Cookies, Crafts and ... Cobwebs?

Yes, cobwebs! But in the very nicest way. :)

Are you familiar at all with the book The Cobweb Curtain by Jenny Koralek? Well, thanks to Cay's Christmas Mosaic I am now! What a beautiful story. I had tears in my eyes by the end ~ and all because of a spider! (Well, a spider and the part she plays in the greatest story ever told.)

When the Holy Family hides in her cave, a tiny spider spins a glorious web large enough and strong enough to provide them with warmth and protection. By morning, the soldiers have passed and the web is covered in a brilliant, breathtaking frost:

This story touched us so, I knew a few crafts were in order. :)

First thing we did was to play around with some silver chenille stems, making all kinds of shapes for the tree:

(Yes, that's Crackerjack in his pajama shirt, but as he pointed out to me, he was keeping to the theme.)

While the older boys worked on lessons, I made up a little crafty corner for Earlybird. Marianne of Learning2Love passed this idea on at 4Real and I loved it. I attached a large section of brown kraft paper to the wall - just beneath our classroom bulletin board, and just at the right EB height:

I drew the outline of a Christmas tree, then cut it out and taped it down (using, ahem, a few thumbtacks to secure the edges).

Then I let EB have at it ~ he can fill this tree with drawings, stickers and we can even make little crafty paper ornaments to tape up over the next few weeks.

By the way, I emptied the bulletin board today to make room for all the wonderful happy faces that arrive in the mail daily - Christmas greetings from friends and family. There are just a few cards so far, but before long it will look like this!

Oh yes, and about those cookies pictured at the top of this post? Very easy and quick. I sliced a roll of Pilsbury gingerbread dough (kept on hand for just this kind of day - no time for scratch baking!) and baked several cookies for our afternoon snack.

While the cookies were in the oven, I made up a batch of sugar icing and cobbled together a piping bag of sorts. When the cookies were cool, I started in on the cobweb designs:

A final dusting of frost (white sprinkles) made our cobweb cookies complete. (I managed to save just a few for Daddy!)

Bellies now full, we began a quick cobweb craft:

I set out glitter and glue in all sizes and shapes, and placed a piece of wax paper at each seat. I showed them how to make a glitter cobweb and then stepped away and let them try it out. Except for some clogged nozzles it all went quite smoothly.

(I feel I should mention - we have yet to decorate our tree, but the boys have added a few items of their own: bookmarks, pipe cleaners, and lol, Star Wars toys.)

And just like the cookies - a thread of glue (instead of icing) was spread in concentric circles, and a toothpick was dragged through to make the web design:

Then a good shake of glitter to recall the story of the day:

Originally I planned to let the shapes dry, then peel them gently off the wax paper and hang them as ornaments. (I did this last year with stars.) But since the glue was taking a while to dry, we decided to cut out the wax paper around them and hang them up in the tree.

Here's Crackerjack's:

They really catch the light nicely. Or maybe, just like in the story, they are hiding the light safely within.

Well, thanks for stopping by and letting me share our day with you. :) It's getting late now so I'd best wrap up. I've just issued (pajama) marching orders and Bill just walked in, so ...

Good night! Have a wonderful weekend ...

*ETA: This morning we placed a cobweb ornament in the Nativity set - in front of a little cave (which once belonged to a dragon, lol). Just inside you can spy the Holy Family - just like in the story! :)