The Great Christmas Tree Hunt

Today I'm going to show you our Christmas tree. This was the first time for my son and daughter-in-law to go tree cutting. My hubby and I did it the 2nd year we were in Montana, but that doesn't make us any kind of experts. So we went to the Forestry office and bought our permit, got our map, and came home to peruse it. We haven't lived here long, so when we looked at the map, we were kind of worried about getting into the wrong place. A lot of the area was checker-board looking, and it would be easy to get on private property instead of BLM or forest land. But......there was one area that was pretty much all forest land and we were pretty sure we would be okay. So that's where we went.

As we climbed higher and higher, the view got better and better. Oregon is soooooo beautiful. Anyway, we found a place to park the truck and we got out and started looking. No luck. We got back in the truck and went up a little higher. Got out and walked some more. We found several trees we liked, but they were too tall. You aren't allowed to cut any trees that are taller than 12 ft or shorter that 8 ft. so you have to be watchful when you choose a tree. Finally, we found one we liked.

It was a little taller than 12 ft. but not too much, so we decided we would be okay.

Cameron got to try his hand with the axe first.

   Then it was Hally's turn. She could barely lift the ax!

Finally, Andy got in there and took care of business! Then he got out the chain saw and sawed off the extra trunk and sawed the stump to less that 12". We carried out the extra trunk pieces and after they have a chance to dry, I will use them for camp crafts next year. They will make nice slices for any number of projects.

We tied up the tree, fastened it to the top of the truck, and took her home! Now she has the place of honor in our living room. Next year, we will go out scoping out good place to cut trees, and hopefully find some trees that are fuller, more bushy. But for this year, we are happy with our little Charlie Brown tree.

So there we are, all ready for Christmas. The house is ready, anyway. See you on Friday for Friday Friends! Until then, remember that gifts of time and love are the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas. Good night,

Day 12 of the Twelve Days of Christmas

This is it! The last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas! And, of course, it's a nativity. For me, that is the culmination of all the happiness and joy and celebrating. The real reason for Christmas. I have a little pin that says Jesus is the Reason for the Season, and I wear it all season long.

Our little nativity is all natural this year and it looks like this:

Gather your supplies and let's get started. You will need: cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, whole allspice, Star Anise, a pine cone and jute twine. You will also need a little hot glue to help you hold it together and a little saw to cut the cinnamon sticks and the pine cone.

You need 5 cinnamon sticks to 3" to 3 1/2" long. Mine were 7" so I just cut them in half. You can adjust if yours are 4", but if they're longer than that, you need to use a saw to cut them. You also need one piece 1 1/4" long, for Joseph. You need to use a saw to cut a petal from a pine cone for Mary. And you need 1 whole star Anise and one piece of one, for the baby.

Start by laying out your five cinnamon sticks in the shape of a stable. When you get everything placed just right, lift each piece and put a little dab of hot glue. When you get it all fastened together, use the jute to tie it at each joint. Also tie a piece of jute at the top for a hanger.

Now, you're going to make the figures. Start by finding two whole cloves with good size bracts and two pretty good size allspice, too.

Pull the clove out of the bract and use your fingernail to clean it out good. Glue the allspice into the bract. This makes the head with a collar under it.

For Joseph, glue the clove down into the short piece of cinnamon stick.

For Mary, glue it to the back of the pine cone petal.

Sorry some of these photos are blurry. I was having trouble with the macro setting on my camera. I finally got it to work, so they get better. Now we're going to work on the star and the baby.

Some of the Star Anise will be broken, so if you can't find a whole one, or one you like anyway, then you can glue pieces together to make a whole. After you get your star chosen, pick one of the broken, single pieces to use for the baby's body.

The seed inside will be the body, the hull will be the manger, and you glue a small allspice to the open end for the head. Now, you're ready to put it all together. Using hot glue, fasten Joseph and Mary to the back of the bottom piece of the stable. Glue baby Jesus in front of them, head toward Mary. Glue your star at the point of the roof and you're done!

I love this little nativity. I got my first one at a yard sale about 10 years ago, and I've been meaning to make some more ever since, but never got around to it until now. I DID buy all the supplies 3 or 4 years ago, though, so I still honored my "no buy" challenge for this year! Children really like these little nativities, and they can make them with help. They make sweet gifts for Primary teachers, and it's a nice little project for Activity Day Girls and Young Women, too.

