Picture Perfect ... Almost!

It's a tradition in my family to make a mess in the kitchen before Christmas ... I mean to make sugar cookies!  This year we'd planned to do this at my parents' house on the 23rd of December.  We'd make cookies for Santa, eat pizza, and maybe play outside.  Then the plague (i.e. the stomach virus and flu) struck and the plans changed.  But we didn't let this get in the way of our cookie baking fun.  We just postponed the baking until yesterday! The kids (and adults) had a great time rolling, flouring, and cutting out cookies.  They didn't come out the best but that's what happens when you let an almost 6 and almost 3 year old do most of the work. The important thing is we continued the tradition and had fun as a family!

Today, despite EVERYONE taking Tamiflu, we managed to make cookies for Santa.  Usually we do this with my parents at their house.  But this year given the infestation of flu in our house we had to cancel. The kids had a blast rolling out dough and cutting cookies.  We didn't make a huge mess in the kitchen but enough to show a good time was had by all.

Today we decorated gingerbread items.    D's house came already put together and looked great coming out of the box.  She had no trouble decorating it and it worked perfectly.  She was very meticulous about what she chose and where to put it.  The roof lines are all in some kind of pattern.  In total it took her an hour to decorate the house! S's was a train I had to put together first.  This was not a success!  The engine would not stay together for anything, no matter how much frosting I put on it continued to fall apart.  We finally ended up just decorating the caboose.  He was not nearly as careful when adding candy but was great at tasting everything!

Even though we have 2 cases of the flu (D and S) and 1 possible (B) we continue to do our Christmas countdown!  Thankfully D is feeling much better and S (at the moment) seems to not have a too severe case either! Today we made Christmas trees covered in tissue paper.  Once they are dry we'll cut them out and hang them on the windows.  D made her tree a pattern of a row of green tree, a row of colored ornaments all the way the top.  She helped me create mine to have 2 rows of green tree and 1 row of colored ornaments.  S stuck to just putting on random colors! This was a fun, easy activity for a recovery day.  

Here's the good news ... D is over her stomach virus! Here's the bad news ... She has the flu! Today's activity was amended again to something requiring little effort but still fun.  We busted out our "North Pole Toy Factory" puzzle to do with the kids.  It's a neat puzzle with 400 pieces of varying sizes.  The outside pieces are large and easy for the kids to handle.  Then slightly smaller pieces are closer to the center with the smallest going in the middle. D enjoyed working on the puzzle for a while and managed to put a whole section of the big sign together herself.  S wanted to help but his version of help is to put in a piece that you give him.  B and I finished the puzzle after the kids went to bed. More bad news ... there's a piece missing!!

Today we were supposed to decorate gingerbread houses.  Unfortunately D is feeling terrible (I'll spare you the details) so we had to postpone that activity.  Instead we've busted out any Christmas, winter, and/or snowy movies we have.  Hopefully she'll feel better quickly!   There's nothing worse than a sick kid who you can't do anything to help!!  S is extremely worried about her and keeps giving her pats and asking if she's okay.  Despite their (constant) fighting they do love each other!

Another art activity for today's countdown.  I had planned to do fingerprint Nativity scenes where the kids use their fingers to paint or trace a simple nativity scene.  But then I realized the paint I have is "washable" but doesn't come off easily when you use your hands to actually paint.  So I decided to give the kids round brushes and have them paint the scene with dots.  

Another quick, easy, and super fun art activity today - Paper Plate Santa Masks! These are beyond easy to make.  Cut the center out of a paper plate and glue cotton balls around the edge.  Cut out a Santa hat and glue it to the top of the plate.  Poof ... Santa Claus masks!