Here's a little tour of our home & child care, as well as what I've been up to, instead of blogging, this month ;)
I love this shot of the frost between the windows & the ornament on the tree in the morning sunshine.
Last year Grandma handed out boxes of these balls she's made over the years. I was proud & Happy to hang them on our tree this year.
Mom & Bethany on our annual shopping day on the 12th. First stop-Valley West Mall.
loved finding music everywhere we went!
with no littles to put on the fat man's lap I settled for a shot of the scenery.
hehehe.. one of the fun signs @ Target- a major stop in our day.
Here they are, checking out :)
ahhhhhh sweet reward! mmmmmmm love the Target w/a Starbucks included!
The haul @ the end of the day:
Miss Lyla had a preschool Christmas program on the 21st. SOOOOOO cute!!
I have a great support group in running now. We've been running outside, yup, even when its 19 degrees! we run on the high school track . We even have a facebook group, Eat, Pray, Run
There's been some snuggling going on.. randomly of course.
we made & packaged up goodies for the neighbors, garbage man, mail man & bus drivers.
new gel clingies for the windows!
the snowman countdown
the childcare tree. This tree came w/the house & we used it upstairs our first year. last year it sat in the box. This year I decided to see if we could handle it & they've done GREAT!! we used cookie cutters for ornaments along w/a few random hanging things.
the balls we've hung from the ceiling for a few years.
My snowman dishes we used for the Tastefully Simple party @ the beginning of the month & again for the Girls' night In on the 18th.
my pooh mug w/the hot tea ball in it YUMMMMMM
Grandma brought this cutie to me on the 6th after discovering I collect Snowmen too.
he fits right in on the banister! here is the card wall gaining weight as the month goes on.
ahhhhh FFA fruit!! a staple to December in our town! this is almost gone!
Mom made this swag for me in the old house! I think it might be time to dress it up a little next year.
My poor jade nativity! its in a dangerous spot for having a 40# puppy in the house! so far, no casualties to report, we just quit standing them back up.
the new snowman towel from Grandma @Thanksgiving
my snowman families in the living room upstairs
the cinnamon ornaments mmmmm they smell sooooo good!!
a new winter air freshener I am trying, boiling water w/cinnamon stick+ oranges pierced w/cloves & a few whole all spice.
the childcare winter movie collection. that only comes out for December!
J&A w/their cinnamon ornament garland they made yesterday, its hanging in the doorway @ the bottom of the stairs. I hope its the first thing everyone smells as they enter.
there you go, our month in review.
Have a Very Merry Christmas!!
Today, was the first day of winter vacation. So we made our first ever Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments! Equal parts Cinnamon & Applesauce, stir, make a ball, roll out between freezer paper (its what I had on hand) to 1/2-1/4 inch, remove top sheet & cut w/cookie cutters. (We found the 'old skool' metal silhouette style definitely worked better than the plastic ones.) 
Punch a hole ALL.THE.WAY. THROUGH. w/a straw, bake on lightly greased baking sheet in oven @200 degrees for 3-4 hrs or until all are hard or let air dry for 3-4 days. of course we baked ours b/c I have no patience! ;) 
When they were cooled from baking, we threaded some w/loops of yarn for the tree, the rest we threaded on a loooooooooong piece of yarn alternating w/cut straws (to keep them separated) for a fun yummy smelling garland. 
I can totally see this fully embellished w/strips of material tied in knots over the straws, other dangly 'vintage/country' ornaments hanging from the straws & something else for the ends. But for now, this is good for us. (I am already eyeballing a swag that I've had for.ever. & is looking rather sad but still has some ca-ute parts that just might get rehomed soon ;) 
here are my versions. they are dangling from the ceiling in the child care & they LOVE THEM!! 
Now wondering if I can pull off a spider web wall like this one:
, eyelash fiber from my scrappy stash-I used alot of it to have it be a presence. Tim said it would be better w/twine & I agree so will probably change it next year. but for twenty ten, its complete :)
