Day 6

  I don't know if it was my lack of cooking skills that scared the children away from baking cookies tonight or if it was the homework. In either case, all the kids, including my daughter, did not want to participate in baking cookies.  Bummer, because they really are the best cookies.  I made them last year and my family talked about them for days.

So I thought I would share one of my Christmas projects.  We are changing our Christmas theme this year  We usually do the traditional colors.  My daughter has asked for a Cindy Lou Who Christmas for years.  So this year we were taking the plunge on a budget.

My first project was the mantle.  I wanted to take a quote from The Grinch and have it across the mantle in Grinch green.  So I bought some paint...kidding.  Years ago, while window shopping at Home Depot (it must have been date night), I saw these vinyl wall pops on clearance.  They were on clearance for $2.00 each. So I bought some in each color.  I knew they would come in handy some day...even if that day was 700 days later.

This isn't all of it but you get the idea.  It came in squares and rolls.  I wish I could say I pulled out my Silhouette, found a Grinch font and cut it on my Silhouette.  But I don't have one.  So I pulled out Cricut Expression and my Gypsy and started to design.  I decided one of the fonts on Lyrical Letters would look the closest to a Grinch style font.  If you have never cut vinyl on a Cricut, I find it is best to change the pressure to 3 and let the Gypsy choose the speed.  This will cut the vinyl but not the backing.  Once you cut the letters, pull off the extra vinyl on your mat, so that all that is left are your letters and/or words.  They place your transfer paper over the words.

Trust me, it is worth getting transfer paper to transfer items from the mat to the mantle. I gently rub the paper over my words.  Because my quote was longer than my mat, I cut the transfer paper into word size strips.  Then when I got to the mantle I gently pressed the paper against the mantle until I had all the pieces lined up.  Once they were lined up I pressed the letters onto the mantle.

If I had this to do again, I would have chosen to make the font larger. I think this one is less than 3 inches tall.  It kind of gets lost in the final look...to come later.

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Day 5 Make Fudge

  Today was the first day we baked/cooked something.  I will be the first to admit,  a cook, I am not.  So, I was scared to venture into new recipe territory with children that do not share my DNA.  So I Pinterested fudge recipes and came across at Crisco.com.  It seemed easy.

I was familiar with the ingredients:

Cocoa Powder

Vanilla Extract

Butter

Marshmellow Cream (ok..this one was new to me)

Evaporated milk

Semi sweet chocolate chips

Sugar

Walnut

To my surprise, there is no baking involved, just some melting and pouring.

It was delicious, only it never really "set".  It seemed like really thick frosting, with walnuts.  My daughter sprinkled the nuts...little uneven but great anyway.

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Day 4 Stockings Cancelled

  We had some really bad storms come through last night.  All the kids are new drivers and we decided it wasn't worth their llives to have them drive out in the rain.  But the stockings are huge!  The picture doesn't represent the size very well but each one is about 2-3 feet tall.  And I got them at the dollar store.  Can you believe it?

So we will decorate them while we watch The Grinch that Stole Christmas.  Which is good news because I honestly didn't have enough decor for large stockings.  So I have this weekend to get more items for the stockings.

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Day 3 Letters to Santa

  I was worried about writing letters to Santa.  I wasn't sure if the kids would like it.  Ok, I call them "kids" but they are really  young adults.  So I wasn't sure if this would be considered lame and if it would take more than 5 minutes.  But, to my surprise, they had fun.  They watched Elf on ABC family 25 Days of Christmas...I know I know..it is on our list to do next week.  However, they took a vote and have changed that to How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

So they thought long and hard about their lists.  You would think they were writing their last will and testament.  The form I printed out had only a certain amount of lines to write things and they wanted each one to count.  So they colored and doodled around the page, while they thought.  And they discussed Santa and if he was real.  They decided that he was real. Seriously, he is real and they had valid reasons to why he existed.  So, Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.  He is the spirit of giving that takes over the world the month of December.  The first gift was Christ.  That precious moment when God came down in form of man...the first gift...but not the greatest...that would come later.

