Christmas Ornament Tradition

My paternal grandmother started a tradition in the 1970's of making a Christmas ornament each year for every member of our extended family.  Above is my collection of 35 ornaments. 

Below are some of my favorites...

1976 Liberty Bell

1999 Change of Millennium

2002 Painted stone from the creek at our family camp

My grandmother has 6 children, 22 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.  That is 48 ornaments each Christmas!

Craft Room Photos

Here are some updated photos of the craft room.  We've been putting it to good use lately.  Lots of fun holiday projects are created inside these four walls!

Sugar Cookies

I recently purchased a Christmas Cookie Cutter set from Crate & Barrel and decided to put it to use this weekend.  For the cookies, I used Pillsbury Sugar Cookie Dough.  For the icing, I mixed 1 box of powdered sugar with 1/3 cup water to make Royal Icing. 

Christmas Cookie Baking

Each year on the Friday after Thanksgiving, my aunts and cousins get together for our annual Christmas Cookie Baking at my grandmother's house.  This year there were 11 of us and we made 1,758 cookies.  We started at 7am and the first batch was in the oven at 7:37am.

Our official list of cookies included Maizie Taizies (21.5 dozen), Thumbprints (23 dozen), Peanut Blossoms (25 dozen), Buckeyes (30 dozen), and Gobs (39 dozen). Yum, yum, yum!

My uncle surprised everyone this year with hand-carved mini tart shapers for all 6 of the nieces (of which I am one).  They are on display next to the Maizie Taizies below.

Frosty Hot Chocolate

The holidays are such a great time for building family traditions.  One of our favorite things to do at this time of year is to have hot chocolate out of our Frosty the Snowman drink dispenser.

There are two tealights under Frosty's belly that keep the hot chocolate nice and warm.  And you can tuck marshmallows under his hat for topping off your beverage.

Thank You Jar

Here is a fun tradition that our extended family participates in at Thanksgiving.  On November 1st, each family puts out a "Thank You" jar at their house so that family members can drop a note in when they are thankful for something. 

On Thanksgiving day, everyone takes their jar full of notes to my mom's house for our Thanksgiving meal.  After we eat dinner, the notes are combined in one big bowl which gets passed around the table during dessert.  Each family member pulls out a note and reads it aloud to the table until all the notes are gone.  Its a great reminder of what we all are thankful for during the holiday season!

80 Coasters

After drying the flowers from my grandfather's funeral, I was tasked with making 80 coasters for members of our extended family.  My grandfather left behind 6 children, 22 grandchildren, and 19 great-grandchildren. 

He also left behind an amazing legacy.  He was a World War II Army veteran who earned the Purple Heart and came home from the war to marry his high school sweetheart.

My grandparents were married for 62 years and together raised 6 kids on the salary my grandfather made as high school Math teacher.  My grandfather tithed each of his paychecks to his church and was distinguished for voting in every election since 1942. 

My grandfather and I shared the same birthday, which will always remain special to me.  He was truly a member of the Greatest Generation and I was honored to be able to preseve his memory for so many family members by completing this project.

See August 26th Blog entry for more photos.

Kids' Artwork

I've been looking for a way to creatively display the kids' artwork without cluttering up our kitchen.  I saw this idea on another blog and copied it in my upstairs hallway.  All you need are 2 decorative drawer pulls, picture hanging wire, and 2 extra long screws.

I started with just one wire and then decided that I needed two wires to fill the space.  Total cost for this project was $25 and I was able to get all of the supplies from Home Depot.

Spooky Eyes

Here is an easy Halloween project that I saw on http://www.marthastewart.com/ last year.  All you need is a frame, foil, black glitter, glow-in-the-dark glitter, glue, & a template for scary eyes.  You can get everything, except the template, from Michael's craft store.  The templates are on the Martha Stewart website or you can make your own!

FIVE SIMPLE STEPS

1. Remove the cardboard from the frame and wrap it in foil. 

2. Remove glass from frame and use glue to create a face on the glass.  (Having a template underneath the glass works best so you can trace the lines of the eyes with your glue.)

3. Apply glue for black glitter first.  Sprinkle black glitter & let dry.  Shake off excess black glitter.

4. Apply glue for glow-in-the-dark portion of eyes next.  Sprinkle glow glitter & let dry.  Shake off excess glow glitter.

