Vacation's all I ever wanted...

Christmas vacation is going very well here for the Brown family! My children are enjoying themselves thoroughly and Phillip and I are taking it easy. Each day, we come up with some craft or food to make and a way to get out of the house. So far, so good. Previously, Miles has cried when school was out, but this time she is giggling and happy. I think she understands that everyone is out of school, not just her. (At fall break, she seemed to think that the rest of her class was still at school having fun and that we were just keeping her home. We could not convince her otherwise, and she cried like a mopey, depressed thirty-something.)

To think that tomorrow is Christmas Eve is astounding. The weather is so nice and mild. The sun is shining! So much for a white Christmas, huh? That's ok. My childhood memories always seem to include beautiful sunny Christmas days in Louisiana, so I'll talk a nice mild Tennessee Christmas.

We had planned to go to Liberty tonight to Mandy and Neil's house, but it looks like we are going stay in town. They have three more puppies to give away and need to meet some potential adoptive families for these three, so it would be hard to get together. They came over Friday night and I was able to give her the Little Wayne painting I commissioned from Jeff Bertrand. She loved it. We gave Neil some leather work gloves, some bungee cords and a copy of Capote. I guess you just have to know Neil to understand that gift combo. :)

I am very ready for Friday morning. Santa is bringing so many wonderful things this year! In fact, I may have gone a little overboard. Possibly. Slightly. But not really. We have lots of gifts under the tree and will all be getting many things that we wanted...but every penny spent was cash money, so that isn't too bad, right? No lingering debt after the holidays means it is ok, right? But I digress.

2009 has been a strange year. We've sent a child to kindergarten and we've passed along how good it feels to keep on volunteering in this community. We buried Papaw Joe but we've celebrated birthdays with lots of little friends just learning to be themselves. I went back blonde. Lola became a true LSU fan. (She's watching tv, wrapped in an LSU thrown right now. Don't prod her or she will ask you, "How 'bout them tigers?") The entire world said goodbye to MJ. We congratulated Britt on her engagement.

Merry Christmas to each and every family, with warm wishes for 2010!

Snowglobes

We made homemade snowglobes and it was really cool! This is an easy activity as long as you have adult supervision and the kids absolutely loved it!

You will need:

1. One tight sealing glass jar for each snowglobe, we bought two jars of pears at Dollar Tree and used those jars. Phillip got the labels off with a razor and acetone while the kids ate some pears. ;) This was cheaper than buying empty jars.


2. Water


3. Glitter, we should have used the larger kind instead of the fine kind I had


4. Glycerin, found in the soap making aisle of Hobby Lobby, $3.47 for a big bottle


5. A figurine, toy, etc., that will fit inside the jar and has a base that can be glued down; we let each girl pick a little figurine from Dollar Tree.


6. Hot glue gun and glue sticks


7. An ornate button to glue on top of the finished product; I have a huge collection of vintage buttons, so we used gold-tone honeycomb buttons.

Thoroughly dry your jar lid. Place a large dollop of hot glue right in the center and glue your figurine or small toy down, making sure to center it. In the jar itself, fill it most of the way with water. Add a nice splash of glycerin. Sprinkle in some glitter. Add a hint of blue food coloring if you'd like. You may need to add or dump a little water to get it basically full when the top is replaced with the figurine inside. Replace the lid very tightly. Turn the jar over and hot glue a pretty button to the top. Shake and enjoy!