Christmas Tree Napkin Folding

"Much of the charm of origami lies in its simplicity:  There is the square, there are the folds." -- Robert Lang

When I was a young girl, I loved doing origami.  I remember my parents taking me to the Metropolitan Museum of art in NYC and there was a huge Christmas tree with all these origami cranes and other things on it.  In fact, one year, I created a Christmas tree with only origami shapes on it.  I contributed it to the local Art Museum where it got auctioned off.  

So it didn't surprise me that when I saw a tutorial on how to fold a napkin into a Christmas tree, I was going to be all over that.  The problem was, I didn't have any green napkins.  As I was racing around town getting last minute Chrismtas shopping done, I was looking for napkins.  Every place was basically sold out, but I did manage to find some at Kohl's at the last minute.  I knew they weren't a perfect match, but I figured they would do the job in a pinch.  

DIY tag had simple, easy to follow directions with a video too.

Very easy and now I can do it for memory.

I would definitely look for some thicker and/or stiffer napkins.  Or launder these and iron them with a little starch.  I can't wait for the boys to see it.  I think they're going to be impressed.

From my board "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"

I Work Night Shift

A coworker recently commented that  working night shift is the perfect excuse for everything. 

"Why are you always so tired?"

"Night shift."

"Why do you eat so much?"

"Night shift."

"Why do you always look like that?"

"Night shift."

So in honor of this, I made the perfect meme for it!

From my board "Minions."

Elf on a Shelf 2015 version

Well, it's that time of year again.  Zeke and Chubby Cheeks, our elves, are back again.  Here is what they have been up to this year.

Day one.  The elves must have missed their ride because they were nowhere in our house that morning.  And was B ever upset about it!  But when the doorbell rang late that afternoon, there they were on the front step in a special delivery straight from the North Pole!

The next day, they provided an elf-sized paper chain so we could countdown the days until Christmas.  (Idea from The Little Things blog.)

They must be into Minecraft as well, because we found them wearing these Creeper masks (courtesy of The Lunchbox Memoirs).  Fortunately these masks didn't put me out $25 like the Halloween one we bought for B a couple of years ago.

Give it up for hubby who told me he had an EPIC idea planned for the elves this night that I was working.  Ziplining has been a popular elf activity as I have noticed on several posts.  Kudos to him for coming up with this.

I'm proud that my elves love to read just as much as my boys do. I'm glad there was an elf-sized book in our basket of Christmas books for them to get into.

Shrunkin' Donuts for the elves.  Dunkin' Donuts for the humans! (These elf donuts are Cheerios dipped in sugar, or cocoa, or frosting and sprinkles.  The ideas are endless.  The box is from Etsy shop ThisWiddlePiggy, which at this point seems to be defunct.

Staying warm while enjoying the sights of the outdoor decorations.  Aren't they cute?  I wish my boys were that sweet to each other.

Another hubby attempt.  He told me he walked around the house for half-an-hour while trying to come up with an idea.  He was inspired by the elves on the Rice Krispies box.

I guess he's trying to catch some fish for dinner.

Stealing money from the piggy bank!  Naughty elf!  I hope he's at least going to buy W a Christmas present with it.

Learning the 78 things that one's true love will get them for Christmas.  (They may have mixed up days 10 and 11 though.)

Playing with a Christmas train

Trying to blend in with the Nutcrackers

He made a snowman ornament - but it melted! :-(

Indoor sledding

 

Well folks!  That is all for this year.  It's getting harder and harder to come up with things.  But trying to be creative is half of the fun!

Surviving work

"Oh, you hate your job?  Why didn't you say so?  There's a support group for that.  It's called everybody, and they meet at the bar." -- Drew Carey

Ever have one of those nights?

From my board "Nursing is an art."

25 Days of Christmas - Book Version

"At Christmas play and make good cheer,

 For Christmas comes but once a year." 

-- Thomas Tusser

Ever since W was a baby, my kids have received lots and lots of books.  I mean LOTS.  We could probably open our own little library by now.  And while I have gotten rid of a few over the years (some that were just obviously not favorites or we somehow accumulated but weren't too interested in) we still have the overwhelming majority of them stored away.  These books are at three different houses and even more in storage.  Someday, hopefully, I'll be able to share them with my grandchildren.

So probably for about 10 years now, we have been doing this pseudo advent calendar activity, by unwrapping a book every night to read.  (So that means I have been doing this since before Pinterest.)  I think a lot of it started when my in-laws won a raffle full of children's books, and there were a number of Christmas books in there.  When the boys were little, it started out as a great way to keep them out of presents since they had something they could unwrap every night.  

At this point we have way more than 25 Christmas books.  I have taken out several, especially the baby books, but we still have more than enough, so I usually leave out the ones that the boys haven't really expressed an interest in.  However, there are a few standouts, which we can't wait to read each year.

This year's favorite, and the one they started looking for the first night, is definitely Jan Brett's "Who's That Knocking on Christmas Eve?"  The boys carefully compared sizes of the wrapped books in order to find this one, but it still took a couple of nights.  And everyone was still as happy as always reading this book. As always with all the Jan Brett books, there is always something extra special that you find in the gorgeous  illustrations.

Other favorites include:

 

Even our elves enjoy looking at the books.

This is a tradition I highly recommend getting on board with.

From my board "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"