Christmas Tradition

So it's not Christmas anymore, but it's never too late to share!

In 2006 we started a tradition of making Christmas dishes. Mommy wanted Christmas dishes but she didn't want to spend lots of money. So we've started making our own! We missed 2007 but we've done it for three years - this year we took pictures.

My 2006 Angel.

And My 2008 Snowflakes. I seem to have a blue theme.

Looloo has built up the Nativity scene. In 2006 she started with the stable, Joseph, Mary, the Shepherd, and the baby Jesus.

In 2008 she continued it with the three magi.

Mr. Pete has the Christmas tree...

With the presents under it.

The Zaz wasn't even one in 2006, so he had his first mistletoes...

And reindeer in 2008.

On the back of each plate, we put our hand print, name, and age. Last year, the Zaz was allowed to decorate the back of his plate as much as he wanted, because his hand was already on the front.

With eight plates, we started on mugs this year. Snowflakes, the Nativity, Angels, and a winter wonderland.

When asked what he wanted on the inside of his cup, the Zaz said, "A black snake." Mommy agreed and there you have it.

In case you can't read it, which is very possible, as the lighting was bad, it says, "He shall crush the serpent's head!"

We now have a joke in our house, "There's a dead snake in my cup!"

Mr. Pete opted for a more cheerful inside decoration.

Oatmeal Cookies

Another New Venture: The "Small"

Actually this venture has been going on for a little while; we just thought we should finally tell our friends about it, and Mina helped her Mama get with the times and make an Etsy Mini-Shop here on the blog. In reality, it's kind of a Mini-Mall, because each of the ladies of our household has her own shop. It's what Auntie Janet used to call the shopping mall in Moscow, Idaho, where you could walk the length of the whole thing in seven minutes and where half of the storefronts were empty anyway. It was dubbed "the Small." Our Small is ever so much nicer! And our products are locally grown and handcrafted and repurposed and everything!

So you see, once you browse, you will wonder how you ever did get along without them until now. They are right over there on the sidebar. 46 shopping days until Christmas.

A Home for Every Fairy

In early spring we put out the birdhouses for the birdies returning from the south and we build Fairy Houses for the fairies that will visit our garden. Inspired by this book we started making them a couple of years ago...it's a peaceful outdoor activity on fine but chilly-ish days. Here are some pictures for you.

A spacious cottage near the wall with an elegant stone walkway.

A teepee style abode with plush green carpeting and a waiting bed and pillow.An airy treehouse with view over the apple tree and surrounding domains.

Crafternoons

I wish I could say that I had coined the phrase "Crafternoon." I didn't, but it does exactly fit the day we spent with Kristen and Emma. They let us plunder their stash of felted wool and after running our fingers through and just squishing the fuzzy softness, we got busy and made Things.

the stash of softness

The Critter Gals and a new handbagKristen and the Crafters (with cool camera effects)Not long afterwards, we spent another lovely day at Vicki and Lauren's house. Their house was decorated so prettily for Valentine's Day that we came home inspired and made ours more festive. Lauren, who is four, had taught us how to make tissue paper flowers and folded paper butterflies. We hung them from our dining room light fixture.

Paper butterfly, resting on the window sill.

My Ebenezer

This hymn puzzled me as a child when we sang it at church.

Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I'm come.

The only Ebenezer I could reference was that mean old guy in the Christmas play with all the creepy ghosts. Why would I want to raise him? I don't think he helped me do anything!

When I was older, I became enlightened and learned about the original Ebenezer in the Bible. Ahhh! :

I Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us."

I love this real, tangible reminder of God's help that Samuel set up for the Israelites, and I know that I also need those tangible reminders of the great things God has done in my little life. I am so forgetful, and when God does something which at the time seems miraculous, it becomes easy to look back on it with nonchalance. And nonchalance at His goodness and faithfulness is NOT what He has commanded me to teach the next generation. So last fall, when God yet again did what I would have called impossible only the month before, I decided it was time to set up real tangible reminder of what His faithfulness through the years. Here is my Ebenezer!

It's currently on my mantel, but as I collect rocks from all the places God takes us and all the impossible things He does, I'm hoping I'll have to build an Ebenezer patio or waterfall or something.

By the way, a friend thought I'd had the words etched on expensively, but it's actually just a Sharpie. Where would we moms be without Sharpies?

The Family that Knits Together…

Manuski snapped this photo Sunday evening. After church we’d gone skiing and listened to The Sword in the Stone audio book in the car on the way to and from the mountain. We were all really into the story, so when we got home we ate a snack, put our jammies on and kept listening while working on our respective projects. Zazzy was already in bed at this point and I’m clearly close to passing out.

Makin’ It Work – the Real Story of the Merovingians

Early last week as we sat down to do history, and the kids were making grumbly noises about coloring their maps, I remembered that I had been thinking we were overdue for a "craft." They do spice up history so. I vaguely remembered something in the activity book about making some sort of decorative something. Cool, I thought, they can color that while I read. "Okay, kids, today we will make Merovingian brooches," I said in my yeah, I've got it all together voice. Foolishly I said this before reading all the instructions. They said:

You will need:

• white unlined paper check
• pencil check
• gold, blue, red and yellow Sculpey, WHAT??!! Sculpey?? I thought we were coloring!
• copper wire, at least 16 gauge, at hardware stores, Copper Wire??!! When was the last time I was at a hardware store?? No trip planned today.
• hammer, okay, whew, got one of those, but what will we hammer?
• drinking glass check
• glass pie plate check
• pin back (at craft stores) um….maybe we can figure something else out…

After panicking, I remembered that there might actually be some Sculpey left unused in a crafty drawer downstairs. “Hang on, just a minute kids, keep coloring the maps.” Ah! There was indeed Sculpey! Just enough to make us some dandy brooches. Back upstairs. Ta Da! “Here kids, we shall make our Merovingian brooches out of this Sculpey! Too bad about the wire, that would’ve looked cool.” Marina, looking at me funny, “Don’t we have some copper wire? Down with the beading stuff?” Oh. Maybe we do….back down to the crafty drawers…yes, indeed some copper wire, not 16 gauge, but never mind that. From then on, I sat down, took a deep breath and read all the instructions out loud. And it worked, and our brooches turned out pretty neat.

Then of course, we needed an event to which to wear our brooches, so we hatched the notion of a Merovingian meal. Merovingians were sort of descendants of the Gaulish tribes, sort of like Asterix, right? And there was a pork tenderloin the freezer we could have for wild boar and we mixed up some lovely pink magic potion, also a la Asterix. A little historically off, but festive! There were instructions in the book for making yarn wigs, and I was just going to use the big skein of unused green yarn I found downstairs, but there was general outcry against green hair, so I caved and actually bought yarn to make the wigs, which went against my plan of using up what we have. Peter almost cried because we were making him wear a wig and no amount of telling him how fierce and manly the Merovingians were could allay his distress. In the end, he came around because Manu set a good example as Clovis. I was Clotilda, but yesterday I placed a ban on posting dorky photos of one’s mother.

Blas-Fix Egg Blower

Cuzzy asked what an egg blower is. When we were little, in order to get hollow Easter Eggs, we had to blow them out with our mouths. Sometimes raw egg yolk would ooze out onto your lips, and sometimes you'd forget and suck instead of blow. Yuck! It was really hard on my sinuses and made my ears hurt too. And we weren't even worried about salmonella yet!

So the Germans, who love to celebrate Easter with pretty things, came up with a nifty little pump to empty your eggs and clean them out, making only one hole in the egg. Here it is.