Christmas 2010- handmade gifts, a missionary gift, a Christmas service project, an inspiring Christmas essay, and more...

This Christmas turned out to be by far one of the most memorable for our family.....

•  The kids loved the sibling gift exchange.  Wesley worked his little fingers choosing beads and with a little help from mommy, stringing a darling bracelet for Caroline.

Caroline spent a lot of time making a scrapbook style calendar for Christina.  She designed the pages and left spaces for Christina to add pictures each month.

Grace gave a gift of service for Thomas.  She wrote him a note saying her gift for him would be to clean his room for 5 days straight.  Depending on the day, this could be a big gift!


Thomas gave Wesley a new locomotive for a train set that Wesley is just starting to get into.


Christina found these canvas "artist trading cards" at Michael's craft store, and made a little book for Grace.  Christina has been taking a mixed media art class and she decoupaged patterned paper and a word that describes Grace, and painted designs on each page, and the "G" scrabble tile on the front is so fun.  Grace looked through the book with a huge smile on her face.  Christina also gave Grace a trip to Clay time where they'll have a little sisters artsy outing.

• We participated in a Giving Tree at church.  One of the young women and her mother organized this project and we were so thankful that they enlisted the help of the youth and volunteer drivers to deliver wrapped gifts and turkey dinners to 10 households in our area.  There were tears of joy and lots of gratitude from the recipients as they opened their doors and let us give.

• One of the young women chose sewing a blanket for every patient in the cardiac ICU at children's hospital as one of her YW projects.  We donated flannel and blankets, and helped her sew.  At home we added a few Patriots and Red Sox fleece blankets, a quilt, and 30 hand-stamped heart themed charm necklaces (1 for each CICU patient or mommy).  It ended up that we delivered the gifts today, on Christmas.  We were able to deliver the gifts to the unit secretary and speak with a couple of the kind nurses to let them know what we had to offer.  Grace gave the gifts and later told me that she felt like her heart was going to burst, it felt so good.  We all felt the significance of being in a place the Saviour would visit on Christmas Day.  We'll work something like this into our Christmases as a family tradition every year.

• On the way home we drove through Boston to see the Christmas lights  & snapped a pic of the skaters at Frog Pond.

• I heard this beautiful Christmas essay that really set the tone for the season.  Thank you, Leilani for letting me tag along at your Relief Society's wreathmaking party...

• We pitched in on a 12 Days of Christmas for the missionary in our family (he's on a Spanish speaking LDS mission in TX).  It was fun to see what the extended family pulled together.....

Day 12: 12 Spanish children's primary songs on CD (5 copies), including songs in the 2011 Sacrament Meeting primary program.  These of for Elder M to give to children he baptizes next year.

Day 11: 11 handmade cards for Elder M. to give out

Day 10: 10 inspiring talks/quotes in a binder for Elder M. to add to throughout his mission.

Day 9: 9 Christmas carols on CD

Day 8: 8 packs of hot cocoa in a mug

Day 7: A mini candy gram using 7 chocolate minis/candy

Day 6: 6 recipes in a recipe booklet

Day 5: 5 spanish CTR rings for Elder M. to give to children he teaches

Day 4: 4 packs of mints/Altoids

Day 3: stationary, envelopes, stamps, pens (this SIL also made 12 days of Christmas gift tags)

Day 2: 2 white shirts

Day 1: this was his mom's day & her free choice

We also made Elder M a huge Christmas tree out of green wrapping paper cut into huge puzzle pieces.  He assembled it on his apt. wall & then we included cut out family pictures from our extended family 2010 calendar for ornaments, plus some scriptures.

• We pitched in on quilts that Wayne's sister, Shayla made for Wayne's brother who is working over seas this Christmas, and his wife who is at home with their boys.  We also sent their family some fun things to do together during vacation.  The quilts turned out beautifully--- Shayla is an incredibly talented quilter among other things....

• Our kids loved hearing about the Christmas when my family could not afford gifts.  We were doorbell ditched and found on the porch a stocking filled with candy canes and cash.  My mom was brought to tears, although this still meant no latest gadgets, but we'd get some things we needed....like sweats!  My sister was the first to open her gift of a new pear of sweats and she SCREAMED with glee.  Her reaction set the tone for our Christmas morning and we were truly thankful for each gift we were given.  You could see the relief on my mom's face as I'm sure she had worried that we would be disappointed.  This year as we had spent more on GIVING outside our family and chose to keep things simple for our own, our children SCREAMED with glee opening a Barbie doll, new winter hats, a used iPhone with no phone or data plan, Buzz Lightyear pj's, and a stuffed platypus, real teacups and saucers to use with the Dad-built play stove and aunt-made felt food.  It felt great to fit all of our wrapping paper trash into one garbage bag, and have such a happy time exchanging gifts.

