Christmas Ambitions

Em got out of school a week ago.  I rather like that schools here let out so early since it means things don't have to get crammed together like it was when we were still in the States (a year ago this week!).  However, that also means weeks on end of kids asking, "Mommy, what are we going to do today?!?!"  It's less of a question and more of a demand for entertainment.  So I had sorted out some... projects of sorts.  We did mosaics with moong beans and lentils and other food products.  We made our 2012 Christmas ornaments.  There were other things in there as well, mostly baking that required a lot of math from Em (the teacher in me was rather happy about that).  Sitting down to the pictures though, this preggy mommy is just a bit tired by the whole process... and glad the rain has gone away for a few days and the kids can just go outside and play :)

All three kids are needing to work on fine motor skills and I found a project we can do, in various forms, over and over again.  This was our first attempt at mosaic-anything and I have to say, it was a bit too much by the end, but that's mostly because Harper started flinging beans that were sticking to her glue-ladden fingers.  Did I mention I'd cleaned the dining room just for this project?

When we do this again (in 20 years when I've recovered enough patience!), I'll do it at a time when I can take one child at a time.  Em was the most independent and hers turned out rather nicely, but even so, I felt like I couldn't properly "oooh" and "awe" over her crafty-work.

This was the point when Cooper decided eating the "left-overs" might be easier than putting each different type of bean away.  Needless to say, he didn't like raw lentils and reneged on that idea quickly.

There's been a lot of rain, so I've had project after project lined up so that when the kids get restless, we move on to the next thing.  We'd been slowly but surely plowing our way through cinnamon ornament making.  It takes a few sessions:  make the dough, wait, roll the dough and cut out the shapes, wait, color/paint, wait.  We were in the decorating/coloring/painting stage while waiting for a rather irritatingly slow drizzle to let up.  Harper decided to see what modge podge tasted like.  

She then decided that using it to paint was a better option :)

Cooper, having learned this lesson earlier in the day, was nervous to get anywhere remotely close to the glue-paste again... which led to many laughs from me because his faces were hysterical!

 The end result?  Our 2012 homemade Christmas ornaments!  Best part is they smell divine!!!

We also have a tradition of a cookie exchange around here.  For years (literally), I've been wanting to make those peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kisses on them.  I'm not a fan of caramel and for some reason, most chocolate here has a carmel taste to it (at least to my palate anyways).  Todd loves it but it means that I generally avoid chocolate all together.  It's a rather useful weight loss technique actually.  But this year, my best friend came from the States for a few weeks and I had her pick up some Kisses for me.  Em and I spent a wonderful afternoon unwrapping and counting kisses and cookies into dozens.  It was a wonderful math lesson that Harper bored of so quickly, it felt like I only had one kid while baking.    

 The cookies are exchanged on an afternoon when all the kids gather and decorate the sugar and gingerbread cookies.  Here's the whole crew, complete with their decorated cookies.  We had a ton of fun, and the kids only started licking the sugar and icing off the tables when it was all over, so I say it was a COMPLETE success!!!