Homemade Gifts

*UPDATED* I added samples of the stationary paper I made onto my sidebar. It got altered when I was uploading but I'm not sure how to fix. ;-)

This past summer I started making homemade gifts in preparation for Christmas. Every year I get frustrated with the amount of clutter caused by toys not even used. Except for a few favorite toys, most of the toys bought during the holidays are never used as much as I imagine when purchasing. So this year I decided to create or buy meaningful gifts.

As St. Nicholas Day quickly approaches Craig has reminded me not to spend a fortune and turn it into a mini Christmas. I've been thinking and thinking and came up with some wonderful ideas!!

Last week I called a local Catholic bookstore to find out how much Catholic stationary cost. The store owner quoted me $16 a set!! I've also been eyeing these sets. But I just can't see buying 4 sets and spending that much money.

Well, today I spent some time printing homemade stationary. The three older girls will each have their patron saint and their name on their paper. Kolbe will also have his saint but will have dotted lines (to encourage correct penmanship).

As for Catherine, I've decided that I will start doing preschool with her in January. I've been enjoying all the Along the Alphabet Path posts here and here. Catherine will begin her journey in January. To help with this cause I've ordered this cd. After printing ALL the coloring sheets I'll have them spiraled bound. I'm also going to print out all the saint coloring sheets from HERE and have them spiral bound.

Veronica received a plastic baby album for her birthday. I have yet to put pictures in it. I plan on printing up pictures of every family member so she can enjoy her book during mass.

Total cost for this Saint Nicholas Day??

4 stationary sets - about $6-10 (printer ink, paper)
envelopes for stationary- about $10
cd of Alphabet Saints - $20 (we already own book)
printing saint sheets - about $1-2 (printer ink, paper)
spiral binding two books - about $3-7
pictures - about $3

Total: $36-40 (since I already own ink, paper, album)

I'll also be bake some cookies using my St. Nicholas stamp. Each child will receive a little baggie with cookies and an envelope of hot cocoa.

I am so excited about these homemade gifts!!!

Thanksgiving Reading Basket

What we'll be reading from these next several days:

The Landing of the Pilgrim by James Daugherty (Landmark Book)
Pilgrims and Puritans by Christopher Collier & James Lincoln Collier
The Pilgrims at Plymouth by Lucille Penner (Landmark Book)
The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla
The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern
On The Mayflower: Voyages of the Ship's Apprentice & a Passenger Girl by Kate Waters
A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim by Kate Waters
The First Thanksgiving (Step into Reading Books: A Step 3 Book) Linda Hayward
Thanksgiving on Thursday (Magic Tree House Series #27) Mary Pope Osborne
The Pilgrim and the First Thanksgiving from The Children's Book of America
Draw and Write Through HIstory: Pilgrims, Pirates, and Patriots

I've waited all year to pull these books out and enjoy!!

I love that I have books at different reading levels for all the kids!!!!!

I'll be back with pics of our crafts. We normally make Thanksgiving turkeys and weaved placemats as well as Pilgrim hats like these. And we'll make some sort of Thanksgiving tree/banner with leaves that will have what we are thankful for. Finally, we'll decorate some white pillar candles with handmade wax leaves in various colors using wax sheets and wax pens we bought from HeartSong years ago.

Nothing fancy. Just the same crafts we've been doing for over 5 years now.

All Saint's Day Pics

Today we celebrated All Saint's Day with our homeschooling co-op. This is definitely one of my favorite holidays!!! I love the idea of living out the liturgical season. While I don't always bake special treats or make ingenious crafts for saint feast days, I do go all out for All Saint's Day.

I've made these costumes over the years. This year I only had the time and energy for making a black bonnet for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Thankfully, Catherine had never worn our Kateri Tekakwitha outfit. And Sophia had never worn the Mother Teresa costume. Anna LOVES being St. Elizabeth of Hungary. And Kolbe cares mostly about saints with swords! =)

Here is today's line up of saints.

Blessed Virgin Mary





St. Kateri Tekakwitha


*playing Saint Musical Chairs*

St. George (with real shield & sword!!)

*Every year Kolbe chooses to be either St. Michael the Archangel or St. George. I think he's been St. Francis once. Before he knew about swords. Next year I hope to steer him towards a different type of saint. Perhaps a martyr? =)

Bl. Mother Teresa

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

All you holy men and women, pray for us!! My prayer is that I raise saints, please God.

Veronica's 1st Birthday Party

Veronica is now officially a year old! Her birthday was actually last Tuesday but we celebrated with friends and families on All Hallow's Eve. Veronica seemed to enjoy her cake and loved all her new toys. Here are a few pictures of her special day.

I couldn't resist making this fun and yummy cake I saw in a magazine. It was made with two 1.5 L Pyrex bowels. The stem is a Snickers bar. The kids had funny adding the orange Reeses Pieces (after I added the yellow ones for eyes, nose and mouth).

Plenty of fun was had by all. Happy birthday, sweet Veronica. My, how you have grown!!

4th of July 2009

Finally, pictures of our Award Winning Tee's!! A lady at the parade was so impressed and thought I should sell them next year. LOL!!! If only she knew how "easy" painting tee shirts can be with a baby, 3yo, 6yo, 7 yo, 9 yo and a 11 yo? We had friends over to "help." They brought over a baby, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, and two 10 yo's.

