Christmas Card Organising

I know that Christmas has well and truly gone and we are now two weeks into the new year...but I thought I would share my method for storing Christmas cards.

Being a school teacher, I receive a lot of cards every year and they are all very special to me. Some of the words my students and their families have written have brought tears to my eyes and I cherish these and wanted to find a way to store them securely.

Every year I have bundled them up and placed them into my Christmas storage box but this year I found a better solution. My scrapbooking hero, Becky Higgins, has produced these fantastic pocket pages which fit into your standard 12"x12" album and are PERFECT for storing all your precious cards.

I simply labelled them with the year, added a cute Christmas tag and that was it. I have now added the pocket to the end of the December section of my 2011 Project Life album and all my special Christmas cards have been saved to enjoy in the coming years. :)

December Project Life Snapshots: Christmas Preparation

Christmas Eve has arrived and today I thought I would share some recent Project Life snapshots of what we have been up to in the last few weeks...

Making stockings for Santa!

Making Christmas cake

Some holiday decorating!

Dusting off the tree ornaments from storage

Setting up the mini tree in Rosie and Harry's bedroom

Making treats for friends

Dressing up as shepherds in the church nativity play

Off to the show!

Some Christmas grocery shopping

Taking gifts to the Christmas wishing tree

Christmas shopping!

I hope all your preparations for this special season have been a bundle of fun!

Christmas Book and Activity Basket

This year we decided to create a Christmas themed book and activity basket to bring all our festive items together in one place. This makes them easily accessible and really cuts down on searching time when seeking out our favourites!

At the beginning of December we went through our Christmas storage boxes and took out all our Christmas books. I like to keep these tucked away during the year so that they are special when they come out during the festive season.  

We only have a small collection of these at the moment but I am hoping to add a couple more each year to slowly build our collection. This year we added the Christmas Snap game and and Mr Men 'The Night Before Christmas'.

We also added in a couple of Christmas DVD's, our Christmas Memory Match and our reindeer food, ready to to put out on Christmas Eve. At bedtime, the kids love to choose something from the box to read together and it has become a nice little tradition for the season.

Any basket or storage container will do, but we had this red basket tucked away in the cupboard from Harry's nursery so it has a new life now. This was a very quick organising project but one which the kids and I enjoyed doing together. :)

Quick Christmas Treats for Friends

Last week Rosie and I were discussing what little treats we could give to her class for Christmas this year.

Last year we made little gift bags and baked some Christmas cookies, however this year we were running short on time and needed a quicker solution.

We decided to make mini bags of M&M's for each class member and we were able to make them up one evening after dinner, in just a few minutes.

These gorgeous tags are from A Little Delightful and can be used in so many ways. We used our circular scallop punch to cut them out and then used double sided tape to attach them to some simple cellophane bags we found at Spotlight.

We found the large tubs of M&M's at KMart but unfortunately they didn't have the Christmas coloured ones this year so we had to settle for the regular kind. We sealed the bags with a Christmas sticker at the back and they were done!

This is a great easy project to do with littlies and we really enjoyed making these up and giving them to friends. Happy Christmas!

Delicious Christmas Cake Recipe

Making my own Christmas cake is something I have always wanted to do, but never attempted...until recently! Taff and I love Christmas cake but we usually leave it to my mum to make, as she does a very yummy one. I was talking to a co-worker a few weeks ago who said that she was planning to make her Christmas cake that weekend, so I asked if she could bring me in her recipe.

 I gathered together all my ingredients one afternoon and gave it a go and it was so satisfying to finally be making my own cake! This recipe is fantastic as it doesn't have to be prepared months, or even weeks in advance. It is able to be made and eaten immediately, or you can make and store it just as you would a traditional Christmas cake. Either way, it is delicious!

Belinda Jeffery's Last Minute Christmas Cake

300 grams unsalted butter, chopped

420 grams raw sugar

380 grams raisins

180 grams pitted prunes

160 grams sultanas

90 grams currants

90 grams piited dried dates

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup (125 ml) brandy or rum (I used orange juice!)

2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cinnamon

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 1/2 cups (400 grams) wholemeal plain flour (I used plain white flour)

100 grams pecan halves and 50 grams raw almonds to decorate (optional)

Melt butter in a pan large enough to fit all ingredients. Add the sugar amd stir for 1-2 minutes to partially dissolve. Add the fruit, soda, brandy (or juice!) and 1 1/2 cups (325ml) water. Increase heat to medium and simmer for 4 minutes. Turn off the heat and cool to room temperature in pan. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius (fan forced). Grease 23cm springform pan and line with buttered baking paper.

