I don’t know if anyone out there was following my blog way back last Christmas, but I made a comment that I wanted to make Nativity costumes for my all of my grand kids. I looked online and I checked costume stores and there were some cute, expensive ones, but they all came in separate sizes and I wanted something that would be one size fits all from age 2 to 10! I know that I was kind of nuts to think that I would find something, but guess what I did!
This has been one crazy week in my neck of the woods.
I will have had 3 parties this week. Nothing like starting December out with a bang! I did my Sinterklaas party on Sunday, last night I helped with a progressive dinner for our Relief Society activity ( which was super fun to see all the cute decorated homes and eat and eat and eat!) then this weekend we will have one of our extended family Christmas party.
With that said today’s thought is one that I posted last year, but felt it worthy of being posted again and because I just did not have time to create a new one:)
Here is the printable version for you. To print, right click over image and go to “save image as” then save in one of your pictures file. This is a fun little gift, if you need a quick easy one!
This is a perfect thought to make us think about what we are doing everyday. Do we let others into our lives and do we reach out to those who might need our help today?
I love this time of year because we all tend to think of others more, myself included, and it is a great and wonderful feeling!
I needed a few Christmas tags for our Sinterklass Party so I decided to design a few and now I want to share them with you!
They are for you to print and use for your own personal use.
Several years ago, my oldest son served a mission for our church to the Netherlands. So I asked him about some of the Christmas traditions while he was there and every year since we have celebrated Sinterklaas day in some way or another.
Here is my December calendar!
This month for my calendar, I decided to make a fun little garland using mini cupcake liners and doilies! I think that it turned out pretty cute. You could use this idea with regular sized cupcake liners and doilies to make a bigger one and of course you could change up the colors to use for any season!
This month the message is
It talks about the importance of sharing our testimonies and teaching those that we visit.
I just made a fun little Christmas themed card for this month. You could pair this with a fun Christmas treat, book, lotion, or any other little gift that you might want to give. But really and truly the visit is the most important part and sharing your time and talents with all those whom you serve!
Here is a blank one for those of you who would like to translate!
These are formatted to 4 x6 so you can just send them to be printed, if you want to do that.
To print, right click over image and go to “save image as” then just save into one of your pictures files.
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One idea for a great treat are these yummy mint brownies You will find the recipe here.
I make these every year at Christmas time, in fact I am making some for our Sinterklaas Party this weekend! That is how good these are! I will tell more about the party next week.
Today I decided that I would show you some of my Christmas sewing projects from this year and from Christmases past. I absolutely love the warmth of these homemade quilts and pillows. They are so inviting on a cold winter’s night. This collection is from things that I have made and some that are gifts that were made by wonderful friends! It is good to have crafty friends!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend! My husband and I had a great one! We went out to dinner and I had Steak and Shrimp for my Thanksgiving dinner! It was delish. He had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but I have a hard time passing up shrimp when the opportunity is there! :)
That is one thing about being empty nesters, we have to share all of our kids and their families, so every other year we have them and then on the off year we usually go somewhere. This year we just went to Park City and then on up to our cabin. It sounds kind of lonely, not having family for Thanksgiving, but all of our kids live close by and we get to see them every Sunday, so it is OK to share them for the Holidays! :)
I got all my decorating done early this year, because I knew that everyone would be gone and I would not have help, so I took advantage of the grandkids when they were here.
This is my front porch: It looks really fun at night, because it is all lighted up!
Today’s idea is one that I posted last year, but I think that it is worthy of posting again this year.
We have a tradition in our home that we started a few years ago. My children are all grown and married, and every year we would go through this little ritual– They would say, “Mom, what do you and dad want for Christmas?” and I would reply “that we really did not need anything,” and I could never come up with any ideas for them.
We usually all get together for Sunday dinner, and three years ago at one of these family nights, I read the following story to my family. It reminds me so much of my own husband, because he does not like the commercialism of Christmas just like the man in the story and all of our kids had to agree, and thus was born the tradition of the White Envelope. It is truly the highlight of Christmas for my husband and I. We wake up on Christmas morning and we read the letters from each of our children and their family and I must admit, that it usually brings tears to our eyes! What a beautiful way to start our Christmas Day!
This is our “White Envelope”, I made it out of fabric and it goes on the Christmas tree. You could use any white envelope, but I decorated it up and we use it year after year. All of the grand kids know exactly what it is and they get caught up in the spirit also!
Here is the story that I read to my family:
