Deck the Halls...

Saturday and Sunday, Anna and I spent lots of time working on crafts. Reed had duty so we had the house to ourselves. We made salt dough ornaments in the morning and then moved onto a gingerbread house while the dough set. I wasn't so ambitious as to make the gingerbread house from scratch. Gingerbread, itself, seems a bit intimidating to me so we used a handy kit from Michael's. I mixed up the icing and then iced the house while Anna helped me hold it all together. Then she decorated it while I tried my hardest to make the icing look good. She is, I think, far better at decorating than I am at icing. There is a reason I don't help my mom with the birthday cakes. Afterwards, we headed to Walmart for supplies to make MORE ornaments- this time the cinnamon ones. When we got home, I rolled out the dough and Anna helped me to cut out the ornaments with cookie cutters. I stuck them in the oven to dry so that we could paint them on Sunday. She bugged and bugged us to paint them all day on Sunday but we wanted to take our normal Sunday nap so we compromised and took a short nap and then we all painted together. I found it to be very calming to sit with my 2 favorite people, painting and listening to Christmas music. It really doesn't get any better. Once the ornaments were painted, I put some shiny decoupage stuff on them and even added some glitter to a couple of the snowmen I painted. The ornaments are going to family and on our tree. Anna can't wait to hang them. She was incredibly cute trying really hard to make nicer ornaments. She would attempt to copy designs that me and Reed painted. I hope we can make this a tradition because I think we both enjoyed it so much and its so easy (and cheap!) to do! I hope to do the cinnamon ones tomorrow.

Here's the recipe for the salt dough that I used:
4c flour
1c salt
1.5c warm water

Combine warm water and salt until it starts to dissolve then slowly add flower. You can add more water if its too firm or more flour if its too loose. Then you have to let it set for about 6 hours or until the salt dissolves in the dough. I had to add water after it set because it felt too firm. You may also have to add a bit of water after you've rolled it out. Roll it out with some flour on a clean surface, just as you would for sugar cookies.

I'm still not done with the stockings. I had to make larger stockings for Brayden and Emma to put their gift cards in and a few stocking stuffers. I did 13 and then had to take a break. My poor thumb was throbbing because its very hard to get the needle through 2 pieces of felt and 2 pieces of ribbon which makes up the hook. I hope to get them done soon though.

Anna gets out of school on Friday and Reed leaves on Friday to spend the weekend on the ship. I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with my girl! Reed comes back on the 23rd and will be HOME for Christmas. He took leave until the 29th, I think, and then will check out of the USS George Bush on the 1st! Happy New Year to him! He will go ahead and check right into the USS Carl Vinson. We are both excited for the change of command and the opportunities that could come with this ship.