Stir in nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs into the fruit mixture. Mix in flour and stand for a few minutes. Pour into pan and level the top. If using nuts, make a single ring around the edges or cover top in concentric circles. Bake for 2 hours 30 minutes or until cake feels firm in the middle and a skewer comes out clean. (After an hour or so, check the top; if it's a good rich brown, cover loosely with foil). Cool cake completely in pan, then remove and store in an airtight container for immediate consumption, or in plastic wrap, foil or newspaper for longer term storage.

Festive Craft: Christmas Memory Match Game

Another festive game my two littlies are enjoying is this Christmas Memory Match, found over at Simple As That.

Again, it is quick to prepare and once you have, you can store it away for many Decembers to come. They love to play this with us and it can be used from a very young age, with Mum or Dad's help.

The hardest part (which isn't hard at all!) is preparing the cards. Once you print them out, all you need to do is mount them on card and then you can laminate them for extra durability if you wish.

I found out the hard way that mounting them on card was a neccessary step after an eagle eyed Miss 7 was caught cheating! It turns out the cards are quite transparent on regular copy paper. :)

It is a very simple game and once cut out, takes next to no room to store. Give it a try!

Christmas Craft Activity: Santa's Beard

I know it is quite late to be sharing this Christmas craft but it is such a cute little idea that I figure it is better late than never. :)

I was browsing Pinterest for craft ideas and found this gorgeous little Santa countdown activity here. It takes only a couple of minutes to organise and my little ones are loving it.

All you need is a colour printer, some fluffy white cotton balls and some glue (we use PVA). There is a cute poem which we read through each day and then you glue a single cotton ball to the chart as each day passes.

Once Santa's beard is complete, you know the time has come for him to visit (provided you are on the good list, of course!). This is a great visual activity for preschoolers who can't read numbers as they can easily see Santa's beard filling up and get very excited about it.

Hope your little cherubs enjoy it as much as mine do! :)

December Fun: Letters to Santa

Can you believe that December has rolled around so quickly? "Old people" used to tell me that the years go faster as you get older. They were so right!

With the arrival of December comes all the fun that comes with it. We decided to start with our letters to Santa. After all, it is important to give Santa as much notice as possible for these things! :)

I found these fantastic Santa Letter printables at one of my favourite blogs, A Little Delightful. The talented Bianca creates the most amazing things for her blog readers and I highly recommend you stop by for a look when you have a spare moment. 

Rosie and Harry drafted their letters first and then we set about writing them on these gorgeous templates. They had so much fun doing this and are looking forward to sending these off to Santa.

Of course, I want to keep these gorgeous letters for our family album so Santa will have to settle for a photocopy of them instead. What activities do you have planned for the coming weeks?

Reindeer Food

Twas the night before Christmas and it has been busy!

Rosie and Harry received some special reindeer food at church last Sunday so we made up these little packets of treats for them to sprinkle on the lawn.

We printed out some labels with a cute poem, you can find them here. It is a nice little tradition to add to the usual cookies and milk for Santa. :)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas day and that you take the time to enjoy your family and this special day together. :)

Harry's Preschool Christmas Party

Harry's preschool recently held their annual Christmas party and being a working mum, I am usually not able to attend. I was thrilled that this year it was held the day after my last day at work for the year...yay!

Harry was very excited that I was able to come as they had prepared a special performance and Santa would be paying a visit as well. I think I was equally as excited! :)

Harry in his Christmas outfit

Harry played a tree (yes, a tree...I think he may take after me with his drama skills) and sang the songs with his friends. I was a proud Mum. :)

Harry with his tree "costume"

After the show it was time for Santa's visit. Harry is very reserved when it comes to Santa, he prefers to keep his distance. I had explained that Santa would call his name and that he could go and collect his gift and say thank-you to Santa...

and he did! He was also very patient while he waited for the rest of the children to get their gifts before he opened his. :)

Santa got Harry a Transformer and a special orange cup with his name on it. He was very pleased with his present.

Harry loves his preschool and he really enjoyed having me there to see him perform. I was really grateful that I was able to attend and spend some special time with my little guy. :)

Christmas Party Cupcakes

We had a Christmas party to attend earlier this week so we decided to whip up our signature chocolate cupcakes and give them a festive touch.

These striped cupcake papers are my absolute favourite and they make plain cupcakes look a hundred times better. We then used some mini wooden Christmas trees and wooden ice-block sticks to make cupcake toppers.

Finally, we added some edible red stars and we were all set for the party! I love baking at this time of year and sharing treats with others is a great way to get into the festive spirit. :)