Rudolph Suckers

My kindergartener wanted to make something for all of his classmates for Christmas.  So we looked on Pinterest for ideas and really liked this one. His classmates loved them.  Then my second grader wanted some for his class, so we made some for his class, too.  One more way to teach my kids the joy of giving and thinking of others. 

 Back:

**I found this cute idea and cut file from Sarah Hamer Designs  We changed the eyes to wiggly eyes and sized it down to cut on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of cardstock and added a mouth and eyebrows just for fun. 

Yoda Christmas Shirt

One of my boys is loving Star Wars right now, so I made this shirt for him.

Reindeer Pudding Cups

So this was something I made for my kiddos lunchboxes.  They were pleasantly surprised.  :) 

Chocolate pudding cups.  Wiggly eyes.  Red pom pom.  Antlers cut on my silhouette.  Low temp hot glue. 

Santa-tizers

I made some small hand sanitizers into "Santa-tizers" for my kids to keep in their desk. 

Santa Cookie Plate and Milk Jar

I found this cute plate at Target with large polka dot trim, so I added some vinyl from a file from the Sil store.  Found a cute milk jar and added some vinyl to that for a fun set. 

Personalized Christmas Ornaments

I made personalized Christmas ornaments for my friends this year...

And I made boxes for them:

Third Grade Christmas Party

Christmas Dice Game
We started the party off with a game.  They played in groups of 4.  We gave them one die, a cup with small marshmallows and a paper Santa print out.  The beard had different numbers (1-6) on it.   They took turns rolling the dice and when they rolled a number they put a marshmallow on the number.  When they rolled all the numbers and Santa's beard was full, they got a prize.

 This gave us some time to set up for our next activities: 

Photo Booth
And we did a photo booth, since they spend so much time together all school year I thought some fun pictures together would be fun: Even Kyla's teacher got in on the pictures. 

I made the photo props using paper and my Silhouette cameo.  

 Christmas Sugar Cone Trees
 We let the kids all decorate a sugar cone to look like a tree.

We ended with cupcakes and Capri Suns that our parent helpers brought in.

Sand and Shells Ornament

Since we vacationed as a family at Bear Lake this year, I made an ornament with some sand and shells we collected there. 

2013 Letters to Santa

Letters to Santa this year, made simple with this free printable. 

Printable found here.

Favorite Things Christmas Party

I have wanted to do a favorite things party of quite some time, so I finally did it---and I did it Christmas themed.  It was so much fun!!  There was SO much fun and laughter.  13 moms, away from their kids in a festive environment.  And it was just a party, no selling things or fundraising or pressure.  Just great fun! So here's what I put together:

Invites:
Simple, just printed them out on my printer....

Banner: (and of course the house if decorated with Christmas and a huge tree in the room, so I didn't need much more for decorations)

Refreshments:
Veggies and my Favorite dip
Fruit and one of my favorite dips
A festive Holiday drink
And Chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese peppermint frosting

And of course the exchange of favorite things:

**I was going to take a picture of the table when everyone had their items on it (and also of the party itself, but I'll admit I was having a great time and forgot)  But there were some great things!

Prize:
Whipped up some festive cutting boards/trivets to give as prizes to the 2 with the highest points (and one went to the person with the lowest points...just to shake things up)

Seriously thinking about having another Christmas Party next year!!!

Grinch Hand Sanitizer

We went a little Grinch crazy this year, but my kids were excited to have this fun hand sanitizer sitting around :

Grinch Mugs

Love how these turned out!

And then the kids wanted Grinch mugs, too....

Santa Cutting Board

I vinyled this cutting board for Christmas.  Now to decide how I want to use it...simple decoration, serving plate, trivet....

Little Red Bucket

Found this red, metal bucket at the Dollar Tree.  It was plain red, so I added some snowflake and "JOY" to it for Christmas.

Christmas Sandwich Containers

School lunches got a little festive:

Gag Gifts

This year for our annual family party, we did a gag gift exchange.  I made up these 2 gifts for us to exchange:

A spoon that had "Cereal Killer" punched onto it.  I tied it to a coffin box filled with cereal:

And a candy cane puzzle:

Truffle Boxes

John wanted to give his co-workers a Christmas treat.  I made a variety of truffles and then made these boxes using my Silhouette Cameo.  It was awesome to get the perfect fit for 9 truffles:

 Then I made a vellum print so they would know what kinds of chocolates they were:

 I used tulle to tie the boxes shut: 

 I then added a cute Santa tag that I made for gifts (Thanks to my sister for the fun afternoon making them with her!)

 

Sea Shell Ornament

I brought back sand and small seashells we collected from Turks and Caicos to make an ornament for the tree:

My Newest Nativity

My parents made and painted this awesome nativity for my Christmas last year. I took a picture so that I could remember how to put it back together :) My kids played with it last year and got it put back together just fine, but just in case I need it...here is my picture:
And the pieces all come out to play with:
Awesome huh? I'm so lucky. Thanks Mom and Dad :) It is fun to see my kids play with it and think more about the true meaning of Christmas.

Spreading Christmas Cheer

We tried to think of some fun ways to spread a little extra cheer this year. This was my favorite:Kyla drew pictures and made cards to delver to our local hospital. She wrote Merry Christmas in each of them. She really enjoyed making all of these.

We also made cards for the postman and left him a treat in the mailbox. The kids were super thrilled when the postman left a Christmas card for us the next day. And now we know what his name is :)

My kids also really enjoyed taking treats to friends and neighbors. I ended up making more than I had planned because they kept wanting to go. We kept the treats small and just hit more houses and made it fun. Kyla wanted to sing to everyone and Nathan was sure to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.