Holy Cow.... only one week til Christmas!

I can't believe that Christmas is only 1 week away...eek!... and that December 1st is when this bitty girl was trimming the tree with her brothers...

The to-do list seems to be just as long as it was months ago! Still need to finish crocheting 5 winter hats for Christmas presents... the nice thing is they take no time at all... it's just finding the time between feeding children, bathing children, playing with children, getting children to and from school...to and from hockey...making lunches....etc, etc, etc... you know how it goes. And the wrapping of the presents will likely take place the night before Christmas... as usual.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it all....phew!

On a brighter note... I am extremely excited for the kids... hammy girl will enjoy this Christmas much more than last... mommy and daddy will be much less tired than we were last Christmas... and the boys will be super-duper pumped when they see what mommy and daddy got them.... ooooh, I can't wait!

Snowflake Play Dough

It's the first day of December (yay!!!!) and we woke up to snow, finally! It lasted on the ground for about an hour before the sun came up and melted it all. But just seeing it put me in the mood for decorating... my husband finally gave in to putting our tree up last night... he is strictly a December-tree-putter-upper. It's all decked out in lights so tonight when the boys get home from school we'll throw on some Christmas tunes and decorate the thing.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE getting up early in the morning before anyone else, before the sun comes up, making myself a nice cup of tea, turning on just the Christmas tree lights and sitting sipping my tea in silence - in the light of the tree lights - in silence.... SHHHHH. Even if it is just for a moment before someone starts calling, "ma-ma-ma-ma", or "Can I tell you about the transformer I'm going to build", or "I'm so-so hungry"..... just a little-teensy-weensy-minuscule moment all for me.

But, on another note.... my middle big man's teacher sent home a note requesting Snowflake Play Dough - in the spirit of winter. So here's the recipe (which I'm sure everyone already knows, but here it is anyway...)


SNOWFLAKE PLAY DOUGH

In a large bowl combine:
2 cups white flour
1 cup table salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar (what else do you use this strange stuff for????)
1 tube of white, pink or light blue opalescent glitter (I used about a 1/4 of a cup, but certainly use your own discretion for this part)

In another bowl/measuring cup/or some sort of liquid holding vessel, combine:
2 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon of oil

Add liquid to dry ingredients and mix well. Depending on what it feels like after all of your ingredients are mixed, you may need to add more flour if too smushy or more oil of too dry. Once it has cooled enough to hold, kneed it together until it feels smooth. Then package it in freezer bags or wrap it in plastic wrap. VOILA! Pretty sparkly "Snowflake" Play Dough.

Alternatively; you can omit the glitter(or not) and add liquid food colouring (with the liquids, of course), or two packages of kool-aid (for colour) to the dry ingredients. I use neon liquid food colouring and it makes very vibrant coloured play dough (and hands while making it)... the kool-aid makes nice pastelly colours with a great smell. For very intense colours, you can try sourcing out powdered food colouring. If there is a cake decorator in your area, they may be able to hook you up with powdered/paste food colouring sources.

The picture doesn't really show just how pretty my sparkles were, but you get the idea.

Thank-you to Mrs. N. for the recipe.