No school today.
It was a personal development day for the teachers. Boy were my kids psyched!
A day off in December, what on earth could we do?
We decided to deck the halls some more and get into the Christmas spirit.
Charley our Elf on a Shelf has come to the house. Today he was hanging in the hall way.
Way more important than the big green one is our gum drop tree! It’s one of our favorite traditions. Every kid that comes to visit heads right to the gum drop tree. Who am I kidding, the adults do too!
We are one of those faux tree families. I just can’t see chopping down trees and throwing them out 3 weeks later. I’ve had the same tree for over a decade and in this way I sort of feel like it fits my reuse/recycle motto. My 9-year-old loves building the tree. She thinks it’s the coolest puzzle ever. She wanted to do it all by herself this year. She is getting so big and so very independent.
After the tree was set up, we turned on some Christmas music and pulled out all the paints and paper. It’s time to make Christmas cards!
My youngest is a tactile abstract kind of kid. He likes the act of creating texture, smoothing with the brayer and stamping. So I gave him a giant sheet of paper and let him play. My idea is to chop them up into small 4×6″ pieces and then glue them to pretty card stock. We got the art made today, card assembly will have to be another day.
My daughter decided to create her own stamps. She made a tree, snowman, Santa hat, reindeer and mitten. We got the foundations done today. Another day she will add details with paint markers.
For my Christmas cards I sort of went the same way as my son. I used the brayer to mix paints and create a textured foundation. I then took some of my handmade stamps and created little vignettes. Mostly trees and snow. I plan on cutting up my great big sheet into card sized pieces and then I plan on drawing in birds, kids, and winter scenes. We used this copper paint today. It looks like a fiery sunset. I love it.
It was a blessing to have my kids home today. We all needed some rest and a nice solid block of time to reconnect.
I fully understand just how quickly it goes and I simply adore days like these.
I am thankful.
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