A Christmas Coincidence

Like I mentioned before, I have been on vacation this week but I still can't get away from work. I'm always determined to not watch the news while I'm off but it's hard, especially when you want to see the weather forecast. Last night, the kids and I were sitting in the living room with the news on when they started showing a story about elves at the Portland post office who help answer the letters to Santa. The kids were immediately paying attention because we had mailed in their letters and Declan had already gotten his answer back but Grace was still waiting. Turns out, Grace's letter was being opened that very day and made it into the story. Anne, the reporter, had no idea that it was Grace's letter, She just thought it was a good sound bite. So, here is the story...Grace's letter is the one asking for bacon.

http://www.wgme.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wgme_vid_6241.shtml

Christmas Ribbons

I'm on vacation this week and I mostly plan to not plan to do things. That being said, the craft stores are sending me crazy coupon deals so I feel like I have to use them. I saw this Christmas Ribbon Tree somewhere and it looked simple enough so I went out and bought the supplies.

You need a Styrofoam cone to start with . I hate Styrofoam and might buy the floral foam kind next time. I painted mine green so that the gaps between my ribbon wouldn't stand out as much.

So, guess what genius? There's not a lot of red and green ribbon left on the shelves when it's 3 days before Christmas. I wanted mine to all be the same width so this is what I ended up with.

Then, you cut the ribbons into the same size small strips and fold and pin them all the way around the bottom.

You just keep adding new rows until you've made it to the top. Once I got to the top, I wrapped and hot glued a ribbon to cover the last row of pins. I suppose you could have hot glued the ribbons on in the first place but I always end up with messy gluey strands everywhere.

I didn't like the unfinished look of the top so I got out some wooden star pieces and painted those red and green.

I put the big one on the bottom to act as a sort of stand.

I glued the other two together (sort of crookedly) and then glued that to the top.

Here is the finished piece. All in all, I like it. I think I might use narrower ribbon next time or maybe a bigger cone. I have a second one to make but I think I will use some of the everyday ribbon that I compulsively buy and never use.

My next project involves this pile of flannel and fleece material and my sewing machine....stay tuned....

O' Christmas Tree

I put off the tree for as long as I could but we finally got one this weekend. I don't want to be a Grinch about the tree but I don't like the disruption it brings to the house. We have small rooms in this house so it's a trick to fit in a tree. To make it happen, random furniture always ends up on the porch.

Tim and Grace picked it out this year because I had to stay home with a sick Declan. They did a really good job and our brand new tree stand is as sturdy as they promised. We had a bit of a problem last year when our stand broke. I thought the tree looked a little crooked but it might just be that the top is a little wonky.
We let it sit for a day to adjust itself and Tim had already put the lights on it while I was asleep this morning. It was all ready for decorating when I woke up. Carly got involved to because she still can't figure out why we brought the woods into her house.
Declan took his time deciding where to put things. He made sure the bottom of the tree wasn't bare because he is the shortest one in the house.
Carly is behaving so far. We'll see what happens. I think the lights are freaking her out so I don't think she'll mistake it for the bathroom. She was very interested in the tree skirt so I hope she doesn't try to get under it for a nap.
When I was growing up, we had a star for the top of the tree and I always said I would have an angel on mine when I grew up. Grace is now asking why we have to have an angel and she is going to have a star on hers when she grows up. I told her to go talk to her Grandmother about it.
Our memorial ornaments for Peter and Wendy. I actually put these together when they were kittens. This is Peter when he was a tiny baby. This is our first Christmas without him. He always loved to take a nap under the tree and pretend he was an outside cat.
And this is Wendy when she was a baby. She's been gone several years now but we still put up her ornament. I guess I should get going on making ones for Owen and Carly. Owen has been with us for 13 years with no ornament so I'm just a bad mom.
The finished product. I tried to take a picture that showed the lights but I couldn't figure it out. I've had that camera for a year and I just figured out today that you can take black and white pictures with it.

I Allowed Glitter In The House

We still had not decorated the Christmas ornaments I made last week so I finally went out and bought some supplies. I couldn't really argue against buying glitter since Christmas is sort of glittery but I kept it under control by buying glitter glue. I figured the glue keeps the glitter under control and not drifting all over my house.

We also bought a whole bunch of sequins and paint. I layered the dining room table in newspapers and let them go to town.
I even remembered to put their paint shirts on them. Declan chose a tree and started painting. He went for the traditional green.
Grace also started with a tree and in the end, she decorated most of them. Declan was good after about 5 of them but Grace kept going until they were all done.
She had endless ideas for decorating and was sort of disappointed when she had done them all.
Now they just have to dry and I will add the ribbons. I also made some cinnamon applesauce ornaments this weekend and they smell great(I used recipe 3). Now all we are missing is a Christmas tree to put them up on. That won't be coming until next weekend.