I don't think we'll be going into business anytime soon! LOL!!

Marching in our neighborhood parade,

the kids sang "You're a Grand Old Flag," "National Anthem,"

"America the Beautiful," and "Erie Canal."

Guess who won Most Patriotic??

*big wide grin*

The kids were a hit and had an encore at the park. They've also been booked for our neighborhood Winter Wonderland Festival. I guess I'm their agent now?

Painting Patriotic Tees

Big thank you to Charlotte for the timely advance notice. We finally got around to making our own 4th of July tees. Once they're dry I'll have the kids show them off. This has been a tradition I've been after for a while now. More pics to come, including some of our traditional flag cake that we've been doing for years now!!

May Crowning Cake

Tonight we celebrated a May Crowning with some families. We prayed the rosary and then enjoyed snacks. I volunteered to bring the cake and ... tada .... this is how it came out. At the last minute I ran over to my mom-in-laws and she made some roses for me. I've always wanted to do a rosary cake!! I finally got the chance! BTW, those are M&M's!!

* On a side note: I had a great time and really enjoyed myself with these ladies. I always do. Unfortunately, they don't live on my side of town but I'm not going to let that be such an obstacle anymore. Thank you so much for your supportive comments and heartfelt prayers!! I wish I could get together with all of you IRL!!! The private emails made me feel so loved. The reminder to lean heavily on my Lord was just what I needed to hear! Love you!!

Christmas Eve

I pray that you and your family have a wonderful Christmas. As for me, I'm wrapping those last gifts with packaging tape since I ran out of the regular type. The girls will be singing at Mass tonight. Friends and family will be gathering at my home both tonight and tomorrow.

I can't believe Christmas is here. So many things I wanted to accomplish during Advent never happened. I'm now relieved that I can relax and just enter this Christmas season (ready or not) with joy and peace.

Family Christmas picture will be ready after mass. I plan to take my camera and ask a friend to take some shots. Its the only way I can get a picture this year! LOL!

Merry Christmas dear friends!!

Wordless Wednesday

* Well, almost wordless! LOL! Just wanted to note that to make things simple this year, we're using pre-packaged cards, pre-packaged cookie mix, and store bought play dough. The kids didn't seem to notice or care. *

Twelve Days of Christmas

This is a repeat from last year. I thought I'd post it again. Its one of my favorites!

Christmas Meme

This looked like a fun meme to play. Thank you, Melissa, for sharing.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper, of course. I even color coordinate for the children. Each child gets a different wrapping paper. That way, no one opens someone else's presents on Christmas morning. And they are decked out with ribbons and bows. I spend lots of time looking for just the right wrapping paper since I really want it to be religious in nature. I LOVE wrapping presents and making them beautiful!!!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? About a week after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? After Epiphany
5. Do you like eggnog? Nope.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My Menudo Christmas album. You remember about my huge crush, don't you?!? I'm still in love with them, you know. LOL! In case you don't know who Menudo is ............. Here they are singing the same song as adults for a reunion. Aren't they the cutest!! I loved Johnny the most. Yeah, that was my favorite gift ever. Maybe I'll have my parents bring it over this year (along with their record player). Moving on ....
7. Hardest person to buy for? My Mom
8. Easiest person to buy for? My kids
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Several! Both indoors and out.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Ha! Ha!! Ideally, mail. But its been a few years ....
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmm, I can't remember. ;-)
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas with Bing Crosby.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? About a week after Thanksgiving. I start thinking about ideas as early as summer but don't actually purchase anything until 2-3 weeks before Christmas.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Honestly, YES!!! LOL!! But don't worry, I followed the gift recycling rules. You didn't know there were rules?!?
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My father's traditional Puerto Rican Christmas Eve dinner which includes pernil (Puerto Rican pork shoulder), arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), pasteles, tostones (fried plantain with garlic), and templeque for dessert. YUM!!!
16. Lights on the tree? Clear colored.
17. Favorite Christmas song(s)? Pat a Pan, Do You Hear What I Hear?, and of course, all these songs!! ;-) Actually, I love ALL Christmas songs!!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Stay at home
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Nope! LOL!!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Presents from my parents on Christmas Eve, presents from us and Craig's parents on Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Secular Christmas songs and tv shows and commercials, to name a few.
23. What theme or color are you using? Pink and Purple (for Advent) with gold.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? See #15. Also, I LOVE my mother's bunuelos. They are crispy and flaky and just YUMMY!!! And tamales. Gosh, I'm getting hungry! LOL!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Good health, time with my family and to hear screaming & laughter on Christmas morning. I already got my Christmas gift in having my precious Veronica.

I tag anyone who wants to play. Leave me a comment if you decide to play.

Happy St. Nicholas Day

The kids were giddy with excitement as they put their shoes out. Kolbe said he knew St. Nicholas liked "churchy things" and so he put a rosary in his shoes. I think he's hoping it'll help him score some points! LOL!!


Have a Blessed St. Nicholas Day!!

HALLOWEEN 2008 (better late than never)

**We forgot to take our camera to the All Saint's Day Party. I keep meaning to dress the kids up in their saint costumes for pictures.**

Kolbe as Spiderman

Catherine as a Ladybug

Isabelle as a gypsy

Anna as a cowgirl

Sophia as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz