6th Day of Christmas Books: Nativity Activities

Celebrating The Twelve Days of Christmas Books

On the 6th day of Christmas Books, obSEUSSed gave to me

6 Nativity Activities (say that quickly 6 times)

5 Grinch Cookies

A Nutcracker

3 Mitten Trees

2 Snowman Earrings

and the Berenstain Bear Family.

Our family enjoys books and activities about the Nativity during the Christmas Season. After all, it is the Reason for the Season. 
I created this wall hanging Advent Calendar with pockets that hold little 1 inch ornaments. The kids take turns adding an ornament to the tree each night before bed.
I found the ornaments, mini 2-foot tree and tree skirt at Big Lots. The first 12 ornaments are a festive set with Santa, snowflakes, snowmen and more. The ornaments I put in the last 12 pockets are from the Nativity so as we get closer to Christmas we discuss each figure and what they represent. The baby Jesus ornament is in the 25th day pocket so we can add it to the tree on His birthday and remember Him.

I hand stiched the numbers onto felt with embroidery thread, then I sewed the pockets on using an applique stitch. I keep the ornaments in the little box after Christmas.

FAMILY FUN ACTIVITY:

We try to act out the nativity on Christmas Eve as we read the story from the Bible. We use towels on our heads for a quick costume, although my mother-in-law just bought some simple animal costumes from Oriental Trading for us to use this year.

We also love the Little People Nativity set so the kids have a hands on activity to retell the story. (See below with books.)

BOOKS:

Here are some great Nativity books that we have in our collection.

Family Fun at Thanksgiving Point Giveaway

CONTEST CLOSED, THE WINNER IS:

Jokilyn who said: Love to go to the Dino Museum, Holiday Lights or Farm Country!
Congrats Jodi! I will contact you by email then send the pass to you in the mail.
Thanks to all those who entered.
-ObSEUSSed
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Thanksgiving Point is a wonderful place for family fun in Utah.
Keep reading for details on a Thanksgiving Point annual pass giveaway at the end of this post.

We welcome Spring each year by visiting Thanksgiving Point to view the Tulip Garden. Grandma comes from Brigham City and we take a picnic lunch while we enjoy walking around the gardens. Here are some pictures I took from this past spring.

Our kids love feeding the large fish in the coi pond and smelling the tulips in the fragrance garden. We also love the garden carousel area.

You may wonder why I am mentioning spring time in the middle of winter.  Well, I just had the opportunity to visit Thanksgiving Point last week during a Holiday Preview for local bloggers.  I got to see a whole different side of the venue.  We took a tour through their magnificent Emporium, sampled food from their Harvest restaurant (see the Seussalicious butternut squash soup below), and took a trolley ride to view their holiday light display.

KID FRIENDLY ACTIVITIES AT THANKSGIVING POINT

I can't wait to go back and take the kids through their holiday lights display. You can drive through, staying nice and cozy in your car or take a ride on their heated Trolley bus.   They also have reindeer by the watertower. Santa visits at certain times too.

The Emporium store was beautifully decorated for the holidays with a wonderful kid section featuring whimsical trendy toys, clothes and books.

Farm Country, is great in the spring and warmer months with a petting zoo.

The Museum of Ancient Life featuring Dinosaur exhibits, a fossil dig and Mammoth Screen 3D Theater and Megaplex Movies.

What I'm most excited for is their new Museum of Natural Curiosity coming soon. They are currently raising funds to build the largest Children's museum in Utah. It sounds amazing and I hope to take my children there in the future.

Disclosure: When attending the Holiday preview for bloggers I was given an annual family pass and an extra one to give away to a reader of obSEUSSed. All the opinions in this post are my own.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:

One winner will recieve a Thanksgiving Point Property Membership (valued at $175) good for one year. See all the benefits here.

To enter: Please visit Thanksgiving Point’s website and come back here to leave me your email address and a comment telling me what area you want to take your kids or grandkids to the most by midnight (MST) Friday, December 17 (so I can try to mail it to you in time for Christmas). Winner must have a valid U.S. address. 

For extra entries (please leave a separate comment & your email address for each entry):

• Tell me your favorite Christmas Children's book
• Follow obSEUSSed through Google Friend Connect (see right column)
• Like obSEUSSed on Facebook
• Like Thanksgiving Point on Facebook
• Follow obSEUSSed on Twitter

BLOG HOP GIVEAWAY:
Here are some other great Utah bloggers doing this giveaway if you'd like more chances to win.

