Christmas in the Manger

The kids have always loved this book called "Christmas in the Manger". It is one of EmmaLee's favorite stories. She loves all stories about Jesus. The book is a simple pictorial of the birth of christ & all the "key players" in the story. My mom bought the kids a Fisher Price Little People set when Emma was a baby. They play with it year round but, this year I decided to combine the props with the story. I found a cute idea online that had the kids finding all the pieces of a nativity on a scavenger hunt using clues. I wish I could take credit for this SUPER CUTE kid friendly idea-but oh well. I changed it up a bit & it was a success. Another awesome tradition started tonight! 

First we read the story.

Then I printed out picture clues of each part of the story. They corresponded with what piece was needed for the nativity scene. I had hidden all the pieces around the house beforehand. They LOOOOOOVED hunting them all down.

 

 

 

At the end we sang Away in a Manger with the music box that is already on the Fisher Price stable. It made the star shine above the manger & ended our night perfectly. 

The Spirit of Christmas

Someone is looking out for me....getting me into the holiday mood (which has actually been a difficult task this year-very odd for me). Today I saw a completely filled reusable grocery/gift bag on the counter at the post office. The tag on it read "KEVIN"-those who live in Ellensburg will know what that means. Kevin is mentally challenged & homeless, someone that the town has pretty adopted. Anyhow, though I have no idea what was in the bag, I could make an assumption. It warmed my heart & made my day. 
Then as I was in a rush to get to the preschool program, I quickly ran into Safeway for a couple items. At the checkstand I was given a christmas bouquet from the checker-the card attached said "26 Random Acts of Kindness in honor of the lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary-You are #3. Keep it going!"

 I LOVE that I was chosen. Especially when I meant to go to the store earlier today & "something" kept me home so I had to go later. My heart is full. Definitely a good day.

A Holiday Debacle

My christmas nightmare.

I realize there are worse things happening in the world, but still....

Last year I had bought a couple large red santa bags from Craft Warehouse. This year I finally got around to taking them to get embroidered. Long story short-the embroidery place had them for over 2 weeks (one of those weeks was extra because I didn't have time to pick them up on their due date). I show up, bags not done. In fact one of the bags has a 12x12 HOLE IN IT now! Not kidding. A gigantic HOLE! Instead of embroidering it like I asked, they tried to melt some kind of vinyl lettering on it & MELTED the bag. I wanted to scream & cry at the same time. So frustrated. No notification of their error-possibly leaving me time to come up with plan B, no apology, no compensation and I was out the whole santa bag thing now. GRRRRRRRRR.
Fast forward. I was at work venting to my assistant teacher & she told me that her MIL has a crazy sewing machine that is hooked to her computer. We weren't sure if it embroidered but she said she'd ask anyways. The very next day her sweet MIL dropped by preschool & offered to help me with the bags. I told her I don't have any bags now & since we don't have a fabric store in town, (5 days before christmas) I was HOSED! Her plan B was to pick up some red pillowcases from Fred Meyer & she would be happy to embroider names on them for me. AWESOME. I did just that.
I knew Sandy would be super busy this time of year-she reminds me a lot of Mikes mom. She is always sewing up/crafting up stuff & her grandkids are constantly decked out in her latest creation. I knew that with her 10+ grandkids coming in to town she would be UP TO HER EYEBALLS with projects & thus stress...now I was adding to it. I felt pretty guilty, and also assumed that like Mike's mom, she was probably just too nice to say no to me adding to her pile.
Last night was our christmas program at preschool. Sandy came to watch her granddaughter & handed me a brown paper bag.
When I was finally able to sit down & open it at home I was stunned. She went above and beyond my expectations. Not only was the font she embroidered lovely, but she went the extra mile to add a thick white fleece cuff to the top, a red & white drawstring tie, and large white pom poms attached to the end of the ribbons! There weren't words to describe my emotions. Tears. That's all I had. Tears.

Look how amazing these PILLOWCASES are now!

