Getting Ready for the Holidays - The Weeks Before Christmas

James says that the holidays are turning into my time to shine. I don't know about that, but I did take on quite a few projects this year.

I dyed play silks to give to my niece. Play silks are basically just silk cloths that are played with to encourage imagination. They can be tied on and used as capes or skirts or hats, they can be used as peek-a-boo blankets for younger babies since they are slightly see through, or they can be the ground, sky, or water when playing with little toy people, or they can be doll blankets or slings, or pretty much whatever you can think of. I thought they were dumb at first when I heard about them, but I wanted to encourage imaginative play for Owen so I bought some blanks and gave it a try. The dyed silks are spendy, but blanks are only about three dollars each and dying them isn't that hard. He liked them so much I dyed them for him and then bought more. When Lyric started coming over she was thrilled with them and wanted them on as her cape every single time. So I dyed her three and they turned out pretty good.

Last year I had Owen paint ornaments for him to give as gifts to people. I wanted to do something like that again, but didn't want to do the exact same thing, so I got a kit to make soap. It is just the melt and pour type, so nothing to complicated. Owen helped a little, and he chose what to make and which colors to use and who to give the end products to. I like to have him do a hands on project like this of something he can give, so that it isn't all just about getting for him. He is proud to hand his presents out too.

I had some very old Sculpy sitting around so I decided to use it up and create some ornaments for the tree and make a dreidel. Since the Sculpy was all one color I had to paint the ornaments, which was a bit annoying, but they all turned out nice. I used cookie cutters to make a gingerbread cookie looking man, woman, boy, two cats, and house. Owen painted the house and it looks really cute, like it has frosting on it. Owen chose for the dreidel to be pink, and I painted the letters blue. I also made a snowman family ornament and a sun for the Solstice.

We took some family pictures near the tree for our annual holiday e-card. Owen was impossible this year, but we finally got a couple nice shots. I got the e-card done just in the nick of time.

I had always wanted to make a gingerbread house, so when we found a kit at the store I couldn't pass it up. I was excited to make it, but it was pretty disappointing. I don't understand how the frosting can come out looking so perfect for their pictures. My frosting had to be squeezed with all my might, and only about a quarter inch line would come out and that would instantly curl around, so I couldn't replicate the picture at all. I made it softer then their directions called for too, but I just couldn't get it to work right. Finally we just free styled it and Owen and I started picking up the frosting with our hands and smearing it on. Owen decided where he wanted all the candy and he stuck most of it on himself. It was very fun after I let the ideal house in the picture go, and maybe that's sort of a life lesson :-)



Pictures of the play silks: