Where's Rudolph Scavenger Hunt ~ Find Rudolph for your chance to win!

Rudolph is hiding! Who's up for a scavenger hunt? We're giving away over $500 in prizes! There will be FIVE winners that will each get a prize bundle valued at $100!

Start your hunt here : Where's Rudolph?

Contest ends December 16th at midnight! Be sure to read all instructions and rules. Have fun & good luck!!

Countdown to Christmas - Day 11

Welcome to my 25 Days of Christmas Project! We're counting down the days til Christmas, sharing activities, ideas, and cheer with you!

Day 11 : Christmas Plays and Concerts

This week, we will be attending my daughter's choir concert for school. My other daughter is also preparing for a Christmas concert that will be performed at her school next week. She is super excited because she has a speaking part, announcing one of the songs they'll be singing!

If you do not have the opportunity to attend such a concert or play, why not put on a Christmas related play or concert with your children just for fun? You could organize and direct the production or participate in the performance with them! Plan practices, dress rehearsals, and set a date for friends and family to attend the performance at your house. What a fun evening!

If your children love to sing, a concert may be the way to go. You can choose 3 or 4 songs for them to sing or let them help you choose the songs. They will have fun practicing the songs and dressing up for the big night!

If you are creative and imaginative, you may be able to write your own play for your children to perform. Maybe they could invite friends to participate and fill character roles.

The children may also enjoy acting out skits from popular stories or songs they already know! Here are a few ideas : 

* A Christmas Carol

* Act out a Nativity scene and give each child a speaking part

* Gingerbread Man

* Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

* Silent Night

* Twas the Night Before Christmas

* 12 Days of Christmas

* Act out scenes from any Christmas story or song and ask the audience to guess who you are

* Frosty coming to life

 

 Have fun and encourage imagination. Mix stories together and do several scenes. Have fun making costumes or raiding closets and letting the kids play dress up. Decide if you'll be funny or serious. Do you want to encourage audience participation?

Maybe this could become a new family tradition! Enjoy :)  

   

Day 10 of The Countdown to Christmas

Welcome to my 25 Days of Christmas Project! We're counting down the days til Christmas, sharing activities, ideas, and cheer with you!

Day 10 : Christmas related games for kids

1. Musical Chairs ~ Play like regular musical chairs game. Have same number of chairs as children minus one. Kids circle the chairs while music plays. Pause the music and whoever is left without a chair is out. Remove a chair and continue until only one person is left. For this version, play Christmas music. Jingle Bell Rock and Rockin Around the Christmas Tree are good songs for this game.

2. Pin the nose on Rudolph ~ Here is a picture of Rudolph to print. And here is a page full of red noses to print. Just place double sided tape on the back of the noses for each child. Hang the picture of Rudolph to a wall. Blind fold and spin each child for their chance to pin the nose on Rudolph!

3. Candy Cane Pass ~ You will need 4 candy canes. Children sit around in a circle. The child to start the pass holds the candy canes in one hand (one candy cane between each finger) and passes the candy canes to the child next to them. Each child can only use one hand to take the candy canes and can only hold them between their fingers. If someone drops a candy cane, they are out.

4. Snow Ball Toss ~ Use a small bucket about the size of a beach bucket. And several small styrofoam balls from a craft store. Children take turns tossing the "snow balls" into the bucket.

5. Santa Says ~ Played just like Simon Says. One child wears a santa hat and they are Santa. This child states actions for the other children to do such as "Santa says, hop on one foot." The other children follow the directions as long as the leader says "Santa says". They cannot stop hopping on one foot until the leader says "Santa says, Stop." If the leader gives a command by not saying Santa says first, the other children should not follow the directions. Children are out if they complete a command by the leader in which the leader did not state "Santa Says".      

Christmas Countdown ~ Day 9

Welcome to my 25 Days of Christmas Project! We're counting down the days til Christmas, sharing activities, ideas, and cheer with you!

Day 9 : Make bird feeders using pine cones and peanut butter

You will need:
newspaper
pine cones
corn meal
crunchy peanut butter
bird seed
raisins
twine

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Place pine cones on foil and bake in 225 degree oven for approx 20-25 minutes. Once pine cones are cooled, cut twine approx 3 feet long for each pine cone and tie to the top of each pine cone.

