White Christmas Morning

D2's first grade teacher taught him a major life lesson, one I wish I had learned at his age:  How to Make it Snow.

The secret, she revealed, is to wear your pajamas inside-out.

He didn't take her up on it the first night, but apparently his classmates did, resulting in a snow day the Wednesday before Christmas.  (This was, by the way, the miracle we've all hoped for, and Scoot received: an extra day to finish a major project.  I hope he appreciated it.)

So on Christmas Eve, D2 wore his pajamas inside-out.  So did a friend to whom we sang carols.  And their faith was rewarded with a snowy Christmas morning.  It was lovely.

Here's our lovely Christmas tree.  Can you tell that it's leaning?  Maybe that was just me, not holding the camera quite straight.  But the tree was a challenge.  Dandelionslayer struck quite the bargain for it, and we cheerfully installed it in the living room and dressed it up.  The next morning, I found that the tree had fallen over.  When a tree falls in the darkness with no one to hear, the only sound it induces is an "Oh, no," in the morning.  And then some grunts as people try to fix it.  It turns out that the trunk was quite curved, and narrower than our stand was expecting, so we tried to make it mostly vertical, and shored it up with various wood scraps.  Luckily, it didn't fall over again.  And it was beautiful.  But I don't think Dandelionslayer paid any more than it was worth.

Here they are, full of anticipation, and/or decorated with candy canes.

D2's teacher also taught him to make this adorable snowman ornament, using his own handprint.



Here are a couple of gifts I made:

 
Tired of carrying plastic bags of drawing materials to church or elsewhere, I sewed a colored pencil roll for the younger boys. 

I more or less followed instructions from Sew Scrumptious and The Pleated Poppy.  It came out a little smaller than I expected; I'll be more careful about seam allowances next time.  But we think it's pretty neat.

I crocheted this dragon for Rollo, using a pattern from ChrysN.  You should follow the link--she used some pretty cool special effects that wouldn't be so practical for a toy.

And this is what Dandelionslayer gave me:  a lightsaber candlestick.  Isn't he romantic?

The younglings couldn't wait to try it out.

Down came the rain, 

and washed the snow away, 

but all the Garden denizens 

had a merry day!