• Did I mention that the kids "slept in" and we didn't open gifts until 7am AND Wayne and I got late morning naps?  Merry Christmas to us!

Tomorrow you'll see the coolest New England pj's EVER right here on our family's blog (my model is asleep and wearing them right now).  And if we can edit a streaker, we'll have a rated G version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" for you too.   So come back soon...

Merry Christmas to you!

The dollhouse Dad built

Christmas 1974

Gotta love shingled roof, the damask wallpaper, and the shag carpet.

I love the colors & that my DAD built this amazing dollhouse

(for my sister, but that's beside the point).

Christmas 2009

Unfinished & awaiting the personal touches of the ladies in the house. We're so up for this task.

This pine dollhouse is about 5' tall, so us girls, mom included, can play with it at the same time.

There's even room for army men to come visit.

Made with love (& in about 2 days) by dad.

PS....Find the dollhouse plans HERE. We opted to omit the bottom drawer to enable more play space. We'll store all of the dolls and accessories in storage bins in the dollhouse.

The Spirit of our Christmas Season

• The ornament tradition.... this years' ornament(s) were personalized blocks & wooden initials painted by the kids. I also found a nativity to add to the tree.

See if you can find the army men that Thomas and Wesley added just because...

• Gingerbread cookies. Wesley squealed with delight cutting the dough with the Christmas cookie cutters. We ate dough, shaped cookies, ate dough, shaped cookies, made a mess, burned a batch, & had a BALL. (While we baked cookies, Christina was at her friend's house baking cookies and Wayne took them to deliver the cookies to a new girl in their church class who had moved in that day).

• The nativity. We were the recipients of a nativity 12 Days of Christmas. I just wonder if they heard the brawls that took place as the kids tackled each other, each wanting to discover the next piece of the nativity...and discover WHO was behind this act of kindness. The givers always got away! This nativity will always remind us of the joys of giving anonymously and receiving acts of kindness.

• Gifts from the heart....

To: Grace

Love, Wesley (& mom)

A Mod Podge'ed sketch book cover

To: Dad

Love, Christina

A drawer organizer filled with some of dad's favorite goodies

To: Mom

Love, Caroline

A Caroline-made soft red scarf (I opened this 1st thing and wore it ALL day long)

At our church Christmas party 10 days before Christmas, Grace told Santa she wanted a dollhouse. Wayne got to work and made a 5' unfinished dollhouse for the girls to decorate and enjoy. Such a good daddy! Lots of pictures to come....

To: the whole family

Love, mom

A published version of the 2008 blog posts on our family blog. LOVED this.

To: Grace & Caroline

Love, mom & dad

Custom made hand stamped charm necklaces to match Christina's (made by Angela Henrie)....I told Angela our girls nicknames, favorite colors, the kind of necklace I had in mind, and she came up with these darling necklaces....

The COUSINS gift exchange!

Thomas is going to wear his Hawaiian shirt from cousin Christian on his first day back to school. Christina shared her CTR ring making kit with her sisters. They turned out cute! The Moody cousin gifts were a hoot.

Wesley loves his "I Spy" book & we all loved fun things from the PNW Menzies.

A large canvas from Macy Robison Photography featuring our family at the lovely Camp Joseph in Sharon, Vermont.

With all of the commotion and craziness we seem to create on a regular basis, I love the peaceful feeling of this photograph. It brings to mind our family reading challenge from last summer, my quilting projects (we're sitting on one), lots of great family memories at Camp Joseph, and above all our underlying love for one another. Thanks so much, Macy!

To: Grace & Caroline

Love, mom

Pencil rolls for Grace & Caroline for their new church bags & a crayon roll for Wesley for church. The multi-colored pieced fabric behind the pencils has iron-on vinyl found in the fusible web section at Jo-Ann's (you just iron it on--so easy). Wesley's crayon roll was made for chunky crayons and has lots of iron-on vinyl.

To: Christina

Love, Thomas

A movie ticket to see the upcoming Percy Jackson movie with him since they both read & loved the Percy Jackson books last summer.

A play mat/quilt for Wesley and his cars, featuring Fenway Park, the Boston Temple, Modern Pastry, and lots of local favorite sites. Here's a sneak peak (I'm still adding finishing touches)....

