12 Days of Christmas 2020

Everyone's been missing everyone, so to make some connections again we decided again to do the 12 Days of Christmas for all my 7 Primary activity girls' families (one of them being us). As I was planning it, I got a new partner, so she planned 3 of the days I hadn't purchased for yet. I didn't take good pictures, but wanted to at least make note of what we did for future reference. It was nice because we didn't need to deliver to ourselves, my partner took care of that! Our family all took turns delivering. My 11-year old probably enjoyed it the most, but it was a great family activity. I wonder if anyone didn't know who was making the drop offs since all of them have doorbell cameras!

1. I was going to do pears and a tree and a picture of a bird or something, but my partner got some nice pear chapstick.

You can see that my partner does way cuter stuff than me!

2. Turtle candy individually wrapped from the dollar store and Dove soap. I hope the chocolate didn't taste like the soap in the end!

3. I can't remember what my partner ended up doing for this, but I was going to make French bread and shape it like birds.

4. Chicken in a Biscuit crackers.

5. Ring Pops.

6. I was going to do a half dozen eggs, but my partner did those European egg candy things with the toy inside and cute golden-sprayed feathers on top. I'm sure the girls enjoyed the egg/candy more than actual eggs!

7. Hot chocolate pouches with a bag of marshmallows for the swans.

8. Graham crackers and milk (Honey Maid(s) a Milking).

9. Pirouettes, but I got the Pirouline's from Walmart and put a Pirouette label on them, since Pirouline's isn't a balet move.

10. Grasshopper cookies for Lord's a leaping, but I got the Winco kind and put a Grasshopper sticker on it.

11. Instead of pipers piping I did poppers popping with popcorn.

12. Instead of drummers drumming, I did dummers dumming with Dum-Dum suckers. Yeah, I got *really* creative.

To make things cute, I added a little text to pictures online.

Ruby's Christmas Stocking

The poor baby didn't even get a stocking last year because I was too beat to make one.  Things are better this year so she gets one.  I've tried to have a Christian theme (not Santa theme) for the stockings, so after making 3 other stockings, I was searching for ideas.  The eldest has a baby Jesus on his; our 2nd has some lambs, and the 3rd has an angel.

Since this one's name is Ruby, and a ruby is precious, I thought, hmm, maybe I could do something with the gifts from the wise men.  So I put three "gifts" on her stocking to represent the three wise men and their gifts.  I'm not sure I'm loving the colors, but I'm not going to change it now.

The more I think about this, though, the sillier the whole thing is to me.  Why am I putting these Christian symbols on these pagan stockings?  Stockings really have NOTHING to do with Christ, so why am I trying to tie them in?  Anyway, I surely don't have time to make 6 new fully-pagan stockings, so I'll just continue my already established theme for now.

12 Days of Christmas

This year we thought it would be fun to do the 12 Days of Christmas for some neighbors.  Growing up we did it quite often, but it was the first time with our little family.  Our 9-year old was great at ditching the stuff at the doorsteps.  I didn't get pictures of everything, but here's what we did.  It's a little silly, and we didn't leave any notes, but it was fun.

1.  Stuck a bird from the dollar store on a can of pears.

2.  A plastic bath turtle on 2 Dove chocolate bars.  (Well, one family got the turtle.  I thought I bought two, but one ended up being an alligator, and I thought an alligator on the Dove bars would be especially confusing.)

3.  2 cans of chickHEN noodle soup and some homemade FRENCH bread total of 3 things, right?

4.  4 notepads with bird stickers on them.

5. Gold pineapple rings.

6. Half dozen eggs.

7.  An assortment on bath things (shower cap, bath gel, scrubbies, etc.).  The receiver is the swan.

8. Boxes of milk.

9. We numbered 9 ladies on the princess things.

10. Things that leap/bounce.  We thought of the Grasshopper cookies later.

11. Things that look like pipes/that you could blow.

12. Drums from the Dollar Store.

Plus an 8x10 of this 12 Days Tree with a message from us on the back.  We delivered the drums and the picture and sang "The 12 Days of Christmas" from 12 down, NOT the whole song!

Peace, Joy, and Love Bird Ornaments

Last year I saw the most darling bird ornaments at Chocolate on My Cranium and knew I had to make them this year.  They are turning out GREAT!!  Thanks, Chocolate!

She put the names of Christ on the birds, which I intended to, until I realized my birds were too small!  Oh well.

More Ornaments I Want to Make

http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-traditions-names-of-christ.html

Neighbor Gifts - Minty Hot Cocoa Mix

I love neighbor gifts.  I think they're fun.  I like to give them, and I like to get them.  I really enjoy nice, little things and feel a bit bad when people give really nice things.  I like the gifts mainly for the neighborly socialization -- to let people know you care and appreciate them.

This year, I thought I'd go really easy and just make some hot cocoa mixes.  I'm going with 2 recipes.  I adapted them from the one in the December 2011 Friend Magazine.

Minty Hot Cocoa
(just add water)

1 C powdered milk
1 C powdered sugar
1/4 C cocoa powder
1-2 drops peppermint oil

Add 8 oz. hot water to 1/2 C mix.

Minty Hot Cocoa
(just add milk)

1 C powdered sugar
1/4 C cocoa powder
1 T coffee creamer
1-2 drops peppermint oil

Add 6 oz. hot milk to 1/4 C mix.

Ornaments I'd like to make -- just not this year

http://crafterhours.blogspot.com/2011/12/fast-easy-inexpensive-cute-photo.html