{25 Days of Christmas: Day 19}

Today's books were... Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck and Who is Coming to Our House by Joseph Slate.

Our activities for the day were supposed to be either nativity blocks or a felt nativity set. Needless to say with how busy we've been traveling, etc. I didn't get either of those things made. Instead we decorated a foam Christmas tree that Christopher got at our playdate gift exchange from his buddy Owen. Since he loves "stickies" right now I knew this would be a perfect fill in.

He also got a paint set, foam number puzzle, mini felt Christmas tree and ornaments and finger puppets/ornaments to decorate. We've played with all of these things so far and he loves to tell me who each of the gifts are from!

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 18}

Our book for today was The Gingerbread Man by Catherine McCafferty.

Our activity for the day was to make Gingerbread playdough. Since this was Christopher's gift to all of his playdate buddies we had to do this Sunday evening so today we just played with some of the other activities we've done in the past few weeks. We also played with Christopher's gingerbread playdough which is the first playdough he's really gotten into, maybe because it smells so yummy?

Mixing it up!

Knead it and let it cool!

We packaged the dough in these cute containers from the Dollar Tree and included a 6 pack of Christmas cookie cutters, from the Dollar Tree, as well.

The playdough recipe can be found here.

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 17}

Today's book was Jingle Bells by Veronica Vasylenko.

Our activity for the day was to make jingle bell bracelets, although I think Christopher could have just played with the container of bells all day. I gave him some pipe cleaners and let him string on as many bells as he wanted to. It turned more into putting bells on the pipe cleaner and shaking it than making a bracelet but we all had fun!

Having fun making some noise

Our "bracelet" now decorating the kitchen cabinets

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 16}

Our books for the day were The Hat & The Mitten, both by Jan Brett.

Our activity for the day was matching felt mittens. I cut out twelve little mittens from felt, two of each color. When we got done reading the books I had Christopher match the mittens, although he just wanted to stick them to his felt tree, but that worked too.

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 15}

Our book for the day was That's Not My Snowman by Fiona Watt.

 Christopher loves, loves, loves all the books in the "That's Not My..." series. We have quite a few now thanks to yardsales and consignment shops and I was excited to find this one a few months ago at a yardsale. So far, just like the others, it's a hit!

Our activity for the day was to play with "snow" playdough (aka white playdough) and I gave him a snowman cookie cutter to explore with. He loved when Daddy came to help and they cut out seven snowman from his playdough!

A snowman!

Daddy is cutting out the snowman and I'm stacking them in my container.

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 14}

Our book for today was Let it Snow by Maryann Cocca-Leffler.

 I love all the illustrations in this story and the cute storyline, but be warned... you will be looking forward to snow after reading it :)

Our activity for the day was to make Christmas thank you cards. I loved this Christmas card that the Dubien family made and knew that since there was no way I could get Christopher (or Tim for that matter) to put their fingerprints on 75-80 cards, I would use it for our thank yous. Maybe when we are finished building our family and all our little blessings are older they will think this is fun to do as a Christmas card, they can also help me in convincing Daddy that it would be fun :)

Of course I had to decorate the envelopes too :)

Little reindeer

 I kept it simple and just did Christopher's thumbprint with brown ink. Then I added the antlers, eyes and nose with a marker instead of doing all the extras. I think they turned out adorable and am excited to send them out sometime soon!

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 13}

Our book for the day was How to Build a Snowman by Jo Moon.

Overall an adorable book, Christopher loved the textures and illustrations. He'll be all ready to build his first snowman when it snows!

Our activity for the day was to paint a snowman. I gave Christopher a piece of blue construction paper and white paint then let him go to town with a paintbrush. After his creation was done drying Mommy turned it into a snowman.

Christopher's favorite part was "snowman's hat."

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 12}

Today's book was Dream Snow by Eric Carle. 

Christopher's absolute favorite part of this book is at the end when you get to push a button which makes some lights sparkle and plays a soft tune. He did this over and over again and proceeded to do a little dance while it was playing. I'm thinking we may see this special dance several times over the next few days.

Our activity for the day was to do a snowflake rubbing. Since we did not have a large snowflake stencil, I drew a snowflake on a piece of paper and outlined all the lines with hot glue. When it was time to do the activity I put a blue piece of paper over the snowflake and Christopher colored it with a white crayon so the snowflake would show up.

