Christmas Paper Bag Album
Posted on | December 18, 2009 | 11 Comments
I want to share a Christmas paper bag album that I did several years ago, but before I continue, I want to mention that I’m giving away several similar albums – details are at the bottom of this post.
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| This mini album holds memories of my very first Christmas in Illinois. Rinoa wasn’t even born yet. |
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We were looking through the album one night and Rinoa asked “Where was I?” I answered, “You weren’t born yet.” “You mean I was still in your tummy? You haven’t pooped me out yet?” “Well you weren’t even in my tummy yet.” “Was I dead?” “No. You were, uhmm, particles floating in the air.” “Huh??” (with a very confused facial expression) I know that was probably a lame answer but how was I supposed to explain? I didn’t know how to answer her question.
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| My mom, brother, and sister flew from the Philippines, and my aunt from California, to celebrate Christmas with us. It was a joyous reunion since I haven’t seen them in 6 months – the longest I’ve been apart from them at the time. |
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| This is my mom with Mica. Mica was just 4 years old then. |
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| Here’s Mica with my sister on the left and my brother on the right. |
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| And here’s my mom and aunt with my father-in-law and mother-in-law. |
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If you’ve noticed, the flaps and openings of the paper bag make great pockets to hold journalling tags, tabbed pages, and other keepsakes.
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| CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY |
This album was actually a workshop project I offered a few years back. I have several handmade kits left over – each kit has enough supplies and instructions to make a similar album, although some are winter-themed and some are halloween-themed. I would like to give them away – my Christmas gift to those who come and visit my blog. All you have to do is leave a comment anywhere in my blog, and I’ll choose my gift recipients from there.
Happy holidays everybody!
Felt Gingerbread Man
Posted on | December 17, 2009 | 1 Comment
Another one of our Christmas projects this year – scrumptious gingerbread men without the baking. All you need are felt sheets that you can buy from a craft store – they’re 4 for $1 in my area, embroidery thread and needle for sewing (yes, you’ll be sewing), rice to stuff your gingerbread man with, and foam paint for decoration.
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| Just trace this template on the felt and cut out. You’ll need two pieces – a front side and a back side. |
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| Then sew the two pieces together using a thick embroidery thread – we used DMC floss. Leave a small opening to fill the insides with rice before closing. This was a good way for the girls to learn needlework. |
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| Using accessories we already had, Mica and Rinoa decorated their gingerbread men. With foam paint as icing, they painted happy smiles and curly hair. |
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Holiday Baking
Posted on | December 16, 2009 | No Comments
It’s been our tradition to bake and giveaway Chocolate Crinkles for Christmas.
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This year, we made some for unsuspecting recepients, like our mailman who tirelessly brings packages to our door and Ms. Melissa from Rinoa’s Friday night Story Time at B&N.
Christmas Eggshell Mosaic
Posted on | December 15, 2009 | No Comments
For our first art class this month, Mica and Rinoa each did a Christmas-themed eggshell mosaic. I’ve been planning on giving them this project for weeks now, so every time I cracked an egg in the kitchen, I would clean and save the shell. We had about a dozen clean eggshells to use that day.
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| Troy took the day off from work so I let him hold the camera while I instructed and helped the girls :) |
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| The first step was to fill the drawings with eggshells. We used Mod Podge for glue since I had a big tub of it. The drawings, by the way, are cliparts I found online – perfect for a mosaic project. Since gluing the eggshells would take time, I thought I’d spare them the task of drawing something themselves. |
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| After filling up the drawings with eggshells, we finished them using acrylic paints. I had them go over the black lines using a Sharpie to make the drawings crisp clear. |
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| “CHRISTMAS BELLS” Eggshell Mosaic by Mica Redington (12 years old) |
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| “CHRISTMAS ANGEL” Eggshell Mosaic by Rinoa Redington (5 years old) |
Counting Down December
Posted on | December 14, 2009 | No Comments
This year, I thought I’d make the holiday celebrations more exciting for Mica and Rinoa by having them count down the days before Christmas and filling their December with holiday activities.
