Dried Citrus Slices

I had really grand plans for my first Christmas in a new house... however, some ended up, shall we say, "simplified" when the reality of life and time and the twins learning how to walk and get into everything happened. This tree is the perfect example. I envisioned a wealth of food ornaments- all made by hand- covering this little tree on my kitchen counter, filling the house with a delicious aroma and warmth and love. I ended up with some dried citrus slices- which actually turned out great- and made the finished product much simpler. I still liked it though. There is something so beautiful and fresh about citrus. This bowl just made me happy looking at it! I lined a cookie sheet with foil and topped it with a cookie rack. Then, I sliced the different citrus fruits about 2-3mm thick (sorry for the blatant use of metrics- blame it on my very English husband) and layed them in a single layer on the rack on the tray. It was placed in the oven on the lowest heat setting for about 6 hours average. Because I experimented with different fruits in different sizes, they all had different drying times. I just checked them periodically starting at about 5 hours for the tiny limes and ending at about 7 hours for the large oranges. I have to say, the lemons turned out the worst as the sugars all caramelized before they were all dry turning them brown- not cute. Finally, the slices were simply hung with green wire ornament hangers- I'm totally using clear fishing wire next time. Here's the finished tree- hate the topper. Next year, I am doing this again- but I envision adding some dried star anise embellishments, and some cinnamon stick bundles, and a cranberry garland ooh! and maybe some dried pineapple flowers like Martha makes and.......

Classmate Gifts: M&M Bags

Abby wanted to give her classmates all Christmas prezzies this year- yikes!- and we finally decided what to do the night before. We just gathered a bunch of stuff we already had- including the M&Ms (doesn't everyone keep a large stash of candy for just such occasions?) and put it all together. Here is what we used: Because there was a lot of filling and stamping involved, Abby was able to do a lot of the work herself- including the paper color and ribbon choices. And this is how it all came together: I was really proud of her for not stopping half-way through- signing the backs of 20 bags is a big job! She said everyone really loved them and one boy even gave her a hug and said, "Thank you!" She turned red when she told me. I love Kindergarten!

Tangerine Pomanders

This year, I decided to have a little tree in my kitchen decorated with citrus-fruit decorations. The first things we made were tangerine pomanders. Another easy make the whole family can do. Here's what is needed (plus tape- I forgot to add that to the photo):
First you criss-cross tape around the tangerine where the ribbon will eventually go. Then, with a toothpick or paperclip, you poke holes in your tangerine wherever you want to place your cloves. Insert cloves in the holes. This can be a bit messy as the holes seep juice when you poke them- simply wipe with a paper towel before you insert the cloves. When you are done with your clove pattern, remove the tape and add ribbon where the tape used to be finishing at the top with a bow. Finally, if you are hanging these on a tree, make a simple loop by tucking a length of through the top of the bow and tying. Alternatively, you can just put them in a bowl for decoration. The smell is so delicious and reminds me of Christmas.
Here's mine:Here's Abby's:Note#1- As your tangerine dries, it will shrink and you will probably need to tighten the ribbon.
Note#2- This is probably obvious, but you are totally not limited to tangerines- any citrus fruit will work. I have also seen beautiful dried flower and herb ones... but you'd miss out on that wonderful aroma.

Doughnut Snowman

These are so much fun to do in a party setting... and not just the children love making them. You can probably figure it out by looking, but we use 3 sizes of powdered doughnuts: Large, small and holes. It is always a good idea to have some extra powdered sugar around in case they need an extra sprinkling of white... it also looks good on the bottom of a display plate topped by a whole snowman family. When you have your doughnuts ready, just stack them according to size and decorate. We use an orange sprinkle for a nose, but you could just as easily pipe one on. We finished him off with mini chocolate chips and a fruit roll-up scarf. I think he also looked cute without the scarf. You could also add a cute little top hat made by sticking a marshmallow on top of a round cookie and dipping the whole thing in chocolate. Maybe we'll try that next year, but we didn't have any of that on hand (and not enough time to do it anyway). These snowmen are so easy, even very young children can help and, of course, they are fun to EAT!
Update: My parents came over tonight for dessert and my 5-year-old daughter was the "teacher" and instructed everyone how to make these... it was so much fun! Here is her creation- I LOVE the sprinkle eyebrows!