5. Reinsert glass into frame with glitter face on the outside of the frame.  Reinsert cardboard (covered in foil) into frame.  Display and enjoy!

DC Cupcake

I visited Washington, DC last weekend with a friend of mine and we waited 90 minutes to get a taste of the cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake (yes, it was worth the wait!).  The shop is owned by two sisters who left their corporate DC jobs to open a cupcake shop.  They will have their own show on TLC this fall called "DC Cupcake."

The flavors we chose were Peanut Butter Fudge, Key Lime, Caramel Apple, Cinnamon, Salted Caramel, and Chocolate Ganache.  Delicious!

Dried Flowers

Here are the flowers I dried from my Grandfather's funeral.  I preserved 7 roses in their regular form and pulled petals from the remaining roses to press them.

It took 3 weeks for all of the roses to dry out.  Afterwards, I arranged the full roses in glass vase with the pressed petals along the side.

I used the extra rose petals to create coasters.

Tinkerbell

We celebrated our 3rd birthday of the summer in Pixie Hollow.  My daughter chose a Tinkerbell theme and colored most of the decorations herself.

Lemonade Pie

This is a great recipe that only takes 15 min of prep time.  Its from the August 2010 issue of Southern Living Magazine.

1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk

2 (3.4 oz) packages lemon instant pudding mix

1 Tbsp. lemon zest

2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 (12 oz) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1 (9-inch) ready-made graham cracker piecrust

1 container frozen whipped topping (Cool Whip)

Whisk together evaporated milk and next 2 ingredients in a bowl 2 minutes, or until mixture is thickened.  Beat cream cheese and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Add lemonade concentrate, beating until smooth; add milk mixture, and beat until blended.  Pour into crust.  Cover and chill 8 hours or until firm.  Dollop each slice with whipped topping.

HINT:  For a homemade look, freeze crust 5 minutes and then slip it into your favorite pie plate before adding filling.

Blueberry Pie

We picked several pints of blueberries from the bushes in my grandmother's backyard.  I made two pies using a crumble topping.  The summer pie season is now complete with rhubarb, strawberry, and blueberry all checked off the list!

Crumble Topping:  3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar, 3 Tbsp granulated sugar, pinch of salt, 6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces).  I combine everything in my food processor to get an even texture.

Refinishing Furniture

We recently converted our nursery into a craft room.  My biggest project was taking the original dressers, sanding them down, and painting them to match the new decor.

I sanded down the dressers in the garage, which took me a few days.  Then I primed and painted them with a flat enamel paint.

I sanded each of the knobs and painted them as well.  I used different colors to give the drawers some character.

Overall, things turned out pretty well.  The picture below is the finished product.

Alice in One'derland Party

We threw an Alice in One'derland party for my daughter's 1st birthday this weekend.  In keeping with the British theme, we hosted a tea party with tea sandwiches, scones, and a Mad Hatter birthday cake.

We decorated the outside of the house with pictures from the movie and we had "Very Merry Unbirthday" playing as the guests walked in the door.  We also put a croquet set outside to symbolize the game of croquet Alice played with the Queen of Hearts.

Inside we decorated with paper lanterns, photo stills, and posterboard images from the movie.

Below are pictures of our timecapsule activity.  We asked guests to fill out a questionnaire predicting various interests my daughter will have when she is 10-years-old. Then we sealed them in an Alice in Wonderland lunchbox, along with other special items from the day, and made a time capsule for her 10th birthday party.  I also made a keepsake tablecloth out of Alice in Wonderland fabric.

I purchased a copy of Lewis Carroll's original version of Alice in Wonderland from a British bookstore in London.  The name of the bookstore is Hatchard's and they are located on Picadilly street.  The advantage of having the British version of the book is that all of the original spellings and vocabulary are preserved.

You can also see the original images for each of the characters.  Here is the Cheshire Cat appearing above the Queen's Croquet match.

Some other ideas for making the day festive...

I tied "Drink Me" labels onto Koolaid Water Bottles for the kids and served Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches in the shape of Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, & Spades.

For the adults, we served a variety of tea sandwiches and scones.

To bring the party to life, we all dressed up in costumes.  I was the Queen of Hearts, my husband was the Mad Hatter, my oldest daughter was Alice, and my son was Tweedle Dee.