Christmas Crafts

I love to make gifts at Christmastime.  I don't know why, but hand-made gifts are kinda my thing.  After a few very stressful years, Jake started limiting how many craft-gifts I could make each holiday.  I usually run all my ideas past him and he helps me figure out what is a realistic amount of work to dump on myself in December.  Luckily Jami came to visit for 5 week - starting half way through Dec, so I had some extra time to finish stuff.

For my parents I wanted to re-do the Proclamation.  Not the actual words - let's leave that to the prophet - just to formatting for their wall.  I was going to make one for my in-laws but since they're in Russia for another year and a half, I didn't think they would want another thing to throw into storage (Mom & Dad G: when you get back, let me know if you want a copy.  I might even make a different version for you guys!  Spoilers!  haha!)  anyways... I wanted something fun that also felt grown up.  I really like it, but after spending so many hours on something, you always look at the things you wish you did better.  I made one of the Provo Temple for their wall and I swapped out for Mt Timp to hang on our wall. 

Here are the finished products (yes, we are so spiritual that we have TWO Proclamations on our wall):

For the nieces and nephews we made Time Zone clocks.  I bought the clocks from IKEA ($2/ea), Jake spray painted them black, I designed the paper faces and printed them out, we reassembled them.  It wasn't as easy as that makes it seem though.  There were a few snags, but we got it all sorted out eventually.  The only bummer is - the mechanisms broke on a few clocks when we were taking them apart, so I never got to finish ours.  Oh well, maybe the next time I go to IKEA I'll pick up a few more clocks to try and finish mine.

While we were writing cards to go with the clocks, Scarlett wrote her name on an envelope!?!  I had no idea she knew how to do that!  I knew she could write an "S" but it's like the rest of her letters just clicked overnight!  I love her little handwriting!

One of my friends in my ward (Gina) asked me if I would help her design her Christmas card.  They took family photos in the summer and took another photo of just their feet, since they were all in "Chucks".  So I put it together for her:

I don't like people to pay me for helping them, I'd rather skill-swap or trade-talents.  So in return for her card, Gina helped me bake cupcakes for some of our friends/neighbors/HTees/VTees.  I was talking with one of my friends about those cupcakes a few weeks after I delivered them and she thought they were from a fancy bakery!  Gina is the dessert queen!  She basically did all the work while I just enjoyed licking the empty bowls clean.  We made chocolate mint and gingerbread.  Yum yum yum!

Then to go with the cupcakes, I cut a vinyl nativity on my cricut and put it on an ornament.  My only regret is that I bought glass ornaments... there were a few that shattered before arriving at their destinations.  Darn it!  Luckily I had a few extra.

For our ward service auction awhile back I auctioned off a digital card/announcement.  My friend Vanisa won.  She asked if I would make their Christmas card but she also wanted it to include Kwanzaa, since they celebrate both.  Challenge accepted!  Before I began I researched Kwanzaa cause I didn't really know anything about that holiday.  Then I had the task of blending the two holidays on one card.  It was tricky - especially since there aren't a lot of free Kwanzaa clip art.  I finally had to make my own African themed background using some crazy photoshop techniques that I learned on the spot, but I wanted the African print to match the Christmas sweater print so that they would blend together on the card.  I am happy with how it turned out!

Then my last Christmas photoshop project was from my cousin, Jenn.  She took her family to a studio to get a nice photo for their Christmas card.  When she got them back there wasn't a single picture with everyone looking.  This happens to me with my girls ALL the time!  Luckily I've been practicing my head swapping skills in photoshop.  The best results are if the original and the replacement heads are taken seconds apart - so the lighting and set up are all the same.  That's not always possible, but we found a few heads to work with.  I switched out 2 of her boys' heads and added more blue sweater to the bottom of one of their shirts.  I hope she's happy with the results.  I'm still just learning all these techniques, so I'm sure I'm making rookie mistakes, but hopefully it's better than "demon eyes" (as she called them!)

