12/19/11

holiday happenings

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! Ella is at such a fun age this year and I love seeing her excitement for everything. Fancy the elf is still a huge hit each morning and it gets Ella out of bed faster than any of the tricks I have tried. (playing loud music, ripping the covers off, the smell of freshly cooked pancakes, jumping on her bed, and of course the mom yell when we have 10 minutes to be at school) Fancy might have to come back to visit when school starts again. Our elf doesn't get into any fun or trouble in the middle of the night, she is just always somewhere different each morning. So far Fancy has been in the Christmas tree, sitting on a frame, on top of the advent calendar, ceiling fan, mirror, popping out of a kitchen cabinet, and tomorrow I think she might be hanging out in dad's stocking.
As of Saturday I finished Christmas shopping for everyone. I still have a few cheesy homemade gifts that aren't finished yet but just about everything is wrapped and under the tree! This is our first year to do Christmas with just us and I am so excited about it. I grew up where Santa left an unwrapped gift under the tree and filled our stockings full of fun surprises. That is what we are doing with the girls this year and I can't wait to see them both walk (yes I said both walk, McKenna is walking everywhere!) out and see what Santa left for them under the tree. Then on Christmas day we are squeezing in two more Christmas celebrations with my family and Bob's. It will be a fun filled day! I have wrapped all of those family gifts in separate paper than ours and put them in baskets next to our tree.
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Last Friday Ella's school had a Christmas program. They sang 3 songs and I loved watching her on stage. She is such a performer at home but so shy in public so I couldn't wait to see what she would be like during the program. She was a mix of both, not the most outgoing kid on stage but also not the quiet one. McKenna couldn't hold still in my lap. She wanted to be on stage with Ella so bad!
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Ella had been telling me about these jingle bells that they used in the program and how she wanted some just like it. She would tell me that they were a circle and looked like a snake. Once I saw them during the program her description actually made more sense. It was just a pipe cleaner bent into a circle with jingle bells strung on it. They were super easy to make and Ella and McKenna love them.
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 For teacher gifts I found these cute glittered boxes from Pier One. I put an ornament in each one and added a hobby lobby gift card to her teacher's box. I also made a Merry Christmas label for mason jars and filled them with one of my favorite treats, the pretzel rolo things. I think I ate 100 of them over the weekend, and I plan on making more…
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We had some friends come over the other day to make some Christmas crafts and I'm so sad I didn't get any pictures. We did the snowman paint that is on pinterest and it turned out so cute! You just mix equal parts of elmers glue and shaving cream and the paint dries puffy.
Ella spends hours at her little table each day crafting and I had been trying to think of a way to organize all of her stuff so it didn't keep rolling off the table and then going straight into McKenna's mouth. As I was walking up and down the aisles of hobby lobby (exciting, I know) I saw this cake turntable and thought it would make the perfect lazy susan for her art supplies. I hot glued 6 mason jars around the outside of the turntable to hold all of her markers, crayons and pencils. I put a bigger mason jar in the center that I didn't hot glue because she takes that one out to get the sticker pieces. It has worked out so well and she loves it!
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and then there was Santa…
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I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and I will be back soon with a fun stocking stuffer that will fill up the toe of your stocking just perfect! 

1 comment:

Misty said...

love the 'tiny' lazy susan & E's Old Navy boots :)

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