It’s the weekend and that means we have out-of-the-house activities to do today. The kids have their last horseback riding lesson of the year in the morning and, in the afternoon, they will be going to their grandparents’ condo for a festive movie and treats in the building’s movie theatre.
The elf was watching his watching his own movie in the dollhouse this morning and even managed to find some popcorn. My daughter thought this was hilarious.
I love seeing what other people buy their kids for holidays. It’s great for finding new ideas and for just satisfying general curiosity of what other people do. Literally, no one I know but me and my kids care about what is going in their stockings. My husband is not that interested in what gifts they get. So, finding out what other people are giving feels like an almost conversation with other mom’s about holiday gift giving. Being a mom can be lonely.
So here is my contribution. What I’m putting in my 5 year old daughter and 3 year old son’s stockings. Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with anyone, nothing was free (unfortunately), and I’ve used my own money to purchase all these gifts.
Another quick note about my strategy for buying gifts: I am someone who shops all year for all the holidays. I used to think the people who started Christmas shopping on December 26th were crazy, but as is usually the case when I think in absolutes – the opposite has become true and I am now one of those crazy people. I like to support small shops, which means items are not available all year – especially right before holidays. Continuous shopping also helps spread out the spending and most importantly – I love a sale. So I buy things throughout the year when they go on sale.
Here are my finds for 2023. I will link the store and item (if available) in case you’re curious where I bought them.
5.5 year old girl (loves unicorns, frozen, art and sparkly things)
Chocolates – Costco
Yoto Card: Frozen 5 minute stories – Yoto store
Maileg Unicorn – Simply Green Baby
Frozen doodle dolls – 4 Peas Handmade
Barbie skis – AliExpress
Tiny Tummies Doll Food – Minimono
Unicorn Egg Bath Bomb – Happy Hippo Bath Co.
Grimms Giant Acrylic Glitter Stones (split with brother) – Sewing Seeds Play
Rainbow Spinning Top Learning Set – Nest.ca
Barbie outfit and Barbie Chelsea Doll – Dollarama
Schleich pony (looks like the pony she rides) – Apple Saddlery
Schleich blanket and halter – Amazon
Unicorn necklace and sparkly bracelets – Great Pretenders
Glow-in-the-Dark gems and dinosaurs – AliExpress
3.5 year old boy (loves trains, farms, and recently – Cinderella)
Chocolates – Costco
Yoto Card: Funny Stories for 4 Year Olds – Yoto store
Monster Mayhem Bath Bomb – Happy Hippo Bath Co.
Maileg Pony – Simply Green Baby
Cinderella Doodle Dolls – 4 Peas Handmade
Brio Magnetic Bell Signal – from a store that closed
Tiny Tummies Doll Food – Minimono
Roly Poly Spinning Top – Nest.ca
Grimms Giant Acrylic Glitter Stones (split with sister) – Sewing Seeds Play
Schleich Horse Club Feed Set – Amazon
Schleich pony (looks like the pony he rides) – Apple Saddlery
Schleich blanket and halter – Amazon
Glow-in-the-Dark gems and dinosaurs – AliExpress
*Writing this post has made me realize the kids stockings are uneven. How does that always happen? So I’m also going to add the Brio Light Up Gold Wagon to my son’s stocking.
It’s Gingerbread Day! I’ve been looking forward to this one. My daughter has been talking about making a gingerbread house since the start of December. We will make our real gingerbread house tonight after school, but to help get us in the gingerbread mood (in a less messy way), I had a special surprise for the kids this morning. I made some handmade gingerbread blocks. I think they turned out so adorable, so I was really excited for the kids to discover them this morning.
If you’re interested in how I made them, you can read about it here.
The elf was hanging out with the new blocks, plus a few other handmade goodies (not by me) that I just received from the second-hand toy store Wonder + Kind (Little Step Co. stackers and Island Peg Doll pegs and houses).
Let the building begin!
I am onboard with the gingerbread trend. Gingerbread has so many possibilities for creativity, plus it’s a yummy food – what’s not to like?
I had been looking for a wooden, buildable gingerbread house since last year. The closest ready-made options I found were the Everwood Friends holiday blocks and Guidecraft notch blocks. However, I’m in Canada and both options with shipping and exchange were out of my budget. Then I saw a fantastic idea on instagram from Moore to Love in Kinder; she made gingerbread blocks using inexpensive wooden blocks from Dollarama. They looked so cute, that I thought it was worth a try.
I found that they were time consuming, but did indeed turn out adorable. Worth the effort I think. Here’s how I made them.
Step 1: Buy Blocks
I purchased two sets of wooden blocks from Dollarama. Each set was $4.
Step 2: Sand Blocks (optional)
I chose to give the blocks a quick sand first, since they are very cheap blocks and I wanted them to have a better feel. I also wanted to slightly round the corners so they weren’t so sharp. The wood in these sets is very soft, so the sanding didn’t require much muscle. Once sanded, I gave the blocks a quick wipe with a damp rag to remove any excess sawdust.
