Ornament Snack

I posted this last year, but this blog was so new then that I thought I would repost it for any new readers.

My six year old loves strawberry jelly and cream cheese, so I made this for her.  I cut the bread with a biscuit cutter and then cut a tiny square out of extra bread to make the top of the ornament.  Then I spread strawberry Polaner All Fruit over the top.  I put a little cream cheese into a sandwich bag and cut the corner off to pipe the designs on the ornament. 

This snack is great to share with just about any Christmas book.  Here are two that we enjoyed this week:

Christmas is Here! by Siobhan Ciminera.  This is a Strawberry Shortcake easy reader.  I love this book to go along with this snack because the book has directions to make a strawberry ornament (made with paper, not strawberries!).  

The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever by Steven Kroll.  Clayton the town mouse and Desmond the country mouse team up to bring the spirit of Christmas to Mouseville.  We have read a few books in this series by   Steven Kroll and we always enjoy them!

Kindness and Giving

I wanted to post this here before December started, but that just didn't happen!  I think it can still be useful to my readers (maybe 12 days of kindness?) so here it is.

Every year, I make a red and green paper chain to count down the days to Christmas.  In past years, I wrote a special activity for us to complete on each link of the chain.  Our activities were often crafts, special outings, or baking goodies.  I wanted to do something different this year.  I read about the idea of giving back a little each day and doing random acts of kindness during the month of December and I knew this would be perfect for us.  Some of the activities I chose involve being kind or helpful to others, and some involve helping those less fortunate.  Overall, I hope my children just enjoy doing something nice for someone else each day.

This is what I wrote on each of the links:

1.  Put money in the Salvation Army Red Kettle
2.  Pick up litter (the path that we take to school each day is full of trash; I have wanted to do something about it since the day after Halloween when I noticed all of the candy wrappers thrown there)
3.  Help Mom cook dinner
4.  Donate toys to Toys for Tots
5.  Help Mom bake something
6.  Make treats for the birds and hang them in a tree
7.  Help someone at school (a teacher, classmate, or anyone who needs some help)
8.  Donate some gently used books to the Angel Tree Program (this organization puts books in the hands of children with incarcerated parents)
9.  Help Dad with something
10. Make a card and mail it to a relative
11. Read to your baby sister
12. Make ornaments for friends
13. Write a letter to the police or fire fighters (or both) and thank them for keeping our town safe
14. Write a letter to your teacher and tell her what you like about her class
15. Bake cookies for the neighbors
16. Call your grandparents
17. Clean up a mess without being asked
18. Write a note to each member of your family and tell him or her what you love about him or her
19. Do something nice for one of your siblings
20. Give someone a compliment
21. Smile at everyone you see
22. Spend some time petting and playing with Kelly
23. Go for a walk to see the lights in the neighborhood and wish everyone you see a Merry Christmas
24. Do something nice for someone
25. Merry Christmas!  Think about all of the nice things you have done this month.

I know there is another week of December that I have yet to account for, and I am still thinking about what we will do during that week.  I will update my list!