Christmas Ornaments – a simple silver ball, many different looks
After Christmas clearance can find these silver balls for super cheap – I picked up my plain Christmas ornaments for less than 2.5 cents each in January.
The boys and I have been having fun decorating them. The ones above are my Christmas ornament creations.
From left to right {top row} – hemp and glue wound around ornament, red electrical tape around the middle of the ball, painted green and used green puffy paint to make a tree
{bottom row} – painted stripes, Sharpie marker design, paper mache octopus using a map book, pipe cleaners and a water flour paste
The Octopus is my favorite, even if he is a sad rendition of my inspiration. I was inspired by the Anthropology ornament:
Christmas Ornaments for Kids
The boys have had a ton of fun with these ornaments too – sadly I packaged all of theirs up for gift giving, but they pretty much went wild with Sharpie markers and water color paints {EASY clean up – and they had to work *really* hard to get the slightest bit of color to show up on the ornaments – they spent over an hour painting!!}
The boys had a list of people they wanted to share their Christmas ornaments with so we packaged them up and they are ready for delivery!
The boys love picking out their gifts for Paul and I always love what they come up with. Last year Wesley {then 2} insisted on us buying Paul a 3-pack of Calvin Kline underwear because, in all his 2 year old wisdom, he insisted the underwear model on the packaging looked *just* like his daddy.
The boys are going to have a hard time ever topping that gift.
This years gift for dad comes close.
Last week they came to me with “the best idea ever for dad.” So we sat down to talk about it and this week their vision became a reality and I just love it.
Meet the Good Experiences with Dad box:
They told me they wanted to do a whole list of things with their daddy, so we wrote each idea on a card and attached a corresponding sticker to the card.
I’ll slip some cash in the box too for the activities that cost a bit of money, but most of what they wanted to do with their dad were simple, imaginary things.
Here’s a sampling of what they wanted to do for their daddy for Christmas:
I have been preparing them for the fact that these things aren’t going to happen on Christmas day when he opens the box! In fact, I am thinking I should add a check box or a line for them to sign or something so they can mark off each card as they do them together.
I really love that they thought of this on their own – and it really exemplifies what we want to teach our children about gift giving: to think about the person that the gift is intended for. Most of these activities are things that Paul has expressed great enjoyment in doing with the boys so while they may appear to be things that the boys enjoy, their idea was that they wanted to do a list of things that he liked.
Paul promised not to peak at this post so that I could share this simple idea in case your kids are on the hunt for a gift for dad!
Happy 1st of December! My boys are desperately hoping this Christmas month will result in a layering of snow and while I am fairly certain – based on previous years – that we won’t see snow this month, I am hopeful for them too.
{Paul, last week. This is why I don’t think we’ll get snow in December!}
While the boys are still curled up sleeping as I write, as soon as they awaken they’ll be given their Gum Advent Calendar . They will be allowed their daily piece as soon as they’ve finished breakfast – at which time we’ll sit around our fireplace and do our daily Advent reading {I plan on following the reading plan and activities from Focus on the Family’s Thrive magazine, download for free here. My friend Tammy shares several different options for Jesse Tree readings and crafts here, if you’re still looking for ideas.}
We have our large basket of Christmas books set out – I collect them through the year from the Thrift store and I am so thankful I did it that way. Our library is almost completely out of Christmas related books! It is one of their most favorite activities to be read to.
Our tree is up, heavily decorated at approximately Wesley height. Christmas decorations are creeping slowly throughout the house compliments of a certain Judah who thinks every room is deserving of a Christmas ornament.
This week we have focused heavily on the Christmas story – retelling it daily with a fun activity to help the boys learn the details. We’ve also started making Christmas crafts for people.
I wish it were easy to teach my children how much joy there is in giving – I wish there were an easy way for me to always remember how much joy there is in giving.
This month the posts are going to ring heavily of Christmas related matter. I have a few more homemade gift ideas to share. A few Christmas crafts and activities. I also plan on revealing our fun floor remodel {Wesley, above, is laying on the “before”}. The floor has nothing to do with Christmas, but will hopefully be a great success! If not I can share what not to do with your floor 
Then the end of the month will focus on goal setting. At the beginning of this year I had set one of my goals to be to only buy 12 personal items this year. I just bought my 11th item this past week! While I am on track for that goal, some of the others {like running!} were sorely neglected. I am considering sharing 2012 goals and posting regular updates throughout next year for accountability purposes.
I also have a really fun giveaway planned for next week {and will ship to Canada!}
Hope you have a wonderful first day of December!
