Holiday Merriment

I can't believe it's almost Christmas! Where has the time gone?!? We've been pretty busy around these parts! I wish I could say I'm all done with wrapping, but I can't! In fact, I had to do a little un-wrapping after I remembered it would probably be a good idea to check to see what batteries might be needed for a more joyous Christmas morning! But in the midst of it all, we've taken some time to have a little holiday fun!

The kids & I took the bread "butts" that had gathered in the kitchen (because no one will eat them) and made hanging bird seed ornaments. We used Christmas cookie cutters to cut them into holiday shapes, used a straw to make the hole, covered them in peanut butter and then rolled in bird seed. Reedy was much more interested in eating the peanut butter than crafting. And Clayton thought it was a bit incomplete without the jelly LOL! But I guess the squirrels didn't mind because the ornaments were gone before I had a chance to take a picture of them. And in true frugalicious fashion, I'm toasting the bread scraps from our cutting, to make breadcrumbs for the turkey meatballs for our Christmas Eve gathering!

We turned our attentions outward as we bought together food and personal care items from our pantry to donate to a local rescue mission. Most of the items pictured were free after coupons. It's great that couponing not only allows me to help our family but in turn bless others!



For Ashleigh's teachers, we put together gifts of Apple Cinnamon Spice herbal tea and homemade whole wheat honey graham crackers (recipe from Heavenly Homemakers). We prettied up our stockpile gift by using a plain bags from Michael's craft store (using 20% coupon), red, felt star ornaments from Dollar Tree and raffia (found a huge bag at a church yardsale for .25).

Over the weekend, we drove around town and looked at Christmas lights while sipping chocolate mint milk from Target (I love that stuff!) and listening to my fav Martina McBride Christmas CD. We only got slightly lost wandering down side streets - thank goodness for GPS! When we got home, we took more of the whole wheat honey graham crackers along with homemade marshmallows (recipe from The Homespun Heart) and chocolate chips and made smores - yummy!

Now, I'm off to do more wrapping, cleaning and cooking before the in-laws arrive tomorrow!