Last minute Christmas idea.

You might rememeber on Abby's Christmas list to Santa she wanted a Christmas Tree for her doll house.   I honestly looked in about 15+ stores for a darn small doll house sized tree.  I even pleaded with my friends on Facebook for suggestions.   Finally I found this little number at Michaels.   I thought it lacked a little pizzaz alone so I made the small presents.

My 5 minute directions for making teeny tiny presents!

1.  First eat your weight watchers meal so you can use the cardboard box.   I cut one small square from the cardboard and used it as my templete for all the squares.  See layout below.

2.  Cut out your box pattern.  Fold on the lines to form your box.   And use lots of tape!

3.  Look- tiny mac and cheese boxes!

4.  Wrap and decorate.  Ta da!  I think she will like it. 

Giving this year

Sunday was a busy day.  Daddy took the girls out for a little Christmas shopping for me and I had some time to catch up on a few things I have been meaning to do for weeks now.

The first was cleaning out our coat closet.

Yeah, that's a lot of coats.  Some were from when we were in college!!  Needless to say between men's, women's and children's coats and snow suits we made a nice donation to our local women's shelter.

Second was a trip to the local Toys for Tot drop off.  Still a few more days left to get your donation in!

And lastly for our day of giving -I made our annual donation to our "Family chosen" charity at http://www.crudem.org/.   Each year in lieu of gifts my husband's family picks an organization and we donate money.   This year Hopital Sacre Coeur in Haiti was a wonderful choice especially in light of the recent cholera epidemic. 

Friday snuggles

Christmas book favorites!

We have about 50+ Christmas books in our house.  Some were mine as a child, some are hand me downs from my sister with three kids that have out grown them, some are gifts from grandparents and of course- I love buying books too.   I could spend $1,000 in 2 min in a children's book store!

Depsite have a large variety to choose from these are the few that we seem to read over and over and over........

These two by Karma Wilson.  The whole Bear series is very cute!

By Margie Palatini

 These two books by Caralyn Buehner.  On each page there are hidden pictures for the kids to find.  Fun for them, somewhat painful for the adults. 

This whole series by David Shannon is a big hit in our house-despite the sometimes disgusting illustrations.

Elf on a Shelf!

Yes, we have the Elf on the Shelf.  Yes, some people find her a little creepy-like Lelan over at Good Gravy.  But so far she has not turned into any Chucky type killer doll and the kids have fun finding her new hiding spot every morning.  Oh and I have used the "Penelope the elf is watching you-I sure hope she does not report (insert bad annoying behavior here) to Santa"    Hmmm, maybe it makes it less creepy when the Elf is a girl.   Don't ask me where that name came from, but Abby named her last year.

Here she is last year hiding in the ceiling before it was fixed (burst water pipes!).  Oh how I miss those holes-they made such great hiding places........... NOT!

Smiles

I have to thank my sister in law for this little reminder.  Oranges cut into smiles.  I remember these as a kid when my mom used to do this for us.   The girls thought it was a lot of fun and with perfect timing since a box of grapefruits and oranges arrived from Florida sent by the Nana elf.

I am adding my name to the list.....

This sign was found on the fridge the other day.  No sure how it is working out for him, but I am thinking of adding my name to the list!