The Twelve Days of Christmas

   One of our favorite traditions during the Christmas season is to take gifts to a family or two for each of the twelve days of Christmas.  Its been a couple of years since we did this and I'd forgotten how much fun it can be.
   I made up some tags using Gennifer Bursett's frame and cute present from her Here Comes Santa collab.
   We change things up a little each time, depending on the goodies we can find and this year has been the best by far.  Here is what we are doing:

1. Partridges and Pears  (we gave cornish hens and fresh pears)
2. Turtle Doves ( I made turtle puppets out of fabric and felt, then put boxes of dove soap in each one) - they turned out so cute!
3. We always give Hershey's Kisses for this one (french hens :)
4. There was a sale on Angry Bird's block game so we reworked this one to fit. 
5. For golden rings - gold bangle bracelets and gold $ coins.
6. The geese laid Silly Putty eggs this year.
7. Schwan's ice cream is our typical this day.
8. My favorite - The milk maids slept in so we found a bunch of "milk duds"
9. We have a surplus of ballet shoes, so we're doing that instead of music this year.
10. The lords are leaping after they finish off their plate of homemade candy.
11. For pipers piping we will be giving little flutes
12. On the last day we gift a drum and a big "Merry Christmas"

   Here are a few of the photos I've snapped and an example of our tags.  

(I used Karla Dudley's Framed frames)

(Gennifer Bursett's Here Comes Santa collab)

I'd love to hear what you guys think, or what your traditions are that you do together as families!  Merry Christmas!

Crisis adverted

   Not only have things been crazy busy lately, but we've had our fair share of drama as well.  Last Saturday Aubrei realized that the camera she had checked out for her publications class wasn't here at home.  Yeah, can you say "tense weekend"?
   Well, Monday rolled around and I took Brei to the high school that morning with specific instructions to find that camera!  (She thought she had left it on some tables where she was with some friends after school Friday).  That afternoon she comes home with a price quote from her teacher for the Canon camera and bag for $1,300.  

   Having given her a chance to fix this, her Dad and I are now "highly motivated" from the thought of paying that much for a camera that we will never be able to use!  We promptly enlisted the help of the principal and the janitors.

   The next morning Aubrei checked in the principal's office and was shown the missing camera that had been found.  

   Needless to say, we are very thankful that the camera was found and for the help received.  I've been working on tags for our 12 day of Christmas (I'll be posting soon) so I whipped up a note, picked up some lifesavers from the store and sent these goodies to the high school with Brei.

Here is how they turned out:

(frame and present element by Gennifer Bursett, part of the Here Comes Santa collab.)