The Money Saving Mom’s Budget
Crystal Paine’s new bookThe Money Saving Mom’s Budget: Slash Your Spending, Pay Down Your Debt, Streamline Your Life, and Save Thousands a Year is an excellent source of tips and experiences to help you save money and meet your financial goals. It is a compilation of her heart and passion which she shares on her popular blog moneysavingmom.com.
This book is smart and practical and I think everyone will be challenged to manage their spending a little bit more smartly after finishing the book.
From ideas on saving money to ideas for increasing income to ideas for setting financial goals this book covers it all. It is packed full of ideas and wisdom.
Crystal shares her own story in the book – a beautifully refreshing story of hard work and determination that paid off big time. She shares her experiences and things she had learned along the way all the while cheering the reader along to their own success.
This book is set to be released on January 10, 2012 – but you can pre-order on Amazon here. If you need a Christmas gift for a daughter, sister or friend I would highly recommend this book. It would also make an excellent addition to a shower or wedding gift for newly married couples.
Giveaway
I have ONE copy of The Money Saving Mom’s Budget to give away!
To enter leave a comment letting me know you’d like to win!
Easy peasy!
Want a second chance to win The Money Saving Mom’s Budget? Go look at The Money Saving Mom’s Budget and tell me one thing that is being listed in the “Customers Who Bought This Also Bought…” box. Since Crystal’s readership are huge bargain shoppers the items listed in there are often quite humorous – tell me the most amusing thing you see! As I write this it’s a 20 pack of batteries that struck me as most unusual.
Contest runs until December 6th at 11am.
Winner will be contacted by e-mail and the book will be mailed out as soon as it becomes available.
“Uncles make the world a happier place. A place where unicorns smile as the gentle breeze of dinosaurs and book and dragons with fire unite in a bubble of love. A place where we live and a world that you live in too. A place where pancakes, cookies, clowns, hotdogs and spicy hot Cheetos are served for breakfast and breakfast is served four times a day. A place with ketchup to swim in and jello to jump on. A place where laughter is the anthem and giggles are the beat. A place where chickens eat mice and the mice hide in bowls of olives. A place with fun surprises and sprinkles and snow and rain drops of sparkling ice. A place where whales swim upside down and dogs meow and trees wiggle and pigs say “pig, pig” and cups say “spill, spill.” A place where super heroes save the day. A place where airplanes are owned by all and their smoke trail is the colors of the rainbow. A place where bubble baths never get cold and towels are always warmly awaiting the wet. A place where books sneak out of homes so they can live their own reality. A place where sleeping results in charming dreams and charming dreams consist of YOU & ME.”
The boys and I wrote this Uncles piece as part of a Christmas gift for one of my brothers. With a colored Sharpie and a blank 16×20 canvas (a set of 5 is often on sale at Michael’s for $15 – I always keep a supply on hand for projects!) we sat down and imagined and wrote. It was a whole lotta fun for us and I know my brother will love it.
We may, in fact, sit down and do a similar one for Paul as he was such a fan of this one and I think he’d love to see what his sons imaginations come up with a second time around!
Total gift cost:
canvas - $3
sharpie – had on hand
imagination – hours spent reading good books
Christmas Craft
I needed something BIG for over our piano so I decided to design this print (12×12) and mount it (handy home-made modge podge!) to a wooden frame (16×16).
I love how it turned out!
In fact, I like it so much I am thinking of creating two more and making a three part series to hang over the piano. At a total cost of just over $5 per complete piece it’s a great deal for such a large statement piece!
The Text
The print was designed in Photoshop and says;
“Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God
Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace”
and printed on top of that in white it reads
“And you shall call His name
Jesus
He will save His people from their sin.”
The Frame
The frame was on the 90% off rack at a local store. It had been decorated with crowns and other royal-symbols but a few coats of paint and it was good to go with the print! {I layered lime green, two shades of brown and a bronze.}
Once the frame was painted and dried I applied the print with modge podge and let it dry. I added a few gentle brush strokes of the brown around the edge of the print to help it blend together a bit.
Total cost of the project
12×12 print – $2.99 at Costco
16×16 frame – $2.50 on clearance
As I mentioned in my review of King of Glory – I wish I could give a copy of this to everyone! But I do have something for you that Paul Bramsen, the author, made me aware of – a free flip book version of King of Glory available on their website!
You can purchase the book King of Glory on Amazon.
Congrats to Stephanie for winning the free copy – I will get that in the mail to you right away!
The Preparing for Christmas series has come to an end. I put them all together in this post for easy reference in case you need to find a recipe, instructions or inspiration.
Thanks for following along and adding input throughout!
