MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE HAMMER RANCH!

Tressie's Christmas Tree

I am so tired of fighting with blogger.....Anyone else having problems? Download the pictures in the order that I want them and then when I preview them, they are in a crazy different order??? Any suggestions?

OK, so to the post....This is Tressie's Christmas tree! This picture was to be the last picture so that you could see the finished tree at the end.

We had this little tree that we used while we lived in the trailer as it was "trailer size". Haven't used it for several years, but thought that it would be fun for Tressie to have a tree that she could decorate and touch and enjoy. It fits just perfect in this corner and we have had such a fun time making decorations for it and then she loves putting them on "her" tree!

Grandma put a string of lights on the tree and the next day we made this paper chain. She really had fun! Yes, Grandma did finish it up, but she stayed with it longer than I thought she would! She would pick which color of paper strip to put on next and she also had TONS of fun with the glue stick! Good thing it cleans up easily with water.

Our next decoration was little green Christmas trees that I cut out of scrapbook paper. I had some little star stickers and she was quite good at taking them off of the sheet and putting them on the trees!

I also decided that this was a good place for all of her Christmas books. They only come out at Christmas and she enjoys having them read to her and also reading them herself!

I think her favorite project was making the candy canes out of red and white pipe cleaners! She kept saying that we needed more, more.....so we made more, more! These were super easy for her to hang on the tree!

On Tuesday we finished up the tree decorations. I remember Tressie's Mama making some decorations when she was little with macaroni. I cut circles out of poster board and then she glued macaroni on them. Grandma then sprayed them with gold spray paint. I also cut out some Christmas stockings from scrapbook paper and she put stickers on them. So, to see the end results of these projects and the finished tree, you will need to look at the first picture in this post!!!

Notice the plain little yellow star on the top of the tree.....would have looked really pretty with some gold or yellow glitter on it. Only problem is, this Grandma doesn't do glitter! She will endure alot of messes but not glitter! Sorry Tressie!

We are all enjoying Tressie's little Christmas tree in the corner!

Countdown to Christmas with Tressie!

The other day while Christmas shopping, I was looking for a new advent calendar to use with Tressie this Christmas season. I was thinking the little paper calendars with the little flaps that you open one every day until Christmas. You know, the kind like I had when my sister and I were little. Well, while looking at those, my eye caught this Little People nativity advent calendar by Fisher-Price.

Have you seen these? This is the cutest calendar for someone Tressie's age! It will also be Gunner's when he is old enough. It is a cloth banner with individual pockets for fabric pieces. Each piece has velcro on the back and makes it easy for Tressie to attach the pieces by herself! Each day a new piece is added to the scene until Baby Jesus is placed in the manger on Christmas morning! She is going to have a hard time waiting until Christmas morning to put Baby Jesus in the manger as it's only day 3 and that is the one that she wants to put on every time!

Tressie absolutely loves it! The only problem is where to hang it. She wants to be playing with it all of the time. That wouldn't be a problem except that she is a little rough when pulling the pieces off and her Mother declared that it was NOT something that she could play with, but something special to do each day at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

So glad that I found this as I think it will be something that Tressie and Gunner will look forward to getting out each year at Christmas while they are younger and who knows.....maybe even when they get older!