An even more toddler-friendly “Chismit tee”.

Don’t anyone  get excited, but I came out of my comfort zone again to do a project for the littles. I felt like a stranger in the fabric/craft store. But I managed to find the few things I needed for this simple task. And forest green sparkly felt, no less!. When I saw this on Pintrest (doesn’t it have Pintrest written all over it?), I knew the kids would love it, so I put in a few hours and it was done!

When they woke up to it in the morning, they fell instantly in love. Ruby, true to her hoarding ways, immediately gathered all the letters. We are really working on sharing lately. Now, every time they are arguing over toys, I hear a bunch of little voices saying, “I can share! I can share!”

Alex was confused which tree to put the ornaments on at first.

Bennett woke up a little later, so he had it to himself after the initial excitement had worn off, which I’m sure he liked.

We also realized we could use the finger puppet nativity on it as well.

I made only letter ornaments, though the tutorial has some other cute patterns. Maybe next year. These kids love anything that displays letters, so I thought that would make it most fun for them at this age. This is definitely the kind of thing I would’ve opted to buy rather than make myself in the past, but hey, being a mom of toddlers makes me open to trying things I normally wouldn’t. I think Christmas also has put me in the mood to be constructive. And I think we’ll enjoy this one for years to come. Thanks internet stranger!

It’s been fun finding Christmas themed activities for the kids, though anything too organized is still pretty moot. Even coloring gets a little hairy, with the eating of crayons, and begging for the whole box so no one else can color. But we have managed to find some fun things for them to do.

Any kind of sticker has been great lately. These jelly stickers, or window appliques are a favorite. I love driving up to see their arrangements on the front window. I love that there are kids living in my house.

I splurged on this Little People Nativity set. Ruby has been obsessed with it ever since. She loves the animals the best, of course. She is often found trying to carry them all at once for long periods of time as she wanders the house. She also thinks any of the people are called “Baby Desus”. I’m a little nervous about losing pieces, so I try to take inventory at the end of the day. Sometimes I look for them with Ruby, and she’ll go around the house saying “where’s camel"? over and over and over until we find him. She also likes to put any piece, not just the angel, on top. The boys look at it now and then, but mostly it’s Ruby’s territory.  Heaven forbid anyone else even touches ONE of the 20 pieces. That girl.

I don’t know what these kids are going to do (or what I am going to do) when Christmas is over. Without Frosty, Christmas trees, lights, “Sant-i-caus”, nativities, and all their new favorite Christmas shows, they’ll be so depressed. We’ll try to enjoy everything to the max until then.