves them all and wishes she could see them more. I love how excited she gets to see each of them. 

I am also thankful for you, my readers. I love having this place to share our activities, favorite books and products and ideas. I hope you enjoy them as well. And for now I wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Who Was at the "First" Thanksgiving? Fun Facts about Captain Myles Standish

I hope you are enjoying our Fun Facts Series and especially our special part of Who Was at the "First" Thanksgiving. Today we are looking at Captain Myles Standish. See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Who Was at the First Thanksgiving? John Billington and Family Fun Facts

Have you been following our Fun Facts series? We started last week looking at a special spin off of "Who was at the first Thanksgiving?" Be sure to check out our Fun Facts about William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Massasoit, and Squanto. Today I thought I would share about one of the "Strangers" as the "Saints" referred to them. But this Stranger family had quite the reputation in Plymouth. I am going to share about John Billington and his family. Eleanor Billington was one of the five married women who were alive for the first Thanksgiving. 

Autumn & Change of Season Picture Books

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

With Thanksgiving this week, I feel like autumn is slowly slipping away. It is funny since I feel like it just began due to the warm weather we had for much of it. Of course it feels a bit like we went from summer to winter and skipped it all together. Plus the trees did not like the weather and never really turned as beautiful as they usually do. Today I am sharing three picture books with you. The first one is not actually an autumn book but with the shorter days I always think about lanterns and lights during this time of year. It is I Have a Little Lantern by Gan Dayong. 

Who Was at the First Thanksgiving? Fun Facts about Edward Winslow

Have you been following our Fun Facts series? We started last week looking at a special spin off of "Who was at the first Thanksgiving?" Be sure to check out our Fun Facts about William Bradford, Squanto, and John Billington and Family (coming soon). Today we are sharing our fun facts about Edward Winslow. 

Who Was at the First Thanksgiving? Fun Facts about Massasoit

Have you been enjoying our Fun Facts Series? This week we are taking a look at Who Was at the "First" Thanksgiving. Now in truth what we celebrate as the first Thanksgiving was not the first in America. The Native Americans held various thanksgiving festivals long before Europeans came to America and the first European Thanksgiving happened well before there were colonies. (Source) Well today we are looking at some Fun Facts about Massasoit. 

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. 

Who Was at the First Thanksgiving? Fun Facts about Squanto

Have you been following our Fun Facts series? We started last week looking at a special spin off of "Who was at the first Thanksgiving?" Be sure to check out our Fun Facts about William Bradford, Edward Winslow, and John Billington and Family (coming soon). Today we are sharing our fun facts about Squanto. 

Sharing Saturday 17-46 - Two Week Party

It is time again 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. With Thanksgiving and Black Friday next week, we are going to keep this party open for a week and a half and have extra features in two weeks!! Be sure to come back and share again as well. 

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.