Day 6 of Newlywed Christmas Activities - Make Paw Print Ornaments

If you have read my blog, you know that I LOVE my pets. Hubby and I have a total of eleven cats and dogs. We would definitely adopt more if we had more room. They are our worlds, so we knew that we had to incorporate them in our activities wherever possible. For the sixth day of Christmas, I set-up for us to create salt dough ornaments of their paw prints. 

To start out with our newest newlywed craft project, I searched Pinterest for the perfect recipe for our salt dough. We found this one that was pretty simple and required very little work. 

Hubby got to work measuring out the salt, flour, and water. 

Kneading the dough. Can you believe
that Hubby has never done this before?

I took over with rolling the dough. Since we did not have a rolling pin,
I used my favorite NKUT aluminum water bottle. 

So after we had the dough rolled out, cut into circles, and laid on baking sheets, the hard part came...getting the zoo to participate. Some of the zoo were great at letting us hold them and pressing their paws into the dough, others gave us so much trouble. The cats all wanted to extend their nails so all of their ornaments had little nail dots. Our dog, Biscuit, HATED the whole project! We had to redo his print three times and in the end, got the worse print ever! (Unfortunately, there are no pictures of us doing the paw prints because it took both of us for that project.)

After doing all of the pets, we had extra dough, so I did stars from a cookie cutter and a gingerbread man. I hate wasting! So into the oven they all went at 200 degrees for 2 hours. In the end, here is what came out! (Very ironic that out of all of the ornaments, guess who's cracked so we could not use it...BISCUIT! SMH.)

Stars and Gingerbread Man. We added cinnamon
to the dough to make them smell good. And yes, my G-man has an ascot on!

We used markers to paint the paw prints.
For our black cats, we used black markers. 

I think out of all of our crafts so far, this one turned out to be a success. We are going to get some ribbon and put them on the tree soon, which will complete our ornaments this year.

UPDATE: So two days later, while Hubby and I were getting ready for the day, we heard a huge crash in the kitchen. We rushed in to find the bin of cat food spilled on the floor and half of the ornaments (that we left on the breakfast bar) broken and laying all over the floor. Our cat, Ray, decided that he did not like the ornaments and sought out to destroy them...including HIS!

Needless to say that we will be doing the paw print ornaments again in the next day or two. Sigh.

Make sure to share your pictures if you do this ornament project with your pets or kids. I can't wait to see how yours turn out!

Talk later - XOXO!
Crystal

Day 5 of Newlywed Christmas Activities - Watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

Between Hubby traveling and us just being lazy, we have gotten behind on our activities. Well we decided to knock three out in one day. Days 3-5 were done on the same day so that we could catch up. Lots of fun packed into one day! 

_________________________________________

So after writing Christmas letters to each other, writing personalized Christmas cards for family and friends, and making a killer Christmas playlist, Hubby was ready to call it quits. He was being a good sport in catching up, but he was done. Thankfully, our last activity of the day was very relaxing. We were going to cuddle up on the couch and watch, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" starring Jim Carrey. 

Every year, ABC Family does "25 Days of Christmas" movies and specials that they do at night. I had already looked at their full schedule and saw that this movie was coming on. I DVR'ed it for our movie night. 

To make our movie night special, I grabbed pillows and blankets to create a cozy fort on our couch, lit some scented candles, grabbed a bottle of wine, turned off the lights, turned on the Christmas tree, and printed out these super cute movie tickets that I gave to Hubby as his "admission." He LOVED it! 

This was definitely a great end to a very productive and fun day. I am really looking forward to tomorrow's activity. Can't wait to share!

Talk later - XOXO!

Crystal

Day 4 of Newlywed Christmas Activities - Write Cards and Make Christmas Playlist

Between Hubby traveling and us just being lazy, we have gotten behind on our activities. Well we decided to knock three out in one day. Days 3-5 were done on the same day so that we could catch up. Lots of fun packed into one day!

_________________________________________

For day four of our newlywed Christmas activities, I combined two activities into one - writing Christmas cards and making a Christmas playlist. 

I will tell you that I am the WORST at sending cards in general. I either send them late and miss my family's actual birthday or holiday or I end up with cards hanging around my house that were never sent. Well this year, I was determined to send Christmas cards on time! With Hubby and I now married, we now have two families that we need to send cards and presents to. Might as well get organized and do everything early. 

Hubby and I pulled out our stack of cards, wrote the list of everyone we wanted to send cards to, and wrote personalized messages in each and every card. After doing 20+ Christmas cards, our hands were cramping, we were brain numb, and ready to just be done. All we need to do now is get addresses and mail them off. It will happen this year!

Our cat, Artie, wanted to help write messages from the zoo. 

In between writing Christmas cards, we also created a special Christmas playlist of our favorite songs. Thank God for Spotify, where we found ever song that we wanted and more! We added the obvious songs like, "All I Want for Christmas" by Mariah Carey, "The Christmas Song" by Nat King Cole, and "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby. In addition, Hubby added some hilarious rap versions of songs that I had never heard of and that had me in stitches! (P.S. If you have any mistakes on your Christmas cards, it is because I was laughing and messed up...lol.)

This one in particular is hilarious!

In the end, we came up with over 130 songs on our playlist, which equals over seven hours of music. We will continue to add more as we think of them, but for now, we have great background music for the rest of our newlywed activities. Check out our Spotify playlist to see what we came up with. 