It was hard to get the lines to show up and little man didn't have the strength to do it by himself so he just asked for Mommy's "help." I absolutely love when he says, "Mommy help," although at this stage we get a lot of screeching out of frustration too :)

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 11}

Our book for the day was If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff.

Absolutely love the "If You Give a ___ a ____" series. I was so excited when the Kohl's Care program had all the stuffed animals to go along with these books a few years ago and bought them all. Christopher's favorite (and of one his favorite "stuffies" of all time) is the cupcake cat, or as he calls it "Char Char."

Our activity for the day was simple and sweet, watch Merry Madagascar and wrap some presents. As we are in Baltimore still, and I was not bringing presents and wrapping paper along in our already stuffed car, we stuck to the Merry Madagascar plan. That was perfectly alright with this Mama as it means a nice break and who doesn't love Madagascar, ok I'm sure there are some weirdos, but what can you say for them :)

Enjoying the movie in my Merry Madagascar socks I got a few Christmas's ago

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 10}

Today's book was Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney.

I got this book when it first came out because I loved the Llama Llama series, and so did my preschool class. Christopher loves reading the Lllama Llama board books that just came out but isn't into the older versions yet. I still thought I would give it a shot but he didn't recognize it as his precious "Llama Llama" yet, maybe next year :)

Our project for the day was Christmas action/movement cards created by Alison at Oopsey Daisy. You can download these adorable cards right from her page and then print them out! I laminated ours as little man is still into destroying things at random. He at least tried to do all of them but his favorites were chuckling like Santa (and if you've ever heard his chuckle you'll understand why) and twirling like a snowflake since for some reason he loves to spin in circles ridiculously fast and never seems to tire of it.

I'm sure we will use these for years to come and even in these next few winter months as we are trapped inside!

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 9}

Our book for the day was It's Christmas, David! by David Shannon.

We have a few of the David board books and though they've never been Christopher's favorite I thought this book would be great due to it's simplicity and that sometimes, David's silly antics remind me of Christopher.

Our activity for the day was to paint with cookie cutters. I got a pack of six cookie cutters at the Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, $1! I put the paint on a plate, showed Christopher what to do, and he went to town.

Having fun! His favorite cookie cutter was the "stockin."

He absolutely dislikes having anything on his hands. This was right after he got some paint on them.

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 8}

The book for today was Curious George, Curious About Christmas by H.A. Rey.

Christopher loves Curious George and as soon as he opened the book he was saying, "George, George." This is also a touch and feel book so double the fun!

Our activity for the day was supposed to be to go to Tiny World (aka Tiny Town) but due to being in Baltimore for a training this past week, and going again next week, today was spent grocery shopping, doing laundry and repacking. Plus we're all exhausted from traveling so we're just enjoying some family time together.

Another great activity for this time of the year is pinecone birdfeeders. I used to love making these when I was younger and watching all the birds enjoy a snack. Easy to make with little hands and something fun to do together!

Hope you are all enjoying your Saturday!

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 7}

Our book today was J is for Jesus by Crystal Bowman.

Christopher got this book last year as a gift from our church nursery and we were very excited to use it this year in our Christmas countdown!

Our activity for the day was candy cane sensory tubes. I found the idea at Teach Preschool and knew that I would have no problem persuading Tim to eat some candy for me. This year I made two for Christopher to explore; one had green water and vegetable oil and the other was filled with red water and marbles or "snowballs." If I would have been really on top of it I would have had red or green electrical tape, but I'll settle for the black :)

Another fun activity, that we didn't get to do this year, was to make Candy Cane Playdough... how fun!

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 6}

Our book for the day was What is Christmas? by Michelle Medlock Adams.

For our activity today I made a sensory box with our Fisher-Price Nativity.

I put Christopher's Fisher-Price Nativity, and scraps of paper from the books we've opened the past few days (gotta be green,right?), into a Sterilite container and mixed it all together. Then I let him go through it and find all of the pieces to his nativity. He carefully sorted out each scrap of paper before he touched the people/animals and was excited to talk about all the people in his nativity and what sound all the animals make.

