Visions of Sugarplums

It's important to me this year to focus on the festive Christmas activities I love so much. To me, the joys of Christmas are centered around doing cozy things with my family. It seems in recent years I've over-committed myself throughout December and never quite get to the "doing" of Christmas, at least in the way that I want to, with my kids. So this year I've minimized everything and made a list of projects and activities so that the time won't get away from me. Here is what we've done this week, so I can remember & look back:

Mon 3rd - Christmas FHE: made gingerbread cookies, played nativity matching game & read Christmas books
Tues 4th - Frosted gingerbread girls & boys
Wed 5th - watched "Frosty the Snowman" & "Twas the Night Before Christmas"
Thurs 6th - gumdrop trees, watched "One Silent Night"
Fri 7th - Ward party

Here are the gumdrop trees we made last night. I am so excited that they turned out so cute!
I helped Mimi with hers because it's tricky for a little kid to avoid puncturing herself with the toothpicks. *(please note Mike's participation level in the background...zzzzzz...)
He did eventually get up and help Isabelle-the-reluctant-tree-maker.
Mimi had a lot of fun helping me do the smaller tree. I was on toothpick duty and she lined up the gumdrops she wanted me to use.

Here's how you do it: Start with a styrofoam cone, found in the craft store's floral section. Stick the toothpick into the cone, then the gumdrop onto the toothpick. You'll need to break each toothpick into thirds when working at the top; if you use an entire toothpick, it'll go through the other side, but still be too long to stick another gumdrop onto. Pictured below is my 1/3 of a toothpick, for you visual learners.

STEP 1) Break toothpick into thirds.
STEP 2) Poke toothpick into tree.
STEP 3) Poke gumdrop onto toothpick, being careful where you put your fingers! Hold fingers on either side of gumdrop, DO NOT push it from the top! You'll poke that toothpick right into your finger. The goal is to avoid puncture wounds.
Max was very fastidious about his tree. He wanted no blank spaces between gumdrops and spent a long time on his project. I've noticed he is a very tenacious project-doer; it bothers him to leave an art project unfinished. He keeps going like the Energizer Bunny until whatever he is working on is finished. He has always been a rather enthusiastic crafter. I have funny memories of him diving into my scotch tape and construction paper when he was just a 3, 4, and 5 year old, frantically making some wacky creation--almost compulsively driven to sculpt with tape. His artistic streak continues to this day, just in a bigger-boy way. (I'll have to feature some of the sketches of his inventions at a later date.)

Anyway, this is his completed tree.

Here is my smaller tree.And here is my tree, posing by something beautiful. This is a hint of what we're doing tomorrow...

Can anyone guess what tomorrow's project is going to be?....