Christmas Activities

At the end of the school year the girls brought home many, many, too many bits and pieces of craft. It would not be an exaggeration to say the house was flooded with Christmas crafts, plus all the other school work. One of these items was this large paper Christmas Tree made by Kitcat. She cut it out freehand and then decorated it with tinsel and ribbon. It is half her height.

Kitcat is always the most prolific artist amongst the Half-dozen. This is the lovely Nativity Scene she created from her own pencil drawing and stickers she received from her Sunday School teacher.

This is Kitcat's Santa drawing which she brought home from school.

And I love this version of the Nativity by Kitcat .... especially the emu family! (Very non-traditional.)

This is something more traditional ... making truffles for Christmas gifts. These looked very pretty in their Christmas bowl and wrapping. We made a couple of these for some very good friends.

And although Gingerbread houses are a very traditional part of Christmas, we've never actually made one before. We have done a Gingerbread Sleigh & Reindeer, and our traditional Christmas Eve Cookie Christmas Tree, but these were our first Gingerbread houses. We were very fortunate to be invited to a dear friend's home to do this fun Christmas activity. She provided the way-too-tasty gingerbread, we brought along some lollies and icing, and everyone had a great time putting these cute little houses together. Afterwards, the girls had a great time swimming in our friend's pool.

I like the funny snowman Teddy made for the yard of her house, and the holly decoration Possum put on her roof. We ended up having a whole Gingerbread Village. (Thank you Smilie Girl, Lego Lad and Box Boy.)

The day after the Gingerbread construction we went to another friend's house, and the girls were delighted when they found she had organized some Christmas cookie decorating. Dragon was delighted when our friend said she was happy to mind the younger girls (with Possum's help) while I took him shopping for his Christmas gifts. (This friend lives very close to a major shopping centre.) The girls were lucky to be able to have another swim with these friends in their pool too.

The next day, our lovely neighbours invited the four youngest girls and me too come over for an afternoon of Christmas craft. The little girl next door is a very prolific crafter, just like Kitcat. They all coloured in Christmas pictures, cut them out and then decorated them with stickers, glitter, ribbon, glitter, pom-poms, and even more glitter. There was such a glitter storm that it even ended up in my coffee cup! These are the beautiful pictures they created .....

.... Ducky made the Christmas Tree, Teddy did the presents, Mousie made the candy cane while Kitcat chose a Pegasus unicorn. A Pegasus unicorn ! Well, she does love them, even if they don't have anything to do with Christmas.

These same neighbours gave each of the girls a gift of a leadlight-making kit. We spent the next afternoon making them, and what a job it was! Teddy made the butterfly and she was the only one who did hers in one go. Ducky (dolphin) had to start again when she was half way through as she bumped it and all the little plastic beads (which melt and create the glass effect) went everywhere. At least she managed to do it herself. Mousie's (horse) was almost ready to cook when she asked me to help her with one little bit, and I bumped it! Possum and I started over and were nearly finished Mousie's horse again when it got bumped once more, which meant we had to start over yet again! The same happened with Kitcat's cat. I was never so happy when this particular craft activity was finally complete.

The Christmas pics we made at our neighbour's house weren't the only items over-endowed with glitter. We found that at our school here in Brisbane the students don't just exchange Christmas cards - the cards are expected to contain some kind of gift ..... usually a candy cane. We ended up with candy cane overload at our house. But there were a couple really lovely little gifts that came home with the girls, like this Santa key a friend gave to Teddy. And although the glitter-er was a bit heavy-handed it is still really pretty.Kitcat and Teddy were both given one of these - Reindeer Food! The message reads

"Make a wish and close your eyes tight, then sprinkle on your lawn at night.
As Santa reindeer fly and roam, this will guide them to your home."

Both gifts of reindeer food were slightly different, but both were once again well glittered. This is Teddy's Reindeer Food. The tag on Kitcat's read

"Sprinkle on the lawn at night.
The moon will make it sparkle bright.
Santa's reindeer fly and roam.
This will guide them to your home."

We are sure this will work for the Six White Boomers too. After all, what kind of magical, flying Christmas creature could resist a mixture of oats, coconut and glitter?

Last Sunday I took Ducky to see her first "Nutcracker" production. It was done by the Brisbane Youth Ballet Company and we managed to get front row seats! We really felt like we were part of the action. During the interval I bought Ducky a Nutcracker tree ornament as a souvenir, and after the show she was able to get a photo with the Sugar Plum Fairy (because the cast members came out to meet the audience) which was an even better souvenir! Ducky really enjoyed "The Nutcracker" and I am hoping we may be able to make this a new Christmas tradition.

Yesterday the rain set in and the girls became a bit cranky with each other, so I gave them each a large piece of paper and asked them to draw a Christmas picture. I was really pleased with their drawings ... Here's Teddy's Christmas tree. She carefully copied some of the decorations that are hanging on our tree before drawing me and her on either side of the tree.

Mousie spent ages doing this lovely picture of the Nativity scene. I particularly like the stripey clothes. I also like her spelling of "Baby Jeuses" and "Joepsh".

Kitcat's focus is all on Santa when it is this close to Christmas. She was very careful to draw all the reindeer, including Rudolph.

Ducky drew another Nativity Scene. I like her Wise Men - they have a bit of a Spanish look about them. (Maybe I should explain to her a bit more about the wise men from the East.) But the thing I like best about this drawing is the mobile hanging from the roof of the stable. This morning we set about to make our annual Cookie Christmas Tree, which was going really well until I didn't hear the last alarm to take the last sheet of cookies out of the oven and forgot all about them! They were very burnt when I discovered my mistake. Thankfully Possum came to the rescue and whipped up another batch of cookie dough. This also meant we had extra cookies, which is never a bad thing. The girls all had a turn cutting the cookies from the dough, and later decorating the tree. The extra cookies were very handy when the girls wanted to eat the Cookie Christmas Tree straight away instead of waiting until after dinner. They were able to eat a few 'spares' which saved the cookie tree for dessert.I hope all my family, IRL friends and blogging friends (I know some of you may come under more than one of those categories) have a very Merry Christmas!