I hope you are able to take the time to really enjoy this holiday season. With all of the hustle and bustle, the anxiety that comes with wanting to spend money that may be rather limited this year, and the stress of trying to get everything done on time . . . . I am making myself relax a little bit and try to focus on the FUN and JOY of this time of year. The girls always remind me of the child-like wonder of Christmas! And when we talk about the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child, and the wondrous gift of God's grace, then it makes perfect sense to them to tie all of that up in a bright red Christmas bow, and explain to them why we give gifts to one another. But the real reason that we celebrate is that we are so grateful for the gifts that our Heavenly Father has given to us.
This year, especially, we are so grateful that our Daddy has a job, we have a cozy little house, we have a car that runs ;o) and we have food in our cupboards. Oh yes, and we are all so thankful that Mama can be working at home to do all the fun stuff that comes along with the holidays! The other day while I was finishing up the personalized ornaments, the girls decided to go outside to play in the snow. Now, I remember when I was a little girl that I loved to play in the snow! We would build snowmen and snow forts (I was the BEST snow fort builder in the neighborhood!). Since we lived by a lake, at the top of a hill, we would take old cardboard boxes and cut them into sled-sized pieces and slide down that hill. The waxed side of the box really made us go fast!
Then when we were tired of all that frolicking in the snow, I had a small magnifying glass that my Daddy had given me and I would lay on my tummy on one of the cold pieces of cardboard and investigate with wonder each tiny snowflake that landed by me. Then back inside our little cottage my Mama would make me hot cocoa with marshmallows (sometimes, because we didn't always have marshmallows). It was always Ovaltine with milk. Isn't that an interesting thing to remember! We had a space heater that sat in the back of our living room, so I would wrap up in a blanket, put on a pair of Daddy's wool sox, and cuddle up by the heater with a book. Back then I didn't know that some houses had central heat . . . . I was just used to the house being really, really warm close to the space heater and pretty cold if you go too far away from it! I loved it when we had a snow day, and especially Christmas break, because we could play outside for hours and then come inside to warm up for hours . . . . and then go back outside to keep improving those snow forts before coming in for supper and a hot bubble bath.
Now I watch my girls going through the same childhood ritual. They were outside playing in the snow late in the afternoon, and I was sewing. I could hear them outside laughing and giggling. When I looked out the window, I could see that it was getting dark (although it was only about 4:30 in the afternoon), but they were playing right in a circle of light that came from the motion-sensor light on our little studio. So, as long as they stayed fairly close to the building, the light would keep shining right where they were playing. After they made huge snowballs that they could no longer roll, they decided to make snow chairs. They worked on those chairs until almost 6:00 p.m. when we all went in for supper. When they came in earilier in the day at lunch time, they were a mess! They were soaking wet, their hair was wild and crazy, and they were freezing!
We got them all warmed up with cocoa and dry jammies, and they wanted to watch a Christmas movie. So that was one of the days of our Christmas break - not too excxiting, but it was plenty frugal and lots of fun! Oh, and while all of this was going on, I actually got something accomplished! I finished up those ornaments, and here are a few pictures just in case you might want to make up some for your family in these last couple of days before Christmas. Have a blessed Tuesday! Chat soon, Nina
To make these super-cute and easy personalized ornaments, all you need is:
SUPPLIES
* Red or green ornaments (the smooth surface ones work better than the shiny surface)
* Black Magic Marker or Paint Marker
* Craft paint: red, green, black, white
* Small paint brushes
* Red and green ribbons
* Scissors
Step 1
Draw the initial on the side of the ornament using the black marker. It does not need to be perfect; in fact, it is really cute if it is a bit lopsided!
Step 2 Once the marker is dry, paint over the initial to fill in any streaks. I used a "dabbing" motion to give my letters a bit of a "stipped" effect. That really does cover up a bunch of "boo-boos."
After the paint on the initial is dry, paint small circles around the initial in a contrasting color. So, if your ornament is red, paint green circles. Or, if your ornament is green, paint red circles.Step 4 Let the paint dry thoroughly, and then take the smallest paint brush you have and paint tiny white polka-dots on the black initial. Don't worry if your dots aren't perfect . . . . you can fix them later, or remember that perfection is not the goal! Cute is the objective ;o)
Step 5 The paint that I used for the green circles did not cover as completely as I wanted it to, so I did a second coat on my circles. Whatever you think is best for yours!
Step 6 After all of the paint is thoroughly dry, tie a contrasting ribbon through the top loop of the ornament.
If you want, you can make little fabric bags to tie up with a ribbon and gift tag to put each ornament into before giving it away to that very special person!
I only have one more day to work on my crafty holiday projects before Christmas Day . . . . tomorrow I will have one last project for you, just in case you still want to whip up something at the last minute for someone on your gift list.
Be sure to stop back tomorrow to see what's going on here at mamas*little*treasures!
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