A man named Harlan Miller said he wished we could put some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar every month. I think the world would be a much better place if we had an endless supply of that spirit to call on when we feel contentious, or jealous, or blue. Maybe we'll have to come up with a project that would be somewhat comparable to one of those jars. Let's all think on it and see what we come up with. And by the way, there seems to be no cure for the common birthday, and I am a year older today. Until next time,

This post linked to:

Made By You Monday at Skip to My Lou

Day 11 of the Twelve Days of Christmas

Day 11 isn't really a project. It's a sentiment, a legend that has become a tradition for me. It's a snowflake.

It's nothing big or fancy, it's not expensive, and it's not handmade, but it could be. Every year I give these to someone. This year it's my Relief Society sisters. I type up the legend on cardstock, and then make it into a pocket, into which I put a simple little snowflake from Wal*Mart or the Dollar Tree. I tell them that it's nothing fancy or expensive, in fact it's not the contents that really matter, but what they represent. Then I read the legend to them, and bear my testimony as to the divinity of Christ, and the true meaning of Christmas. I always have tears in my eyes by the time I'm done and so do they. So here's the legend:

Long ago,

a glimmering Star

led the way to a Holy Child.

Legend has it that

Snowflakes

are tiny pieces of that very star,

sent to lead our hearts to

Christ, the Light of the World.

It says it all, so I'll stop here. Until tomorrow,

Day 10 of the Twelve Days of Christmas

It's getting closer and closer to the actual time to start the 12 Days of Christmas! I hope you're getting everything ready to go. For day 10, I have my husband's birthday, plus a project for you. :) It's a little yo-yo Christmas tree, and it's so cute! To start with, you will need a thread spool with a dowel that fits snugly in the hole and cut to 4" above the dowel. Paint or stain the spool and dowel brown, like a tree trunk. You'll see it a few photos down the page.

If you don't know what a yo-yo is, it's a circle of fabric gathered at the edge to make a smaller circle, sometimes with a circle of batting inside to give it body. They are used for any number of things, from quilts to toys to hot pot pads. They are used for decoration on clothing, too. They are very versatile and easy to make. Here's how. For our tree, you will cut 6 circles in these sizes: 8", 7 1/2", 6 1/2", 5 1/2", 3 3/4", and 2 1/2". I made patterns from chipboard and traced them onto the fabric. You get better circles that way.

Using a needle threaded with heavy button and carpet thread, run a gathering stitch around the outside of the circle. Because these circles will be stacked on top of one another, and the gathering won't show, I didn't turn down the edge. You can tell by the photo how much smaller the finished yo-yo is from what you start out with. Pull up the thread tight and trace the yo-yo for your batting size. I wanted my trees to be fat and fluffy, so I used two layers of batting in each circle.

Open your circle back up and lay the batting in the middle. Pull up the threads again, and tie the ends in a knot, leaving a hole big enough for your dowel to fit through.

Put your little finger inside the opening and flatten out the batting so the yo-yo lays nice and flat.

Turn the yo-yos over and cut a cross-shaped slit in the middle, so that your dowel can go through the yo-yos. You can stack them onto the dowel now, or you can make ruffles to go in between them. The ruffles can be made from wire-edge ribbon or net. (I was going to use net in red and green, but I had some scraps of ribbon left over from the bows I made for the front porch, and since I made a commitment to spend as little this year as I could, that's what I used). Cut 2 pieces of either net or ribbon about 12" long and 2" wide, one for under the big yo-yo and one for on top of the big yo-yo, and work your way from there. Make each ruffle half as wide as the finished yo-yo. Gather one edge up tight on the wire and tie it by twisting the wires together, leaving a hole big enough for the dowel. Stack a yo-yo, gathered side up, and then a ruffle, and then a yo-yo, and then a ruffle, until you get to the top little yo-yo. Slide it onto the dowel and use a nail file or something thin like that to tuck the edges down into the circle. This gives you a finished top.

Tie a little bow around the top and you're done, or you can add a little wooden star, too. I found this cute little house box at the dollar store and I bought one to see if my tree would fit in it for storage and gift giving, and it does! But I don't think it will fit with a star on it, dang it.