With love, mom

• Christmas evening I was laying in bed surrounded by 4 of our children and Thomas said, "This was a great Christmas. I can't believe how good it was. I feel like I have so much (& that's not due to present overload) and that I'm just going to tell Santa to give to other kids next Christmas." Grace chimed in, "Me too! I want to give all of my presents to someone my age who is poor." We talked about refining our focus next Christmas season to help those in need and give to one another. I can't believe that our children, as young as they are, really are feeling the Spirit of the season & coming up with meaningful ways to celebrate the life of Jesus Christ. This Christmas was wonderful, and I have a feeling we've got many more beautiful Christmas seasons to come.

"The best part about Christmas is being with family." - Caroline 12/09

STUFF from the heart

Every year we have a gift exchange with each side of the family. This year for Wayne's brother's family we made a "STUFF" bucket. Can you ever have enough bins/buckets/storage containers? Wayne says, "Yes." I say, "No." You could use any container, but ours is a #10 can with scrapbook paper decoupaged over the entire outside. I added large font stickers to spell "STUFF," and we filled the can with all sorts of fun stuff, including.....

some rocks from Grace's rock collection

handmade ornaments (next blog post)

the kids made chocolate covered pretzels w/ sprinkles on top

personalized keychains for the kiddos

Christmas PEZ

Wesley's favorite....candy canes

The STUFF can was an "open right away" gift, and the kids will have a little personalized gift for Christmas too.

Simple, personal, {partially handmade}, and lots of fun to GIVE.

Christmas ornaments in September

When I ended up pulling an all nighter last Christmas eve making ONE MORE Christmas gift for the little girls, I learned my lesson....I need to start creating for Christmas much earlier in the year.

I can check the annual personalized ornament of my to do list. I was inspired by the ABC blog ornaments my SIL, Shayla made last year (she got the idea HERE), however I don't have a set of ABC blocks and didn't want to buy 2 sets since we have kids with the same letter for their first name (each child's ABC block is their first initial). SO, I decided to make my own version. That said, obviously using ABC blocks cuts the time required by quite a bit since you eliminate the painting/sanding/sealing process.

OR you could use plain block like I did and still omit the painting step. Just cut the scrapbook paper and photo the same size as the block. Rather than stencil initials & ages, you could Mod Podge stickers or cut outs over scrapbook paper.

Christmas ABC block ornaments

Supplies (all can be found at Michael's Craft store):

2" unfinished wood blocks (or cut your own)

Acrylic paint, I chose lime green in the Craft Smart brand, and white

Mod Podge

paint brushes, one for paint and one for Mod Podge

alphabet stencil (optional- I freehanded the set I made for our kids)

mini screw eyes (found in wood crafts section)

scrapbook paper in various Christmas color patterns and colors, cut into squares just shy of 2" (as I made these I wondered if fabric scraps would work too...could be cute!)

a recent photograph of your child, cut to the same size as the scrapbook squares

sander

sealer

coordinating ribbon or string

Here's how I made my block ornaments:

1. Paint the blocks & sand them. Using primer first is an option if you're painting with a light color, want solid coverage, and don't want to paint several coats. Let dry completely.

2. Stencil the age of the child on one side & the first initial of the child on another side of the block. Let dry.

3. Mod Podge scrapbook squares to all of the other sides BUT ONE.

4. Mod Podge the photograph to the last side. Let dry.

5. Do a final sanding around corners and edges if you want.

6. Spray a coat or paint a coat of sealer on your blocks (optional). Let dry.

7. Screw in the mini screw eye to the top of the ornament.

8. Add ribbon or string to the hook and the ornament is ready to hang from the Christmas tree.

These were so inexpensive and easy to make, I made a bunch for friends and nieces and nephews who came to visit last weekend and those whom we'll see at Thanksgiving too. So if you get an early Christmas package from us (we draw names in our family), act surprised!

Christmas '08

Wayne and I were up late wrapping gifts and laying them under the tree.

Santa brought Grace and Caroline an art easel and I felt the need to make smocks for the girls. {thanks Christensen cousins for the groovy shades!} So, at 3am Wayne went to bed and I got out some fabric and the iron-on vinyl I bought, and set out making 2 smocks. 2 1/2 hours later I was finishing up the FIRST smock and Christina woke up...then Thomas. I was cracking up..."Go back to bed, I'm working on a surprise!" I was sharing this story with my older sister on the phone and she said, "That's so mom." I wouldn't be surprised. All I can say is that projects take a lot longer to finish when you're sleep deprived. I finished Grace's smock (I *heart* iron-on vinyl), and told Christina, Thomas, Wesley, and Grace...."I'm just going to lay down for a minute on the couch while we wait for daddy and Caroline to wake up." I was OUT like light, and woke up at 7am when the whole family emerged to open presents. The kids were so good to wait and let me get a little sleep. I'm sure they studied the gifts out a bit, but if so, it didn't matter.

