Let the Games Begin

Yesterday was The Cisco Kids Class Christmas party and as one of the room moms it is up to us to plan all the activities and get the party going. We set up four different centers and the kids rotated every ten minutes to the next center. To prepare for the party I always like to surprise the kids by adding some extra special decorations. I love to see their expressions on their faces when they walk into the room and it has changed. I made about ten snowman and ten christmas trees. Not only are they great decorations but they are also great crafts for the kids to make. This time I used them as decoration and I hung them from the ceiling.
One of the centers was the Snow Center. This is instant snow you can buy from Walmart. All you do is add water and it expands into this white snow like substance. They loved the feel of it. It’s one of those things that you can’t stop playing with.
The second center was making reindeer food. I printed out a short poem and they all read a line from it. They mixed all the ingredients together in a plastic baggie, shook it well and put the poem inside so on Christmas Eve they can sprinkle it outside for the reindeer to eat.


Ingredients: Oats, bird seed, colored sugar sprinkles and a poem.

The third was a Reindeer relay race. But these reindeer were all Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. A red circle cut out was stuck to their noses with a dab of Vaseline and off prancing for a race they went.
The fourth was a Reindeer ornament. Very cute!!! They loved making them.



This was a great party and they all had so much fun.
Merry Christmas and have a great weekend.

Oatmeal Cookies full of Goodies

These Oatmeal cookies are so good. They are full of raisins, chocolate chips and walnuts. This was one of the new Christmas cookies I baked this year.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
3/4 cup of sugar
3/4 cup of brown sugar.
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups Quick cooking oats
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1 cup raisins, optional
1 cups chocolate chips, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet or cover with a non stick aluminum foil. Beat shortening, sugar and Brown sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to the wet mixture and mix well. Stir in oats, nuts, raisins, and chocolate chips. Use a table spoon and drop on cookie sheet two inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool slightly before removing from the cookie sheet. Cool on a rack. Makes 2 dozen.

Hit the ground running

Since we just got back from Disney Monday night and I still have a lot to do before Christmas and only 8 days to do it in. Tuesday I woke up hitting the ground running.

Yesterday I can check off a few more things on my list.
√Done with all my Christmas shopping.
√ Picture is chosen for Christmas cards. I decided to use a picture that was taken at Disney. I thought it was so cute.

Today I will hit the ground running again.
I have to get my Christmas cards out by Friday.
The Cisco Kids class Christmas party is this week and I am helping out.
I have to wrap all the gifts.
I have to plan a Christmas Eve and Christmas day meal.
One of our top priorities is getting together with some friends for some Christmas cheer.

Last week I completed the following.
√ I have all my ornaments completed.
√ All my Christmas trees are up and the house is decorated.
√ I got all coordinating clothes for pictures.
√ The Chief finished the outside lights.
√ The Cisco Kid got his picture taken with Santa.
√ The toy registry is out.
√ Train and tracks are all up and running.
√ Saturday morning I mailed out all the gifts.
√Went to the Cub Scout Christmas party Saturday afternoon. It was so much fun. It started out with a pot luck meal. Then they handed out all the awards for the top sellers of popcorn. The Cisco kid loved his popcorn badge and flashlight. Then they had the gift exchange. One of the Den leaders told a story and the boys had to rotate the gift around the room every time he said right or left in the story; very funny, very cute and lots of fun.

√ Went to the Nutcracker Saturday evening and saw a great play and our little friend in blue was great. She is an up and coming star. This is a community play and it is done so beautiful.
A lot was crammed into one week. I’m hoping after Friday it will be easy sailing.

These lists really help me out. It keeps me focused and on track. As I am writing these lists and checking those off, I feel like it sound as though everything is impersonal and I am just going through the motions. The fact is when I am in my moment doing one of “my list items” I leave the other items behind and enjoy that moment with my family. After all, that is who this is all for.

Disney at Christmas time

We were at Disney Sunday and Monday and It is an enchanting place. Since we only live about 2-1/2 hours away we are able to visit quite often. We went to one of their special events. The Very Merry Christmas Party. Disney is so beautiful during Christmas. They really add special details to the holiday festivities. Throughout the park they had areas where you can stop for free refreshments and cookies. They had wonderful hot chocolate, apple juice, cookies and fresh sliced apples. We made several stops throughout the night. It seemed everywhere we went there was a Christmas dance show going on.

As we entered Main Street It was decorated so beautiful and it was snowing.
At the end of Main Street you can see the Castle covered in Christmas lights and constantly changing colors. It was breathtaking. The show in front of the Castle was spectacular.
Every night Disney has a huge display of fireworks over the Castle. But at the Very Merry Christmas Party they were full of Christmas colors and the Castle had so many different faces. There were gigantic snowflakes flying and a toy solder marching on the face of the Castle to start the display Tinker Bell Flew from the top of the highest tower of the Castle, straight across to the entrance of the park. That person was a brave soul.
The Christmas Parade!!!!! All I could say is WOW!!!! They covered every character, every Christmas scene you could think of.

He came up to me and shook my hand. These are some special Disney moments.
At the hotel we were staying in they had a train around the tree and the Cisco Kid was helping the train operator get the train going again.

We had gone to Crystal Palace for lunch and The Cisco Kid got to see Poo and friends.
A carousel ride is one of those things that will never get old.