The smell of Grandma's house

I was recently gifted two vintage tablecloths that belonged to my Grandmother.  She has been with her maker for nearly 15 years and I believe she is my guardian angel now.

My family currently uses her rock maple circular table.  We can't seem to get rid of it.  It doesn't fit our kitchen space well and it's not incredibly beautiful.  We got rid of the hutch that went with it two moves ago, but the table still remains, along with her memory.

During our visit to PA, my Aunt went down to her basement and pulled out Grandma's vintage fringed tablecloths. She never used them due to her table's size- lucky me!

Shortly after returning home, I pulled those vintage beauties out and had planned to wash them, but the smell stopped me.  I felt like the food critic in the Disney movie Ratatouille as I was transported back in time.  My heart started to ache and tears welled in my eyes, happy tears, wishing I could once again talk to my dear Old Nanny.

Those tablecloths remain unwashed in my cabinet.  I don't want to lose that smell of moth balls, old wood, and something sweet.  For it's the smell of my Grandma's house, if only all smells could be so endearing.

Snowmen Bookmarks

 Here is a fun popsicle stick craft that we are making for the avid readers in our family.

Gather popsicle sticks, small googley eyes, foam sheets, tiny pom-poms, strong glue, and a marker to drawl on the nose and mouse. I cut out the foam shapes and the girls glued everything onto the popsicle sticks.

Linked to: Made For You Mondays

Santa Hand Print Ornaments

I have missed posting and creating with you all....Happy Holidays!

I am not a painter, but I made the most adorable salt dough Santa hand prints this week.  You just mix up a recipe of salt dough, smoosh your child's hand in it, and cut around the print.  Simply place it in a low degree oven and wait for it to dry.

Wait for the kids to go to bed and search through all your old paint for just three colors: red, white, and in our case, peach.  This is a super cute keepsake that you will cherish for years.

Linked to:

Easy Kid Bake Cookies

The girls loved making these cookies together and with only 3 ingredients, it was a no-help from Mom project.

We found it in Laura Numeroff's cook book, Mouse Cookies.

Awesome Christmas Crafts

You will have a blast making these two adorable Christmas crafts this week.

 This cute caroler is made out of a toilet paper roll and
the reindeer is made out of a glove.

Glove Reindeer:
-Poke thumb inside glove
-Use stuffing material to fill 4 fingers and hand
-Use string to tie 2 fingers on each side together
-Tie bottom of glove with yarn and thread jingle bell
-Stick wiggly eyes on face
-Glue berry nose

 Christmas Carolers:
-Wrap and glue construction paper around tube
-Place hat on tube- hat is made out of old baby sock tied with yarn
-Trace a face on oval paper and glue
-Glue mittens to music paper and add it to tube

 Enjoy your weekend, we are counting down the days.
Many Blessings, Karen

Santa Advent Calendar

 We will be bearding Santa Claus again this year!  My girls adore this Santa beard advent calendar that we found here. 
  Our boxes are all unpacked, but now I am trying to get organized.  After school today we plan on getting out our Christmas decorations.

Ginger Bread Houses- Hot Glued!

Tomorrow we are decorating these little houses with left over Halloween candy.  I think I hit the easy button this year when I got the idea to hot glue the houses ahead of time, it will make decorating a lot easier for the girls.

 The girls were so excited to see Santa and they are counting down the days with their Santa Beard Advent Calendar.

Christmas Cards

Creating An Advent Wreath

I have wanted to make an advent wreath with my girls for quite some time. We had some left over spruce from our Christmas tree and an extra foam ring from our coffee filter wreath project. The only thing left to buy were the purple and pink candles.

The candle lighting is progressive from week to week preparing for the birth of Baby Jesus. The Bible passages were recommended by a friend.

First Sunday of advent :  Hope
(just passed) Light one purple candle (Hope).
Read Isaiah 60:2-3

Second Sunday : Peace
Light two purple candles. (Hope and Peace).
Read Mark 1:4


Third Sunday : Joy
Light two purple candles (Hope and Peace),
and one pink (Joy).
Read Isaiah 35:10


Fourth Sunday: Love
Light all four candles  (Hope, Peace, Joy and Love).
Read Isaiah 9:6-7

Christmas Eve
After Sunset...
Light all four candles and add a fifth white candle
(the light of Christ).
Read Luke 1:68-79 and Luke 2:1-20


You can find a similar example here as well.

Fun Christmas Games

We spent an hour this morning playing these counting and matching Christmas games. Our favorite game was "Fill the stable" found over at Musing of Me. You need two dice to play or if you can't find the dice, like me,  just write the numbers on slips of paper. Jem was so excited when she got to add baby Jesus to the stable.

We found this cute Christmas tree matching game over at Kidssoup. Jem really enjoyed this game!

We also built and drew a Christmas tree by playing this dice game from Homeschool Creations. The girls want me to create a gingerbread house game next time.

Santa Beard Advent Calendar

 My girls adore this Santa beard advent calendar that we found here.  They loved adding a cotton ball each day as we count down the days until Christmas.

 We have also been busy elves making wreaths to send to our family out of town. The girls added the decorations and I hot glued them on.

It's been a busy weekend around here. We just started cookie baking, the girls were in the local Christmas parade, we added the finishing touches to our decorations, and put up the tree. How are your preparations going?

Linked to:
My Delicious Ambiguity
Homeschool Creations Pre-5

Pipe Cleaner Tree

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. I hope you did too! Three of us are sick so we've been taking school slow this past week, but we are starting off the Christmas season with music, decorations, and a cute pipe cleaner craft.

I first saw this craft at MOPS and brought an extra one home. Olive really loved twisting the pipe cleaners around the dowel rod. She glued a red pom-pom on top of her tree to finish it off. The dowel rod is glued into a wooden base, but you could also use a strong plastic plate covered in felt.