These trees take a little bit of time, but not too much, and it's something you can do in the car or while watching TV. If you're like me, you have to be doing something every minute or you feel like you're wasting time! So I always have a project to keep my hands busy when the rest of me isn't.

Thornton Wilder said, "We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." I think that the treasures he was talking about were family and friends, not material things. I try to be conscious of those treasures always. I love them very much. See ya tomorrow!

Friday Friends!

Sorry! I almost forgot that I had to do Friday Friends! too! But I found some really cute things on some really nice blogs, so it will be worth the wait.

First up is a cute website called Can't Stop Making Things. Right off the bat, she's got me with the name. And she's got some really cute projects. It took me a minute to figure out that the "labels" box was the navigation tool, but as soon as I did, I had a good time going from post to post, seeing what she had to offer. I found two things that I wanted you to see for sure. The first one is what she calls a fortune cookie coin purse. It's made with a milk jug!  http://www.cantstopmakingthings.com/2010/08/fortune-cookie-coin-purse.html

The other thing is a beautiful rose made from plastic spoons! If no one told you what it was made from, you would never know. It's really nice. http://www.cantstopmakingthings.com/2010/04/rose-is-rose.html

Next is a Fortune Cookie Christmas Countdown. I seem to have a theme today, don't I? This is a darling idea, and she has some cute ideas for the activities on the "fortunes". I know you will like this. Check it out here: http://happy-go-lucky-harvey.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-countdown-fortune-cookies.html

Now, last but not least, ANOTHER fortune cookie craft. This time it's a gift holder. I found this by accident when I lost the other website and had to find it again. What luck, huh? Go to http://www.craftbits.com/project/fortune-cookie-gift-pockets and check it out. I think I will make some really BIG ones and put some little gifts for the grandkids in them. Won't they love that?

Before I go today, I want to show you some pictures of Christmas at our house. We have a very small house and don't have much room, but we still got into the Christmas spirit. And I think I did pretty good with my "don't spend any money" challenge.

My father built the Christmas train and my mother painted it.

My daughter Deseret made this in Girl Scouts when she was about 5th or 6th grade.

This banner was made by my son Clif when he was in 2nd grade. It's kind of hard to see,
but it has cute little people that form the letters.

My granddaughter, Halena, and I made this last week because we didn't have a wreath.

I made my husband :) go with me to cut the branches for this swag.

Penguins welcome everyone to our home.

I finally got the rest of the lights and garland up, and added some bunches
 of greens with big bows. I know, hard to see.

A handmade window swag. Up in the right hand corner, you can see one of our
 paper trees hanging from the ceiling.

I will show you the tree another day. There is a story that goes with it, and I don't have time today. As you go about your holiday-ing, remember this. If Christmas isn't found in your heart, you certainly won't find it under a tree. Until tomorrow,

Day 9 of the Twelve Days of Christmas

Today is the easiest project of all! It is a 12 Days of Christmas paper chain. All you need is some Christmas paper, or red and green construction paper, and some ideas for activities for the family to do. Now I know that I had activities on the Advent Calendar cards, but not everyone will make an Advent calendar, and a lot of you already have one. So here's another way to spend time with the family, and you get to choose the activities! You will need 12 pieces of paper, 8"x1". Write an activity on the back of each strip of paper and then staple them together into a chain. Hang the chain somewhere where all the family can see it, and every morning, tear off a link and do the activity for the day. Or you could tear it off at night and know what you are doing the next day. Either way is good.

Let your children help you choose the activities to write on the links. You may be surprised at what they come up with! This paper chain is also part of my 6 Sundays of Christmas that I'm doing in Relief Society. They will get it this Sunday so they can start it on Tuesday.

One of my activities is to take a gift to the neighbors. Here are ten suggestions for neighbor gifts that are more fun than expensive.

1. Attach a tag to a jar of homemade salsa that says, "Add a little spice to your holidays!"

2. Attach a tag to a measuring cup filled with goodies that says, "Wishing you joy beyond measure this holiday season."

3. Fill a jar with Hershey's Hug and Kisses and add a label that says, "Here are hugs and kisses for you and your family this holiday season."

4. Tie a bag of microwave popcorn to a 2-liter bottle of Sprite and attach a tag that says, "Just Poppin' in to wish you holidays that are Merry and Sprite!