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Day 2 Home Alone

Day 2 was a simple day.  The kids watched Home Alone while they did homework.  They started late because they volunteer at Petco for the pet adoption program on Sundays.  Sorry for the blurry picture but I didn't want to disturb them.

Home Alone is a tradition in our home.  Christmas doesn't even start until we see these movies.  We consider them a classic and a family tradition. I hope my daughter carries it into her children's lives.


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Day 1 The Elfing

 Sounds sorta creepy doesn't it?  Like the title to a new Horror flick.  But it isn't.  It is the exact opposite.  You do something kind for someone you don't know and ask them to pay it forward.  I had never heard of it before but thanks to Pinterest...my world grew a little bigger.  I went to a website and got this:

http://andersruff.blogspot.com/2010/11/free-printable-youve-been-elfed-door.html

She has all three printouts that you need.  The idea is that you get a basket and fill it with goodies and three pages.  The first explains that they have been elfed with goodies.  Now it is their turn to share goodies with two of their neighbors, with a copy of explanation and notices to put on their door that they have been elfed.  (So you don't get elfed twice).  Is "elfed" a word?  Well it is now.  So is "elfing".

So we put together baskets with items to make S'mores, hot chocolate, some candy canes and three ornaments.

So the kids made 4 baskets and took them to three different neighborhoods. Drama 1 (Some of the kids didn't want to make the baskets, they only wanted to deliver them...so they are not in the picture...at the request of the girls.) They decided to take one to school on Monday to start the Elfing at school with the teachers.  The first Elfing...epic fail, according to my daughter.  They went up to a neighbor's door, put the basket at the front door and ran.  Well they hid behind bushes to see what would happen.  Well another neighbor saw the kids running and hiding (he has motion sensors in his yard because he has had some of his yard decorations stolen in the past) and he yelled at them.  When my daughter went up to him to explain, he just yelled, " I don't care what you are doing, leave them alone, they have small children...stay out of their yard.  BAAAAHUMBUG!!!"  Okay, he didn't add the bahumbug....I did. I saw it happen so I went to his house to explain.  He rolled his eyes and said well it seems like a nice idea. and Bah humbug...

Well they were scared after that time but they went on and delivered two more .  These people were more welcoming and one invited them inside her home to see her Christmas decor.  So I will call them a SUCCESS!

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25 Days of Christmas

  As my daughter gets closer to graduating, the more I think about my last years with her.  It seems like just yesterday I was taking her to her first day of school.  And now, in a blink of an eye, she is a Junior. It doesn't hit me more than when I have to write or say Junior.  You see, to me, she is still just Gabrielle.  She is still my little girl.  So all you new moms, take heed.  When someone says time just flies, believe it.  I use to just smile when I heard those words when my daughter was younger.  But you want to know something?  They are right.  Where did the time go?  Next year she will be a Senior and then off to college.  And when she leaves, this will become her childhood home.  It will no longer be a place of comfort and family and home.  No, it will become a memory that she revisits from time to time for Holidays.  I have 18 months left and I want to make them count.  Oh, how I envy those that read this while their baby naps or are at school.  How I wish I could go get one more glass of water before she goes to bed or carry her to her room.  No, for me, those days are gone.

So this past year, while pinning, I came across several lists of things to do for 25 days in December.  So I decided to try one this year. But with two funerals in two months time, both out of town, I fell behind in my Christmas planning. So I didn't create my list until November 30th.  That's right.  I gave myself less than 24 hours to prepare for this task.

My mission:  To invite as many teenagers as possible to show up at my house everynight for 25 nights.  We would create memories for them and they will learn the true meaning of Christmas...spending time with family and friends, give and do for others.  My goal was to do something in the kitchen, something in the neighborhood and something in the heart each week.  I made 20 invitations in My Digital Studio, a digital scrapbooking software offered by Stampin Up!.   

I printed two per page and printed ten pages.  Eventhough, I only printed twenty, anyone that has one can bring friends.  No one is obligated to come everyday  The days in bold are activities that fall on Saturday and Sunday.  My goal is to share with you each day...the good and the bad.  Wish us luck!

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