First of all that I have to start off by saying that my heart is still breaking for the families of the victims of the shooting in CT on Friday. I can't imagine the pain that they must be feeling right now. I would be lying if I didn't say that I literally think about it all the time, and I have given my sweet pea more kisses and hugs in the past 3 days than I can count. I will never be able to understand how someone could be so selfish to take the life of another, let alone an innocent child, and it makes me sick to my stomach every time I see those children's faces on the news or facebook. I just pray for peace for the families, especially this time of the year, and hope that they know that the LORD is taking great care of their loved ones until they get to meet again.
On a lighter note, I wanted to share a few fun projects that I copied from pinterest this Christmas season. I am sure most of you have seen the felt tree that is floating around pinterest and I knew the second that I saw it, that I wanted to make one for sweet pea. I purchased the felt for the tree in the fabric section of Hobby Lobby and the felt for everything else came from there as well. I first cut the shape for my tree and hung it on the door to sweet's playroom using some sticky dots. Then I cut various sizes of presents, ornaments and lights out of the other felt. Since felt sticks to felt I just stuck it all on until it looked right. I did this at night, so when sweet pea woke up the next day she was so excited and literally started playing with it right away. It was definitely a big hit and will be making a return appearance for years to come.
(P.S. this project cost me less than $10)
The next fun thing that we have been doing is also another popular pinterest activity. I collected all kinds of books that had to do with winter and Christmas (most coming from the half price bookstore and some from scholastic at school) to wrap up, and sweet pea has gotten to open one every night since December 1st. Its kind of like an advent of sorts. She literally gets so excited every time she gets to pick one and when she opens it she always has the biggest smile and says "thank you thank you mommy"! Melts my heart every time and was well worth the time and effort of finding the books. She will get to open one until the 24th and on that night we will read "Twas the night before Christmas" which has been a tradition since I was little.
The third and final project is a wall advent calendar. This large frame was already hanging on the wall in her bedroom with something else inside, but I took it down for the month of December and it got replaced with this advent calendar. I got the idea to make the napkin pockets from Carmel over at Our Fifth House. All I did to make the pockets was fold the napkins (cocktail that I already had) then taped them closed leaving only an opening at the top. I found some cute Christmas stickers in the dollar bin at Joann fabrics and used them to decorate each pocket. I then wrote the numbers on with a magic marker. I attached some string to the frame using my trusty staple gun and then hung each pocket with mini clothespins. I filled the pockets with assorted candy.
This is literally the first thing that sweet pea asks to do as soon as her eyes open in the morning. She says "mom I need to get my candy". It's probably not the best idea to give your child sweets as soon as they wake up in the morning, but hey it is Christmas so why not!
It turned out way cuter than I thought it would, so I think I will definitely have another go at it next year. I just had to share this shot because that sweet little vintage reindeer used to belong to my grandmother who passed away this summer, and it makes me smile to be able to share her things with sweet pea. Two of it's friends made it home as well and reside in other parts of the house.