2. Spread newspaper over workspace. In a large bowl, mix equal amounts of corn meal and crunchy peanut butter. We used 1 C corn meal and a little over 1 C peanut butter, which was more than enough for 3 medium-sized pine cones.

3. Add bird seed and raisins. Stir well. We used an 11 oz bag of seeds and 1.5 oz box of raisins.

4. Now begin spreading the mixture onto the pine cones. A thin layer all around will do. Try to push the mixture up into the petals of the cone without breaking them.

5. Once the first layer has been applied, spread a thicker layer over the entire pine cone. The mixture should stick very well. Use your fingers to push the mixture in place and shape over the cone. Place pine cones in a freezer for at least one hour. We kept ours in overnight.

6. Once your bird feeder is firmed up from being in the freezer, it is ready to hang!

Christmas Countdown ~ Day 8

Welcome to my 25 Days of Christmas Project! We're counting down the days til Christmas, sharing activities, ideas, and cheer with you! 18 more days..

Yesterday we sang some Christmas songs karaoke style, which was a lot of fun. Today's advent activity was making handmade decorations. The kids made a welcome sign for Santa. Still not sure where to hang it. LOL They also made ornaments out of clay. Very creative! They look great.

Day 8 : Recipe : 5-Layer Cool Whip & Pudding Delight Dessert

Ingredients:

First Layer:
1 1/2 C flour
3/4 C melted butter
1 C nuts

Second Layer:
1 C powdered sugar
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

Third Layer:
1 C cool whip, thawed

Fourth Layer:
Large box instant pudding, any flavor

Fifth Layer:
1 C cool whip, thawed

Toppings:
shaved chocolates & nuts

1. First Layer: Mix together flour, melted butter, & nuts. Pat into 9x13 pan. Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Let cool.

2. Second Layer: Mix powdered sugar and softened cream cheese until well blended. When crust is completely cooled, spread cream cheese layer over crust.

3. Third Layer: Add 1 C cool whip over cream cheese layer. Place in freezer for one hour. Meanwhile, prepare pudding for fourth layer according to package directions and place prepared pudding in fridge to chill.

4. Remove dessert from the freezer and remove pudding from fridge. Spread the pudding layer over the cool whip layer.

5. Fifth Layer: Add another layer of 1 C cool whip.

6. Sprinkle with shaved chocolates and nuts.  

Christmas Countdown ~ Day 7

Welcome to my 25 Days of Christmas Project! It's December 6th and only 19 days until Christmas. Yesterday we made our holiday cards which the kids will have fun handing out. Today we are turning off our television (although Polar Express is on) and singing Christmas songs!

Today's activity on the advent calendar stated "Play & listen to Christmas music AND have fun singing Christmas songs!" So my children decided we must do some karaoke!

We don't have a karaoke machine or anything like that, but this is what the kids came up with. We used one of their toy microphones to sing into and looked up Christmas songs karaoke with lyrics on YouTube. It was a blast!!

Here are some of the songs we had fun singing:

*Jingle Bell Rock
*Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
*Silent Night (my daughter learned this one in sign language! Very cool!)
*The Twelve Days of Christmas
*All I Want for Christmas is You
*Frosty the Snowman
*Blitzen's Boogie (a song from my daughter's music class)
*Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer
*Deck the Halls
*O Christmas Tree
*Let it Snow
*Santa Claus is Coming to Town       

Christmas Countdown ~ Day 6

Welcome to my 25 Days of Christmas Project! Today is December 5 and there are only 20 days until Christmas. I have made a promise to my children to spend special time with them. During our "25 Days of Christmas" countdown, we are using an advent calendar to organize our special daily activities. 

The kids took a HUGE part in the decorating this year! I thought I would share some pictures with you. One of our activities recently was to make paper snowflakes, which are now hanging in the windows. We used a lot of ornaments to decorate around the house. I love filling vases and glass bowls with ornaments. The girls also made some heart shaped ornaments that are filled with sand and used those as table decor on glass candle holders.

We also have lights strung all around throughout the house. Another theme we used is a large snowman with buckets of snow balls (styro foam). And the girls also made their own little snowmen using the styro foam balls and toothpicks. So cute :)

Yesterday, we drank hot chocolate and watched The Dog Who Saved Christmas. Tonight, the girls made Christmas cards and we watched Home Alone. They each made a list of who they wanted to give cards to and they had the choice of making their own cards or using ones we bought from the store. They are super excited to hand out their special cards.