Thanksgiving 2018

I love Thanksgiving.  Really, I enjoy holidays in general.  But I love what this holiday is about; two of my favorite things - family and food.

I also love the cozy, warm colors associated with the holiday.  This year was our first Thanksgiving in Slovenia (last year we were in Hungary), and we were delighted to have our friends celebrate with us!  I wanted to make our home feel festive, but also wanted to stick with our more minimalistic/rustic feel.

For the centerpiece, I used pumpkins, lavender greens, cotton, walnuts, wheat and little dried pears (hruške - given as a gift by a little elderly lady at the market).

When we moved to Slovenia, I bought dishes from a Slovenian potter, named Jasmina Verbič.  I love them, because they are simple and beautiful.  They are easy to dress up or down.  I used my great-grandmother's silver.  When I opened the box they were in, it smelled like my Gran and Gramps' house.  They passed away two years ago, so having a little piece of them as a part of our celebration made it that much more special.

For the kids' table I made pilgrim hat crayon holders, and turkey snacks (a preschooler one with pop corn, and a toddler one with puffs).  The kids ended up at our table, lol, but it was actually really nice to have them so near us.

It was an overcast, kind of dreary day, so the light was darker than I would've liked, but it made for some dreamy low-light pictures.  So, here is our Thanksgiving celebration.

 

Happy Thanksgiving from our little turkeys!  We have so much to be thankful for!

PS:

I had some Thanksgiving books out for the kids, here are the titles for you:

1. The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell (this one is my favorite!)

2. Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson (about the woman who petitioned for Thanksgiving to be a national holiday.)

3. P Is For Pilgrim by Carol Crane (a Thanksgiving alphabet book)

4. Pete The Cat Thanksgiving by James Dean

5. Thank you, God, For Daddy by Amy Parker 

Natural Christmas Decoration Ideas

The Christmas season is in full swing in the Blair household!

For the first time in a few years, we have our own space, and can really realize our own interpretation of Christmas.  For a couple years we lived with a friend, and she was always super generous in letting me put out my Christmas decor, but it's a whole different feeling when it's in your own home.  Add to the excitement of it, that we're finally in Slovenia after nearly 2 years of talking about it - the magic is definitely there.

In the age of Joanna Gaines, DIY and hipsters, it's not revolutionary of me to say that I love natural Christmas decor, but there you have it!  I like looking at 50s-60s inspired Christmas decor, and trees busting with shiny-brite-style ornaments - in fact I have a couple boxes of shiny-brite reproductions from a dear sweet woman who loves me as her own, and they are precious to me.

But in this season of my life, natural beauty is what is really speaking to me.  One of the reasons, I'm sure is that Slovenia is the "Green Capital" of Europe.  People here are really into organic, local, natural, etc.  It's basically hipster heaven.

Another reason probably, is the easy access to a local market.  And then, of course there's just the esthetic of it.  So, this holiday season I've made a few natural Christmas decor things, and thought I'd share them with you, in case you feel inspired to do the same!

One of the best things about this, is you need basically the same 5-6 items for all of these.  Here's what you're going to want to stock up on:

Star anise

Cinnamon sticks

Oranges

Twine

Cloves

Rosemary

Cranberries

Pop corn

Holly, or any other red berries

1. Dried Orange Slices

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post about making a dried orange slice garland.  The instructions are all there, and we had lots of fun making them.  My garland actually fell the day after I posted about it, so I just kept the slices, and ended up using them later.

2. Okay, a couple things I bought

So, as I mentioned, having a local market is a dream come true.  The produce is local, the flowers are as well, the prices are so affordable, and there is always about 5 ladies selling wreaths they've made.  So, about a month ago, I found some red berries.  The lady selling them told be to spray them with hair spray, and they'd keep.  That didn't quite pan out, unfortunately, but luckily I like how they look dried too.  The next week I bought some branches of cotton, and added them to it.  I love how it looked!

Yesterday we went down again, and I totally fell in love with this wreath.  The sweet man we bought it from gave Aidan a tulip, which our flower-loving-boy is cherishing!

This wreath just screams Christmas, and I can't get over it.  Something like this would be easy enough to make, you would need different types of greenery, berries and pinecones, and you're good to go!

3. Cranberry and Pop Corn Garland

What you'll need:

- Cranberries

- Pop corn

- Fishing line

- A large needle

Instructions:

There's really not to much to say, except to choose a cranberry/pop corn ratio that appeals to you.  I found 2 pop corn kernels to one cranberry to be the prettiest!  This is a really fun one to do together with the littles!  It's a great way to teach patterns!

4. Rosemary/Orange/Cinnamon Ornament

For this you'll need:

- Cinnamon stick

- Rosemary sprigs

- Dried orange slice

- Twine

I tried to think of the yummiest Christmas smells, and put them together.  Our apartment doesn't have many shelves, or places to hang things, so I wanted something that I could hang on our window handles.

