christmas story continued...

I started telling my girls a simplified version of the Christmas story using my nativity figures.  Unfortunately I can't leave my nativity set up this year because some little fingers in our house are a bit too rough for my homemade nativity set.  Maybe next year??  I hope so, I miss not having it on display.  But I did take out the pieces yesterday to tell the story and the girls loved it - and I let them have a little play.

Joseph and Mary - with a baby in her tummy - had to walk a long way to go to Bethlehem to pay their taxes.  They took a donkey to carry all the things they would need on their journey.

When they arrived there was no room for them to stay anywhere, so they found a place in a barn with the animals.  Baby Jesus was born and they laid him in a manger.

The shepherds were in the fields looking after their sheep when the angels came down and told them a King had been born.

The 3 Kings came to visit baby Jesus, and brought with them gifts of gold, frankinsence and myrhh.

Ok, was that short enough? becuase by now my little girls were over listening to the story, and just wanted to play !!...and so we did...

...I love Christmas time...

how to make a sled for your stick reindeer

This little reindeer is ready to get to work!  He has a sled to pull, and a bright red nose to light the way...

See my previous post for instructions on how to make this cute little stick reindeer, and then read on to learn how to make the sled.

From your collection of sticks, cut 4 pieces which will be the length of your sled - you determine the size depending on the size of your reindeer. 

Then cut 2 pieces a bit shorter, and 2 pieces a bit longer.

Put a strip of hot glue along the length of the shortest sticks and glue them on top of the 4 like this, to hold them together.

Now glue your longest 2 sticks on top.

When the glue has set, turn it over, and you have a sled.

I glued a piece of ribbon around my reindeers neck and onto the sled, so it was all attached.

Here's one I finshed the other day to give away as a little Christmas gift, with a chocolate glued to his sled, this was one happy little reindeer !

To make it easier when I gave him away, I glued the reindeer and sled to a small piece of cardboard. 

Make lots of reindeer this Christmas !! 

how to make a stick reindeer...

Isn't this the cutest little reindeer ??  I think it's a perfect little decoration for Christmas time...here's how you can make one too...

First, go for a walk to the park and collect a few sticks.  The biggest stick I collected was about 1-1.5cm in diameter for the body of the reindeer.  The smallest was the thin end of the stick where it branches out a little - those bits are your antlers.

The only equipment you'll need is something sharp to cut your sticks, and a hot glue gun.

Next step is to cut your sticks.  I always start with the body piece first, then cut the other pieces with sizes relative to the body - it's easier than you think !  The body piece for this reindeer is about 1cm in diameter and about 3 cm long.  You can make your reindeer any size you want.

Lay the pieces out like the above picture as you go ...so you will need a body, 4 legs, a head, neck, tail and 2 antlers.  Notice the diagonal cut on the front of the head - to accentuate the nose.

Ok, let's go...!  Put 2 blobs of hot glue on the bottom of the body piece...

and attach 2 legs.

Bare in mind that although the glue will set quite quickly, if you realize you've stuck something in the wrong place, you can easily peel the glue off and re-do it.

Do the same to attach the other 2 legs.

Then stand up your reindeer to check that the legs are even.  If not, peel off the 'dicky' leg and reset it!

 That's the hardest part - getting the legs even, but it's really not hard at all !

Now glue on the head and neck.  Make sure the neck is standing straight up - otherwise your reindeer might over balance when you glue the head on.

Keep the long end of the nose on the top side...

Finally add the antlers and the tail and voila! one cute little reindeer!!

Check back tomorrow for a post on how to make a sled for your reindeer, and a neat gift idea.

Have a wonderful day!

Frankincense and Myrrh...

The 3 Wise Men came bearing gifts og Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

Have you ever wondered what Frankincense and  Myrrh are ?  I think I wonder what they are every christmas, but do nothing about it, then forget about it till the next christmas !  Well, the other day, I decided to finally find out, and I was pleasantly surprised - I would never have guessed what they are in a million years !

When the 3 wise men came to visit  baby Jesus, they came bearing gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

Both Frankincense and Myrrh come from the sap of trees.  Frankincense is a milky white resin (or sap) that comes from the Boswellia Tree.

Boswellia tree

The tree grows in areas of the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and India, with the most aromatic species growing in Somalia, Oman and Yemen.  It can grow up to 5m in height.

Harvesters make cuts in the tree trunk to release the sap.  The sap oozes out and forms tear shaped droplets on the side of the tree which are left to harden for 2 weeks before being harvested.

Commiphora tree

                                       

Myrrh is a redish brown resin that comes primarily from a commiphora myrrha tree, common to Yemen, Somalia and Eastern Ethiopia, and is harvested in the same way as frankincense.

Both Frankincense and Myrrh are known for their frangrant qualities and have been used for thousands of years medicinally and religiously.  Frankincense was often burned as incense, and was used to make people smell better !  The  charcoal was also ground into a powder called kohl which was used by Egyptians as an eyeliner - interesting !  The rising smoke of frankincense symbolized prayers reaching to heaven, while Myrrh was commonly used in burials - particularly for embalming, and symbolizes death.  It was used for cleaning wounds and sores and used to treat gum disease, asthma, worms, coughs, colds and many other ailments.

The dried resin of myrrh and frankincense

 Both Frankincense and Myrrh were rare in Biblical times and therefore of great value. 

