LIVING NATIVITY IN UTAH

Eight years ago a family in Alpine, Utah, started a Christmas tradition of putting on a live nativity scene. They did it to honor their mother and raise money for cancer research, who had recently died of cancer. If you live in Utah or are visiting in early December, try to go. It is a really neat experience and a wonderful reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. Their blog is: www.thelivingnativity.blogspot.com

Christmas Books--All Wrapped Up!!

Each year my mother-in-law gives all her children, who are all grown, a Christmas book to read together as a family. I keep mine all together with the Christmas decorations and pull them out each year. This year I've displayed them in a basket by the fireplace and we have read most of them already and it is only the beginning of December! Next year I might just have

to wrap them up and put them under the tree!

Why?

A friend of mine just started this tradition of wrapping up their Christmas books each year then each night in December they unwrap one and read it before bedtime in front of the tree!

They have only done it for a couple days now and the kids LOVE it!

EASY AND FUN, eh?!!

ADVENT CALENDARS--COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS!

Family traditions definitely bring families closer together and become precious memories. It has been fun to fuse the traditions of my family with those of my husband's family and then also start some of our own with our little ones. One Christmas tradition I am starting this year with my little ones is an advent calendar. There are so many cute ones out there to buy or make. December crept up on me so I just grabbed one at the Dollar Tree but I think that for next year I will find (or make!!) a cuter one.

Advent Calendars that I LOVE:

1)Pottery Barn Kids makes a cute one each year.

2) Baby Sock Advent Calendar (Easy to make and you can customize it to fit your holiday color scheme!). Compliments of Martha Stewart, of course!

My twist on the advent calendar (which is actually an idea I got from my sister-in-law) is to plan little activities each day rather than have candy. I found this list at The Idea Room which was a great source of activity ideas. I added some of my own, like make gingerbread men ornaments for the tree, play Christmas BINGO, go see a live nativity, and download a new Christmas album from iTunes and listen to it that day. Another local activity that I am excited to do with Thing 1 and Thing 2 is to visit Santa's reindeer and feed them!

For your advent calendar, simply write the that day's activity on a slip of paper and tuck it into the advent calendar before the kids wake up so that they can't peek ahead and see what the future holds! Each activity will be a surprise! How fun is that?!!

A FUN (AND EFFECTIVE) CHRISTMAS TRADITION

My friend just told me of a little Christmas tradition they started that has really helped their 2 little boys be "nice" and not so "naughty".

It is called

THE ELF ON THE SHELF

and comes with a book and a little elf (Santa's little helper).

(Warning: The elf is cute but kinda creepy at the same time!)

You name the elf and then each morning he magically appears in a new spot in the house. He watches each day to see "who is being naughty and nice" and then reports back to Santa.

My friend named their elf "Jingle" and it was hilarious to see that as her boys were starting to misbehave, she'd simply say, "Jingle is watching!" and they'd stop!

I gotta get one of these to help Thing 1 and Thing 2 stay on the NICE list!

Homemade Thanksgiving Rolls

So I was given the assignment to bring rolls to Thanksgiving dinner. My family LOVES rolls from Shirley's bakery (I gain ten pounds just thinking about them!) but I procastinated and they were sold out. Procastination is not one of my better qualities but apparently baking rolls is! Yes, I made my own. I found a recipe at Our Best Bites, a delicious little blog that you must check out. The rolls were not too difficult and moist and delicious. Sorry no pics---they got chowed down too quick!!!

Homemade Christmas Gifts

I have been thinking that I really want to give handmade, unique Christmas gifts to family and friends. There is just something special about them. Maybe I am just sick of Christmas being so commercialized, I don't know. I am in the brainstorming mode and will let you know what ideas I have...or wait, maybe I won't until after Christmas. Don't want anyone to not be suprised!!