On the first and second day of Christmas

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I am going to try and post something for the Christmas season everyday. I think this will help me to think of activities to do with the kids that they will carry with them.

On December 1 the kids made their Christmas ornaments. I used the salt dough recipe from Allrecipes- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/dough-ornament-recipe/.

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2.	Mix flour and salt well. Gradually add water, stirring with a large spoon. Finish mixing with hands. Knead until soft and pliable.
3.	Roll out on floured surface about 1/8 inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheets. With a toothpick make a hole in the top of the ornament for threading string. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until hard, about 1 hour. Decorate with paint and varnish to preserve I lowered the oven temperature to 300 degrees and only baked the ornaments for 1 hour then I just left them in the oven to cool. They turned out perfect. Then the kids painted them with acrylic paints from the hobby store. I did not get a good picture of them but here are a few on the tree. Then on December 2 we picked out our Christmas tree, brought it home, and finally decorated it. I opened a bottle of Pink Moscato champagne for my husband and I, a bottle of red grape sparkling cider for the kids, turned on Christmas music, and let the boys decorate. I love having a Christmas tree but I take a hands off approach to decorating it. The boys love looking at all of our old ornaments, hanging the new ones, and sneaking candy canes. I set up my Nativity set on the piano to remind of the true reason behind Christmas. When the boys finish the tree, they rush to turn off all of the lights in the house so that the tree is the only light we see. Their happiness fills my heart with pure joy. Merry Christmas, may your spirit be bright. The tree all dressed up. The tree all lit up. My favorite boys! I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love and laughter. Be well my friends.