12 days of Christmas.

Recently we all got in the car and headed to Bass Pro shops for their free Christmas picture with Santa and Holiday craft. It was a rainy Sunday and seemed like a great way to spend the day. I was wrong, actually it was a mistake. When we arrived at just after 1:30, all the cards called a bass pass they hand out for your place in line to have a few minutes and a picture taken with Santa were already handed out. They started handing them out at 10:00am, something not mentioned on the website. So the boys got to see Santa from a distance. And guess who actually took and hour break from 2:30 to 3:30? Really Santa, an hour? On a busy Sunday when you are allotted to be there from 12:00 to 5:00? I am just sayin'... While there we were handed the craft, I asked for three, no room to create at the store, we'll make it at home. Next, we headed over to the fish tank, the boys loved this. From the tank we could see the "big grey mountain" also known as the rock climbing wall. There were a few kids in line and we watched. My boys were not interested in trying. We headed over to the arcade, an old style shooting arcade, that costs $.0.50. We had no change and the change machine was broken or empty. We went over to a register and were told they can't open a register for change unless we buy something? The boys played the video game for awhile and looked at the toys available. Sean had his eye on a coon skin hat for $9.95. We were curious to see what else was at this mall so we ventured out. We visited the lego store, slot car racing, saw the carousel, and then tried to eat at Johnny Rockets... very unsuccessfully. Hungry and tired we left through the Bass Pro Shop where Sean did buy the coon skin cap, and then headed home. The morning after Craig wanted to go back to that cool store. Me not so much.

So why call this post the 12 days of Christmas. I do better at home, proof positive by this latest trip. So I have come up with about 12 different tasks/ crafts to look to entertain the kiddos as the anticipation grows. I will mark our calendar for events that we should not miss, like Santa at the clubhouse, and the Grinch Who Stole Christmas on TV. Then I will place on strips of paper other ideas and place them in a jar. I have pre-purchased all ingredients to accomplish such tasks. And as the big day approaches we can look to the jar for something to do for fun.
Some examples are: a gingerbread house, purchased from joanne's that we just need to assemble. Make these cardboard ornaments that look like
snowflakes from Family Fun Magazine.


Make these stars also from Family Fun,


for our tree that's lit up and placed on our front door step. Call Grammy and Grampy. Make Shrinky Dink ornaments, Make
dog biscuits for Blue and our neighbors' dogs too. Or these Tweet Treats for the birds.Make these pretzel rod snowmen from Family Fun as well. Make
Chex Mix for gifts for our teachers and coaches. Watch a Christmas movie. Make glitter snowflakes for our windows. There's so much to do. We'll keep those little hands occupied. And I am looking forward to the memories we'll be making. Leave me a comment about your favorite treat or craft to make each holiday.

Suzanne

Great gifts for before Christmas day!

and the winner is....

congrats Ike... look for a surprise in your mailbox shortly! Thanks to all for your comments. happy holidays!

As I was perusing websites for the next great holiday gift, I came across this shrinky dink holiday kit. What a great idea, a craft for us to do before the holiday as the buildup starts for the big day. Which then sparked my memory that it's time to order my legos advent calendars.

You see every year we get an advent calendar. And every year we exchange gifts with some old neighbors, still friends. So one year I ordered extra advent calendars and sent them early so they would have them before Christmas. I made sure to mark the box Please Do Open Before Christmas. Legos can be small for little kids and not so super for little girls,

so I found the littlest pet shop

and polly pocket advent calendars.

I see that they have My little Pony,

and Barbie calendars as well

Everyone loved their gift that year. I repeated for the next 2 years, until I came across the

Elf on a Shelf. Here's info on him here. We received him one year as a gift to enjoy early as well, you place the elf on a shelf somewhere in your home and he observes the children's and parent's behavior in the house each day and while we sleep reports back to Santa. Then next morning he appears in a different spot. The fun begins once you name him, read the companion book, and then trying to find him every morning. I must add that this tradition is a commitment as your elf needs to remember to report to Santa each evening, and finding new spots to appear can get challenging? My out of the area friends loved their elf on a shelf, my local friends already have one. I believe he's available at Hallmark now, so make sure he's still a novelty before you gift one. So this year I am back to the advent calendars, I even found that the legos from the years past are worth a substantial amount of money (unopened of course). As the boys get older one set will not do as they fight over whose turn it is, and some days are better surprises than others. So We really enjoy the playmobil sets.

We have, Christmas in the Park, and A Knight's Duel.
Compared to the legos, those pieces tend to last long as they don't have to be assembled.
I highly recommend amazon.com to order your calendars as they are very hard to find in stores, and amazon will mail them to the person you wish to receive them for you. I did see the legos advent calendar at Target with a $5.00 off coupon in their Christmas catalogue.



Some other ideas are Christmas cookies sets, you can buy sugar cookie mix, sprinkles and cookie cutters and send them as a kit. Or the gingerbread tree kit is worth the money.

Super easy to do and they come out pretty cute.
Have fun building up to the holiday. It's a memory maker for sure and adds to that reason for the season feeling.

Tell me some of your before Christmas, customs or traditions. I will pick a random winner Sunday November 15, 2009 at midnight and send you a shrinky dinks holiday tree for leaving a comment.

contest available to us residents only.

Suzanne

New design for bluedaisygraphics.com

I am very excited to launch my new look for my website. Please check it out here
http://www.bluedaisygraphics.com/

It's been a couple of years since I redesigned, so I wanted to use my blog as a platform to announce the new look. If you are visiting thanks to my email blast, Thank you, I have a freebie for your time.

I have been designing Holidays cards and was inspired to take the same drag and drop approach to my digital scrap booking kits. I will provide layouts, two 12 x 12 pages, where all the elements will be on a separate layer, and you can easily drag and drop your photos into the existing layout, customize as needed or, use the different elements from the kits as you see fit.

My kits will still be A thru Z themed, with the intent to post a new kit weekly, starting with A is for apples, B is for butterflies and C is for cupcakes. I will throw in freebies often to thank you all for visiting, and hopefully forwarding my info to your friends. This blog will have other giveaways than just scrap booking so look for that as well.

On my website, I have condensed the info and have a link to sign up for my email newsletter. I am using constant contact for my newsletters and email blasts. I also have a store on etsy.com where I list my digital designs for cards and my A to Z scrap booking kits. I am using carbonmade to display my portfolio, so visit that if you want to see examples.

If any of these vehicles interest you let me know and I will help customize them for you and your needs.

facebook and I have become quite friendly and I am dabbling in having a page there for Blue Daisy Graphics. A link is in the sidebar if you want to become a fan.

Here is the freebie I promised, from my A is for apples kit.



click on the image to take you to a link to download the compressed zip file.

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