Wrapping things up...

We're beginning to get things all wrapped up in time for Christmas - literally. Each year seems more stressful than the last... possibly because we keep adding events to the usual traditions we keep. In addition to baking an ample variety of cookies, caroling, visiting neighbours/friends, shopping, school plays, etc. we added a a trip to the annual Glinton Church light turning-on ceremony. Amy signed up to sing with the primary school children and we braved the cold, dark night through several verses of some of the most obscure Christmas carols ever written... all to see one tree with blue lights turn on... but the mince pies were tasty and we got to try our hand at ringing the 13th-century church bells!

Another time-consuming project has been this year's installment of the home-made Christmas gifts: cloth activity books (otherwise known as "quiet books") for the girls. I used a pattern called the "I Can Do It- Cloth Activity Book" (available online for $7.99). I shared the project with several of my international friends and it was a fun way to use up some scrap fabric/notions. Here is the finished product:

Page 1: Velcro Baby's diaper (nappy). I substituted my own pattern for this page, opting out of the "I can Count" page that the original pattern calls for with velcro shapes. There are already enough velcro-matching pages in this book (see below).

Page 2: Tie the shoe.
Page 3: that's a mirror in the left-side pocket and a comb on the right-side.

Page 4: zipper on the tent (another substitution: the tent in place of a plain zipper on the page)
Page 5: velcro the shapes (matching).

Page 6: the train wheels snap on.

Page 7: self-explanatory!

Page 8: I put a few American pennies in the purse and a tube of chap-stick.

Page 9: the flowers button onto the stems.

Page 10: I replaced the original pattern of the fruit basket with an apple tree. The child can pick the felt apples and put them into the harvest basket.

Page 11: Teddy Bear fits inside the quited blanket.

Page 12: the clock hands are cut out of plastic and move freely around the eyelet/brad. I embroidered the numbers on with my sewing machine.

Page 13: the traffic lights velcro on.

Page 14: the dog house door opens and closes to reveal a little embroidered puppy that attaches with velcro (special thanks to Laurie's Mom who used her fancy embroidery machine to make the puppies for all of us).

Page 15: the pony's tail snaps into place. I added some left-over trim from some curtains I sewed last year to serve as the pony's mane (instead of drawing it on per the pattern's instructions).

Page 16: a little drawing pad and pencil.