Turtle Doves and Biscuits: Christmas Creations

Mariah, did we seriously both add a little lacy cheer to our brown bag wrapping. What are the chances!

I made these bath salts with my activity day girls. They are fun to make and so easy. We used sugar instead of Epsom salts and added a ton of glitter of course.

Christmas village made out of easy craft clay:

Here's what you'll need...

• 1 box baking soda (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Sauce pan
• Bowl
• Spoon
• Plastic wrap

Here's how you make it...

1. Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring consistently, until it is too thick to stir with a spoon.

2. Cool for 15 minutes, or until the dough is cool enough to touch. Knead it for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. Keep dough wrapped in plastic.

Once you have molded it, it will take 1-2 days for the clay to dry. This clay can be painted with either Tempera or acrylic craft paints.

Jane spent a year on this embroidery project for Grammy. She just figured it out on her own without any guidance from me so I was really impressed with how well it turned out.

Charlie wrote this letter to Baba to give to him with the felted bee he made. He read it for all of us on Christmas day- it was really cute.

Charlie found this real peacock feather at a pumpkin farm and he gave it to Grammy. It made for some fancy wrapping.

I put together a kit for Tim so he can teach the boys some manly stuff this next semester- like knot tying, compass stuff, starting fires, etc. Kind of a scouts/survival class. I gathered some supplies and printed tutorials for a few activities just to give him a head start on it. One of the activities I thought would be fun for the boys to make are these survival bracelets. They actually ended up making them on Christmas day and got pretty in to it. The best part is the fancy heart knot I tied around the gift as part of the wrapping. It's so satisfying to tie a knot right, sort of like getting the right answer at the end of a long math equation. Feel free to ask me to show you, it's super fun to do.

The kids cut out these felt ornaments and decorated the mini school room tree. It brought some cheer to our studies in December.

Jacob spent close to a year working on this project. He loves to tell us about his "imaginations" and when he gets started you better plan on at least an hour of listening. Finally, I started typing them out while he was talking so we can read them when he's older. I had them made into a booklet and he drew illustrations to go with each story. He worked so hard so it was rewarding for him to give his book to family (and Summer) for Christmas.