Christmas Gift Ideas

As you can tell from reading all my posts about the Christmas Book activities, I'm really trying to plan ahead this year for gift-giving. It seems like every year during about the first or second week of December I start panicking about what I'm going to give people like Sunday School teachers, piano teachers, bus drivers, etc. This year I'm getting a big head start. I went to Hancock Fabrics the other day and bought a few fun Christmas cotton prints. I'm planning to make up some reversible cloth napkins. Then I'll package a napkin or two with a Christmas mug (I've picked up a bunch of cute ones at Goodwill for about 59 cents each), a package of Minty Hot Cocoa Mix (recipe below), a chocolate spoon, and a bag of homemade star-shaped peppermint marshmallows. Wouldn't that be a fun gift to receive? I'm also going to use Christmas fabric to make an apron for my sons' teachers. Oh, I am my youngest son's teacher, so I guess that means I'm getting a new Christmas apron this year. YAY! I have made several aprons as gifts, but don't actually own ANY myself.

Here are the three fabrics I chose. Not the greatest picture, however.

Here is the Minty Cocoa Mix recipe. I got this recipe from this awesome book that I own. I LOVE Gooseberry Patch stuff.............if you are into homemade, be sure to check out their website here and order a catalog. Fun, fun stuff!!

OK...............now for the recipe:

Minty Hot Cocoa Mix

1 1/4 cup powdered milk

1/4 cup hot chocolate mix

1/4 cup mint chocolate chips

2 T. powdered chocolate non-dairy creamer

1 t. cinnamon

Mix all ingredients; pour into a one-pint jar. Attach a gift tag with instructions. Makes 2 cups mix.

NOTE: I am going to give approximately half of this recipe in a Ziploc bag, but I HAVE given this in a pint jar before.

Instructions: Place 1/3 cup mixture into a mug. Add one cup boiling water. Stir until mint chips are melted. Makes one serving.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

The book pictured above is the exact version of this story that we have at our home. I love the classic illustrations in it. There are many other beautifully illustrated versions of this poem. I thought this version which was featured on BellaDia last year looked really neat. For our ornaments, we will make these "sugarplums" that I found on CraftElf. When researching ornaments for all my other books I came across that gumdrop ornament idea and was hoping to pair it with a perfect book. Then I realized that the gumdrops looked like the "sugarplums" in the poem. I am looking forward to making these. (And maybe eating some real gumdrops alongside!)

Chicken Recess

Today we took our baby chicks outside for the first time. We transported them in our laundry basket with a towel over the top. (And yes, DH, they did poo in the bottom of it in transit.) I've since cleaned it up............we put our CLEAN laundry in this basket. Anyhow...........they were very cute. We have a dog kennel that our (spoiled) dog never uses so we put them there. We spread out our picnic blanket to sit on and watch them. At first, they were very unsure about exploring the grass. Instead, they wanted to sit on us. I told the boys that we are, essentially, their chicken mothers since they don't have a real chicken mother. They obviously felt very safe being near us in a new place.







Finally after we moved to the edge of the blanket and nearer to the grass, they felt more confident to explore. They were SO cute. They scratched and pecked. They hunted for bugs. Our most adventurous chick, Sarah, caught a big black ant. She took a bite and then wiped her beak back and forth on the grass as if she was trying to get the taste out of her mouth. It was really funny. Below you can see Abby (black with yellow spot on her head), Dixie (reddish brown) and Sarah. If you read this post and saw how they looked when we got them 8 days ago, you can see that they are already growing up and getting lots of wing and tail feathers.






Sarah got comfortable enough that she decided to take a nap on the picnic blanket.







My little boy is SO gentle with the chicks. He cupped his hands around Sarah (his chicken) and she closed her little eyes and dozed off for a while.






Here's the whole "flock" doing what chickens do.

There's my little firecracker chick, Dixie. Isn't she getting some beautiful wing feathers?

And there she is again, strutting around.

My little boy decided to pull his shirt over his knees and make a little "tent" for the chicks. At one point, four of the five were huddled under there as if he was their mother hen. It was darling. Below he is pushing one back into the "nest."

This is so cute............he stuck his head inside his shirt so he could peek at his little brood, huddled up under his shirt and legs.

And there's Clara peeking out of the nest.

At one point, I had all five babies roosting on my legs. They all independently hopped or flew into my lap. It was so awesome!

The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell & Guy Porfino

There are many different versions of this book. I decided to order this one for us. I think the little boy looks so adorable. This is such a sweet story. I remember my mom reading me a version of this when I was little. We will definitely make an angel ornament to go with this book. I am thinking about these clothespin angels. Here is another possibility. Or maybe we'll make this version using white felt and doilies.

Santa's Snow Cat by Sue Stainton & Anne Mortimer

This will be a new book for us this Christmas. I think we'll all love it since we love cats around here. The illustrations look beautiful. For this book I think we'll make popsicle stick star ornaments. I chose this book and activity directly based on the idea presented by BellaDia (The Crafty Crow) last year.

Snowmen At Night by Caralyn & Mark Buehner

Technically this book is more of a winter story than a Christmas one. However, we already have it and it's a favorite. There are SO many cute snowman activities and crafts out there too. I looked at several and I THINK we will make these snowman craft stick ornaments to go with this story.

The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

This story by Max Lucado has such a powerful message about tolerance and acceptance conveyed within the context of the Nativity story. This is one of the new books I've ordered from Amazon for our Christmas book project. We have several other Max Lucado books and they are among our very favorite. I am pretty sure this book will leave a lasting impression on my sons. I hope so. For this story we will make wooly sheep yarn ornaments. I think they will be SOOOOO cute. They may turn out to be my very favorites from all our projects this year.