There is a lot more to learn about these 2 wonderful gifts from the wise men, but I'm happy knowing what they are for starters !  You could spend days reading all the information on the internet, and if you are so inclined - go for it - but I'm done, satisfied that I can explain to my 4 year old what these gifts to baby Jesus are, because for sure, she is going to ask sometime !

it's beginning to feel a lot like christmas...

Christmas Gnomes & Advent Calendars

It's the 1st of December, so today, in our house, it's going to start feeling like Christmas ! 

I dug out my trusty old advent calendar, and old it is...I made it for my twins 17 years ago - 17 years ago!  Oh my !  Thát makes me feel a bit old  he! he!  But hey, it's done it's job every year, and the kids have loved it every year.

I love my advent calendar

I had lots of fun making this all those years ago.  And I've had lots of fun trying to dream up age appropriate fun ideas of things to put inside each sock - aswell as some last minute headaches too ! 

This year I hadn't planned on putting it up - too lazy to get organized ??  Shame on me !  But then Ruby's uncle arrived a couple of days ago... he is taking her on a train in a couple of weeks to stay at her nana's until we get there for Christmas and she has been asking me every five minutes if she is going on a train in the morning (she is soooo excited - can you tell ??).  So my solution, for my sanity, was to put up the advent calendar to give her an idea of how many days it is until she goes on the train.  I made a little Christmas gnome to put in 'today's' stocking so she can see what day it is today...and every day she can move it to the next stocking.

Little Christmas peg gnome

Today is the1st of December - thankyou Christmas gnome !

...so the plan for tonight is to make a little marker with a train on the top and put that in the no. 13 stocking - that's when the train leaves, so each day she can see she is getting closer to THE DAY !!! - and she can stop asking me!

And....just seeing those little stockings hanging on the wall got me all excited about doing advent again...so luckily, we had a few lollies in the cupboard (thankyou uncle) so I snuck a couple into todays stocking, one for Ruby and one for Marlise - they were so excited it made it all worth while.  Tomorrow I will be more organized - no more lollies.

The Christmas Story

This is Mary and Joseph.  Marlise was intrigued.  This year, instead of putting out the whole nativity set, I've decided to tell the kids a little bit of the Christmas story at a time. 

Keeping it nice and simple...the story for this week is about the angel that came to Mary to tell her she was going to have a baby and his name would be Jesus.  I even stuffed some wool inside Mary's dress so she looks pregnant - the kids loved it.

Christmas Tree

Today, we decided to make a cardboard Christmas tree for Ruby to decorate. 
I'm quite pleased with my freehand tree - I expected it to be lopsided, but I was pleasantly surprised !  We made a colourful paper chain together and she stuck on bows and other shiney things and had a great time.  She's so proud of her tree.  I'll post another photo when we've finished decorating.

STOP ! Shower time...

It was stinking hot today, and so humid...only place to be is under a cold shower...

Community Christmas

Our local library put on a Christmas event for the kids this afternoon and it was awesome.  They made simple decorations to hang on the Christmas tree, sang carols and had a visit from Santa.  Was lots of fun.

Here's Ruby and Marlise hanging up their first decoration - 2 pipe cleaners, a red and a white, twisted together and hooked over on one end to make a candy cane - they looked so good !

 Ruby is making a felt Christmas pudding and glueing it on to a recycled curtain ring.  Such a neat idea !

Now it's looking like a christmas tree ! The kids were all so excited to hang their decorations up.  You can see them all here, candy canes, paper christmas trees, paper chains, christmas puddings, and there are also some wreaths.  Love it !

Marlise making her paper Christmas tree.

And now she's found a special place to hang it...  oh woops!  Just noticed it's a different colour to the one she made !! haha! how did that happen ?

When Santa came in to the room Marlise got scared and screamed out "no!"' - it was really funny - sorry my baby.  but it was all good afterwards when they gave out shortbread and red  cordial.

What are you doing to get ready fro Christmas this year?

Some Needle Felting...

Ruby and I made the most of the precious time we had while Marlise slept - which never seems to be long enough !  We got busy, well, I got busy and started making a needle holder using some scraps of felt and wool I had in my box of goodies.  And just as I was really getting in to it, Ruby decided she wanted to do something too.  So quick thinking sent her off to the kitchen in search of a cookie cutter "the smallest one you can find!"  So she came back with a christmas tree shape - not quite what I had in mind, a bit tricky for what I had planned, but oh well, she was determined. 

So we used a piece of white felt for the backing, and she wanted a purple tree - I didn't have any green wool so it wasn't an option, a purple tree is fine :)  The cookie cutter sat on the piece of felt, and the felt sat on a nice thick piece of foam....lots of safety talk followed re the felting needle and how to use it properly.  We filled the cookie cutter with the purple wool and she was on her way, poking and stabbing that wool - slowly and carefully (phew!)

Poking and stabbing down the wool.

a nice thick piece of foam was perfect for working on her lap - look at the concentration!

Adding the decorations

And look !  I've made a decoration for our Christmas tree !!

(Christmas really isn't that far away...)

This was Ruby's first attempt at 'real' sewing a couple of days ago.  I drew some lines for her to sew along, and off she went.  She was so proud of her efforts. 

We folded up the piece of felt and she sewed the edges to make a little purse so she could show off her sewing skills.  Here's the inside out version, with a button hole on the flap.

Here's the front cover of the needle holder I made today, i love it !