Courageous Parenting

I am getting ready for January's RS Activity. We are doing a Wizard of OZ theme and teaching courageous parenting with electronics: computers, phones, screen time.  This is the flyer. Found the lion & quote on Pinterest and love it! I have it laid out to print double sided.

Gum Snowman

I had fun with the kids making these cute, little snowmen. It is just a pack of gum (you can get a 4 pack of gum at the Dollar Tree) wrapped in paper and decorated. Fun for stockings or for the kids to give to their school & church friends! I wanted to pass them out to my class too. My son thought the big eye was funny, such a boy!

Stocking Clues

Our family tradition is for the children to wake early Christmas morning and open stockings. I always loved that time of sibling love, laughter and Christmas magic. 

This year I am doing stocking clues for the kids. All of our stocking are similar and have no names on them. I wrote a letter from Santa that will be propped in front of the stockings Christmas morning. 

I found clues on Pinterest.

I wrapped each child's stocking gifts in one color.

 The clues end with and envelope with wrapping paper scraps. The name of the child is on the back of the paper I used to wrap their gifts. Then they just open the stocking with the right color paper! Merry Christmas!

Hot Cocoa Gift

Cocoa to go please! Cocoa & Marshmallows already in the cup. Stirring spoon tied to the outside and just add hot water. Fun gifts!

Making chocolate covered stirring spoons and straws. The kids love the new fat straws to stir and drink cocoa.

Brown Paper Packages Relief Society Activity

 Warm, woolen (or burlap) mittens, blue satin sashes, snowflakes, a few of my favorite things.

 Brown paper packages tied up with string.

 Hot cocoa bar with gingerbread, strudel and cheese cake bites (snowflakes not up yet)

Paper to write names on for our raffle

 We raffled a Christmas Service Advent Frame. The days before christmas you open a card to read a service you will do that  day like, make Christmas cookies for a neighbor, let someone go in front of you in the line at the store, read Luke 2 etc.
We also raffled the 2x2 wood nativity.

 We raffled 2 Service Mangers with hay (or cut raffia). Our family is doing this and loving it. Every week you draw names to see who you will focus on serving in your family. Every time you serve, you get to add 1 straw to baby Jesus manger. The goal is to have a soft bed for the Christ child before Christmas day.
The plaid papers are a Scripture a Day Advent Chain Countdown that was also raffled. I printed the scriptures on Christmas paper and every day you read a scripture that relates to the birth of our Savior.

 Chocolate dipped Marshmallow stirring sticks for the cocoa bar.

This was how the paper in the other picture related to the raffle. If you wanted a service manger then you put your name on a green paper, blue paper was the scripture chain, etc.

It was a fun night. We had a 10 minute lesson on how to focus Christmas on Christ.
We learned how to make our own gift boxes with everyone folding their own papers along with the teacher. 25 min
We learned some creative gift tags that we also got to make. 25 min
We took a cocoa & treat break 10 min
We had a favorite things gift exchange. Everyone brought a "favorite thing" in a brown paper bag. We told why we brought it and did a gift exchange with our gifts. So fun getting to know the women. 15 min
Raffled gift to help our sister do Christ Centered activities in their homes this Christmas.

You are "Kneaded"

 We had a Paris themed Auxiliary brunch. I totally forgot to take photos when it was set up! Darn! But this is a couple pictures of the mess when we were cleaning. The pendants were pink and hanging with black and white photos of Paris. We used Pink, Black & White.

Cookie Bags For the Town's Tree Lighting Ceremony

I made cookies for our town to hand out at their tree lighting ceremony. Yummy gingerbread with a small frosting cup (small containers found at Walmart). I added a popsicle craft stick to spread the frosting. I love how they turned out!