Another great idea is using one of these (#1,#2) printable nativities. Print/cut/laminate and attach magnets; perfect for the fridge and to keep little one's busy while you are trying to cook!

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 5}

Our book for today was Dear Santa by Rod Campbell.

We got Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell for Christopher's first birthday and it is still a big hit! He loves to lift all the flaps and read along so I knew he would love this version as well.

Our activity for today was to write a letter to Santa. As Christopher gets older I'm hoping that Santa will write letters back but for this year we are keeping it simple. I also loved the idea of having a letter writing party like Uncommon Designs and am hoping to do something like that next year.

"Dear Santa..."

Thinking about what else to put on his letter

Christopher's finished product and the "translated" version!

I also introduced Christopher to our Santa Mr. Potato Head and he has LOVED putting him together and taking him apart over and over again. I wasn't sure if he would be ready for it but it was, and still is, a huge hit!

Our Santa letterhead was found here.

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 4}

Our book for today was I-Spy Little Christmas by Jean Marzollo.

 

Christopher likes the I-Spy board books and is getting good at being able to locate all the little items in the picture. I was excited when I saw this book at a Thrift Store, looking brand new, for 10 cents and knew I had to snatch it up!

Our activity for the day was supposed to be setting up Christopher's mini Christmas tree and then playing an I-Spy game with the ornaments. (More information on game found at The Activity Mom) I thought playing with his tree/ornaments would be the best idea just in case he took them off. 

We weren't able to complete this game yet due to travel so instead today we used stamps to make holiday gifts tags. I got the idea from A Day of Wonders and knew Christopher would have a good time.

Stamps and Stamp pad set from Dollar Tree

Stampin' away

So much fun!

I bought a stamp pad and some foam stamps at the dollar tree and let Christopher go to town on some white card stock. I then cut them out and am planning on using them as gift tags on the gifts with the wrapping paper he will make.

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 3}

Our third book was 10 Trim-the-Tree'ers by Janet Schulman

 

During my last year of teaching I got the book 10 Trick-or-Treaters from the Scholastic flyer and thought it was adorable. When I found out there was a Christmas version I knew I wanted to check it out. In this book 10 little kids are decorating a tree and with them you count all the beautiful decorations 1-10.

Our activity for the day was coloring wrapping paper! I bought 2 yards of plain white butcher paper and let Christopher decorate it with crayons and stickers. Lately he has been loving stickers and asks for, "More stickies!" We both spent some time coloring, putting stickers on the paper and talking about what we're going to do with our giant picture. I'm hoping, since that's a lot of paper to decorate for a little man, that we can pull it out several times over the next few weeks to have it be nice and beautiful.

I have to color that spot, way over there!

It wasn't too long before he asked where the "stickies" were.

After we're finished decorating I'm going to use it to wrap one present for each person we're giving gifts too, that way they'll have special wrapping paper made just for them.

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.

{25 Days of Christmas: Day 2}

Our book for today was Jesus, Me, and My Christmas Tree by Crystal Bowman

I love this book not only because of it's simple rhymes, beautiful illustrations and the fact that the book itself is shaped like a Christmas tree, but because of the story of Christ's birth told through using ornaments on the tree. It's a great way to take a fun tradition and reflect it back on the true reason for the season!

Our first activity for today was a felt Christmas tree with felt ornaments. I'm looking forward to playing with this all of December and for many Decembers to come! Due to some traveling, and forgetting to take a picture, I can't post a picture of our felt tree but will make sure to post it ASAP because... I LOVE it! Here are some sites that helped inspire it:
Johnny in a Dress
The Mother Huddle
Empty Bobbin
I Can Teach My Child

*UPDATE PICTURES OF OUR FELT TREE

Hoping to add more ornaments and gifts next year

Made the little man a car ornament

Our second activity was a Christmas light color match. This activity was inspired by Tons of Fun and since I couldn't get her download to work I made one myself. I wanted to do more colors, since Christopher already knows these six and I was hoping to practice some others, but I didn't have any pink, grey, black or brown pom-poms so I kept it simple this year. He did a lot better than I expected but really just wanted to put the pom-poms in their little container and carry them around :)

In case you are just joining us, here is the post with all the Christmas books.