I hope that this upcoming month is a peaceful and enjoyable one for you and your family.
Christmas drinks – recipes and ideas
Christmas Advent – advent from a pack of gum and other ideas
Christmas tin foil ornament idea
Christmas Chocolate bar snowmen
Christmas Games are a fabulous addition to a Christmas gathering – whether it’s an informal group gathering, a more formal gathering or a family Christmas – Christmas games make for fun times!
I have collected an assortment of more unique Christmas games that I hope you and your friends and family will enjoy! And be sure to check out my 32 Gift Ideas for Boys for some fun and unique gifts for the boys on your list.
Gift Auction with Play Money - a fun twist on a Chinese Auction or White Elephant gift exchange. Everyone brings a wrapped gift for the gift exchange. Give each person a sealed envelope with a varied amount of play money inside {You can have a few persons with the same amount of money}. Make sure that each player keeps their dollar amount a secret. Have a predesignated auctioneer hold up a wrapped gift and start the auction at a dollar amount close to the lowest amount. Highest bidder wins that gift. Each person may only win one gift.
Taboo – {click link to purchase} a fun group game for a larger gathering. Object of the game is to get your team to say a word on the card without you saying the taboo descriptive words.
Apples to Apples – {click link to purchase} another fun group game for larger gatherings. This is probably the number one game to have on hand for large gatherings as anyone that can read can play, it’s lots of fun, and no one is put on the spot to do something embarrassing!
Holiday Charades – {click link to purchase or make up your own!} a game of charades with a Christmas theme!
Pass the Parcel – give everyone a pair of mittens or gloves (we used medical gloves and had each person wear three pairs.) Hand one person a gift wrapped in many layers and well taped and give the person to the left of them a dice. At the word “GO” the person with the gift starts unwrapping while the person with the dice starts trying to roll a 5. When a 5 is rolled they grab the gift and start unwrapping while the person to their left grabs the dice and starts rolling to get a 5. Game continues until the gift is unwrapped.
Back to Back – There are a variety of versions for this game, but my favorite is this: Have two people sit back to back and hand each of them identical lego pieces. Instruct player 1 to create a Christmas ornament with their pieces (does not need to be able to hang on the tree!) Once theirs is completed player 1 gives verbal instructions to player 2 so that player 2 can try to build an identical ornament. Once player two has finished their ornament compare the two lego ornaments and see how similar (or un-similar!) they are. **You can make it a wreath, candy cane or leave it up to player 1 to chose what they wish to create.
Left Right Christmas Game Gift Exchange – Another fun twist for a gift exchange. Have everyone hold the gift they brought and sit in a circle. The narrator can join in the game or stand on the outside of the circle. Read one of the Left Right stories on the above website or make up your own fun Left Right Christmas story. Every time the word left is read the packages need to be passed to the left. When the word right is read the packages must be passed to the right.
Mennonite Manners - a really fun dice game. Simple to learn and great for large groups. You need to be able to write from 1 – 100 to play. Not specifically a Christmas game, but fun for large gatherings! Instructions for this dice game can be found by clicking here.
Gingerbread Decorating Contest – Buy enough Gingerbread houses to have 1 for every 2-3 people {or use graham crackers or even just cardboard!} I always stock up at after Christmas clearance if I find them for 90% off. Have a predetermined amount of time for each group to work on decorating their Gingerbread house. Create score cards and have everyone rate each others creations. Highest scored team wins.
Christmas Macaroni Game – Buy a couple bags of alphabet shaped pasta and give each team their own bag. Give them 5 minutes to spell out as many Christmas related words as possible. Make sure the words are left out for all to see. Each pasta letter may be only used once.
An Evening of Games & Giftcards – Ask each person coming to bring a $10 gift card to a store of their choice. Place the gift cards in identical envelopes to hide where they are for. Have an assortment of games to play – traditional board games, brain teases, puzzles, etc. When we played this we included the Gingerbread decorating winner in this.
Spend the evening playing games – the winner of each game gets to chose an envelope with a gift card in it and open it. The next person to win a game can either chose the opened gift card or they can chose an unopened envelope. Each person can only win one gift card – unless you have a very competitive group and want to allow some to leave without winning anything!
Check out our Month of Christmas activities!
“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.” – Matthew 2:10-11 KJV
“They saw no miracles to convince them.
They heard no teaching to persuade them.
They saw nothing but a newborn infant,
helpless and weak,
needing a mother’s care like any of us.
And yet when they saw that infant,
they believed that they saw the
divine Savior of the world.” -J.C. Ryle
Christmas quote from Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas
