Handmade Holidays

We spent many of our days leading up to Christmas creating for others and for ourselves.  Nothing was fancy or complicated - it was all easy and perfection was not required.  I thought I would share some of what we did...

 

 

 

The last two images are of project created at a get together that we attended with some friends near and dear to our hearts.  I am so blessed to have remained friends with a great group of girls from my hometown of Florence.  We have so many great memories growing up and I love that we are making new memories together as our children become friends.  The stable shown above is made out of graham crackers, fries for hay and caramels for baby Jesus.

The little ones then made manger scenes using paint brushes and their little hand and finger prints...

 

 

To wrap up the night we attended a local church's live nativity.  They first went inside to the "city of Bethlehem" where they registered with the census...

 

and learned about the city of Bethlehem during the time when Jesus was born.  This included learning about a traditional Jewish home...

 

We then got in our cars and and were given homemade cookies to eat as we sat in our cars to watch the live Nativity story and listen to it over our car radios.  Afterward the children could get out and pet the animals that took part in the program.  It was wonderful and truly a highlight of our Advent season!