Puppets are awesome, right? Yeah, they are. The Detroit Institute of Arts had a puppet performance by Preston Foerder (whose website I can't seem to find) and the girls and I headed over with some friends. The puppeteer came on stage dressed like a janitor with all the likely tools and then proceeded to tell stories from Grimm's Fairy Tales with his puppets, which he made on the spot from mops, dusters, bags, and socks. The kids learned that you can use everyday things to make something truly spectacular. After the show the museum had a puppet making workshop for the kids. They provided scraps of material, yarn, markers, glue sticks, googly eyes, and the cut off fingers from canvas gloves, which provided the base of the finger puppet. Great idea, right?! Go get some gloves at your local hardware store and let the kids go nuts!

The kids each made a few puppets and then found a way to put on a puppet show right then are there! We will definitely be doing this again soon.

Our visit to Santa was kind of anticlimactic. This was the first year that Erika agreed to talk to him, so I was kind of excited. She sat on his lap for the obligatory picture, told him what she wanted (a porcelain Cinderella) and was done with it. There was no magic in her eyes. Audrey didn't even really want to get near him, but agreed to go sit on his lap if Erika went with her. She asked for some bells and looked quite suspicious of the whole thing.



We cut out snowflakes from tissue paper on the 2nd of December. There are no pictures because I was too busy folding paper and assisting in cutting.

We were supposed to write letters to Santa the next day, but the girls didn't seem interested, so we didn't. This is supposed to be fun, right?

On Saturday we got our Christmas tree! That morning I started searching for places to cut down our own tree, but then I remembered that it was cold out, and that it was a 45 minute drive each way. The "lot" tree is perfect and we aren't all covered in sap. Now I just have to remember to water it.



On Sunday the girls and I went to see the Nutcracker with their Mimi. We magically ended up with front row seats and the girls loved it. Erika was enchanted and hardly blinked. Audrey asked a lot of questions very loudly. I know that we will do this every year and love the tradition of it.

And that brings us almost up to date. Yesterday we made ornaments for the tree. Erika and I made some salt dough and cut out holiday shapes while Audrey napped. In the afternoon the girls painted their ornaments.





If you want to try this yourself, here is a salt dough recipe. And here is The Artful Parent's glittery version of the ornaments.

And finally, today we are going to a local coffee shop to donate a few toys to local children whose parents are unemployed.

And how about you? Holiday shopping done? Tree trimmed? Lights up?

Let's just ignore the six month hiatus and move on, shall we?

I was up late last night finishing our advent calendar. Last year we made a paper chain advent calendar and there was an activity written inside each of the loops. I was going to do the same thing this year, but decided at the very last minute to do something different. I wanted little envelopes, but wasn't sure how to make them. Then, in a flash from the past, I remembered that the middle schooler in me still knew how to fold a piece of paper into a little envelope to be passed in class.

Take a square piece of paper and fold it into a triangle:



Fold in the sides of the triangle:



Fold up once:



Take one flap and tuck it into the note, I mean envelope:


Take the other flap and fold it over the other side so that it looks like a little envelope:



Tada! Cute, huh? I wrote one activity in each envelope and taped them to some raffia. As you can see, today's activity is going to visit Santa. Come back and see what we have planned for the rest of the month! I will post our activities daily.

Let's just ignore the six month hiatus and move on, shall we?

I was up late last night finishing our advent calendar. Last year we made a paper chain advent calendar and there was an activity written inside each of the loops. I was going to do the same thing this year, but decided at the very last minute to do something different. I wanted little envelopes, but wasn't sure how to make them. Then, in a flash from the past, I remembered that the middle schooler in me still knew how to fold a piece of paper into a little envelope to be passed in class.

Take a square piece of paper and fold it into a triangle:



Fold in the sides of the triangle:



Fold up once:



Take one flap and tuck it into the note, I mean envelope:


Take the other flap and fold it over the other side so that it looks like a little envelope:



Tada! Cute, huh? I wrote one activity in each envelope and taped them to some raffia. As you can see, today's activity is going to visit Santa. Come back and see what we have planned for the rest of the month! I will post our activities daily.

Let's just ignore the six month hiatus and move on, shall we?

I was up late last night finishing our advent calendar. Last year we made a paper chain advent calendar and there was an activity written inside each of the loops. I was going to do the same thing this year, but decided at the very last minute to do something different. I wanted little envelopes, but wasn't sure how to make them. Then, in a flash from the past, I remembered that the middle schooler in me still knew how to fold a piece of paper into a little envelope to be passed in class.

Take a square piece of paper and fold it into a triangle:



Fold in the sides of the triangle:



Fold up once:



Take one flap and tuck it into the note, I mean envelope:



Fold the other flap the other way to make it look like an envelope:





Tada! Cute, huh? I wrote one activity in each envelope and taped them to some raffia. Come back and see what we have planned for the month! I will post our activities daily.