See Y'all Next Year!

Yay!  Christmas is almost here!  I hope you all have beautiful, family-filled fun day.

I'll still be out and about, just not posting, I have so many things to do with the kids. 

Christmas Crafts!

This year we did some crafts at my sisters, so we could leave the mess behind. LOL. I think it's a good trade, I buy everything and organize the kids and she gets the mess!

Just a few things to hang up...  they had such a good time.

Tomorrow starts our baking! Yum!

Project Christmas Tree

When Christmas rolls around I love to give of myself. Homemade gifts really show you took the time to put thought and effort into that one single person. I'm a baker and give out the sweet treats as my gifts. Cakes, cookies, fudge, brittle and rum balls depending on the person. I love decorating them. I have a blast and it seems I get more and more into it every year.

For the kids, they're gifts are more crafts. Last year we made small things out of soup cans and ribbons, I wish I had some pictures of those, they were great! They really enjoy getting to do the crafts, and really look forward to what they're going to do every year.

Anyway, my Mom loves to put out several different trees and snow villages for Christmas time. It's one of the many things she does for Christmas we all look forward to. She builds her own lawn characters and has since we were little. Actually when we were little she painted on our big living room window whatever cartoon was the biggest hit at that time and made it Christmasy. So I thought a perfect present for mom from the kids this year, would be a Christmas tree she could display. What I liked was the kids could do most all of the jobs on their own. I did use the glue gun a couple of times when it was tricky for them. Each one had they're own idea of what the tree should have and look like. We tried to get everyone's in.

Everything we used was already here, reused and recycled. Old Christmas tinsel that really wasn't long enough for our tree, ribbon from presents past, cardboard that was laying around and no longer useful as a fort, glue, glitter and paint. A cardboard christmas tree!! Very easy, just time consuming. But each child could take part, which was very important.


Cardboard was the main component. It was painted and cut into decorations, ornaments and the star....and the tree!


I printed out a picture of the kids and glued it onto cardboard and added glitter.

Hand painted wooden ornaments.

The tree just slipped in together.

The finished product. We decorated some plain ol' plastic balls with glitter, wrapped up some boxes, added lights and tinsel.

Thats some old cob web from Halloween we never got a chance to put up by the way. Came in handy I think!

The hardest thing with these gifts is you want them to come out sooo perfect, because you know they're going to be gifts..... But you have to just let the kids do it and be pleased with their abilites. I was extremely pleased with their work. We had a few meltdowns, one kid wanted to be in charge of this or that and didn't get to. Or someone messed up and the others didn't like it. But it got finished in time, and everyone's hard work was displayed. We laughed, listened to Christmas music and just bonded as a family. And thats all that matters. It's not the destination but the journey there.

Christmas Homeschool Style

Home schooling I've learned a lot of what I would normally do is counted towards school hours. Even before starting home school, I would make it a point to do something artsy fartsy with them for the holidays.

This year we made some really cool stuff I'd like to share and it's all so super cheap and plenty of fun!! I tried to get them all in one shot so it wouldn't take up an entire page. But some wouldn't fit.



We made an angel, snowflakes, and a Christmas tree.


A pine cone ornament.


A Christmas card.


Every tree needs candy canes, but if your kids are like mine then your tree starts out full of candy canes and quickly disappears! This is a great solution to that!


The angel (10 yr old) is a thin cardboard box from a box of pizza rolls (I save a lot of that stuff. Always something I can use it for.) We covered the cardboard with foil and glued it. While it was drying I had the Anthony cut tissue paper just as they would a snowflake. Then we glued that on top of the foil. Added some sparkly glitter and ta da an angel pretty enough to top your tree with!

The Christmas tree (8yr old): I had an old grass skirt from a Hawaiian birthday party we went to and Caitlin had it all messed up but I knew it would come in handy one day so I saved it! We measured out our length and snipped it. Then Cody gathered the top and taped it then stapled it to the paper. Cody made the star from a yellow pipe cleaner. Added glue and sprinkled glitter. To add a little something I had him color on it as well.

Snowflakes (all): Who doesn't love making snowflakes. I don't think theres ever been a year we haven't made these. They're so much fun and they're always different. We like to add glittery glue to it.

Pine cone Ornament(5yr &3 yr old): We picked up a lot of pine cones when we were on the truck with Daddy cruising America. This year we decided to decorate them for the tree. I had Wyatt and Caitlin drip some glue all over it and sprinkle glitter. Then I tied a ribbon on it . Easy for little hands.

Christmas card (all): This starts out as a regular snowflake, then you just glue it to some construction paper. Fold the paper in half and you have a card ready to decorate and personalize.

Candy cane ornaments (all): Two pipe cleaners. Line em up, twist one end together really tight. Then loosely twist the rest, then at the other end twist tightly again. Bend into a cane shape. Super fun!!

Some fun projects for any age I think. The key is to not go crazy if you can't see the floor through all paper clippings and what nots. Prep area if you particular. Me, I tell the kids go crazy and have fun.....they can clean it up afterwards! LOL. Little hands are very curious and excited and sometimes clumsy so plan their project accordingly. This is a great way to get into the holiday spirit!! Tell stories of when you were little and you did stuff with your parents, or make new memories.

Christmas Shopping Online

This is the first year I did most of my shopping online. Between Hubby and I working opposite shifts, taking off to do shopping was going to be tricky. I have ordered online before but never for Christmas. Never have I even paid attention to the deals during Cyber Monday. I started out with Black Friday. Just surfing the web to see what deals were going to happen. Then I saw "Free Shipping", "97 cent Shipping", "B1G1F", "70% off online only!". Well, yes some deals were too good to pass up. Some were last years big whoopla. Some weren't deals at all, just worded fancy. But no lines, no pushing or fighting, tripping each other...so if your into that sort of shopping, you would not like online shopping.

I did manage to find a few things the kids had been whining about. I think I saved quite a bit doing it early and online. Honestly, with the way these kids go thru toys I didn't really want to go all out this year. Never fails...Christmas morning "OMG! I love it! Thank you thank you thank you!!! I'm gonna take care of it I promise!...New Years Days most are broken, missing parts or just plain ol' lost! And I'm not talking just the cheapy fillers. I mean those mini truck ride ons, Hummer RC, Robo Raptor, RoboSapian, Video games, Laser Tag, Transformers, Bikes, Heelies, oh how the list goes on and on! I joke how toys come here to die. But really its so beyond disappointing. I spend all this time and thought on what will make my kids head spin and.....not to mention the money, only to find it shoved under something broken or lost.

But it is Christmas and no matter how many times I threaten to buy them clothes if they don't start treating their toys correctly, I can't have them open socks. Though I should. How funny. I should stock the tree with straight socks and underwear let them open those and see what they do! Once the whine fest is over break out the real presents. Maybe they'll learn! Just a thought.

Back to my online shopping experience. I stuck to ToyRUs and WalMart. Stores I know. Stores that have stores where I live in case something went wrong, I could go there and exchange or return. I did have a small delay with WalMart, but all is here and exactly what I ordered! I may do this every year.

But, be prepared if they're big items they come in the original box! Not a brown cardboard one as I had thought. So the kids got a sneak peek unfortunately. Lucky not the kid getting the toy. I would recommend shipping to a family or friends house to avoid that. I ended up playing interception until all got here safe and unseen.

Last note: They recommend using a credit card not debit card for online shopping. It's easier to dispute charges or misuse.

Happy Shopping!