It’s Christmas! LIKE FOR REAL. I’ve decorated the house, I’ve bought presents (well, most of them) and even hosted a Christmas party. But I still haven’t sent out Christmas cards. Or made teacher’s gifts. The only teachers in Lydia’s life are her teachers at church (she goes to two services on Sunday) and her ballet teacher. And to Lydia? They are all famous.

When Lydia was 1 I made the cutest card for her teachers at church. I digi-scrapped a picture of her with a nativity scene with the words, “Thank you for introducing me to Jesus.” Her teachers were teary-eyed and some have said they still have it on their fridge!

Along with that picture I made those pretzel-hershey-kiss-m&m treats. Have you had them? My friend Kathy from House of Hills made some with her daughter this week and did a great post about it! I also love the pretzel-rolo-pecans treats she did, too!

I’ve made and gifted Muddy Buddies–you know that yummy peanut-butter-chocolate-powdered-sugar Chex mix? Oh my goodness. It is divine. And very easy to make—you get to throw it all in a giant plastic bag and shake it up. Lydia loved it! Oh, I’m getting hungry!

So, I’ve been on the look out for a new kind of treat to bring to her teachers (and to my tummy) and I think I found a good one from Marie at Make and Takes! Look how fun, easy and adorable this is:

(photo by Make & Takes)

All you do is melt chocolate chips, dip your candy canes in and then gift-wrap! I am so in love with this. I just bought a pack of candy canes today so this is perfect!

And now, I can think of no other good way to segue this except: SPEAKING OF CHOCOLATE, Nestle is giving away a big bag o’treats to one of our lovely readers! They’ve got this big photo contest going on at Nestle Family.com where you can win one of several $50 giftcards! They wanted to share the wealth and have generously offered up a big holiday gift pack which will include coupons for FREE Toll House chocolate chips and cookie dough, Carnation Evaporated Milk and Breakfast Essentials, Stouffer’s, Juicy Juice and Boost Kid Essentials, as well as products from Wonka and Rasinets. Also, a cute silver picture frame and a yummy Carnation holiday recipe guide. The prize value is around $40.

If you’d like to win, please leave us a comment below. Any comment will do—even a simple Merry Christmas! But if you’d like to dazzle the judges with your impressive comment, please tell us about your favorite handmade treat you love to give at the holidays! And as always, you can receive an additional entry if you tweet or facebook this post!

Merry Christmas to you!

The Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness has been…well, kind to us. We’ve had a lot of fun with this one and been able to talk about it a lot. Kindness is one of the easiest ones to measure and act on –especially for a 3 year old with a 1 year old brother! Here’s a few more activities we’ve done this past week and few more we haven’t done—but I think would be super fun!

Bible Story

Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). I just realized this story may have been even better for GOODNESS! Oh well, the point here is the same—a man is kind to someone different than him.  Lydia has just now started noticing differences in people’s skin and styles, so she didn’t quite get the full depth of this story. We read it in about 3 different Bible story books. Her favorite was from the See With Me Bible. It’s the Bible told in pictures. And the pictures are brilliant. Lydia will look at all 350 pages in one sitting. Speaking of which…

Books

I was looking up ORANGE books on Amazon and found this cute book about a bear, Orange Pear Apple Bear. The whole book only has five words in it. They are just rearranged depending on what Bear is doing with his fruit. This would actually be a great one for any time during the Fruit of the Spirit. I’m going to try to check it out at the library.

I went to the Family Bookstore yesterday to scope out their Holiday books (found nothing interesting!) but while I was browsing through the kids’ section, a title caught my eye: Lyle the Kindly Viking! I had forgotten there’s a Veggie Tales DVD of the same title! We even have it at home. This was the Little Golden Book edition. The book is really more about sharing, but I think that is a valid aspect of being kind. And a very tangible one!

Snacks

Jello Jigglers. Here’s another great anytime snack for the Fruit of the Spirit. In fact, you know what I would love to do? Find some cookie cutters in the shape of fruit (uhm, like these!). Then make several different flavors of jello jigglers, cut them out and have some jiggly Fruit of the Spirit!

We made orange jigglers this week–and I don’t think my daughter has ever had jello! She thought it was the best thing ever. We used some Christmas cookie cutters—so we made presents and gingerbread men to remind us to be kind by giving gifts to people. How’s that for creative?!

Movies

After I got the book, we of course, had to watch Veggie Tales’ Lyle the Kindly Viking. Lydia watched it after church with her Daddy. I tried to quiz her about it afterwards…she didn’t quite get it. I said, “Was Lyle kind? Did he share?” She said, “No. He just talked kind.”

*sigh*

Stay tuned this week for our next Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE!

Remember the great kiwi plans I told you about? The plans I didn’t want to tell you for fear I might not do them? Well, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, my kiwi-polymer-clay bead necklace plans have evaporated. I loved our peach pit necklaces so much, I thought it would be fun to make more jewelry to symbolize each Fruit of the Spirit. I googled polymer clay beads and thought I could figure it out–even though I’ve never held polymer clay in my life.

