Love the Children

My mind just can't grasp the facts, my heart aches at the news, and my soul cries out for the children (and adults) killed today.  I'd like to share a portion of what one of my friends wrote:

In our time of dispair, it is my hope that we, as a nation....as a world can remember to be the light in the darkness. To show the love, and compassion. To embrace our friends, and family. To reach out to those we meet. To put down our phones, laptops, and ipads, and fully connect with those around us. Be present....be aware......offer help....offer love. There is so much mental illness in our world. So many people who feel lost....helpless....hopeless....and angry. We must be part of the solution. Our children are counting on us.
 

We must love our children. All the children in our lives.  Please, try harder if you must, but love...

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My JOY of the day was spending time helping to decorate gingerbread houses!  For the past several years I've held Gingerbread House Making parties here in our home (for all our grandchildren and any other children I could gather!).  But this year Melissa put on a party at her church for the mommies and children so I went to help and bring more children! 

When I walked in the door our granddaughters came running up to me, "Grandma!"  I grabbed them and hugged and kissed and just loved on them.  Their sweet smiles and voices filled my heart with JOY.

(Melissa with Claira, who was chowing down on candy!)

 

We ate candy, decorated the houses and even had lunch served to us (those Bridge gals are the best!).  Most of the children were young, the older ones were in school, so the houses were extremely loaded with candy! I had to laugh when I realized how long they took "decorating", piece by piece to get their houses looking perfect, when at a glace it look like a mound of candy!

Ells-Bells loved all the candy, too!  But she worked hard on her house,consentrating on her "work" and did a good job limiting her candy intake.  I will admit: at one point I caught her sucking on icing tube....LOL

 

 

Pure JOY for this grandma to be here today with the children....

 

Blessings and love to you.

 Heidi

 

Christmas Family Countdown Calendar Board

Years ago Melissa and I made Christmas Family Photo Countdown Calendar boards.  Mark cut the pine boards, cutting the corner rounds.  We painted the edges green then Melissa and I decoupaged pages from a vintage cookbook (picking the sweets pages) and then antiqued it a little with stain. We used wooden letters for "FAMILY", glittering them first.  We painted "Tis the Season for..." with black paint, but you could easily use a black Sharpie marker.

We went through our photos and cut out pictures of family, gluing them on scrapbook paper, then attaching eyelets with our Cropadiles.  I made a grid of paper, evening distributing the marks for the nails to line up perfectly, then nailed them on the boards (after the board dried) for the photos to hang from. I just used small nails we had in the shop.

This has been one of our favorite Christmas projects ever.  It's timeless...well almost, we have new additions to the family since we made them.  But you could switch out the photos every couple years.  The year Jessica and Craig were married I made a Family Christmas Countdown board for them, using photos from the years they had dated and from their wedding! 

Tonight while doing my Pinning "work"  (LOL!) I saw one of my sisters had pinned this Christmas craft!  I immediately knew what year it was and where to find the instructions (on a ripped out magazine page in my "save" drawer~). But now days we don't have to rip out magazine pages, we can just pin on Pinterest! 

You can find the directions from BHG here:  Family Photo Christmas Countdown.  Here is their version on of the board:

 

Still getting our Christmas decorations out and up.  Mark put up the outdoor lights today.  I've got a good start on my theme colors for the year, "black, white and red all over".  Here's a wall set I put together:

Have a blessed Sunday! ~ Heidi



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