Holiday Bucket List

11 / 30 / 17

One of the things I try really hard to do as a mama is make to carve out a little bit of time each day to spend just with my little Miss G. It’s usually not a ton of time, but being that she was our one and only for more than 5 years, I think it’s important. Sometimes we read together, sometimes we read side by side, sometimes we chat, sometimes we colour, sometimes we watch a show, and sometimes we work on a project together… The list goes on, but a few nights ago, we sat at my computer together and created a holiday bucket list filled with all of the things we hope to do while she’s on break from school. {I can’t wait!}

Christmas Tree Photo Scavenger Hunt

12 / 14 / 141 / 12 / 15

Christmas Tree Play Dough and Cookie Cutter Gifts

12 / 8 / 1412 / 13 / 14

It’s very likely that our friends may soon disown us for constantly gifting them with play dough… And until then, we’ll probably just continue coming up with clever ways to present it and give it anyways {sorry, friends}. ☺

Gingerbread People Ornaments

12 / 4 / 1412 / 1 / 18

One of my very favourite things about the holidays is making all kinds of fun homemade ornaments with Miss G. I just love it. We gather up our materials, put on some music, chat while we create side-by-side, and in the end, we’ve got at least a couple of new colourful and quirky ornaments to add to our colourful and quirky Christmas tree.

Christmas Tree Play Dough Kit

11 / 20 / 1411 / 27 / 18

Okay, so I admit it – we’re a bit play dough kit obsessed over here. We can’t help it. Play dough is something that we play with on a daily basis and having pre-made kits filled with dough and interesting loose parts makes it really easy to delve into the fun – everything that’s needed is right there in a container waiting to be taken out! It also means that Grae can easily help herself to a kit and have a fun activity pre-prepared for independent play times, which I love.

Super Fragrant NO-COOK Gingerbread Play Dough

12 / 18 / 1312 / 24 / 13

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One of Miss G’s favourite holiday activities last year was making play dough gingerbread people. Our little bin of simple materials kept her happily engaged for hours and her cousins loved it just as much as she did, so there was no doubt in my mind that we’d do the same thing again this Christmas.

Glitter Monogram Ornaments

12 / 14 / 1311 / 30 / 18

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While Miss G and I were out oohing and ahhing at all of the pretty things in Pottery Barn Kids earlier this week, I spotted some beautiful glitter monogram ornaments that I knew we could easily make at home.

Christmas Cutting Tray

12 / 5 / 1312 / 11 / 13

The cutting tray we did a couple months back was such a hit, that I knew I wanted to do another one, but this time around, a holiday themed one! Just like last time, most of our cutting materials were things we already had around the house – so no need to go and purchase anything new. In fact, I look at this as a perfect time to use up some scraps we’ve no idea what to do with.

Polar Express Party

12 / 5 / 1312 / 14 / 13

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Though I really haven’t watched many Christmas movies, one that I have seen and love is The Polar Express. Back during Kuwait round one, our Grade One team had a little Polar Express ‘party’ for the students each year and it was great fun. Gracen’s never watched a full-length movie in one sitting, but she and Brad have been making their way through Cars in parts recently and she’s super into it (we’re talking falling asleep clutching her Mater truck at night and waking the next morning with it still in hand), so I thought we’d try a little Polar Express party for her and some of her friends. My goal was to keep it super simple – popcorn, pajamas, and The Polar Express projected on our wall. The munchkins were invited to bring along a favourite blanket and pillow to cozy up in, and showed up in the cutest jammies ever. The night before I threw together these super simple ‘I believe bells’ and train tickets using this free printable from The Crafting Chicks and set them out for Miss G to distribute at the end of the show.

Cranberry Popcorn Garland for the Birds

12 / 4 / 131 / 6 / 14

When I spotted fresh cranberries at our local grocery store here in Kuwait, I grabbed a bag immediately, knowing just how we’d put them to good use. Cranberry popcorn garlands are just one of those things – a craft so classic that it’s a shame to not try at least once.

Button Ornament Christmas Tree

12 / 3 / 1310 / 8 / 14

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After seeing Buddy & Buggy’s awesome 3 dimensional felt trees, I went in search of styrofoam cones {again with the styrofoam, I know…} Lo and behold, I found some at our beloved City Star in Egaila. I came home excited to cover them with felt, but when I spotted our star-shaped buttons in our crafting closet, a new project took shape.

{Life Size} Sticky Christmas Tree

12 / 2 / 1312 / 3 / 13

One of the things i love doing each year is setting up a tree {of some sort} that is just for G. A tree that she can call her own and not have to worry about being careful with. For her first Christmas as a toddler, I made her a giant felt tree that hung on the wall. She loved it {and then mice ate it up while it was being stored in our garage – gross!} The following year, I created a smaller felt board Christmas tree for her, and she still plays with it today. But for this holiday season, I wanted to try something new… A sticky tree! Our fall sticky apple tree was a big hit, as have our other sticky wall activities been, so I assumed this would be too. I was right. ☺

Simple Tissue Paper Christmas Wreath

12 / 1 / 1312 / 9 / 13

Up until this morning, our poppy wreath we’d made for Remembrance Day was still hanging on our apartment door. It was time for a change. Truthfully, I had no plans to create a new wreath today, so we kept things really easy and made a simple tissue paper Christmas Wreath.

Snowman Building Creative Table

11 / 26 / 1312 / 6 / 13

Last year’s Christmas tree decorating creative table just may be Gracen’s most talked about activity of all time. She’s literally talked about it multiple times each month for a year straight now. I’m not sure what has made that particular activity so loved, but we’ll definitely be doing it again this year. In the meantime, I decided we’d try something similar, but not exactly the same… This time, a snowman building creative table!

Paper Roll Handprint Reindeer

11 / 19 / 1311 / 22 / 13

Miss G and I have been collecting toilet paper rolls since moving to Kuwait with a certain project in mind (yes, it seems I’ve gotten over my phobia of crafting with something that once was housed in the washroom – phew!) With 30+ rolls now in our collection, we sat down to finally begin our project, and somehow, we ended up doing something completely different. I’m not quite sure what happened… Our paints were out, we were raring to go, and then Miss G mentioned reindeers. The rest is history. Before long, we had this cute little paper roll handprint reindeer, and absolutely no start on our much anticipated project. I guess that’s what happens when you try your best to follow the interests of your child – wonderful unexpected projects! Now I’m not going to lie and say that this is an open-ended project that inspires a ton of creativity – it’s not. Buuut, Miss G is all about ‘making decorations’ for the holidays, and she absolutely loved the process, despite it being quite structured. I figure as long as we’re doing a lot of open-ended creativity-inducing activities, the odd cutesy craft here and there is just fine!