I can't wait to keep these in the family for years to come and hopefully one day pass on to the kids when they are grown.

Another student gave me a Wilton cookie press as a gift. Mike has been wanting one for a while so he was more excited than anyone. The kids were amazed watching how "good dadda was at making beautiful cookies!" lol. 

Bryce is completely addicted to these buttery confections. ADDICTED! Can't blame him, they are scrumptious.

My Christmas Wish

For christmas this year, I showed Mike a post on a blog I follow. It was the same blog I gathered inspiration from for my sewing desk. The gal had turned an antique projector into a LAMP! I was instantly IN LOVE with the idea. 100% my style. It screamed Restoration Hardware!!!! (My dream shopping spree location). Mike has become quite the guru for electrical projects & after reading the little blog tutorial, he was confident it would be a doable project. He found this antique projector on Craigslist and promised I would soon have a new lamp. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!! It is beautiful.

The Gingerbread Man-A PreK Musical!

Last night I spent hours baking and packaging Gingerbread Kid kits for the family activity after the preschool christmas program on Friday.

This month we have focused our studying on "Holidays around the World". Since my curriculum is ever evolving, this left me to start from scratch & write a complete new unit. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out & will be posting it for sale on TPT next season.

Here is the front cover of the "suitcase" portfolio.

An envelope containing treasures from each country visited.

Such as: a holiday card, paper doll nativity set, cinnamon gingerbread ornament, well used boarding pass & a worn/much traveled passport!

This is the inside of Bryce's passport.

Each page had a country/flag label & "completed travel" stamp from each visit.

Then the worksheets and activities from each country.

I found this super cute tiny gingerbread cookie house ornament & knew it was the perfect addition to the little gift I got for my AWESOME assistant teacher. We have been living and breathing everything "Gingerbread" for over a MONTH!

Tonight it was finally my last day of work until January-when the madness starts up again :)

Our annual PreK play-this year entitled:

The Gingerbread Man-A PreK Musical!

I found the perfect napkins at Target & cute little matching Wiltons candy characters. They were the perfect addition on top of the brownie bites I made for the potluck after the show.

The kids made these gingerbread houses at school-it was girls team vs. boys team. Can you guess which team completed each house? lol

Our play set this year consisted of the following 3 backdrops:
A Gingerbread House (Grandma & Grandpa's house w/ brick oven)

The Farm (where the farmer & cat live)

The Woods (where the fox lives in his den on the far right)
P.S. That is a "bridge" over the river on the left. Mike asked me why the Gingerbread boy was climbing on a sewer grate in our story???? He didn't remember that part. GRRRRRRRR. That is my lack of painting talent coming out. I SUCK at painting-BIG TIME! lol Oh well.

Of course I always have "helpers" setting up with me:

The kids schoolwork set out-waiting to go home.

Play props & instruments ready for the show. Just missing the kiddos at this point.

For parent gifts this year the kids made Snowman ornaments from empty square acrylic ornaments,

and burlap handprint wall hangings.

My 2 sweet munchkins were SUPER excited for this particular show. They were cast as "Grandma & Grandpa".

Mike took it upon himself to DJ the songs of the program. He did awesome & I am grateful. Ignore his weirdness here....

Here they are! Disheveled Grandma & Wring your neck Grandpa! Poor kids. EmmaLee had her hair tucked back in the grey haired bun wig and adorned a cute crocheted shawl also, but somewhere during the show she lost most of her costume. lol.

As for Bryce....well, there aren't many words. This is actually an improvement over last year-where he sat on his bum and picked his nose while the show went on around him! Whatever.

When all was said & done, it was pretty darn cute and I was officially EXHAUSTED and could feel it setting in. Em spent the night at Shannons, as is tradition after the show. Bryce was so excited to have earned his Wii system back tonight that he was content to NOT go and stay home with dad instead. Look at all my boys. Looks like they've settled in for winter break or something? Jordan claims that "someone has to keep the couch from floating away!" lol. I don't buy it. 

Merry Christmas to all-and to all

A GOOD

NIGHT!