Step 3: Mix paint
To get a gingerbread colour I liked, I mixed Cinnamon Brown (from Dollarama) and Raw Sienna (from Michaels), but you could use any combination of browns, reds and yellows to get the colour you like. My paints were in matte, which I think does help create the gingerbread look.
Step 4: Paint the blocks
There is lots of room for personal preference in this step as well. I choose to paint 2 sides of each block and left a thin border of wood around each. I just free-handed it, but you could tape the blocks in the areas you don’t want paint, or paint the whole block. I do not have the steadiest hand, but the free-hand was fairly easy and I got better at it as I went. I found I needed two coats on each side to cover the blocks evenly. After painting, I let the paint dry well before proceeding to the next step.
Step 5: Paint wooden cylinders
I covered the cylinders with a coat of white paint, let it dry and then added some candy cane and peppermint details with bright red paint and a thin brush. Since my hand isn’t the steadiest, I found the straight lines difficult, so I tried a few other designs.
Step 6: Add white gingerbread details
This was really the fun part. I was a bit nervous to make marks on the blocks I had put so much time into, but once I got going I found it was easier than I thought. I used a white acrylic paint pen (also from Dollarama). Here is where you can let your imagination run.
Step 7: Cover with Mod Podge (optional)
I haven’t done this step yet, because I didn’t have any matte Mod Podge on-hand and I wanted to keep the matte look. However, I may still do it to protect the blocks. It’s probably a good idea to seal in all your hard work.
So that’s it. Like I said, it doesn’t require a high skill level, but it did take me a few days of work. The good thing is once they are done, they will last for years of play.
The kids loved the painting chocolate kit from Costco last year and for some reason, I had an extra one (I probably thought one box between 2 kids was tons of chocolate). So, the chocolate painting activity is coming out again this year.
My daughter has a dance recital tonight and I wanted an extra easy activity for the day. I try to organize the activities so the easier to prep, less messy, less time consuming activities are during the week when we’re busy with school and after-school activities.
Following along with today’s chocolate theme, the elf got into the chocolate stash last night and had a little party on his own. The kids thought this was pretty funny.
Last December, when I was rotating the kids’ toys and looking for our most festive and Christmas themed items, I realized that we didn’t have any holiday puzzles. I found a couple on sale at Book Outlet after Christmas last year and put them away for this season. By the way, Book Outlet is a great place to get bargains on books, puzzles and activities. I’m not affiliated, I just find it’s a great, inexpensive place to find holiday related items to add to our rotation.
So, all to say, the elf (the kids say he’s an elf) brought a couple new holiday puzzles this year.
The adorable little sign and mini puzzle is from Eye Spy Club. I love Meaghan’s stuff, it’s all hand-drawn and always has a unique twist. The mini puzzle was probably my daughter’s favourite of the three. A nice, easy and mess-free activity for a busy weekday. Let the puzzles begin!
Day 12 we will be playing with playdough. The elf dug out all of our Christmas play dough tools and accessories this morning.
Everything is from previous years, but the kids were excited to explore it all because they haven’t seen it since last year. Some of our play dough is getting a bit brittle so I made some fresh peppermint swirl playdough.
I’m on a mission to find the softest, squishiest playdough. This time I tried a new recipe from https://teachingmama.org/super-soft-playdough-recipe/. This recipe uses baby powder instead of corn starch and I did find it made very soft dough, even though I had to substitute coconut oil for baby oil. My only complaint is that despite adding peppermint extract to the dough, I could still smell the baby powder. I don’t love the smell of baby powder, so I will continue the search.
Today’s activity is to make a donation. My daughter’s school organized a food and personal hygiene goods collection, so she took some things this morning to contribute.
I thought it would be fun to do something funny with the elf/ pixy in the morning. I set him up to have a garage sale with a few of the kids’ toys.
Unfortunately, my son did not wake up in a good mood and was not impressed to see all his toys in a pile on the counter. I explained that the elf was making a joke and trying to play a game. After my son woke up more and his mood improved, he thought the little scene was more amusing. I think because my kids are still so young and can’t read, they prefer the simple elf scenes.
We started the day off with a little pixy mischief. He was zip lining from the kitchen over to the Maileg Christmas Chalet.
My husband was down with the sickness today, so the kids, their grandparents and I went to Stanley’s Christmas Village. The weather was not the best, but we toughed it out – taking a tractor ride to a magical Christmas Village, seeing farm animals and visiting Santa. It was too cold and wet to take the kids snowsuits off and take a pretty Santa photo, but the kids managed to have fun in some difficult conditions – so I take that as a win.
This morning, the elf got up to some more (easy) antics. He showed up in the Christmas tree with two new ornaments. Once again, the kids were pretty interested in how he got there. My daughter decided she’s going to sleep with him tonight because he’s always moving around at night and she needs to keep an eye on him.
Today’s activity is to look at Christmas lights. Our community has an event tonight where everyone goes out for a walk in the neighbourhood and looks at each others’ Christmas lights. Some people offer hot chocolate and adult beverages along the way and there is a collection of non-perishable goods to donate. It’s a fun night to go out and socialize with neighbours.