Michelle from A Little Tipsy, (see more about her in my previous post today)
Tauni at It's a Tradition,

Sassy Scoops List:
Camille at Make It Work Mom,
Emily at Is This Really My Life?,
Stephanie at The Daily Blarg,
Vanessa at I Never Grew Up,
Kalli at My Life as a Kalli
Sharon at the Savvy Grandma
Shelly at House of Smiths,

Jill at Jill Can Blog
Hannah at Sherbet Blossom
Jenny at Formerly Pfread,
Quinn at The Artistic Mom,
Julee at Mommy's Memorandum.
These others will likely post their giveaways soon: Veronica at Welcome to my Chaos, Elisa at Mormon Mommy Blogs, and Crazyland: Tales from the Motherboard, Rebecca at Blue Cricket Design, Jen at Tatertots and Jello.

I'm looking forward to visiting Thanksgiving Point this coming year and hope others will join me.

I'm so glad you stopped by, pull up a chair and stay awhile at obSEUSSed. Take a look around my blog and come back often for more Seusstastic ideas on kid crafts, family fun and children's books .

Merry Grinchmas!

ObSEUSSed's Family

With a blog called ObSEUSSed, I couldn’t go through this season without mentioning the Grinch. We got to take pictures with the Grinch this year at my daughter’s school fundraiser. Barnes & Nobel donated a percentage of their profits to their school while the school provided Grinch and Dr. Seuss themed activities. The kids sang carols, went on a Dr. Seuss scavenger hunt around the store, made whimsical Who hats, listened to their principal read Dr. Seuss stories and took pics with the Grinch.

 

One of our favorite holiday traditions is reading "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" to our kids and watching the movie. I love discussing the message of the story with my kids.
Play "How the Grinch Saved Christmas" game at Seussville.com
Grab the book or the movie at your local library or online (Amazon disclosure on About page.)



  

Seuss Landing Grinch

Seuss Landing Grinch



Use ornaments and candy as decor. Drip icing off side for icicles.

We went to Grandma’s house last week to decorate gingerbread (graham cracker) houses. She was so thoughtful and found Grinch ornaments for me to use on our houses. I plan to pull them off to use again next year as I work on creating a Whoville Christmas Village. (I’m so excited collecting things to create this from scratch.)



 Graham Cracker Houses have been a tradition for our family since I was a little girl. We would make extra and take them to neighbors.

Graham Cracker House Tips:

• Use a dull knife to saw the graham crackers into the shapes you need. Saw one square in half diagonally to create the triangles on the top of house. Then use all squares or all long rectangles (the whole graham cracker) for creating your sides and roof.
• Face candy canes together to create a heart or a door. See the roof on mine.
• Drip Icing off the roof to create icicles.
• Use a pie tin for easy transportation and don't forget to decorate the yard. Coconut looks nice as snow.
• Pick up decorative candy or ornaments at the dollar store to add to your house.
• Don’t try to use store bought canned frosting for these- they will not stay together. Here is the recipe my mom always makes that is nice and soft to start with but dries or sets up quickly.

Use a Pie tin. Let your kids get creative.

ROYAL ICING
(Also known as 7 minute icing or frosting)

3 egg whites (room temp)

4 cups powdered sugar

 ½ teaspoon cream of tartar

Beat all ingredients at high speed for 7 to 10 minutes. (Easy if you have a Kitchen Aid.)

This icing is for putting things together such as gingerbread houses and sugar molds. It dries hard and fast. You need to keep it covered with a wet cloth or a tight fitting lid when not being used. It will keep several days in the refrigerator but you should let it come to room temperature before using. Re-beating will not restore texture. Yields about 2 ½ cups icing.

If you want colored icing, put a dab of Wilton cake color paste on a toothpick and run through a cup of the icing. Stir it good. Keep adding a drop at a time until you get the desired color you desire.

Note: You can use meringue powder instead of egg whites.





Our Cindy Lou Who when she was two.

 You Can Create your own Who at Seussville.com and play many more games.

Remember "Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!" from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.



GIVEAWAY UPDATE:  I attended a Holiday Preview at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah last week and am giving away a 1-year family membership. Click here for details to enter.

