WoW!  Have we ever been busy!  Our Countdown to Christmas fell by the waste side somewhere around 4 days.  To many things that needed to be done.  Shopping that needed finished, gifts needed wrapped, cookies, party mix and jello salads needed made.  We did get to watch movies each night leading up to the last 4 days.  The Wizard of Oz was a big hit for Andrew.  Luckily I had a copy of it on DVD, as he has watched it about 20 times since we caught it on TV.  He is a bit afraid of the Witch, but other then that HE LOVES IT!

Tuesday afternoon Grandma Pat (Josh’s mom) stopped by and gave the boys their gifts from her.  She spoiled them with about 6 gifts a piece…LOL!!!  All of which they LOVED!

Christmas Eve Andrew and I left early to go help mom with Christmas Eve preparations, while Josh and the other two boys stayed home.  Emily and Blair come over to open gifts with us that evening, since they had to go to other family on Christmas.  Barry, Molly and Jack got home that afternoon.  All of the family gathered at Mom and Dad’s.  We had snack foods for dinner, shrimp, chicken wrapped in bacon, party mix, cheese spread, summer sausage, cheese & crackers and Christmas sweets.  The boys opened their PJ’s from Mamaw and we were lucky and got a really good picture of all four of the boys together.

When we got home from over there, it didn’t take Caleb and Brayden long to fall asleep while watching one of the new movies from Emily and Blair (Horton Hears a Who).  But Andrew was a horse of a different color, sticking with the Wizard of Oz theme…lol!  He was up until about midnight!  Yeah, Santa had work to do and Andrew just would not give in and go to sleep.  So, sometime after midnight Santa started filling stockings and laying out packages.

After a LONG night the boys of course were up by 6:00 AM ready to open presents.  The ripping and tearing started soon after.  :)  They all three seemed to be really happy with what they got.  Andrew’s favorite was his Wow Wow Wubbzy book that talked, even though Santa brought a bike!  Brayden was THRILLED with his Super Mario Galaxy game for the Wii and a t-shirt with Mario on the front.  (Which I had to peel off of him tonight!) And Caleb loves his two pack of WWE wrestling guys complete with title belt.

Josh bought me a beautiful set of Mikasa crystal drinking glasses and the 2008 Willow Tree Angel.  I bought him a Cubs jersey and a box full of his favorite junk food. 

Mom and Kathy come over for awhile after everything was opened and Kathy brought a few more packages for the boys to open and ate breakfast with us.  I made a really yummy egg casserole!  After they left the boys put in a new Goosebumps movie and Mr. and Mrs. Clause fell asleep on the couch and recliner, while they watched it.  (Ahhh, a much needed and well deserved nap!)  Soon it was time to shower and get the boys dressed and over to Mom and Dad’s for more packages and dinner.

When we first got their, Barry, Molly, Jack, Glen and April were still at their other families.  So, while we waited for them Kathy, Mom, Mamaw and I played a bit of cards while Caleb, Brayden, Andrew and Josh watched movies on the new portable DVD players that we bought for them.

Once everyone arrived we started opening gifts.  I was thrilled to get a new food processor from Dad and Mom (salsa making should be much easier this summer) and a stand mixer from Glen and April.  And my brother gave the best gift of all, he made DVD’s for us with video and a slide show from Mamaw’s 75th Birthday/Family Reunion.  I am crying right now as I think about how WONDERFUL and THOUGHTFUL this gift was.  I will cherish this priceless gift ALWAYS!!!

They boys got so many nice gifts and lots of new clothes.  Dinner was great, we had a Honey Baked ham and all sorts of delish side dishes.  After dinner and hugs and kisses and thank-yous all around, Josh took the boys home to play with their new video games and I stayed to play cards with Barry and everybody.  We lost both games but we sure had fun.

I came home around 9:00 to my house looking as if  a bomb had exploded.  I closed my eyes and got another new movie started (VeggieTales, The Pirates that don’t do Anything) and we all 5 fell asleep in the living-room before it ended!

Today we had Christmas with Josh’s side of the family.  We had dinner and a gift exchange with the kids.  The kids played games, opened gifts and mostly ran around the rented hall.  (At least it wasn’t someones house…LOL!!!)

Denny, Caleb, Brayden and Gilli

Liam and Andrew

Andrea, Jason, Donna, and Gilli

We have made many great memories that will last a life time over Christmas 2008!

The winner that gets to choose their favorite prize from all of the giveaways, is…

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2008-12-24 12:27:33 UTC

Kristi

and she picked the Discount School Supply giveaway.

