Oh, my goodness!  It’s been so long; I wonder if I even remember how to do this blog thang?!

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I first shared some of our family’s holiday traditions.  (You can see the original post from last year right here.)

Since we have officially decided that we will be a homeschooling family — yes, yes, yes, more deets on that later; as it does really deserve its own post — I’m constantly looking for ways to teach on the sly (and, well, on the fly, too).

And, you know, baking is where it’s at! There are fractions galore when you’re measuring ingredients, for starters.

And where do cookies come from?  I thought it might be nice to find out.  The kids helped make the cookies, but they weren’t allowed to eat them until they could identify the country where the cookie originated from on the map.  Total success!  Both A.S. and A.W. are cookie-driven and now have no problem identifying the mother countries of the Benne wafer or the Finnish ginger cookie, which are the cookies we are making for our friends and family this year.

In addition to the cookies, we’ve added some peppermint bark.  This was born when A.W. spied some bark in a huge Costco package and declared that it was “nasty” that he couldn’t have it because he was allergic.  (He’s a funny little guy, and I just adore his mastery of the English language.)

No pictures of the beautiful bark exist as it was disappearing faster than I could get it out of the candy molds! ;O)

And perhaps my favorite of our new crafty endeavors  is the soap that we are making from scratch, thanks to my awesome sister-in-law who shared her fabulous recipe.  It’s a straightforward, sudsy soap using wonderful ingredients like lavender essential oil, coconut oil, shea butter and some poppy seeds that we threw in last-minute for scrub strength.

I don’t know what’s more fun – making the soap or designing the soap sleeves for friends?!  Wait.  I do know.  Giving this stuff as gifts.   That is the best part of it all!

Look at this!

Oh!  I almost forgot.  We have jumped on the Elf on the Shelf bandwagon.  Starkle (a mispronunciation of Sparkle, not a typo, my court reporter friends!) arrived on our doorstep out of nowhere on Thanksgiving evening.  I can’t tell yet whether she’s having much of an effect on the kids’ behavior, but she is a lot of fun.

Well, except for the compound that A.S. keeps adding onto smack dab in the middle of the island in the kitchen.  Because, you know, paint brushes are the perfect size for brooms; empty tea boxes are really bureaus; bottle caps are coffee tables; and toilet paper rolls are really tree trunks!

And just as proof that I do deserve to still call my blog SewOldSchool, I wanted to share my first version of a belly dance skirt that I made.

I do still sew.  Sometimes.  So there!

Happy holidays to you and yours no matter how near or far or whichever way you choose to celebrate!

C