We pretty much spent the last 3 weeks using up every last bit of vacation time we had for our school year. Were okay with that too. I needed a week to adjust to my new medication, which made me very drowsy, and gave me weird side effects. I'm pretty used to it now, and can still feel the side effects, but they don't bother me as bad as they did in the beginning.
I started feeling better towards Thanksgiving, so of course I was up for some black Friday shopping with my best friend. We went and had our traditional Thanksgiving with my in laws, and then we hurried back home. I thought I was smart by wearing a thermal, a sweater, and taking a blanket.... Boy was I wrong! Next year I'm wearing a double pair of socks, and taking a beanie, some gloves, and an extra blanket lol. I'm super excited with the deals I got though (I saved us a ton of money), because I went prepared. I stalked the black Friday ads the whole week before, and made a list. I shopped during the week, used coupons and compared deals. Target was a gold mine for us this year! We splurged a little this year, and got our oldest boy a desktop computer (can't wait to see his face!).
This last week we've been reviewing a bit what we did the last week we did school, so when we return to our studies next week it won't be a total shock lol. And we've been painting more wrapping paper. The kids have loved painting. I brought out all of our Christmas cookie cutters, sponge brushes, and regular brushes and let them go at it. I'm thinking of cutting up some cheap dollar store sponges into Christmas shapes for them to stamp as well, but we'll see.
Here they are painting up a storm. We used some packing paper that I've saved throughout the year that has come in our amazon packages. The key is to take a hot iron to them to get the wrinkles out. The other paper were using is a really inexpensive (around $3), but huge roll from Ikea.
Here's the first section of our wrapping paper roll laid out to dry. After it dries, I roll the dried end in on itself and paper clip it, so that the roll is in 2 separate parts (painted, and not yet painted). The kids have really loved adding in a lot of their hand prints, finger prints and painting in the cookie cutter shapes.
Our first wrapped gift of the season! This was a birthday gift for my niece. I was being extra cheap ( I meant thrift!), so I glued the open ends shut instead of using tape, and tied the package with a piece of yarn. He's kind of smudgy so you probably can't tell, but we cut out a gingerbread man out of the paper and used him as a card. The kids were super proud of their wrapping paper, and that makes me proud :)
We'll be back to our regular posting next week for sure, and I've got lots of fun links to share with you!
