Crafty Christmas

The month of December, I had a different "crafty" activity planned for Jack each week. Two of which I forgot to take pictures of before I boxed them up. So below are some of what we did. I even managed to sneak in one or two for myself.

In November, Jack and I checked out a book at the library called "The Candy Maker's Gift". It's about a grandfather who creates the candy cane as a gift for his granddaughter to help teach her, and her friends, about Christ. We all really enjoyed the book. In the back, it gave the spiritual meaning behind each individual part of the candy cane. So, we decided to make a candy cane tree for our foyer. One morning, Jack and I strapped on our rubber boots and went for a walk in the woods behind our house. We found a couple of nice branches to use for our tree and sprayed painted them white. We typed and printed out each meaning and mounted them to red paper. We went to the Dollar Tree and found the perfect plastic candy canes. We were now ready to decorate. When we were finished, we decided to put a small vase filled with edible candy canes next to it for visitors to take one home with them. And below is the finished product. We have decided to keep it out for a while longer. Everyday of the year is a good day to learn more about Christ!!

On a trip to Tupelo, to visit Nicole and Harrison, we were all out shopping (hard to believe I know). In a cute gift shop, we came across this piece of wood that someone had painted "Me and My Elf " on and had glued this industrial paper clip to. There was no glass, no real "frame", but the idea was really cute. They wanted $25 for this chunk of wood and paper clip. I knew I could come home and make exactly what I wanted for much less than $25. And I was able to put Jack and Scout's name on it. (You would not have been able to do that on the $25 one). I made mine for less than $5. We love it! Jack got a big kick out of it. I LOVE finding something in a store and trying to make it at home for less.

And one night, we made our take on the "Ginger Bread House". I knew I didn't want to buy a kit, because I knew we wouldn't use half of the stuff in it. I knew I didn't want us to use the icing to hold it together, because I had been hearing the horror stories of people trying to make it all adhere together. So we used graham crackers and a glue gun. John and Jack had no idea we were getting into this after dinner one night. I constructed the house that afternoon, while Jack took his nap. I hid the house and all of the decorations in the guest room and surprised them after we finished eating. They were both so excited. I let them have at it while I took pictures. I think they did a great job!!

Our house in the making.

The graham crackers and glue gun worked like magic. It took maybe 10 minutes to put this together. I think this would be a great way to make several for a group of kids to decorate.

Our decorations.

Looking Good!!

My mom, knowing I was going to do this, brought us some goodies. One thing she brought was a chocolate candy shaped like a Christmas tree. We stuck it to the platter with a huge puddle of icing. Jack decided it needed to be snowed capped, so he put icing on top. It really looked cute.

Eating the leftover decorations.

Jack's first "graham cracker" house.

I will tell you that the Creamy Frosting really worked great on our house. It spreads really easy. I didn't want something that Jack might have to apply too much pressure to and crack the house. It dried quickly and every piece of candy stayed on.