We started with the stockings. Everyone got their mini box of cold cereal, & went in the kitchen for Christmas breakfast. Sorry, Ama, no strada here. Wayne always liked the cereal better, and I'm fine with not cooking Christmas morning.

A few highlights on the gift giving that took place:

Santa brought a "new" piano! I was thrilled when Christina ran to the garage and quickly found the bin with the piano music, brought it all upstairs and put it all in the piano bench. She sat down at the piano and was rusty for a little bit, but quickly picked up where she left off after a 4 year hiatus. She's good!

The family gift exchange was a highlight for sure. Wayne found an unfinished box for Caroline and gave it to her along with some paint so they could work on that project together while he's on vacation. There's a little wooden "C" to go on the box too. Caroline loves to paint and she loved this gift. I made a little pendant necklace for Grace. One side has her baby photo and the other has a letter "g." Christina made Wesley a stuffed frog which Wesley quickly took to. Thomas made Christina a notebook for her to keep her voice lesson sheet music organized. I love the note he put inside..."I love the way you sing! Your voice is 'asume'! I love it! With love, Thomas." Grace made me a little pin cushion that actually sharpens the pins. Wayne helped her sew. Caroline's gift was brilliant. She painted a picture for Wayne of her and him walking together along the banks of a river. She even signed it. We were all impressed and the kids said they all want to paint for their secret pal next year...hmmm. We hung Caroline's masterpiece in our hallway next to our thankful heart. Finally Wesley gave Thomas glow in the dark stars to stick to the ceiling of their room....ok, not so homemade, but Thomas loved them and Wes doesn't get this whole thing yet.

More memorable gifts....I made Thomas a jedi robe out of brown fleece. The sleeves ended up being a good 6 inches too long, but he LOVED it.

The blankets were a huge hit. The fleece is so soft and cozy. The kids are snuggled in them as I type.

I found inexpensive journals at Borders for Christina, Thomas, & Grace and included a note on top that read, "This is a scripture journal. Each morning when you read your scriptures, record your favorite verse and what it means to you...this will warm your heart. Next, go enjoy a mug of hot cocoa which will warm your tummy." So far each of the kids have used their scripture journal and enjoyed at least 3 cups of cocoa. I'm hoping that the cocoa incentive will fade and they will find worth in personal scripture study {although, I'm willing to continue a simple incentive as long as their under our roof!}.

Mid-day, Wayne told the kids that Santa had left one more thing, and to their delight, there was a Wii wrapped and hidden behind the piano. It's been crazy fun, and will be nice active play during the cold winter. The mom in me is glad that our kids will be able to hold their own against their friends and cousins who have Wii's too. Wii notables: Thomas bowled a 218! Caroline has a hilarious "spare" bowling dance. Grace strikes a modeling pose after she bowls. Christina likes creating Wii Mii's {we've got Chewbacca, Fat Albert, Ama, Dude, & Junie B. Jones}. Wayne and I have had a few good tennis matches that have required a dose of Advil.

CHRISTMAS DINNER: I think we're on to something this year. When I was deciding on a menu, I wanted to make this dinner a family affair, so I asked the kids what they wanted more than anything for Christmas dinner. The result? Ham, mashed potatoes & gravy, and corn. Done. Wayne made some of his insanely good artisan bread, but we forgot it, and munched on it later. The kicker was that whatever the kids chose to include in our Christmas dinner, they helped prepare. Wayne put the ham in the oven {from Trader Joe's...it was delish!}, and then helped Christina with the mashed potatoes, and helped Thomas make a rue followed by gravy. It was good! I was so impressed with our kids' cooking. Wayne said the best part was when they could see the food turning into the end product, like when Thomas was whisking the gravy, and all of a sudden it thickened and darkened, and he gasped, "Hey, it's looking like gravy!" Christina did the same with the mashed potatoes. It was nice having the help in the kitchen while I set the table with Grace and Caroline. I love that Wayne is talented in the kitchen. My tummy loves it too.

Christmas cramming means there will be Christmas napping.....or at least an attempt. I have to say, as much as I wanted some zzzzz's, I'll take this kind of nap ANY day. The perfect picture of contentment would be if Wayne were in this photo too, but this is the next best thing.

xo!

love forever,

mom