Christmas Parties

Ward Christmas Party
Our ward Christmas party was focused on the Savior and his birth.  As a member of the RS Activity Committee I did a lot of work leading up to this night.  It was a relief when it was finally over!  I think that people really felt the spirit that night.  We brought the wagon in and let the twirls stand in it while they ate their dinner.  It actually worked out really well and the other little kids kept flocking to the wagon!  haha!

We decided not to invite Santa to come this year so that the nativity could be the main event.  During our live nativity program I sat by the pianist and did all the tech stuff (that took me a few hours earlier that day to get running smoothly - I really felt like a nerd that day!)  I was grateful I was behind the piano because I was bawling like a baby!  Luckily our actual babies weren't bawling.  In fact, my friend sent her 13 yr old son to help Jake and he held Siena the whole time and she loved it!

Christmas Decorations

We set up our magnetic countdown calendar (thanks Snort!)

I wanted to light up our house but I didn't want to buy a bunch of outdoor lights and ask Jake to get up on a ladder... so I found these translucent, plastic file folders:

Then I cut them down to fit inside our outdoor LED lights:

I loved the holiday effect!  Total cost <$5 and the set up/take down was less than 20 min!

We put our Christmas tree on the shelf in the family room and taped the legs to the table so it wouldn't get tipped over if little hands pulled on it (which they did).  We have debated about getting a big tree, but this little guy works just great for our family right now.  :-)  Plus it's super easy to store!  We have 2 little nativity sets for toddlers and I caught the girls in there playing with them all the time.  I loved to see Scarlett setting the animals all around baby Jesus.  So sweet!

Breakfast with Santa
The Canton city put on a Breakfast with Santa that you could pay for.  I gave Jake the option of going to the mall and paying for pictures or paying for the breakfast.  Either way we'd get a photo with Santa for about the same cost, so he picked the breakfast.

They had a balloon lady come around and make something for every kid.

There were several activities and crafts for the kids - the twirls just wanted to run around (and usually opposite directions from me!) 

The kids went to a big window to watch Santa arrive in a fire truck!  Jake took Scarlett to go watch - he said when she saw Santa she started shaking with excitement!  Then we went in line to see Santa.  Scarlett found all the girls' names in Santa's book - spelled correctly!

Token family photo with Santa:

Scarlett got a chance to tell Santa what she wanted.  I've never seen her so nervous.  She couldn't even move her lips, she barely opened her mouth and whispered "doctor's kit".  It was so cute!

Jaide Gets her Cast Off

After Jaide's fall, my mom sent us a box with short sleeved jammies for Jaide.  They also included a set with matching pairs for the other girls (of course!)  I tried to take a photo of all the girls wearing them for my mom, it went like this:

For the first weekish after her fall she would get really upset when her pain meds wore off.  Jami suggested we try icing her arm - I didn't think that Jaide would sit there and let us hold an ice pack on her arm.  I was wrong.  The ice really seemed to help while the pain meds kicked in.  I guess Jami is the broken bone expert!

I found an old wrist brace - from my various wrist injuries in high school.  I guess cheer stunting, tumbling or even throwing shot put were not great choices when you have freakishly small wrists.  I let Scarlett wear the brace cause she had a "broken arm" too.  She loved having the extra attention - for like 5 min until she needed to use her arm for something.  Luckily Jaide never really seemed to care or complain about her cast - probably cause it was covered in jewels.

At bath time I would wrap it up in many layers (plastic, burp cloth, zip lock bag, lots of tape in between).  Yes, Christy, I know it's a water resistant cast.  But if it gets wet you have to sit with a blow dryer and dry it out.  Not something a one-year-old is going to do willingly every night.  Covering it up just seemed easier (and less smelly).  Everyone got used to the process. We'd come up for bath time and Jaide would find the stander and go sit on it and wait for me.  I'd gather the supplies and she would help me wrap it.  Siena liked to help - mostly by putting little pieces of tape on the outside.  Scarlett mostly ran around and ignored us while playing her own game.

Siena helping... (see: I told you that Jaide is my fancy girl, she just loves jewelry)

Bath time.  She just plays with one arm and uses her right hand to dump cups of water on her left arm.  Also, we're very responsible balloon owners.  We make sure they get a bath every night.