5. Put a tag that says, "Hope you have a pasta-tively wonderful Christmas!" to a bag of specialty pasta.

6. Buy a roll of cookie dough and put a label on it that says, "Here's some extra dough for Christmas!"

7. Put some Hershey's kisses in a wire whisk and wrap it in cellophane with a pretty bow on it, and attach a tag that says, "We whisk you a Merry Kiss-mas!"

8. Wrap up a block of cheese and a grater and attach a tag that says, "Thank you for being such GRATE neighbors!"

9.  Attach a tag that says,"Have a "souper" holiday season!" to a bag of soup mix.

10. Give a bag of oranges with a tag that says, "Orange you glad we're friends? I sure am! Merry Christmas".

If you Google neighbor gifts, you will get hundreds of ideas. And remember.........your neighbors are your goldmine, and you are theirs. Sy Wise said, "Very few burdens are heavy if everyone lifts." If you help lift your neighbors, they will return the favor. Until tomorrow,

Day 8 of the Twelve Days of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.......eight paper holly! Actually a lot more than 8! This wreath is populated by probably a hundred or more paper holly leaves, but it's really simple to make. Find an old book. As you know, I like things made from old books. I used a book by T.G. Wodehouse and I think it was probably a book club edition, because the pages are not very sturdy. I didn't think about that when picking the book, but I'm telling you that you should. I will probably make this over again and use pages from a big book with heavy pages, maybe even glossy. Another consideration is the content. If you hang your wreath, say, on the front door, as people are waiting for you to answer the door they could be reading your wreath, so you probably want suitable content.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's get started. First, you need a wreath base. We have neighbors with grapevines, and some of them were growing over the fence on our side. The season is past now, and the grapes are and the vines are dry, so I cut the ones hanging on our side and wove them into a wreath. Then I made sure to fasten a loop of ribbon for a hanger before I started gluing leaves to it.

Pull some pages from your book by cutting next to the spine with an X-acto knife. Or if they will tear out nicely, you can do that, too. Make yourself a pattern for a holly leaf. Mine is about 4" long, but it could be smaller. I wouldn't go too much larger, though, because then you really have the "flop" problem. (Not enough body in the page to keep it from flopping.) You will need quite a few of these, but you can always cut more as you go.

Fold the leaves down the middle. Now you have to decide of you want you wreath to stay white, or if you want to add some color. I chose to add color, and here's how I figured out to do that. I took one of those little spray bottles you can get in the travel size section of Health and Beauty at Wal*Mart. I filled it about halfway with water and added a little green paint. Shake it up well, lay out your leaves on newspaper, and spritz them with the green paint-water. I also happened to have an old can of green glitter paint, and I used a little of that, too. I wasn't too careful as I spritzed because I didn't want them to be solid green, just lightly colored an uneven green.

Now, start gluing your leaves to your wreath base. Glue the first layer pointing out, and the next layer pointing in. Then fill up the spaces and make the wreath as full or not full as you want. Holly, when it grows, all goes the same way on the stems, so making all your leaves go in the same direction is natural looking, but you can add a few going the opposite way, too.

Finish it off with a nice bow, and I added a sprig of real pine and some pom-pom berries, although I'm not sure I like the berries. I also added a few leaves that had not been painted to give it a little depth. That's all there is to it! It is a very light-weight wreath, so it can be hung anywhere, even from an old curtain rod bracket.

Well, there it is. A nice wreath that's easy to make. Even the kids can make on of these. I think when I make another one, I will use buttons instead of pom-poms, though. And I might keep them more demure by using white ones instead of red. We'll see. Experimentation is the name of the game.

I want to leave you with a story that a good friend sent me.

A woman was Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of walking down row after row of toys and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the store elevator with her two children in hand.

She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of the year; the pressure of getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, tasting all the holiday food and treats, making sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card.

Finally, the elevator doors opened, revealing a crowd in the elevator. She pushed her way in and dragged her children and all her bags of stuff in with her. As the doors closed, she couldn't take it anymore and blurted out, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot." From the back of the elevator car, a quiet, calm voice responded, "Don't worry. We've already crucified him."

The rest of the trip down was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop.

This year, don't forget who started this whole "Christmas thing" and keep Him in your every thought and deed, purchase and word. If we all did this, just imagine the difference it would make in the world.  Until tomorrow,