Elf on the shelf!!

Elf on the shelf. Have you heard of this "new tradition"? If you havent check out www.elfontheshelf.com

Ernie the elf made his first appearance last week at our house. He sure has been busy watching the kids, reporting to Santa and doing silly stuff. The kids race each other to try and find him every morning its so cute!! Here's some things he has been up to so far.

Easy peasy Christmas craft

Its so easy I did it while cooking dinner. Nice multitasking, ey?
You will need the following:
Paint chips or cardstock (Tree: green, yellow, brown; Snowman: blue, black, red)

• Sewing machine
• Scissors
• Twine, string, yarn, or ornament hook (I used garden string/twine)
• 5 minutes

Here's a link to the tutorial I originally found this craft on.: Click here to read the tutorial
And here is how mine turned out!

There are so many neat possibilities for kids to personalize these. Different color scarf on the snowman, different color hat, many shades of green on the tree, you could even glue on little rhinestone ornaments onto the tree. Have fun, and let me know if you try this! 

~Aimee 

Christmas Countdown

So this year we are doing a Christmas Countdown-our version of an advent calendar--assuring we get to do all the favorite holiday things. It is my priority this year to make sure this ALL gets done. What better way than to set up a countdown so the kids can hold me accountable and force me to do it!! LOL! I took 24 envelopes and put different types of activities inside of them. These envelopes will then be hung on our tree. Some activities required a few gifts to be wrapped to go with it, so those got wrapped and the corresponding number was placed on it. With everything wrapped-it keeps all the supplies together, ensuring they won't get used or eaten before the activity takes place.  First, I had to have my calendar handy, so that I wouldn't plan a big activity on dance or scout night. There might have to be a few minor changes made, but other than that, I think we are good to go! Here are the 24 activities we have planned.

1. Drink hot cocoa while we read these books. (* Box of cocoa and a few of our Christmas books)
2. Camp out in the living room in pajamas and watch "Home Alone" (*Home Alone)
3. Read and watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (* The Grinch book)
4.Watch "Polar Express" and make popcorn (*Polar Express & bag of popcorn)
5. Hang these on the tree (Dollar Spot ornaments) (*ornaments)
6. Write Christmas Cards to your teacher (*construction paper rolled in a paper towel tube)
7. Make Christmas garland with Mom and Dad. (*Paper)
8. Watch "White Christmas" and spray fake snow on windows. (*White Christmas and Spray snow)
9. Watch the movie "Elf" while you color your own silly elf. (*Elf coloring pages)
10. Make felt reindeer using your handprint and footprint. (*Felt and googly eyes)
11.Draw a pic of your fave things to do at Christmas.  (*Construction paper)
12. Make candy cane reindeer and hang on the tree. (*Candy Canes, pipe cleaners)
13. Make snowflake ornaments out of these supplies. (*craft sticks, white paint)
14. Read "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and watch the movie. (*Rudolph book and movie)
15. Make salt dough ornaments. (*Salt)
16. Watch "Frosty the Snowman" and draw pictures of what you would do if a snowman came to life. (*Frosty movie and paper)
17. Make gingerbread houses with Mom and Dad.  (*Gingerbread house kit)
18. Drive around with Mom and Dad to see Christmas Lights.  (*Wrap old keys-please dont wrap your good ones hehe)
19. Make handprint reindeer on felt. (*felt, googly eyes)
20. Make snowman ornaments using these supplies. (*craft foam, white and orange, fishing string)
21. Make Christmas trees with waffle cones. (*waffles cones, frosting, m&ms)
22. Read stories from "Christmas Tales" (*Christmas Tales book)
23. Read "The Night Before Christmas", set out cookies for Santa, and say a Christmas prayer. (*TNBC book)
24. (I missed this one somehow-its really number 7, if anyone cares LOL) Paint chip Christmas trees (*green/yellow/brown paint chips-sew) http://pinterest.com/pin/456793718/