Now we managed our story today – The Gingerbread Man… I printed off a version I found on EnchantedLearning. We did a dot to dot, coloured gingerbread houses according to shape instructions and practised figuring out what letter is the first in a word. It is a story they are familiar with and so much fun when the line comes up – “run as fast as you can – you can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man”. Next week I want to do a book that I requested from the library – Animals in the Winter. I figure we can lean more to science and description than the Christmas feel we have had all month.

Gingerbread Fun! Note the Gingerbread man carnage in the bowl.

Hard at Work (Zander left)

Speaking of all month – why does it feel like Christmas is a week away when there is still so much time? Every day we count on our Advent calendar and colour the countdown images from the UK site and still it feels like time is running away from me! The boys were too busy with Lego and the like to do cookies today so I am determined to get them sat down with icing and cookies tomorrow as we have to start sorting for the friends and family presents.

We had a favourite for dinner tonight out of the Kids Cook! Company’s Coming Book.

1. Tomato sauce 1/2 cup, chopped pepperoni 1 cup, finely chopped onion 1 tbsp (we left out), grated parmesan cheese 1 tbsp (we left out due to cost) and grated mozzarella cheese 1/2 cup (we substituted the cheaper marble cheddar).

2. Refrigerator flaky rolls (10 per tube)

1. Place the oven rack in the center position. Turn the oven on to 350 F. Grease the muffin pan. Mix the first 5 ingredients.

2. Divide each roll in half. Place 1 piece of the dough in the bottom of each of the 10 muffin cups. Push down with your finger to form a shell. If the dough sticks to your fingers coat them with flour. Divide the peperoni mixture among the 10 shells. Slightly flatten the remaining 10 pieces of dough. Place over the pepperoni mixture. Push the edges down to seal. Bake in the oven for 15-20 min until golden.

Pizza Pop-Ups!

Ken had his weekly group session tonight and with the horrible weather was a bit behind. Apparently today while he was out grabbing groceries there were at least 5 buses hit by vehicles and another one – ON FIRE! I have not heard anything more about it though.

I am toying with the idea of starting an Etsy store in the new year… but I want to find out how it works with pdf files. Since the majority of my pieces would be email-able patterns instead of substantial pieces. I am not sure how the listing of those works or if it would start to cost me more in adds than in sales. Advertising on my own is slow going and a mite up-hill. But definitely NOT something I want to contemplate in the thick of pre-Christmas preparations.

Sewing today was centred around my second version of the pea-pods… I am toying with staying up a little later to finish them just to have the project off the list and be able to send off the package they go in. A nice quick and cute stitch I can see some rather wonderful application – baby sampler… ornaments… maybe a bib?

Just a bit more outlining and then the names of the children!

And on that note… I really SHOULD get back to work. Tomorrow I plan on posting the pictures of the Perler bead ornaments I made while Ken was in session but at this point they are not ironed… so much to do and the time is ticking down!

Day 9 of Advent! I really need to look closer at these!