Pine Trees and Poinsettias

We are getting into the holiday spirit this week and focusing on pine trees and poinsettias!

Crafts
Pipe Cleaner Pine Tree- we'll use pipe cleaners and beads to create a festive tree

Pine Cone Tree- the evergreen's cone will be transformed into a snowy tree

Poinsettias- we'll make a paper flower and another out of ribbon

Popsicle Stick Tree- this ornament is quick and easy to make using just popsicle sticks, glue and gems

Pasta Garland- Eva will string pasta to make a fancy garland for her little tree

Cooking
Snowy Pine Tree Pizza- we'll have a yummy pizza dinner one night this week

Activities
Outdoor Christmas Tree- the animals will be able to celebrate the holidays too when we get done decorating a tree in the woods for them

Conservatory Field Trip- while we are visiting the woods we'll stop by the park conservatory to check out the winter flowers, especially the poinsettias

Christmas Tree Magnets- Eva's Grammy found her a fun magnetic Christmas tree for her to decorate and redecorate as she chooses

Trimming the Tree- Eva has her own little tree that she will be able to decorate

Books
               

Latkes and Dreidel Cookies

Tonight for dinner we made latkes using a recipe in one of Eva's Hanukkah books- Grandma's Latkes by Malka Drucker.

Potato Latkes

3 large potatoes

1 small onion

2 beaten eggs

2 Tsp flour

1 tsp salt

a pinch of black pepper

1/2 cup vegetable oil

Wash the potatoes very well but don't peel them.  Grate them coarsely into a bowl.  Grate in the onion. Add the beaten eggs, flour, salt, and pepper.  Stir and let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to thicken.  Pour off excess liquid.  Heat the vegetable oil for one minute in a frying pan, then drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the pan.  When the pancakes are brown around the edges, turn and fry them until the other sides are crispy.  Drain them on paper towels, and eat them with sour cream and applesauce.

They turned out great and were a huge hit (they were devoured so quickly I wasn't able to get a picture!) Before bed, we made a fun dreidel snack that I saw in Family Fun magazine but can't find a link to.  We took fig newtons and cut a point at one end.  We then pushed half a thin pretzel stick in the other end and tada!  A yummy dreidel snack.

The perfect ending to an exciting day in which Eva got her big girl bed- she is so excited!

We even let her have a mattress!  ;)

Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel

One of Eva's favorite Hanukkah book is Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah by Sylvia A. Rouss in which Sammy watches little Josh Shapiro get a new dreidel each night of Hanukkah and longs for a dreidel of his own to spin.  Today we tried spinning our own dreidels.  The actual "rules" for playing dreidel were a bit over Eva's head so we just spun them and played with the gelt (aka chocolate coins).  Eva had a blast!

(And yes, we have already broken in the Christmas jammies!)

Handprint Menorah

We read Hanukkah:  A Counting Book  by Emily Sper today.  Eva loved how the candles appeared and hearing me attempt to count in Hebrew and Yiddish (the story has both languages along with English).

After we read it a few times we set about making a menorah of our own.  Rather than painting handprints like we did last year, this year Eva chose to cut out handprints.  Lately she loves tracing her hand and then cutting it out so this was right up her alley!  I love her cutting strategy.  She trims around the item and then keeps cutting closer and closer to it.

She then asked me to finish them and we glued them onto a sheet of paper.  To add the flames, Eva dipped her finger into yellow paint and then dabbed them on each candle.

When the flames dried, I wrote Happy Hanukkah along the top and Menorah at the bottom.  Eva helped me count the candles and we labeled the shamash (helper candle).  Then we hung it in the window with our Star of David.

Happy Hanukkah everyone!

Happy December!

Let the countdown to Christmas begin!  We have two countdowns going in our house.  The first is this adorable magnetic cookie tray that my mom got for Eva at Hallmark.  Each day in December she will add a cookie to the sheet.

We also have another countdown that I made using a mini cupcake pan.  Behind each number is an activity to do that day.

Eva was so excited to be able to see what today's activity was- read a Christmas story.

She choose my favorite (and quickly becoming hers as well), Little Robin's Christmas by Jan Fearnley.

It is the sweet story of a robin who gives away all his warm vests to cold animals in the days leading up to Christmas and ends up having nothing to keep himself warm.  His generosity is rewarded however by a special Christmas visitor.  We've read this several times a day since taking out the holiday books over the weekend.

The first day of December also brought us our first real snowfall of the year!