Christmas Eve

As part of our Christmas Eve tradition, we opened the gifts from our family gift exchange.

Jason received the dice game FARKLE made by Abree.

Rylee received a purple yarn-wrapped scarf hanger made by Treyson.

Abree received a cute handmade ceramic ocarina bear made by Taylee.

An ocarina is a small wind instrument with a mouthpiece and holes for the fingers.

I received a decorated/repurposed mail sorter from Rylee.

Treyson received a fleet of robot snacks (drink box, applesauce, Laffy Taffy, raisins and a spoon) from me.

And Taylee received a duct tape crafting station from Jason.

He used a little shelf, a shoe organizer, bookcase shelving and some containers for the station.

"EVERYTHING IS COOLER WITH DUCT TAPE!"

The extra effort of homemade gifts is always worth it in the end. It's so fun to see the excitement of giving... and receiving.

Christmas Eve Service

As a part of our Christ-centered Christmas, we served dinner at the homeless shelter, on Christmas Eve.

 We were excited to be chosen to help this year..we've missed the opportunity the past 2 years.

It was different than I expected...less formal and not very long, but still a good way to spend the evening. Grandma McKinley joined us in helping to organize and serve dinner to all the hungry men.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Ornament

I've wanted to make these ornaments, since I saw them on "The Sew*er, The Caker, The Copycat Maker", over a year ago. But I couldn't figure out how to do the nativity silhouette. Then Vanessa started offering the cut out silhouette in vinyl. I was so excited I ordered 3 sets! 

The vinyl cut-out is placed on a bulb-shaped transparency (my friend Chris let me come over and use her fancy Cricut machine for that), then rolled up and put into the ornament. (It takes a little maneuvering with tweezers to get the transparency to cooperate.) Then you snip off the excess transparency, replace the cap, add "snow", a ribbon to hang and top it off with a bow.

I love how they turned out!

I gave them as gifts to my Primary presidency, to my "Favorite Things" person and to some family members as well.

3rd Annual Smullin Service Scavenger Hunt

For the past few years, our family has made an effort to focus our Christmastime more on Christ.

We tried the 12-Days-of-Service route, but I discovered 12 days in a row, around Christmas time, with busy schedules, wasn't practical...and was actually adding to my stress, rather than making me feel Christ-like.

This year, we kept it simple and sweet. We chose a few service oriented nights and let the rest of December play out as it will.

One of our service nights was our annual "Smullin Service Scavenger Hunt". We sent an invitation via Facebook and told friends/neighbors we would be picking up supplies for the Boise Rescue Mission as our FHE activity.

We usually begin this activity with some grumpiness and complaining, but end up generally having fun and enjoying one another's company...this year was no exception. :)

Abree's Christmas Program

The second graders put on a "Christmas Around the World" program.

Abree got to play a drum for one of the songs.

Although I got there "late" (before the program started, but after most of the seats were taken) she found me and kept her eyes on me the whole time.

The kids did a really cute job and knew their parts well.

Way to go Abree! Love you!

Favorite Things Party

In December, our book club has A Favorite Things Party. I got to host again this year.

We played two games before getting to the gift exchange. The first one was a draw-on-your-head-without-looking game. I asked them to draw a Christmas scene one thing at a time. Then they got to look at their drawings and receive points for certain things. Like if their stocking was actually touching their fireplace mantle or points for every decoration on their Christmas tree, etc.

For the second game we had a "snow ball" fight. I had them write down 3 of their favorite things on  a piece of paper; favorite breakfast, favorite place to shop and favorite type of book/movie. Then I had them wad up their paper and throw them at one another. After a minute or so, we stopped throwing and grabbed a "snowball". We took turns reading them and trying to guess who's it was.

Of course there was a lot of yummy food to eat too.

Last, but not least, we exchanged our favorite things. We said why our item was our favorite thing, then we drew a name and gave it to that person. I gave a homemade nativity ornament; I love/collect nativities and also love to craft/create with my hands.

A fun night. One I always look forward to.