What we've been up to

We still haven't all been feeling 100%.  Okay, honestly, it's just me.  I'm coughing like crazy and kinda sore all over.  So I haven't been able to do as many Christmas activities as I had planned.  But we've been hanging out and just enjoying each other's company.  Oh ya . . . and I'm coughing. Did I mention that?  Sigh . . . I'm tired!  

Here are a few things we've been up to.  

The kids made these cute candy cane cards.  We got the idea from here.  We don't often do needle and thread type crafts - I think we should more often - but they all worked hard and the cards turned out really nice.  

Victoria's creation - she made it into a beautiful thank you note for her dance instructor

Denver's creation - even with some assistance his candy cane ended up a bit funky - but it's cute and he was happy with how it turned out.  

Austin's creation - he got frustrated partway through and crinkled up his paper. So we worked with it and ended up flattening it out and inking it.  It turned out looking really cool.  

Samara's creation - she did it all by herself and then added the words 

I just had to show the inside of Samara's card.  She's really into writing lately and I loved all the words she added on the inside.  We had just read Luke 2 the day before making these cards - thus the "two Luke".  And she also added in "Bible" because she explained to me that the Bible is a gift that isn't found under the tree. Smart girl!

Since we have no snow outside yet (boo!), we added some to the inside.  We thread balls of cotton onto fishing line and hung them in our window. (idea found here)  I think it could use a few more strings but it still looks kind cool.  

We attempted snowflakes with hot glue (idea found here) but it was really tricky.  We tried it with dish soap on the wax paper and without.  With the soap, it was really slippery and the glue wasn't sticking to the paper.  Without the soap, it was hard to get it off the paper.  So here's how they turned out.  I might try it again and then add glitter to them.  

Every year, Grandma has a tradition of decorating a gingerbread house with the kids.  This year she found a really cool kit with four little houses in it.  It worked out really well because each child got their own little house and they could decorate it how they wanted.  Each child got to be creative in their own way and each house was unique.  So fun!  

Austin made a cool Christmas tree at his boys club at church. I loved it and wanted to share it here.  It's a string art tree and he did a really good job on it.  

I have a few more things planned for the next few days.  Also, some of the things we've made are gifts, so we'll have to share those after Christmas.