12th Day of Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we wanted to thank our “Secret Elves” somehow so we made brownies with peppermint extract and ground candy-cane in them and set them on the porch with a note thanking them.  Their kind gifts they brought everyday really made our first Christmas away from family much more enjoyable as well as fun since we had something to look forward to each night.  That afternoon they left us our final gifts with the note:

“On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Twelve drummers drumming!…”

This story will spread the true Christmas spirit.  Remember the Christ every time that you hear it!

A Star for the Tree..

The book “The Little Drummer Boy”

They also finished off giving us the rest of the figurines for the nativity as well as the book that the nativity came in.  I am so grateful that they shared their creativity and gifts with us!  This was a Christmas we won’t forget!

Christmas Wishes

Make a Smilebox greeting

9th Day of Christmas

This 12 days of Christmas gift was the most surprising:   

“On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Nine ladies dancing…”

Pop yourself so corn, sit by the fire.  Watch ladies snowman dancing!  You’ll never tire!

 

I had never seen this show before but it was one of Jared’s childhood favorites.  We watched it as a family for family time.  The only thing was that Christian cried at the end.  I guess all good things have to come to an end.

8th day of Christmas

Here’s what we received for the 8th day of Christmas!

   

Milk and Cookies! 

This is where I came to the conclusion that this person doesn’t know me too well for two reasons…Number one: Who can wait 5 days to give cookies that are in the house to Santa? The Second reason was less important but noted: Lactose intolerance.  It must be someone I don’t suspect….

7th Day of Christmas

We received a bag with a note on it and a this book in side.  The note reads:

“On the Seventh day of Christmas, my true love sent to me Seven swans a –swimming…”

 

We hope you like The Trumpet of the Swan, It’s a book about love and courage; it won’t lead you wrong!

What a great idea!  This is one of our families favorite books.  It’s a little silly but it is the first chapter book that Christian had the patience to listen to and we read it while I was sick in bed in the first few months of pregnancy with Vivian.  It is a great gift!

6th Day of Christmas

“On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me Six geese a-laying…”

 

We couldn’t find geese, but their eggs might do.  Open each carefully to find something new!

Each egg had a mini ornament in them and it came with a little tree to decorate.

     

We let Christian put it in his room... so fun!

5th Day of Christmas

“on the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me Five golden rings…”

 

Here are five rings—they taste rather good. They’re not very healthy, but enjoy them.  You should!

 

The 5th day of Christmas we got five golden…

 

 

 

Doughnuts!

 

I am so amazed by their creativity!  Who would have thought up that?

4th Day of Christmas

“On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me four calling birds…”

 

Well, it’s hard to find calling birds this time of year so they gave us a calling card…

 

 

and a stable to put our nativity in…

 

Great Idea for a practical gift

So I’ve made my husband something that I think he will really be pleased with…a car organizer.  He goes crazy when things get unorganized and since we’re going to have two kids soon I figured our car may start being more chaotic so this is one of the gifts I’m giving him for Christmas this year.  I took a picture so that he’d figure out what it is!  I hope he likes it!

3rd Day of Christmas

So we got visited again by our “Secret Friend” who is giving us the twelve days of Christmas.  This one made me even more suspicious as to who it might be.  You see, in October we had a Pumpkin Recipe Night for Relief Society and half of the treats had walnuts and/or milk (at least that saved my ever-widening figure from even further girth) so I kept turning down offers of delicious pumpkin offerings because of the ill effects both ingredients cause me and when I cheat I’m so so so sorry for it sooner and later.  Anyway, so I can have pecans which seems weird when they look so similar to walnuts but they really don’t bother me.  Remember those pecan turtles we got on the second day of Christmas?

Well, for the third day this is the note we received,

"On the third day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Three French hens"

 

"There is no "French" in this Little Red Hen,

Just enjoy this book and bread with your friends."

 

There was the book “The Little Red Hen” and since you can’t tell from the picture, a darling bread pan with banana bread mix attached to the bottom.  There also was a bowl of warm totally melt-in-your-mouth rolls that Jared and Christian consumed before I could take a picture (I was lucky to get one roll).  It’s amazing to me that a 29-year-old guy and a 3-year-old boy can be such coconspirators when it comes to finishing good food quickly!

The banana bread makes me wonder if it is a certain darling single girl in my ward who I was telling this story to about how Jared and Christian think they are chefs because they love to add “secret ingredients” to whatever they bake when I’m gone.  I was saying how they recently made banana bread that after they put half the batter in the pan, they filled the whole thing up with chocolate chips and then put more batter on top…let’s just say that part one of the batter didn’t adhere really well to part two of the batter and so when you sliced the bread it broke in half width-wise so the presentation wasn’t gorgeous though they both went crazy over it and ate most of it up fast. I personally think banana bread is sweet enough and I like it unadulterated from chocolate chips… at least they’ll cook!  It’s really funny what they make sometimes.

So anyway, having a box of banana bread is really making me suspicious that it’s her.  She is super creative and  teaches early morning seminary so she really likes to have fun so doing something like this seems up her ally…

The figurine included was of the donkey.  The picture’s a little blurry…blame the camera because I retook this shot a few times.

    

This speculation thing is just way too much fun and I am so touched!

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Fun sea-shell bracelet

This year in our Christmas drawing, my son picked my cousin, who is a teenager’s name.  I was really excited to give to a girl so that I could give her something fun that is homemade!

Here’s what I came up with!  I really hope she likes it.  It’s understated though fun especially with all of the colors from these beautiful natural shells.

2nd Day of Christmas

Well we were visited again by our secret friends who are giving us the twelve days of Christmas.  This time the note said:

 “On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me Two turtle doves…”

“Last night was pears, this night is “Doves” Share these together with those whom you love.”