Hope you enjoy!

Talk later - XOXO!

Crystal

Day 3 of Newlywed Christmas Activities - Write Christmas Letters to Each Other

Between Hubby traveling and us just being lazy, we have gotten behind on our activities. Well we decided to knock three out in one day. Days 3-5 were done on the same day so that we could catch up. Lots of fun packed into one day!

_________________________________________

Hubby and I love writing each other letters, notes, cards, and other written forms that express our love. When we were long distance dating, we would buy each other cards, write long notes inside of them, and give them when we finally saw each other. Even now, we occasionally surprise each other in this way. Well because of this, I knew that I should add this to our list of Newlywed Christmas activities. 

As you have probably noticed, Hubby has started a theme 

of picking one member of the zoo to help him pick the day's activity. 

This is our Maltese, Rasbee!

I kept this activity pretty simple. I gave each of us two sheets of paper and an envelope. We then went into different rooms and wrote what was in our hearts. (Hubby loved this because he got to duck away and watch sports while writing. lol) Once we were done, we sealed them and put them in our stockings. 

I must admit that I can't wait to read my letter on Christmas day. It is the little things, you know?

Talk later - XOXO!

Crystal

Day 2 of Newlywed Christmas Activities - Decorate Christmas Stockings

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...Decorating personalized stockings. Or an alternate title should be...How we failed at our first newlywed art project. Lol.

With the Christmas tree up, the next activity was going to put our creative juices to work. I found a really simple personalized stocking kit at the Dollar Tree nearby. The instructions were simple. Cut out the letters, place on the stocking, iron on, and Ta-Da! Well Hubby and I followed the instructions and the sound we heard was more like the sad music on game shows (Wonk, wonk, wooooonnnkk).

The personalized stocking kit

Just cut out and iron on...yeah right!

I ironed the stockings over and over
and still couldn't get a good transfer. 

You know what, though? We loved it! Hubby and I laughed at how no matter how long we ironed, the letters would not transfer and how in the end, we had to just outline our names with permanent markers and call it done. It was our first non-success during these 25 Days, but if all failures can be this fun, who cares.

I would definitely suggest this activity for others, but maybe try a more expensive iron on kit. This would be particularly fun for those with kids.

We hung our stockings beside the stockings that we bought for the cats and dogs. With the tree, the stockings, and other decor that I have put up, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

The dogs and cats have better stockings than us. 

Feels like Christmas

Two down...23 more to go! I can't wait until you see what else is in store this month. Feel free to do these activities with your loved ones.

Talk later - XOXO!
Crystal

Day 1 of Newlywed Christmas Activities - Decorate Christmas Tree

Today, I was FINALLY able to start my 25 Days of Newlywed Christmas Activities. Hubby had to go to Baltimore for a few days and I promised him that I would not start without him. We are a few days behind, but if we do two activities for the next two days, we will be all caught up.

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...Decorating of the Christmas Tree! When making the activities list, I knew that I wanted this to be first. I love looking at the lit Christmas tree for as long as I can during December...and sometimes into January, depending on how lazy I get with taking it down.

Artie helped Hubby pick the first
envelope off of the activities calendar. 

Since we are on a budget, I went with a 6.5' artificial tree from Walmart. After reading several articles about the dangers of a live tree for pets, I knew this was the best way to go. Plus, I have done the live tree before and not only did it shed heavily, but by the time Christmas came, it stank to high heaven. Not a good memory.

Putting together the tree was actually pretty easy. Twenty minutes and we were done. I was a little worried when we first took it out of the box because it looked very sparse and Charlie Brown-esque. Once we plumped the branches and covered the empty spots, it looked great.

Before we plumped the branches

After we separated the branches.
That is Midnight hanging with Hubby. 

Over the last week, we have shopped at various places around town to get the decorations. Target for the shatterproof ornaments and a tree skirt, the local pet store for the "candy cane" dog treat ornaments, and the local thrift store for a few higher value keepsake ornaments. Our tree doesn't really have a color scheme or a theme, but it is fun and cute with all of the things we love.

Hubby, Mumu, and the completed tree. 

First activity down, 24 more to go. I am now laying in my living room in darkness watching a Christmas movie with our Christmas tree lit in the corner. What a wonderful start to the month.

Talk later - XOXO!

Crystal

25 Days of Christmas Newlywed Activities

For some reason, I am SUPER excitement about Christmas this year. I have been scanning Pinterest boards for at least a month pinning everything related to the holiday. This Christmas is especially important to me because this is the first year that Hubby and I have decided that we will be spending Christmas together and in our own home. This Christmas will be complete with cheesy traditions like making gingerbread houses, decorating the tree, and other cliche acts. I don't care! It will be amazing!

In honor of my new love of Christmas, I have created 25 days of activities for Hubby and I to do between December 1 and 25. For the next 25 days, I hope you enjoy our activities and hi-jinks. 

What I found on Pinterest

What I made for my fridge

To create my calendar, I printed off numbers from a website I found, taped them to half cut envelopes, and arranged them on my fridge in the shape of a tree with more tape. In each envelope are pieces of paper with a description of the activity. To top it off, I found a very cute glitter star from Family Dollar. Can't wait until Hubby sees this!

If you want to do your own version of 25 Days, here is where you can print the cool numbers for the envelopes.

Talk later - XOXO!

Crystal