Stuff we made in December

Here are some other things we did in December.  Like every year, we made chocolates.  And I can say "we" because I had help this year from Natalie and Kelton.  I was a bit hesitant to let them help, but they wanted to roll the centers into balls and since that is the part I like the least, I figured, why not?  I thought I would have to re-do a lot of them, but I was fine with that.  I was really surprised to find that Natalie was truly helpful.  She was able to get the right amount of dough and roll it into a nice ball.  I handed Kelton peices of dough and he was able to make them into nice balls as well.  They ended up saving me time and it was fun to have the company.

Later on, I did all of the dipping.  While the kids were helpful with the centers, neither is quite old enough to help with the chocolate part.  The chocolates are long gone now, but they were very yummy.

Natalie also helped me make a Christmas gift for her teacher.  We made her a set of calendar blocks.  Natalie did most of the painting and I finished the rest.  Her teacher loves ladybugs, so we incorporated that in the design.  My photography skills need some help... the blocks looked much better in person.

I have been doing a playgroup/preschool co-op for Kelton with a few other moms.  He got to make a gingerbread house at the last one he went to before we stopped for the Christmas break.  He was very excited about it.

A little while ago, Nate and I painted his office.  We did one accent wall that is a darker blue (which doesn't come across in the picture below).  Nate has been wanting to hang some pictures on it.  So I made him some for Christmas.  The photographs are 12"x 12" and are Modpodged onto 1" thick boards (painted black), so they stand out from the wall when hung.  I thought they turned out very nice.  The one on the left is the Sacred Grove, the middle is the Snowflake Temple, and the one on the right is La Coca Falls in Puerto Rico (where Nate served his mission).

Oh, I made these too...didn't they turn out cute?