   

Attached was a card with a dove on it and yummy turtles which we really enjoyed.  These were made with pecans so it makes me wonder if this person knows that I can have pecans and that I’m allergic to walnuts…. it could be someone who sat by me during one Relief Society Night who felt bad for me because I couldn’t have some of the treats because they contained walnuts.  That would narrow it down!  We’ll just have to see if they give me anything with lactose…

Also included was this darling lamb figurine.  Forgive my dusty shelf….

This is so sweet of whoever is doing this for us….I hope to do something similar someday so that’s why I’m putting it in my blog… so I remember what they did and have some ideas!

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The 1st Day of Christmas

Technorati Tags: twelve days of christmas,christmas,gifts,presents

As we were trying to put Christian down for a nap after Church, we found a note on our porch that reads:

“The Twelve Days of Christmas are coming to you!  Each day on your porch there will be something new.  A gift that relates to the song of “Twelve Days,” And a part of the Christmas story—of Christ whom we praise.  To serve you it gives us such joyous delight, Please enjoy this Christmas spirit each night!”

“On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree.”

“Relax, have some fun, let go of your cares.  Snack on these pears while you try to find “pairs”.

There was a basket full of pears with a book of The Twelve Days of Christmas,

and a game of Old Maid.

There also was a figurine from a nativity included

I am so shocked that someone has been so sweet and decided to bring us the Twelve Days of Christmas this year!  I have never been the recipient of the Twelve days of Christmas and I am really surprised that someone would choose to be so generous to us and do such a thing for our family.  We really hardly know anyone in our ward so I’m really wondering who in the world/ward it could be!  Jared and I keep speculating on who it can be…  Whoever it is, they’ve really touched my heart.

Advent Stocking

We celebrate German Advent at our house.  If you don’t know what that is, it is basically the four Sunday’s preceding Christmas where you light a candle on an Advent wreath and say a little poem in German.  The first week you light one candle, the next two, and so forth as you say the poem.  Afterwards, we have a child open a gift of some sort (we usually have it be a book or something about or related to Christmas) and then we have some sort of treat.  It’s a fun tradition that my husband’s family started when they lived in Germany (where my husband was born).  Here’s the poem that we recite.

 

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt,

Erst eins, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier,

dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür.

 

Roughly translated it means:

 

Advent, Advent, a candle is lit,

First one, then two, than three, then four

the Christ-child stands at the door. 

 

The first year we were married, Jared was very adamant that we “Do Advent”.  I searched high and low for an Advent wreath to buy.  I actually ended up thinking I’d have to create one myself and found one at JoAnn’s that came equipped with candle holders and everything.  So, basically, anything Advent always interests me when I’m looking at new ideas of things to do.  I love the Christmas Advent Calendars that “countdown” until Christmas (It might just be my love of Chocolate).  But I found this fun stocking pattern for an Advent stocking and had to try it:

 

 

This is from the book:

The Ultimate Christmas Book: Over 240 Holiday Craft, Food and Decorating Ideas by Editors of Reader's Digest

It’s a really great book with all kinds of ideas for Christmas and even New Years including gifts you could make (that don’t look home-made.  I love it!

Sea-Blue Bracelet

      I saw these beautiful sea-blue beads on Saturday while at Michael’s and just had to try making a bracelet that reminds me of the color.  It reminds me of something that one would wear walking along the Caribbean sea or somewhere just as tropical.  This is one of the most flattering colors because of where it is on the color and one of my favorite colors.

 

Lavender Little Girl Dress with a Little Detail

A year after my back surgery, I told Jared that if he wanted to have kids, I would need a sewing machine.  I just felt like if I was ever to have a little girl I would want to make dresses for her.  So he took me over to this special they were having at Big Lots on Necchi sewing machines with all metal parts and bought me one.  I love my sewing machine and I’m so excited that now I am actually going to have a little girl to sew for!  I decided to practice my sewing skills and made this little dress for my friend’s daughter since she’s in a bit bigger size and sometimes bigger is easier than smaller.  My favorite thing about this dress is are the little fux pearls I added to the already darling trim.

 

It’s all in the details!

Red Crafter’s Apron

After the ease of making my purple crafter's apron I decided to try it with a contrasting pocket.  I made this out of a pillowcase that I got for my wedding but never had anything (sheets or otherwise) that matched. Then I found a fun scrap of red with white polka-dots.  This reminds Jared of Mini Mouse but I think it’s pretty cute and kind of has a vintage feel with the dots.

Newborn Baby Bracelet

When I made the green bracelet a while ago I cut the cord a little too short so I decided to make an infant bracelet.  The standard size for infants in 4”- 4.5” so I just made it 4”.

 

Emerald Green Bracelet

So I’ve been dabbling with the idea of making beaded jewelry since I was in community college (about eight years ago) when my good friend Kara was taking a jewelry making class and we would take trips to various shops that sold beads.  About a year ago I saw these green beads that I just fell in love with the color and since they were on clearance

I made this stretch bracelet for an adult.  It’s 7” long which I guess is the standard adult size for a bracelet.

Darling Baby Bibs!

I love these baby bibs…These are some more things that I made using ideas from the the book “Sewing Projects in an Afternoon” by Susan Mickey.  These are nice because they are actually thick enough to ensure that what the baby is spilling on themselves is not going to soak through (if you can bear for your baby to wear these while eating).  The bunny is probably the best for eating in because it is actually all made of terry cloth in the front which will keep it nice when washed.  I’m not sure how the fleece on the bear and duck will do.  Next time I hope to find a larger variety of terry cloth colors…or I’m just going to have to buy towels to make these with!

    

White bunny on yellow

   

Yellow duck on white

Brown bear on purple