Many Hats

In addition to the new hats for the kids, I've been making some gift hats as well this past month. I made these Packer hats for our Aunt and Uncle to try to bring the team some luck.  They swore they wore them on Thanksgiving, so it did not work at all!  The girl version is on Olivia (pattern here) and the boy's is on EJ (pattern here).

I also made these tiny hats for St. Nick's for my niece and nephew (this pic is horrible, but hopefully Julie will send me a good one of the kids wearing them...hint, hint).

Elizabeth's is a cupcake, although many people have guessed ice cream sundae due to the cherry on top (pattern here) and Mikey's is a football (pattern here).  Both were adjusted for size, but I hear I'm a little small on Elizabeth's hat...ugh!

And in searching for these hat pics, I bumped into this pic of Olivia wearing our activity tree as a hat.  How did I forget about this photo when I posted earlier this week?

Christmas Activity Tree

We have become a busy family and I worry that with all the scheduled activities we are already committed to, that some of the special things we do in December get lost in the shuffle and forgotten.  In the past we've made a huge list of things we want to do in December, but then when Christmas Day comes and things are left on the list...lots of disappointment follows!

So this year, we are trying a different angle.  I made a small tree out of paper and the kids crafted "ornaments" with fancy edges scissors and printed paper (Livie drew on hers as well).  Each time we do an activity, we write it on an ornament and add it to the tree.  Activities can be fun things or things we do to help others (activities that use our Christmas spirit).  They can be small things, like watching a Christmas movie or building a fire, or bigger things (like cleaning out the entire playroom last weekend and donating lots of toys).

The best part is that we are watching the magic of the season grow as we add activities (this sits right on our dining room table, so it gets talked about every night) and get closer and closer to Christmas!

St. Nick's Day 2013

St. Nick visited our house, I took this photo, and 2 minutes later a stocking crashed to the ground.  Ugh!  We tend to go a little bigger for St. Nick's in this house (although 90% of the gifts are practical...socks, slippers, holiday pjs, chapstick) and smaller at Christmas.  At any rate, everyone was pretty excited by their gifts and Mom & Dad got a little candy.  Yay!

We also put up our tree this past weekend and our elf arrived on December 1st.

Last night was the first of our three holiday concerts...Jack's band and choir concert.

Livie wasn't feeling well, so I gave her a little more freedom than usual...maybe too much.

Hope everyone is staying warm and that St. Nick did not bring you coal!