It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Every year in December I start to feel all Christmas-Crafty. But I'll let you in on a little secret...if you're only half crafty like me and can't seem to come up with any original ideas and need to buy the pre packaged crafts to scratch your itch, December is way too late to get started. Craft stores are down to bare bones by the time the actual holiday season has come around. So this year I am prepared. I shopped in August for my Christmas crafts. Yes, I said August. And yes, that's four months before Christmas. After all I do have kids old enough to be interested in this kind of thing and I have motherly obligations to fulfill this year and if I had waited any longer all the more organized and better planned moms would have beat me to the punch.

This year we started the Christmas-Craft season by making the decoration that must be seen on every Christmas Tree - Candy Canes. The beaded kind. I knew J would get a kick out of it, but I didn't realize how coordinated M would be. She'd load up her wire with beads in no time, and dump them back off even faster. Because it's not the destination, after all, it is the journey. Who needs a completed candy cane when you can watch the beads crash and roll all over your tray?

Here she is taking a break to comb her hair.




Still working on the hair...


He even crooked it himself. I am constantly astonished that my kids are getting older so fast and can do, and insist on doing so much more by themselves.


Our grand total for the day.


They stood in as make-shift Christmas trees just to test the decorations out.


M is convinced she is touching her nose with her tongue. And did you notice her shirt is inside out and backwards. Not only has she been doing her own hair, she's been dressing herself too.


He's always willing to give me a pose.




And I really like this star and am showing it to you for no good reason at all. Besides, stars go along with the Christmas theme, right?