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Advent Wreath from Families with Purpose
Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

5

Timestamp: 2008-12-24 12:38:43 UTC

Jenny

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Plain Perfect by Beth Wiseman

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4

Timestamp: 2008-12-24 12:43:36 UTC

Susan

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Blog design from www.SNSBlogDesign.com

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

15

Timestamp: 2008-12-24 12:52:55 UTC

Kimberly

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Christmas Spider

Here are your random numbers:

3

Timestamp: 2008-12-24 12:56:34 UTC

Vicki Wurgler (left e-mail address)

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Kid’s T-Shirts Stamping Kit from Budget Art KidsRandom Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

7

Timestamp: 2008-12-24 12:58:50 UTC

Aubien

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With over an inch of ice glazing the streets and everything else for that matter, the boys didn’t have school yesterday and thus Christmas brake started a day early! We enjoyed our snow day with fun Christmas crafts.

The first one, Craft Stick Christmas Trees, I found HERE.   (This site has lots of great ideas.  I have found a lot of our crafts there!)

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The second craft idea was also found on Kaboose.com.  This was a great keepsake craft since I traced the boys hands a feet and cut them out to make the reindeer.  Ours are Rudolph since I added some red glitter to the noses.  Which Brayden soon pointed out that we should of made two of them the other reindeer such as Donner and Blitzen. 

We put together a fun Music Box Mini Snap Kit that was given to us from www.discoverthis.com!  This was a great activity and had a lesson in it too.  Each peice had to touch the next or it didn’t work.  When we got it all snapped together the boys were thrilled to hear it play “Happy Birthday”!  And I was thrilled to hear Andrew say “Happy Birthday, Jesus!”

Don’t forget you can win a Kid’s T-Shirts Stamping Kit from the www.BudgetArtKids.com which is in the same group of great sites as www.discoverthis.com!

First off can you beleive that Christmas is a WEEK from today?  A WEEK!  How did that happen?

Our boxes, that are stacked full of activities for our Countdown to Christmas, our dwindling down  We started with 6 and are now down to 2!  I haven’t felt rushed this Holiday Season, yet it is still racing by!

I have most of my Christmas gifts bought, going to work on the wrapping as soon as I am done writting this post.

Mom and I made another batch of Buckeyes yesterday along with some Shortbread Dream cookies.  I still want to get a batch of oatmeal cookies made before Christmas.  That is one that takes forever since the recipe that I use makes a HUGE batch.  I hope to get to them this week-end and one more batch of party mix.

Yesterday we had a two hour delay due to about 4 inches of snow that fell though out the night.  We have a big ICE and snow storm coming our way.  The snow will start tonight and we could get as much as 6 inches with 1/4 inch of ice in the mix.  I have a feeling that the boys won’t be going to school tomorrow and they are both bummed about that since it is their Christmas parties.  But I am happy that we are going to have snow on the ground for Christmas.  (That is if the temps stay cool enough.  Here in NW Ohio we could wake up in three days and it be 50, it has happened before!)

I had to run to Wal-Mart yesterday to pick up Andrew’s new car seat, that I had ordered on-line.  I tried to win a new one on a few blogs but to no avail…lol!  The van has a built in but he can’t fit in it with his winter stuff on, so I found a one that is a boaster seat too.  So I should be done buying car seats since this one will grow with him.  He really loves his “see-ster boot” as he calls it.  (Yeah, not sure why!)

Last night Caleb was gone to Church for two hours.  They had a Christmas party for Caravan’s!  He painted inside of a glass ornament and played basketball among other things.

All of this rambling is me trying to put off saying that I didn’t get to do a Countdown to Christmas activity with the boys last night!  Just to much going on!  :o()

The lame will leap like deer.  Isaiah 35:6

I always seem to forget how simple Snickerdoodles are to make and how yummy they are to eat!!! Here is the recipe that I used…

Snickerdoodles

1 cup of Crisco
1 ½ Cups sugar
2 eggs
2 2/3 cups flour
1 t soda
½ t salt
1 t vanilla
¼ t baking powder

Combine the above ingredients together then roll into walnut sized balls roll in sugar and cinnamon mixture (1/2 sugar + 1 1/2 t cinnamon).Place balls of dough 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes

We used two different kits that was given to us from www.BudgetArtKids.com.  {They also gave us the Hama Bead kits that I shared about in this post}

A little about the kits:

Kid’s T-Shirts Stamping Kit:  It’s easy for kids to create wearable works of art, thanks to this kit. With enough supplies to make lots of t-shirts, it makes a great gift or party activity kit! Includes:

• 70 stamps: upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation
• fabric paint in 6 colors: red, blue, yellow, purple, white and black
• 2 paint brushes
• instructions

Twisted Tie Dye Machine Cool! Tie-dyed clothing is as awesome as ever, and now you can do your own tie dying, but with a new twist.

1. Put a T-shirt into the Tie Dye Machine and twist.
2. Align the holes and squirt different colors of dye inside.
3. Twist again and soak overnight for a project that looks great and minimizes spills.

Set includes:

• Twisted Tie Dye Machine
• 6 bottles
• 12 dye tablets in 3 colors
• 15 fixing tablets
• detailed instructions.