Clothes Hanger Christmas Wreath

I needed a quick wreath for my front door that could survive the weather, and cheap enough so that if it didn't, I wouldn't care. I used a wire clothes hanger and some needle-nosed pliers to bend it, a cheap garland (bought for 50 cents years ago), some trash-bag ties, plastic dollar store ornaments and a nice, big bow. The hardest part was bending the hanger into a circle and forming the intertwining little hooks at the end... although it really wasn't that hard. The garland was then wrapped around the wire and the decorations were attached with trash-bag ties. It was finished off with a big, bow to hide our door knocker that is engraved with the previous owners name. This only took about 30 minutes to make and it looks fantastic on our front door! I LOVE making wreaths!

Christmas Book Advent Calendar

Our third advent calendar is a tradition we started a few years ago and will continue, hopefully for the rest of our lives! Every year, we wrap 25 books, number them, then open and read one a day 'till Christmas. We didn't have 25 Christmas books, so we chose anything with a winter theme or even just a family favourite to open toward the beginning of the month. I add to our holiday book collection in the after-Christmas sales and hide the new ones in the decoration boxes so they're surprises the following year. This has worked great so far... I don't know what I'll do when I actually have 25 Christmas books! We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. This year, I used the Cricut (Cuttin' Up and Accent Essentials cartridges) to make cute labels for them. My daughter had the idea to use math equations instead of numbers, but as she is only in Kindergarten, I thought we were getting a little ahead of ourselves... maybe next year. This year, I just placed the books in the basket in random numerical order and I let her search for the number of the day. I hope this instills a love of reading, family traditions and the spirit of Christmas in our children... at the very least, I hope they remember their geeky mom trying to make Christmas more meaningful.

Christmas Village Advent Bags

Our second advent calendar this year made use- heavy use- of the Cricut. It was a perfect fit for this week's Just Buggin' Challenge #14- Layers. I just got the Jubilee cartridge and it had this DARLING village function and I immediately thought, "Christmas Village!" Then, my lovely friend gave me BAGS of those little My Little Ponies and accessories as her daughters have outgrown them and my daughter is still in the midst of her obsession. I didn't just want to give her everything at once, so the "bag" and "advent" idea was born. After all the houses were cut out, I thought they needed some fixing up so I started layering with other houses and numbers and punches and they looked a lot better. I found I could vary the same-style houses by adding little chimneys or a scallop (that was on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge) or a wreath (2 circle punches and a bow punch- my daughter's idea). The bag itself was on Plantin Schoolbook and was SO easy to make (it had to be- I needed 25!) Oh, and ignore the pictures that were obviously taken at night- very late at night I might add. Some of the embellishments were added before the house was glued to the bag- some after. The next morning, I filled them and put them on top of the armoire in our bedroom for safety purposes- we couldn't have Little Miss Curious looking in all the bags ahead of time- also, they totally matched my bedroom the best. I think we will use them every year... well, they might make it until next year, but the twins will be TWO next year and will have to be included... yea, I think we will use these two years in a row only.

Christmas Advent Chain

Wow! It's been a while since I posted... we have been busy getting our family Christmas advent traditions ready. We usually do two, but this year, we've added a third. They will all be posted this week! This first idea is not new or original, but it is our favourite because we can all work on it together. To prepare your chain, you must first pick out your papers- we chose three for this year. Then the size- we liked 1 inch width and just went with 8 1/2 inches for the length because it was easiest to cut considering the paper we chose. This made a chain that was just over 5 feet in length. On the backs of the strips, we wrote down a Christmas activity to do every day... for my sanity, I made sure that each activity would not require much time or preparation- but everyone in the family put forth ideas. I also used a calendar so we could plan certain events around Sundays, school, work and this year, we decided to have "Christmas Movie Mondays". We looped the chain together, alternating colors and sticking the ends together with a staple (I think glue dots would look better, but I was out and stapling seemed the next fastest thing). It was hung from a window and we cannot wait until tomorrow so we can start the fun!