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Handmade Christmas 2009 Challenge

By Tricia on November 11, 2009 in Handmade Christmas Challenge, Holidays

Starting this Saturday, November 14th, I will be starting a 30 day Christmas Challenge.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, to take the pledge to have a handmade Christmas this year by giving those on our Christmas list a handmade gift.

Here are the rules:

1. Gifts must be handmade by you, or,

2. Purchased from someone else who handmade it, check out Etsy or Artfire, go to a craft fair, or,

3. Upcycled items such as thrift store, antique store or garage sale treasures. If this one is alarming to you maybe you should think about what it really costs to make something new, the energy to make it, ship it, house it and how buying something pre-loved is using a resource which has already made its impact. My brother asked me if buying someone a, basket counts, I said yes but buy a pre-owned basket, really could you really tell if you received a new basket or not and if it was new would that make it a better basket? Think green.

The point is to use your imagination instead of buying all the mass produced stuff at the mall which every store is going to convince us we need and will make our Christmas this year perfect. Shop at home first. If you are a crafter, you have a stash. Most of us crafters don’t even know all the stuff that is in our stash so instead of heading over to the craft store, shop from your stash first.

If you have a blog and you leave me a comment with a link to a gift idea or better yet a tutorial on how to make the gift, I will post a link to your blog. Please post your ideas or what you will be giving to your loved ones. I will be having a giveaway for this one (a really cute Christmas softie, will be posting a pic soon) so please send in your ideas and I will have my 3 year old pick a winner from a hat. (Don’t worry he is only a cheater if it benefits him)

I will of course be posting some of my ideas and projects to inspire all of you too. (hey most of my viewers are probably on my list so gotta keep it hush hush)

Here is the pledge:

I, state your name, pledge to:

To take a political stance against mass consumerism of Christmas

To give gifts that are unique, meaningful and full of love

To promote, encourage and celebrate hand-made You may not have the time to make all your gifts but I know you will be out purchasing them. Why not purchase a handmade gift from someone instead of somewhere.

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All Saints Day Carnavale

By Tricia on November 1, 2009 in Feast Days, Holidays

Today is the big day the Gaitan children have been waiting for sometime now. The candy, the games, the fun. In the last 6 years we have always celebrated today with our homeschooling group and the kids have always chosen a Saint to dress up as. I have spent weeks of my life at a sewing machine making these costumes come to life. This year Poppa decided that we would do it a little different. With him traveling so much and our homeschooling group getting together more than one hour south of us, we decided to do what ever the kids could dream up at home. What did they dream up a carnavale!!

We started this feast day of course at Mass followed by benediction. The kids received candy from some members at church and we then headed out to a pizzeria for some lunch. Once we got home they got hoppin. Children were inflating balloons, gathering ducks eggs (you’ll see why) gathering the candy stash for distribution, as all sort of preperations were made.

The first game was darts, everyone stood behind a line and threw darts to pop the balloons and candy and prizes were given out to winners. Of course the smaller kids stood closer to the target. One of the smallest contestants stood a little closer with every dart he threw (Christopher!!!!, shame, shame : )

Next came, the water balloon toss, in teams of two, the balloon was tossed back and forth taking one step back each time the balloon was caught (some little people did not take very many steps back, Christopher!!! shame, shame : ) Some children whose balloon did not fall and pop chose to pop them on someone else’s heads.

Next they moved onto the egg relay (remember the ducks eggs they were gathering). In teams of two the object was to make it back and forth to the finish line while balancing a duck egg on a spoon. Most of the eggs were dropped during this game and were tossed into the pond (lucky catfish) The winners were, Erica and Veronica. The funny award went to a little guy who did not drop his egg, because he was holding it onto the spoon, Christopher!!!! shame, shame : )

What’s a carnavale without a food eating contest? Check out the pie eating contest. Some of my children, decided that pie eating contest are too messy so they took tiny little nibbles and did not get one speck of mess on themselves. Nicholas (who has won many pie eating contests) was the winner today also which is ironic since he always the last person to finish eating at meals.

Once the pies were totalled and the mess cleaned up (Poppa was a master of ceremony you know, he is a total neat freak : ), it was on to the ring toss. Each contestant was given 8 rings to toss with prizes given for each ring landed. Some little contestants got so close (even though at some point they were being pulled by the shirt to keep them from getting right up to the target) that they could practically place the ring on the pole (Christopher!!!! shame, shame)

Lastly was the bobbing for apples followed by some Saints trivia with our favorite game show host, Poppa.

Catch the little hand grabbing the apple so he does not have to actually bob for it.

and here he is ‘pretending”, umm I mean showing us how he got an apple. Christopher!! shame, shame : ) Does anyone know of a cheaters anonymous?

***Notice*** No cheaters (no matter how cute) were rewarded with prizes during these games, (well maybe some candies did get into those little cheating hands).

It was a wonderful day and planning has already started for next year.

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