Day #10: Picture a Christmas

Afton and I had some fun with this one. This is actually part of a photography scavenger hunt that she and I are doing.  We found one of our nativity sets and took pictures of it.  This is one of my favorites because the kids are free to play with it and rearrange it anyway they want to.  It sits upstairs in our living room under the Christmas tree.

Day #9: Stars or Snowflakes

Dennis actually found these very pretty 3D paper stars.  The instructions for them can be found Here.  We thought that we would hang them in the kitchen from the ceiling.

Day #11 Make Cookies

We made Christmas cookies today.  I was going to take pictures but they are all gone. . . they are that good.  So instead I'll post the recipe.  This is a recipe that I have had since I was in high school.  I remember making this dough up and taking it baby sitting.  It was great!  And quite honestly it doesn't even need frosting.  It's the light fluffy kind of sugar cookies and decorations are optional . . . obviously ours didn't last long enough to get them frosted and decorated.

Delux Sugar Cookie
(Betty Crocker)

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup powder sugar
cream together
add 1 egg mix well
then add
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
2 1/2 cups flour

Mix together and chill in fridge for a couple hours.  Roll out 1/4 inch and cut.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Watch them closely!!!

Day #8: Christmas Party

We went to our ward Christmas party. The children sang a very pretty song that they have been learning in primary.  It's called Our Christmas Story Tree. The primary children made a cute little tree ornament.  It was a good evening.

Day 7: Christmas Movie Marathon

Today we watched a lot of Christmas movies.  Actually the kids got burned out and it turned out to only be about half a day.  I did get a lot of clean done downstairs though.  For being essentially a PJ day it turned out to be pretty productive.

Day 1: Temple Square

We have an advent calendar hanging on our wall.  This year it is stuffed with one activity a day that we can do together. So we started our count down to Christmas on the first of December which was a trip to Temple Square. We stopped at in Salt Lake on our drive home from Davis county.  We got there just as they turned the lights on. The life sized nativity is always nice to see. It's just so real. We walked around the visitor center and up to the Christus. The grounds were very crowded so we didn't stay very long but it was very nice.

 

 

 

 

There is a statue at temple square that depicts a family pulling a handcart across the plains. The sculptor who created this statue based the image on a pioneer man named John Rowe Moyle.  John Moyle is the great-great-grandfather of Dennis' mother. He is the man who lost his leg and made a very innovative moving ankle.  He walked on this artificial foot over 20 miles to the Salt Lake temple sight to work the stone on the temple.  He is the one who carved the words "Holiness to the Lord" above the doors. His dedications is very motivational.

Day #6: Make a Craft

This was  a super easy recipe for dough ornaments that I found.

1/2 cup corn starch
1 cup soda
3/4 cup water

That's it.  You cook it on the stove for about 5 minutes on med low heat until it turns to a mashed potato consistency.  After we let it cool with a wet rag over the top of it we rolled out the dough to 1/4 inch thick (this is very important!) The girls had fun cutting out the shapes and helping me put them on a cookie sheet to put in the oven @175 degrees. We had to bake them in the oven for 1 hour turning once halfway through.  They are pretty fragile right now. I broke one just threading the ribbon through and Afton broke a couple doing the same. I think they will harden up a little more as they dry up. I also think I'm going to have to treat them with some kind of glosst finish, but they sure look pretty on the tree. They are supposed to last a long time.