Creative Christmas

I could post Christmas pictures from now until Valentine's Day if I shared all that we've done! I think we were really trying to make up for the flu plague that hit us last year when we weren't able to see anyone until practically after New Year's Day. One thing I did was something I've never done before (at least since I was child with Mom)... Gingerbread Man Cookies! I don't care for the taste of gingerbread, despite my childhood Christmas memories being scented with Lebkuchen. But it just seemed like a fun, traditional thing to do, so I baked up a large batch for the family to eat and to share with the neighborhood children. I never ate one, but judging by the rate at which they disappeared, I'd say they were pretty tasty!

I just used a simple white royal icing recipe and decorated with various sprinkles and decorations.

 I also made the kids' yearly ornaments this year. Sometimes I use store-bought, but this year I was in the mood for creativity. I bought little wooden plaques at a craft store and used scrapbooking paper I already had for the backing.

Then I painted the fronts of them in their favorite colors and added their initials. And before you start panicking about the extra ornament in there ... I made one for a friend, too! 

Then I just hot-glued ribbon to the tops for hanging on the tree. Easy-peasy, and now the children have 15, 11, 5, and 3 ornaments in their collections. 

 

Running out of wrapping paper with one gift left to wrap calls for creativity, too! I grabbed a roll of plain white paper from my stash and let the kids decorate Daddy's present with crayons, markers and colored pencils.