I headed out to our local craft store, looked through the clay (there’s LOTS to choose from) and found a great pack full of many different colors. I also bought some ribbon and other supplies for Asa’s birthday party (on Saturday!!). Well, a day went by and I thought, “Hm. Where did I put that bag of craft supplies?” But I was busy and didn’t look for it. I’ve thought about it off and on for the last few days and after a thorough search of the car and house the craft bag is nowhere to be found. My only conclusion is that I paid for the items and then left the bag at the store. How ridiculous is that?!

I say all that to say: I HAVE NOT DONE ANOTHER KIWI CRAFT. I’ve been really focused on my son’s birthday party which I’ll be able to blog about next week–wheeee! So, instead I thought I’d share a few fun kiwi stuff I found online. I’ll be doing one of these until I can get back to the craft store and see if they held onto my bag. GRRRR.

Felt Kiwi Slices from CardsCorner’s etsy shop. How cute are these? I love felt play food. I don’t sew, but I could probably glue some of it and hand stitch enough to make these!

Mini Kiwifruit Polymer Clay Video Tutorial. There are so many tutorials on youtube it is unbelievable! If you wanted to start a mini fruit making business, you’d be set!

Kiwi Fruit Knitted Hat. I certainly do not knit. But it would be funny to make a little hat with this pattern—we could paint or color a hat. That might be fun!

Fruit Flower Bouquet from Family Fun. This might actually be a great thing to do with all our Fruit of the Spirit fruit. I may save this one and do it when we ever finish. Kind of like a finale!

Kiwi Recipes from Zespri Kiwi. Who knew kiwis were so versatile? I totally want to make the Tropical Kiwi Pops and the Circus Parfait pictured above.

But my very favorite is this Kiwi-Colada Sipper from Conversations with a Cupcake. HOW ADORABLE IS THIS?! And totally yummy, too. I think I have all the ingredients here. If Lydia would ever take a nap today, I’d make this for her when she wakes up!

That’s all I got, folks! If my posting is light this week it’s because I’m up to my EARS in first birthday preparations!

Neighborhood Art Party at BeachBrights {{the coolest non-birthday party ever}}

Tips Are for Kids at Hot off The Garlic Press {{fantastic ideas for getting kids to eat fruits & veggies}}

Glass Jars and Bottles as Frames from Apartment Therapy {{cool to put Bible verses or artwork inside, too}}

Healthify Your Muffins with Catherine Wheels {{great way to use up the abundance of greens from summer gardens}}

Create a Family Mission Statement from Simple Mom {{i can’t wait to sit down and do this!}}

I found this craft online years ago and always wanted to do it Easter Sunday at church. Alas, there aren’t usually ovens on hand during Easter Sunday church services. Now that Lydia is old enough to kinda sorta a little bit understand about Jesus’ death and resurrection, I thought it was time to finally do this one!

Collect the following delicious and somewhat sinful items: canned crescent rolls, marshmallows, melted butter, brown sugar (or cinnamon and sugar mix).

Roll said marshmallows in melted butter. Just enough to get ‘em wet.

I told Lydia we were pretending the marshmallow was Jesus. (I know. Just go with it.) I explained how when Jesus was put in the tomb the women were going to rub his body with precious oils and good smelling spices. So, that’s what we were doing–dipping Jesus in the butter…er, oil. (I know, it’s weird. Keep reading.)

Then roll buttery marshmallow in brown sugar/cinnamon-sugar mix.

Or you know, roll Jesus in the spices.

Place one marshmallow on the wide end of a crescent roll. Roll up and make sure you pinch the edges so it’s sealed tight!

Now, I explained to Lydia about the tomb and it being sealed with a rock. So we pretended the crescents were the tomb and we sealed Jesus…er, the marshmallow up in the tomb.

Cook for the appropriate amount of time.

If you don’t seal the crescents up tight, your marshmallows might leak out…not a pretty sight. And kinda confusing if you’re pretending they are supposed to be Jesus…

As we waited for the tomb-snacks to cook, we read a few stories about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Lydia had lots of questions to ask. Some of them were about the pictures in the book. But some were about the angel that rolled the stone away or other aspects of the story. She was definitely interested.

When the timer rang, I put one tomb-snack on Lydia’s plate. I reminded her that this snack was like Jesus in the tomb. I asked her what she thought happened to the marshmallow. Then we opened up the crescent and peeked inside. Our marshmallow was gone! It was a big empty roll! And Lydia was AMAZED. She stared at it—and was almost afraid! She said, “But where did it go?!”

I explained to her that just like we were surprised that our marshmallow was gone, Jesus’ friends were surprised, too. They didn’t expect Jesus to come back to life. But he did! And he’s alive today.

Later on that day, when my husband came home, Lydia told him all about our snack. She said, “We pretended the ma’smewwow was De-dus!” Then she described how the marshmallow was gone and said, “I was like…I was like…” but couldn’t put her finger on the emotion she felt! She was so excited and I *think* she caught the idea of the surprising and amazing miracle of Jesus resurrection!

(oh, and I *did* finally tell her the marshmallow just melted and wasn’t resurrected!)

PS: these were DELISH.