Linking to:

 Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff Thursday and Winter Holidays Link Party

Tatertots and Jello, Weekend Wrap-up Party

Quick Pumpkin Activities

If you don't have time to carve a pumpkin this Halloween (or if you want to avoid the mess) try some of these quick pumpkin activities.

FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS:

Start with a book at bed time. This one is great for toddlers too.

It has been a traditional rhyme since my mom was a little girl. She taught it to me and I'm sure most people have heard it.  The poem, "5 Little Pumpkins," can be found in this cute book by Dan Yaccarino or below. Remember to clap your hands (or really turn out the light) at the part where you say "Out went the light"

Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh, my it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"
Then woooooo went the wind
And OUT went the lights.
And those five little pumpkins rolled right out of sight.

Another Quick Idea
REAL ORANGE PUMPKINS:

Get some cute Clementine oranges and give your kids some permanent markers to decorate faces on them.

Under adult supervision my 4 & 6 year old loved this. Then they gave a bag to our neighbors.

PIPE CLEANER PUMPKIN: Use pipe cleaners to decorate a pumpkin in under 5 minutes. Curl a few or leave them straight.  Use siscors to cut them (they are way too hard to pull apart by hand - trust me, I've tried. Remember there is a wire under that fuzz).

POTATO HEAD PUMPKIN: Use pieces from Mr. Potato Head toy or buy pieces at the store that have a little bit longer and pointy tip. You can find them all over. I've seen them at Target and WalMart.  Our kids like to change the look every day for a fresh spooky surprise.  Or try 4 faces at once (on each side) so you can rotate it to your favorite each day.

PUMPKIN PRETZEL KISSES: These are a favorite new treat.  The kids did all the work for these. I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. My 6 year old lined up pretzels on a cookie tray, my 4 year old unwrapped all the kisses (Pumpkin Spice, Candy Corn and Carmel Apple flavors) then set one one each pretzel.  Then I popped them in the oven for 5 minutes to melt, took them out and pushed them down a little with the bottom of a spoon.  The carmel ones got messy and stuck to the tray but the others turned out great.

Here is one of my little helpers and my cute little 3-month-old pumpkin.

Linking up to Today's Creative, Get Your Craft On
Skip To My Lou, Made By You Monday
Ain't She Crazy Theme Party Thursday 
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrapup Party

Personalized Guess Who Game - Family Style

My sister and I love to play the board game Guess Who when we get together. Yes, I know. I'm in my 30's and she is in her mid 20's and we still play kid board games. A few years ago I got the idea to customize our game with the faces of our extended family.  It turned out great and makes the game even better.  Just think of the possibilities.  You could ask "Does your person have a bald head?" - which could describe grandpa or the new baby in the family. 

HOW TO DO IT: 

Step 1- FIND PICS

Pick 24 favorite family members or friends. Find head shots of them or crop your favorite pics into a head shot. I copied and pasted pics into a word file and resized them to fit the holders in the game (this made printing on one page easier). The size of the holders depends if it is a newer or older version or travel size. 

Step 2 - PRINT & CUT

Once they were all the right size I printed that page onto white card stock and cut them out.  You could use a nice scrapbook paper so the back will have a pretty design while you print the pics on the white side.  Print three sets, one for the draw-card pile and a set for each player's board. 

Step 3 - REPLACE

Replace all the cartoon face cards with your family faces. The holders are a little tricky to work but the older version seems to be more sturdy. Place one set of cards in the draw pile and you're ready to play.

Step 4 - PLAY

Use standard questions or more personalized questions. "Does your person play the banjo?" or "Does your person like to ride bikes?"

GET GEUSS WHO:

The game can still be purchased at most game retailers. Click here.

I found 3 more copies of the game (1 large & 2 travel size) at a thrift shop (a great place to find board games). I also plan to convert them into family games to give as custom gifts (I gave this copy to my sister).  These game pics are 5 years old and I've had 2 kids since I made this it so I need to make a new game to keep at my house.

See another Guess Who Personalized example with closer pics At Second Street. Scroll to middle of post.

Another great example at The Madsen Times blog

This project is linked to the Tatertots & Jello blog weekend wrapup party. Take a look at what other bloggers are creating by clicking the button below:

I'm just getting rolling in the blog world and would love more followers and linky love. Feel free to pass my hat around (grab my button on the side column) Thanks!