What I thought about the kits:

The Kid’s T-Shirts Stamping Kit was great!  We dumped out the letters and found the ones that we would need to spell out HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS.  Josh and I applied the paint to the letters and let the boys  stamp their shirts, (we put Andrew’s down on the shirt and let him press).  There was plenty of paint left to do quite a few more projects.  I thought that the direction sheets idea of doing this at birthday party would be fun.  Kids Caleb’s age (9-10) would love this and could do it with minimal help from adults.

The Twisted Tie Dye Machine was fun, but not the NO MESS that it stated on the box.  It took quite a bit of prep work to get everything ready and really I would recommend doing the prep work the day before.  After we stamped the tee’s I made sure the paint was dry and we then twisted the shirt and placed it in the tube.  The bottles were a great size and shape for Andrew to hold on to a squeeze.  I have to say it was less messy then traditional tie dying and with three boys anything can be messy!

Both kits were a lot of fun and the finished T-shirts were worth the little bit of mess that we had while tie dying them!



There is a group of web sites that sell great

products along with ww.BudgetArtKids.com…

www.DiscoverThis.com Quality Science Kits
www.BabyClassroom.com Educational Baby Products
www.NewHorizonToys.com Toys for Special Needs Kids

Would you like to make T-shirts with your kids? www.BudgetArtKids.com is offering a giveaway to one of you!  You could win a Kid’s T-Shirts Stamping Kit!

* Just go to one of the other three sites listed above and take a look around.  What is one product that you would like to have?  Come back here and leave a comment telling me what it would be. Comments that just say pick me will deleted, sorry!

* Spread the word on Twitter and you will get an extra entry.  Leave a comment with your Twitter name.

* It is VERY IMPORTANT that you leave a valid e-mail address so I can reach you if you win.

* All entries must be in by December 23rd.

* I will post the winners here on my blog on December 24th, Christmas Eve and send out quick e-mails to the winners.

* I know with the holidays we will all be busy. I will give all winners until January 3 to respond and if I don’t hear from you I will pick a new winner.

* I can only ship items within the US. Sorry!

Have you added a post to your blog with you and your kids doing a fun Christmas activity together?  If you have and you add your link to my Mister Linky here, you will be entered for a chance to pick any prize from my giveaway list.  WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR???

Really cute movie, the boys got a kick out of it!

I get a LOT of search engine hits about the Christmas Spider!  So, since it seems to really be of interest of people I wanted to give one more away this Christmas Season!  My mom is the creator of these hand beaded Spiders.  I love the meaning behind each one of these eight legged creatures.

Legend of the Christmas Spider

(A German and Ukrainian Legend)

Once upon a time a gentle mother was busily cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year. Not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had left their cozy corner in the ceiling and had fled to the attic to avoid the housewife’s busy cleaning.

At last, it was Christmas Eve. The tree was decorated and waiting for the children to see it. The poor spiders were frantic, for they could not see the tree, nor the presents that waited for dawn. The oldest and wisest spider suggested that perhaps they could peep through the crack in the door to see this glorious sight. Silently, they crept out of their attic, down the stairs and across the floor to wait in the crack in the threshold. Suddenly, the door opened a wee bit and quickly the spiders scurried into the room. The tree was breathtaking and certainly more than their eyes were accustomed to seeing. So, they crept all over the tree, up and down, over every branch and twig and saw every one of the pretty things. At last they were satisfied with the Christmas tree’s beauty.

But alas! Everywhere they went they had left their webs. Now seeing what they had done, they became very afraid that they would be killed; so they prayed for mercy. Suddenly, an angel appeared and said, “I’ll save you, but I will need some help. One of you must stay to save the rest.” It was agreed who would stay, and then the angel touched the spider and turned it to ice, and the webs became shimmering silver and gold.

Since that time, we have hung tinsel on our Christmas trees to remind us of the sacrifice of one to save many. (Just as Jesus Christ did for each of us) According to the legend, it has become a custom to include the spider among the decorations on the tree.

I will be sending a different one then the one pictured above. My mom is working on a new batch right of Christmas Spiders now.

• If you would like to win one just leave a comment on this post. That simple!

• It is VERY IMPORTANT that you leave a valid e-mail address so I can reach you if you win.

• All entries must be in by December 23rd.

• I will post the winners here on my blog on December 24th, Christmas Eve and send out quick e-mails to the winners.

• I know with the holidays we will all be busy.  I will give all winners until January 3 to respond and if I don’t hear from you I will pick a new winner.

• I can only ship items within the US.  Sorry!

Saturday Kathy invited us to her work Christmas Party.

A room full of trains

Making Christmas mitten ornaments

Decorating Cookies

Making Rudolf goodie bags

Coloring Christmas pictures

Oh, Christmas Trees

All of which lead up to a visit with the big guy himself, Santa!