a little of this and a little of that at Christmas

The hubs took one for the team on Friday.

No need to spill details, which I'm sure you don't want to hear. Needless to say, he was out of commission all weekend.

Which meant that I had some creative thinking to do to keep the littles busy.

We started with this...



Yeah, homemade would have been better, but I'm livin' up to my new mantra...."It is good enough."

I was worried that with 3 guys wanting to nibble, there wouldn't be enough candy, but there was just enough...



And I should clarify: When I say we started with the gingerbread house, I mean me.



This is usually Kevin's gig. The frosting bit was goopy and more tedious than I expected so like any impatient mom, I scooted them out of the room. Nothing say "holidays" more than, "Can you go play on the ipad or wii until I get this frosting bit done?"

Nice.

However, once the walls of the gingerbread house were firmly established, the kids were invited back and were given the go-ahead to do whatever they wanted. I've learned. With one kid, the control freak in me would have had a grand master plan and tried to direct the whole thing. Now, I'm just glad they are busy with something and let them at it.

Luke had a serious approach. He's the mini engineer of the family.



Charlie was hoarding candy. I'm convinced we're going to see him on that reality show about hoarders twenty years from now. What can you say? He's the middle one; everyone is always taking something from him. It is self preservation.

Jack was concerned about eating. Go figure. I just took him to his well visit on Friday and my "baby" is off the charts.

They were quite pleased...



And to kill even more time on Sunday,we made ornaments. I may or may not have hidden behind my Christmas tree as a small kid and licked the salty ornaments I made in school.

They are super easy to make. Ours were the no-brainer version since we weren't planning on making them. No fancy shmancy stuff here:

Mix 2 cups flour with 1 cup salt. Then add 1/2 cup of water. Mix. Add another 1/2 cup of water. Knead until soft. Can take up to 10 minutes.



Two options:

1. Separate dough into small bowls and add food coloring.

Or

2. Start rolling dough if you are going to use paint to add color after baking.

Then

3. Roll. Use cookie cutters, make wreaths, etc.

4. Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hours.





Don't forget to use a straw or a pen cap to poke a hole for the twine or ribbon for hanging.



Add beads, glitter glue, sequins, etc. if desired. And have toothpicks on hand for designing. We improvised with a knife and the straw, but it wasn't the same. Add clear laqueur finish if you use food coloring or use an acrylic paint (spray paint is super easy) if you don't use food coloring.



The boys made some for the kid tree upstairs and some to share with friends. And it must be genetic because I may or may not have observed one of my littles sampling the doughy ornament before I added the laqueur.