Saturday, December 6, 2008

Christmas Fun!


We made these ornaments a few years ago. I painted the boys' hands with white paint and then pressed them onto the ornaments. I think at the time, they were still pretty young to do the faces, so I did them myself. They're older now and could probably take on the entire project. I trimmed them with holiday ribbon and enclosed this poem --

These aren't just five snowmen, as anyone can see.
I made them with my hand, which is a part of me.
Now each year when you trim the tree,
You'll look back and recall, Christmas of 2005,

When my hand was this small.

Another fun thing for Christmas is the book The Three Bears' Christmas. Neil checked this one out of the library recently. When we read it the other day, we were delighted to find it was written in the style of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It's written by Kathy Duval and illustrated by Paul Meisel and published by Holiday House. It's a cute story where Mama Bear bakes gingerbread bears for her family, but they're too hot, so they decide to go for a walk. When they return, they discover someone's been in their house, eaten their cookies, sat in their chairs and has left clothes all over the place. It's a fun twist to a classic story and a great book for the holidays. Amazon has used copies starting at 99 cents, or you can ask for it at your local bookseller or library. The boys and I love retellings like these. My upcoming book, The Marshmallow Man is a retelling of a famous story too.

Also, one last thing for today -- yesterday I received a contract from Highlights for Children magazine. I had sent them two craft projects and they accepted one for purchase. It's a Halloween type craft, so I imagine it won't be featured in the magazine for awhile. It's a simple craft that any child can do and it doesn't use anything fancy to make. It's my first craft sale, and my first sale to Highlights for that matter, so I was pretty excited about it.

11 comments:

  1. What a beautiful ornament Rena! You are just so crafty! (And I mean that in a good way!) lol

    Congrats on selling the craft to the magazine as well! Great job.

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  2. What a cute idea for the ornaments!
    Congrats on your Highlights sale, Rena! That is awesome!

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  3. Congratulations on your Highlights contract! And those ornaments are sweet.

    One of my favorite Christmas stories is called The Christmas That Almost Wasn't by Ogdan Nash. I found a copy on Amazon as I don't think it's in print any more. It is simply wonderful!

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  4. Congratulations on the sale, Rena! I love the ornaments. They're a great idea.

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  5. Rena, those ornaments are adorable! I haven't heard of that story before. That sounds like something my kids would enjoy.
    Congratulations on the craft sale! I'm happy for you!
    Erin

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  6. I think I'm going to have to make those ornaments with my kids this year! Congrats on the Highlights sale. You should send the ornament idea off!!

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  7. Whoo-Hoo, Congratulations!!!

    That is so cool - but I'm not surprised. You are so crafty - in a good way.

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  8. The ornaments are neat Rena, I may have to do something like that with my day care kids; a great present for the parents for Christmas.

    Nancy

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  9. What a great idea for a keepsake ornament... might do this myself.

    Congrats on your craft contract, you are really rolling!

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  10. I love the ornaments! Another great craft idea...Thanks.

    I love looking back at all the crafts Son did...his hands were so small then but the ornaments were soooo big...grin...

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  11. Congratulations on your sale to Highlights Rena!!!!

    BTW, I love the snowman ornaments. Mind if I use this with my family? I think I could do that with the adults, if they just painted one finger and repeated it around the ornament. Hmmmm. Maybe. Usually at this time I have the holiday craft planned already, but this year I'm not sure what I want to do! I have a few ideas, but I don't know if they are fun enough for the reluctant crafters.

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