I’ve never given much interest to Advent Calendars before but when I was planning our holiday activities after Thanksgiving, I knew I wanted to use one this year. Of course, it was too late to make or buy one that I liked, so I settled for a printout of this one that I found online:
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Instead of hiding an activity behind each box, we simply fill each new day on the tree with an ornament to show how close we are to Christmas Day. It works well, especially in helping Rinoa understand — One day, Rinoa and I were at the bookstore when she saw something she wanted to give Mica for Christmas. Naturally, I bought it for her. When we got home, she wouldn’t stop asking me when she can give her gift to Mica. I showed her the Advent Calendar tree and said “When you’ve filled up all the boxes in this tree and you’ve reached the star on top, it means it’s Christmas Day – then you can give your gift to Mica.” Her eyes grew wide and she said “Ooooohhhh!”
Here are some of the activities we’ve done so far:
A Letter to Santa
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I had Rinoa write a letter to Santa early in December to make sure it gets to the North Pole in time. To make it more fun, we used this Dora Santa Letter kit from Nick Jr. I wasn’t surprised at all to see that she asked Santa for a puppy, although I’m afraid Santa won’t be able to grant that wish just yet.
Mica skipped this activity – I think she’s getting too old to write Santa a letter.
Twas the Night Before Christmas
I remember memorizing this poem by Clement Moore when I was in Kindergarten. There’s a free copy in Gutenberg. I printed it out and we started reading it one night. With all the hustle and bustle, we haven’t gotten to finishing the book yet, but we will. I recite it all the time though that the girls have memorized the first part already. How cool is that?
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Movie Night: Elf
We could have picked something like Polar Express but Elf is a good choice too – lol!
“First we’ll make snow angels for two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle.” – Buddy
Holiday Music and Hot Cocoas with Marshmallows
What would December nights be without holiday music to fill your house and hot cocoa with marshmallow to warm you up? Here are some of our favorite holiday songs this year.
Angels We Have Heard on High by Sixpence None the Richer
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus by The Cheetah Girls
All I Want for Christmas by Alvin and the Chipmunks
Warm Me Up by Elliott Yamin
Every December (or at least since last year when I discovered it), Amazon offers free Christmas songs to download. Some of the songs I mentioned above were downloaded last year. From this year’s download, here are two of my favorites:
Joy to the World by Casting Crowns
Deck the Halls by Los Straightjackets
Birthday Thoughts
Posted on | December 13, 2009 | 2 Comments
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Got this for my birthday from Mica and Rinoa. I was banned from the basement the last few days while they were busy decorating the pots and transferring the flowers. (I didn’t know at that time what they were doing.) What a lovely surprise!
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And as I celebrate my birthday, I reflect on how blessed I am to have a sweet, understanding, and super geeky husband who gives me freedom to explore my passions and two lovely, healthy, and super smart daughters who patiently tolerate my OC tendencies when I homeschool them. Happy birthday to me! :D
Our Christmas Card Drive Comes to a Close
Posted on | December 11, 2009 | 1 Comment
Thank you to everybody who participated in our Christmas Card Drive for Gavin – to all those who donated their handmade cards, to all those who bought them, and to all those who made a monetary donation. We’ve raised $1100 – not bad for a quick project – and it would have not been possible without all of your support. I’m sure this would be a wonderful Christmas present for Gavin from all of us.
To close this fundraiser, I would like to share photos of some of the kids who took the time to make cards for Gavin. If you purchased from this card drive, then you’ve received a couple of these children’s adorable cards. I’m sure their parents are very proud of how these kids did a wonderful job and helped our little Gavin.
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| This is a Pre-K Class at St. John Catholic School in San Lorenzo, CA. The school was able to donate 73 handmade cards. |
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| This is a Nursery Class from Singapore International School Srinakarin (SISS) in Bangkok, Thailand. |
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| And these are the adorable cards they made – very talented 3-yr olds, in my opinion. |
And here is another class in Malaysia who did a magnificent job of making handmade cards for Gavin’s fundraiser.
Happy Snow Day
Posted on | December 9, 2009 | 7 Comments
We woke up this morning to find that everything outside is covered in snowy white. I guess it’s officially winter. Time for holiday gift wrapping, peppermint mochas, and snowball fights.
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Mica and Rinoa couldn’t wait to play outside. We started the morning with our usual homeschool work, but they pleaded with their puppy-dog eyes, so now they’re outside, all bundled up, making snowmans. This mini one, with a dixie cup hat, was made by Mica, but there’s also a 4-foot tall snowman standing just outside our front porch.
| Oh, the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful. And since we’ve no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. |
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© 2006-2010 Johwey Redington.
Please don't steal my text or images, it's disrespectful and you'll be subjet to karma! If you want to use any of the images, please email me for a written permission. Thank you.
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