Kiddo Crafts

are the bane of my existence.

It's hard to find good ones that aren't too complex for little hands.

Looks easy enough. And somewhat Dr. Seuss-ian in my opinion.

 There is a tutorial, some of the pics are missing, but it is still pretty easy to understand.

  Find it here.

Elf on the Shelf

I confess, I only really noticed this tradition last year, and only because of a friend.

I liked the funny photos she took every day of the mischief their elf got into.

So, I decided I wanted to do this for Christmas 2012.

But I read another blog about it and the blogger's daughter said everyone in her class had one. The same one. She wanted a different elf.

Me too.

Going through the attic today, I found my own little elf.

Kind of old school, but she has a beanbag type body and a head that turns.

Old Habits Die Hard

I ran out of my color-coordinated paper last year. Not all of it, just the ones I had chosen for the kiddos.

Being on bed rest I didn't get to take advantage of the post-Christmas blow-out sales on wrapping paper.

I just had to get a little more creative.

I have amassed a large supply of altered art supplies over the last two years. I went up to the attic to come up with a new wrapping paper plan. *Sad, but true.

A friend of mine uses magazines to paper her gifts, I didn't really have a lot of those. But I did have a few good things;

A ton of maps and sheet music. These two will be for the Spawnling and the Mister, music for her and maps for him.

I think it turned out alright.

Something New

All my time spent on bed rest ended up being actually productive. Well, not really productive, but I spent a lot of time reading.

And, I discovered Pinterest.

Oh, Pinterest. Love it or hate it, but I found a lot of new ideas there.

And to the joy of my little OCD heart, you can create boards and organize all these lovely little finds.

We have never been really big on traditions. The only things we do consistently is put up a tree and open one gift up on Christmas Eve.

This year I have found a tradition, Christmas books.

Wrap up 24 Christmas books and unwrap one every night to read as a family, starting at December 1st and ending on Christmas Eve.

Naturally I wrapped them using my designated wrapping paper thing. Stripes are books this year. So no one accidentally opens up an actual gift.

I only wish I had found this when the Spawnling was little.

Correction

142 days to go until Christmas.

Had an unexpected arrival as you can see here.

Still plenty of time.

Right?!?!?

Christmas 2012

291 days to go.

And this year I will have a Baby's First Christmas in the house.

Been a long time since I had one of those.

Of course, there must be an ornament.

See the tutorial HERE.

I also like this idea, painting the inside as well.

The babe will only be a few months old at Christmas time, so still teeny tiny.

In the past I bought the First Christmas ornaments, now it will be nice to make one.

Drats.

Christmas 2011.

Oops.

I started off the season really  strongly. I had all my shopping done, presents wrapped, etc.

Then my surprise gift came.

So....I pretty much got derailed after that.

I need a do-over.