Though the Church celebrated last Sunday, January 6th is the traditional date for Epiphany or "Little Christmas." I had a few activities planned for celebrating this day, but we were still feeling pretty much under the weather. Luckily my plans were pretty simple. :)
To begin with, we made some rich spice cookies. I mixed up the dough in the morning and let it chill in the fridge till just after lunchtime. Then we set about making a small batch of star-shaped cookies.
The dough was not very easy to work with (or maybe my cookie cutter skills were a little rusty, lol), so our cookies looked a little less like Christmas stars and a bit more like starfish - some with a missing leg!
(They tasted pretty yummy all the same.)
While the cookies were baking, Earlybird and I sat down to make a paper crown craft - a project I found in this month's High Five Magazine. First though, we spent some time making rainbows. We had watched Sid the Science Kid in the morning, and the episode was all about rainbows - which just fascinate EB.
(Note the tongue - how I love the concentration - and you can see how chapped his little face is from this cold!)
So while EB perfected his rainbows, I started cutting, folding and curling the paper into a crown shape. (Let me know if you'd like detailed instructions for making the crown. I couldn't find a link to the craft online.)
I added the star stickers myself since EB was feeling pretty much "done" by this point, lol:
EB also balked at getting "fitted" - and retired to rest on the couch - so I asked Crackerjack to model the crown for my picture:
This was a very easy craft. It would make a great project for Carnival (aka Mardi Gras), too!
Our final project - and this one was all CJ and me - was making a "Star Lantern."
Very simply - we placed star stickers on a glass jam jar, and wrapped some twine around the rim to form a handle. (I threaded some small bells onto the twine before tying it off.) Lastly, we dropped a tealight inside and hung the lantern beside our nativity corner. Had we felt a little better we might have taken our lanterns outside for a late day walk ...
Either way, they looked very pretty in the winter afternoon light. :)
Well, the week's coming to a close, so I wish you all a happy and restful weekend. We're in for a good dose of snow here in New England - in fact, it's just starting to snow here now as I finish up this post ... just lovely.
Thanks, as always, for stopping by ~ I will see you all again very soon!