So, I arranged about three sprigs of rosemary, with one cinnamon stick, then wrapped it together with twine.  I attached an orange slice, to where it hung off a little, and then made a hook.

5. Potpourri

Okay, when you hear potpourri, I know you're thinking of some great aunt, and a bowl of dusty dried pieces of flower in a bowl.  BUT!  This is not that.  I found a couple recipes on pinterest, and added them together to make something with things that I had, and liked the thought of.  So, here is what you need:

- About 10 cloves

- 2 cinnamon sticks

- 4 star anise

- An orange, cut in slices

- Rosemary sprigs

Other things you can add:

- A dash of vanilla

- Pine branches

- Apple slices

- Cranberries

- Lemon slices/lemon zest

You put it all in a pot, then you fill the pot with water, and let it simmer on a low setting on your stovetop for the day.  It smells divine!  You do have to check on it every once in a while, and add more water, but it'll last throughout the day.  I love how it filled the house with the warmth of Christmas smells.  It's a great way to use ingredients that are about to go bad, like too-soft oranges, or rosemary that is starting to brown.

 6. Natural "stuff" arrangement

To me, there's hardly anything more traditionally Christmas that clove studded oranges!  We always made them in school, and Aidan and I have made them every year of his short life.  So, we made some again this year, and then placed other things in the bowl, such as star anise, cinnamon sticks, rosemary, pine branches, red berries, cloves, dried orange slices... basically everything I had left.

It's simple, yet festive, and of course smells good!

Also, that beautiful runner you see there?  Yes, my amazing mama made that for me for Christmas, and yes, I'm crazy spoiled!

It's just gorgeous, and I love-love-love it!

So, there you have it!  Some ideas for easy natural Christmas decor this year.  Do you have any fun, family-friendly, DIY Christmas traditions?  I'd love to hear about them!

Have a wonderful holiday season, dear friends!

Orange Slice Garland

I love the holidays.  Not just Christmas, but Thanksgiving, Advent, Saint Nicholas Day, Saint Lucia Day...

One of my favorite things to do when it comes to the holidays is natural and/or handmade ornaments.  I wanted to make something Aidan could help with, and that would work for the Fall, but could also go into Christmas.

I decided to make a dried orange slice garland.  I only had clementines on hand, so the slices turned out a little smaller, and thus a little less impressive than I'd hoped, but we made it, it was fun and cute. :)  So, here's how you make one for yourself:

1. Cut orange/clementine into rings, no thicker than 1/4 inches.  I got about 4/clementine.  Preheat oven to 215 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees Celsius.

2. Pat the juice out of the rings

3. Line baking sheet with wax paper or aluminum foil.  Place orange slices on the baking sheet.

4. "Bake" orange slices for 40 minutes on one side, then 40 minutes on the other.  For the record, I totally burned my first batch, as the directions I was following were for full sized oranges, so called for a longer bake time.

5. I used a nail to make holes in each slice, then strung them on some twine, and hung them in the living room.  Because of where I hung them, it was hard to get a great shot, but it looks really cute!

Couple Tips:

- If you have a needle large enough to string twine through, you could add a cranberry or craisin between each orange slice, or pop corn, you could switch it up with rosemary sprigs.. 

- I used clear command hooks so as to save the wall, and to be inconspicuous. 

Please let me know if you make your own, I would love to see pictures of it!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Gingerbread Man Science Project

Christmas time is my favorite time of year.  So, it's only natural that some of my lessons in December revolve around Christmassy themes.  While searching some holiday worksheets, I came across this adorable one on teacherspayteachers.com.

It's an adorable worksheet you can buy/download, the involves cause and effect, prediction and science.  It's about what happens to a gingerbread cookie if you submerge it in water.

Here's what you need:

- Gingerbread Science Experiment worksheet (1/child)

- Gingerbread cookies

- Large clear glass

- Water

Directions:

1. Pass out the worksheets.  Follow the instructions.  Children are to draw a picture of what the gingerbread man looks like originally.  I bought Little Betty brand gingerbread cookies.  They turned out to be perfect!  I used one for the experiment, then passed them out to the kids as a snack later.  After they drew their first picture, they were to draw a picture of their prediction of what would happen to the gingerbread cookie if he were put in a glass of water.  Most of them said things like "he'll get soggy", "his frosting will come off".  Time for the experiment!

2. Place gingerbread cookie in glass of water.

3.  Have the whole class watch what happens!  It's really cool!  They all helped narrate what what going on.  First the sprinkles dissolved and turned the water green.  Then the frosting started to come off, and then the cookie became all gooey; which the kids all got to touch.  Then, finally, he completely dissolved!

4. In the third box, kids were to draw a picture of what ACTUALLY happened.  Then they all compared it to their predictions.  All in all a really fun science project!  I highly recommend it.  My kiddos loved it! :)