By Cheryl Bac
E-mail Cheryl Bac
About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons incl...
(More)About this blog: I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, home cook, marathon runner, and PhD. I recently moved to the Silicon Valley after completing my PhD in Social Psychology and becoming a mother one month apart. Before that, I ran seven marathons including Chicago and Boston. Exercise is an integral part of my life. I hope to one day go back to long distance running and tackle the New York City Marathon. Right now I run after my one year old son. Although I am a stay-at-home mom, we are rarely "at home." My mom also stayed at home with my brother and me. She warned me that, although rewarding, it can be isolating. So, with her help, I learned the importance of getting out into the community and meeting other mothers. On the rare occasion when I am at home and have a hand or two free, I squeeze in time to scrapbook. As a new mom, many challenges are thrown my way. I hope my opinions, triumphs, and struggles help experienced parents reminisce, new parents cope, and parents-to-be get an honest glimpse of what the first years of motherhood can entail.
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The countdown to Christmas is always a bit tricky. Advent calendars and this year’s elf on the shelf make it more enjoyable, but it is still so hard to wait for Christmas morning.
This month we’ve enjoyed singing Christmas songs, reading Christmas stories, decorating our Christmas tree and making gingerbread houses. However, it was clear that our kids couldn’t spend the entire month of December completely focused on Christmas. We needed a few non-holiday activities and crafts in the mix to give ourselves a break from all of the Christmas excitement.
These were our favorite non-holiday crafts this month. They brought us a lot of joy and helped make the countdown to Christmas a bit easier. We hope they help your family in the final countdown to Christmas morning:
1.
Flapping butterfly: I was a bit hesitant to try this craft, but it ended up being a lot easier to make than I expected. We used 2 different sized straws rather than paper. Even our youngest could easily flap the butterfly’s wings on her own. And she enjoyed showing it to relatives during our weekly family video chat.
2.
Flapping bird: This bird was a bit tricky for us to make, but with the right cups and cuts, it is adorable. For us, shinier cups and evenly cut wings helped the birds flap best. But we needed extra cups to make a handful of birds to test and see which worked best.
3.
Marble track: I wish I had a bit more patience to measure everything out because our ramp started out too steep. At first our marbles flew off the track and we needed to make some adjustments. We ended up adding a cardboard bumper along the edge to keep the marbles on the track. We love making marble tracks and this was a wonderful new one to add to the mix.
4.
Endless cube: After making one cube, I realized that this would be a better project for our kids to watch me make rather than make themselves. The first cube takes a lot of patience and attention to detail. Our kids enjoyed seeing how the cube was made and playing with the cubes. They helped me choose colors so we could give a couple as Christmas gifts.
How are you making the final countdown to Christmas a bit easier for your family?
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