This video shows when we take the plastic off her arm after bath time.  She always yells and gets so excited when we unwrap it.

15 days later after the "fall" Jaide's cast came off!  

Today I woke up feeling reeeaalllly sick (cold, congestion).  Luckily I had already lined up a babysitter to help me with our appointment to get Jaide's cast off.  Abby is my all-star babysitter (more about her in another post).  Her mom checked her out of school (like 15 min early) and I picked her up in the school parking lot.  We drove all the way to the CS Mott Children's Hospital and took all the girls with us inside.  Scarlett really wanted to see how they took off the cast.

The guy cutting it off was the same guy who put her cast on.  He loved the bling!  He said no one really decks theirs out like that.  The hot glue worked great.  Only 1 jewel fell off the whole time.  I just used the E6000 to put it back on since I didn't want to plug in my hot glue gun, plus I just held her on my lap and watched a show while the glue dried.

Back to the cast... the cutters they use are just a blade that oscillates back and forth quickly - instead of a circular saw.  So soft tissue (like skin) just jiggles back and forth when it touches it, while hard/brittle materials (like the cast) shatter and break.  He demonstrated by using the saw on his palm to show how it won't cut her skin.  Then he sliced it on top and on bottom (right through the jewels!)

Then he used pliers to pry open the crack.  Then scissors to cut the cotton lining. 

 Freedom!!!

He taped the pieces back together and gave it to her.  I don't know why, but she held it up to her ear.  Maybe she could hear the ocean...

 Then she threw it on the floor.  That response was more what I was expecting.

Something feels different....

I don't have a cast on!!!

Abby keeping everyone happy while I spoke with the doctors.  They said Jaide might be uncomfortable/sore for like 2 weeks due to muscle atrophy (which starts after only 7 days).  They also recommended we don't let her fall on it for a while.... haha!  So I'm going to start following her around the house holding throw pillows to catch her if she stumbles.  Or we'll just avoid action sports for a few weeks...

My friend Jamie made me dinner that night.  It was very thoughtful and meant a lot.  When you're far away from family, it's wonderful to have friends who can fill that gap.  We feel very blessed to have a wonderful support network here in Canton.  I really needed that dinner tonight.  Yes, I was physically sick.  But I was emotionally drained and it was a big pick-me-up.  Especially her egg-less cookie dough that I eat straight from the container - no baking required!

At bath time tonight Jaide went straight to the stander to get her arm wrapped up.  I went over and kissed her little arm and told her it was all better now.

Then while in her bath I noticed she was just letting her left arm float and she was using her right arm to dump water on her left arm - like she did before.  haha!  I think it might take a few days to get back to her normal routine.  I gave her more pain meds before bed (mostly cause LL told me how rough it was when her kids got their casts on/off and I didn't want her waking up in the middle of the night in pain).  Then Siena and Scarlett got some ibuprofen too.  The medicine floweth freely in our home.  (and Siena has been chewing on her fingers, I think she's getting molars, and Scarlett bonked her knee - so it wasn't completely unnecessary).

After I brushed their teeth we went to their room so I could change their bums, put on their jammies, and clip on their binkies.  I got Jaide all situated (her first time in footie jammies in 2 weeks - I will NOT miss finding little socks all over her room, shoved in between the crib slats, and hiding under her pillow).  After she was ready she went over to her books to choose a story.  I asked Siena to come over to me.  Siena normally likes to get her diaper changed.  But she just looked at me and then looked back at her books.  I asked her to come give me a big hug (ignored), come give me ET Phone Home (pathetic glance), finally I waved her binky and said "come get your binky" (turned her back to me).  Jaide was watching all of this and realized Siena needed to get her jammies on before I would read them a story.  So she walked over to Siena (whose back was to me), put her hand on Siena's shoulder, and pushed her across the room over to me.  Siena and I were both laughing hysterically while Jaide was just looked at us like "come on guys, hurry up so we can read stories".  So funny!!!