CHRISTMAS BOOK ADVENT

I'm trying something new this year... My good friend, Tia told me about this and I just love the idea. A Christmas Book Advent.

We already have an advent calendar but with two kids it will be worthwhile to have another. They will each have something to do in the morning. One can unwrap a book and the other can put an ornament on the advent tree, and then swap duties each day.

TO-DO — Gather 25 Christmas books and wrap them up. And this really could work for any holiday or even the winter season.

I wanted specific books unwrapped on certain days, for instance:
I'd like to start in with fun stories of Santa and winter, maybe day 4 Santa's Favorite Story: Santa tells the story of the first Christmas. And on day 7 Santa Clauses: Short Poems of the North Pole.

To remind my kids of the real Christmas spirit, throughout the month, I'd like to spread out the thoughtful Christmas stories. Perhaps on day 10, Bella's Tree and on day 18 The Christmas Wish.

On the 24th when my kids have absolutely no right for gifts of any kind after a month of heightened sass and bickering, a meaningful story of giving and gratitude. I like Christmas Day in the Morning.

To emphasize the Twelve Days of Christmas on day 25. That song was originally written to help children recall the tenets of their faith in celebration from December 25th through January 6th. Huh... things I never knew.

So before wrapping them, I laid out the books in order 1-25.

I already had several Christmas books but I purchased a six more to mix in. I wrapped them up in kraft paper and twine, and cut out felt numbers. I admit cutting out felt numbers is a bit nutty. I like to do things while I watch TV so it suits me just fine to work on this projects for a couple of evenings.

After gluing the numbers on the package, I drew a little wreath around the number and put them all under the tree. This will be the first time we've started out with packages under the tree. My girls are really excited, and this project didn't cost us much because I already had so many books that are either about snow, winter, or Christmas related. This just might have to be a new tradition!

Happy Holidays, Friends.

TINY HOME PLACE SETTINGS

I gathered several house lanterns and house shapes for a Friendsgiving table, my Thanksgiving mantle...  I'll surely use them for Christmas too. I love the white marble, silver and wood mixture.

For the table, I needed place settings so I turned to my favorite, Sculpey Clay. These sweet little house place settings were so easy to make. My daughters made some of them too.

I thought it would be cute to utilize smoke in some way, so I printed out name tags in a "banner" of smoke, cut those out and poked it through the wire that I had put into the house before baking them.

Here they be...

FRIENDSGIVING TABLE

One of my girlfriends recently rebuilt their home so we celebrated with a feast. Friendsgiving Feast! What a lovely concept.

Here is a peek into the table setting...
Sticking as closely as possible to pewter, marble and linen for the materials and greys and creams. There were a lot of us, so there are some mismatched items (linens, silver, glasses) but the plates and chargers are all the same. That provided a little continuity.

I gathered some house-shaped items for the center, as well as vintage silver and pewter candlesticks. I wanted small mini white pumpkins, but I missed the window of their availability so I painted my orange ones. I made the runner by fraying the edges of three strips (about 16" wide), sewing a stopping seam, trimming, and then sewing the strips together. The cotton was tough to find locally, I was originally interested in dried, but it looked a bit messy, so I stuck with the faux cotton stems and cut them down. The micro lights and candles add some twinkle and depth.

Stay tuned, I'll post a DIY for the house place settings.

THANKSGIVING PEG DOLLS

My daughter calls it "The Teepee Area". I made the teepee, pilgrims and Native American couples last year. I also found that amazing fur bit and gathered some river wood sticks at Kingfisher Bend Ranch... both nice additions to the Thanksgiving gathering.

This year, I wanted to make it more of a play area for my kids so I made some felt logs and fire and four animals. The turkey was my daughters idea. She's five. She's brilliant. The owl is my favorite, though.