Who you Gonna Call?

Ghost Busters! 

Dictionary Game

The game dictionary is so much fun and the only thing you need is a dictionary or you could use an online dictionary .

How to play:  the person whose turn it is picks out a word from the dictionary that nobody in your group knows and writes its description down.

At the same time each person writes down their definition of the word making it as convincing as possible.

Now the person whose turn it is reads all the descriptions out loud and everyone says which one they think is  right. 

You get one point for guessing the right definition.  And one point for each time someone has picked your definition.

One round is when everyone gets a turn to read the descriptions. You can play as many rounds as you want to.  It’s best to decide how many rounds you want to play before you start that way no wants to quit when they are ahead.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

This post card was mailed in 1905. I found it in a great antique store in Vermont.  

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Angel Tree

Something you should try to do once in your life is go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the  Christmas season and see their Angel Tree. It's kept in the Medieval Sculpture Hall. It's fun to go on Friday or Saturday in the evening. The museum is open until 9:00 and they have live music playing in the lobby. Until you get there here's some photos. 

Here's the link if you'd like to see more.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/120048635?img=1

                  

Beautiful Christmas Displays

Oh how I love glitter and shimmer and ABC Carpets in New York City knows how to set up great displays. Here are just a few.

Madonna and Child

Here are some Beautiful Madonna and Child paintings. These show the special love between

mother and child.           

Domenico Veneziano 1435-1437

                                                     

Rogier Vander Weyden 1647

Raphael 1504-1505

Fra Angelico 1433

Jacopo Bellini 1450

Sandro Botticelli 

A Fun Angel to Make with your Kids

Click the picture to learn how to make this Angel. 

Marie Antoinette as a Doll

                                                    See Marie Antoinette in my Etsy Store.

Making of Pine Cone People

The supplies you'll need are:

Pine cones

wooden heads (these can be bought at any hobbies store)

decorative paper

card board (the kind you find on the back of a drawing pad)

very small  pom poms

things for your pine "cone people" to hold

pipe cleaners

1) First cut out a cardboard circle a 1/4" to 1/2" larger then the base of your pine cone. Glue a circle of decorative paper over your cardboard circle with white glue.

                                2) With your hot glue gun, glue pine cones to their bases.

3) To decorate. See above the different stages.

 a) Glue on your wooden heads with hot glue.

b) Wrap your pipe cleaner around the back of your pine cone and secure it with a dot of hot glue.

c) Now put on the loose ends of the pipe cleaners what you'd like them to be holding.

d) To make hats cut out a circle out of your decorate paper an 1/2" bigger then your base circle. Fold in half and cut on fold,  then place glue along the newly cut edge. Then roll in the sides with the point being formed in the center of the cut line. Decorate hat. 

                                                Here's the finished "pine cone people".

Happy Hanukkah

How to make Pine Cones Open

Next blog I'll show you how to make pine cone people. If you can't find any pine cones open here's what you can do. 

Have you ever had a project that needed pine cones and you couldn't find any open?   You can either take the unopened pine cones indoors and leave them out for a few days they will usually open on their own or if you need them right away here's how to get unopened pine cones to open more quickly.

Place them on a cookie sheet. Then bake them at 300 degrees for about twenty minutes. Keep checking them to see if they have opened because some open sooner than others. Once they're open as far as you want them to open take them out and let cool before using them.

Pine Cone People

The Perfect Tree

One year when my boys were in middle school I was a bit tired of all the holiday season commercialism.  I have always decorated my Christmas tree with beautiful ornaments that I collected over the years and I wanted to do something different this year. Something that would help our family think about what is important during the holiday season.

When my sons came home from school I told them I did not want to get my ornaments out. I thought we should decorate the tree with red hearts. And on each red heart I wanted all of us to write something or someone we were thankful for.

I had a large heart paper punch and I started making hearts. And to my amazement as fast as I could make the hearts they would write who or what they were thankful for. Our tree became full of red hearts which made me smile.  They were so excited to do this exercise and their words were so special that to this day  I still have every heart.

The tree ended up being one of our most beautiful trees. And more people enjoyed that tree then the ones full of my beautiful ornaments. It made for a very special Christmas.

Years later a friend's husband died right before the holidays.  She, also, had collected ornaments throughout their life together. She did not know how she would get through Christmas. So I packed up the heart punch and the red paper and  I explained my idea. I told her to cut out many hearts and invite her friends and family to fill them out with things they loved and remember about her husband. She loved the idea and soon her tree was covered in beautiful hearts. The tree helped her get through that difficult Christmas.

Nutcracker Tea

To see the whole Nutcracker Tea click on the picture below.