Christmas music plays on Pandora today.  Our wreath is hung, our sweet Nativity waits for the Savior, and the Advent candles will be out next week.  Have I mentioned this is my favorite time of the year?  It’s my favorite time of the year.  Our front porch dons our half-lit white lights and a bright red berry wreath (I’m working on a fix for the three-year-old lights).  I made our wreath as a newlywed, so it’s so nostalgic for me to pull it out of its storage bag and hang it each year, on the day after Thanksgiving.  I remember LD giving me a hard time for buying the material and making it.  Now he loves it.  GT always helps decorate and we talk about the surprise it will be for Daddy upon his return home.

Today GT and I spent time indoors (baby, it’s cold outside!) and made play dough together.  It’s a favorite activity (playing with Play Dough) for Grey, so we seem to make it more in wintertime.  There’s something memorable and sweet about making hot chocolate and sipping it in between our dough-making steps.

He’s gotten the hang of both stirring at the stove and kneading the dough.  And this time in particular was special in that we added something new.

I know homemade play dough isn’t novel, but I found a really neat recipe worth sharing today.  [Forgive me if I'm so behind the eight ball that this is not new to you.  It's likely that everyone makes their play dough this way, but it was new and exciting to us today, so I thought we'd remember it!]  The following DIY Play Dough recipe comes courtesy of a favorite blog of mine, Modern Parents Messy Kids.  She uses Jello for the colors.  Brilliant.  Fun.  It even smells good.  I usually just use the basic flour, salt, cream of tartar version and even leave it without coloring, so as to not create a huge mixed-color mess, but half the fun this time was picking the Jello colors!  Enjoy:

You’ll need:

- 1 cup white flour

- 1 cup warm water

-  2 tbsp salt

- 2 tbsp cream of tartar

- 2 tbsp cooking oil (canola works fine)

- 1 3oz pack Jello

First, mix all the ingredients together in a medium saucepan.  Next, heat mixture over medium heat until you cannot stir it any more (about 2 min).  Then, transfer it to a floured surface and wait about 20 minutes.  [Sip some hot chocolate with your little one or eat lunch.]

After it’s completely cooled, let your little helper do the kneading and add flour as needed to decrease the sticky feel.

Store in an airtight container in the frig for as long as you can stand it.  I seriously use homemade Play Dough for months.  Until hair, dirt, and food particulate overwhelm the dough.  ;)

Enjoy!

Oh, and we Stivers may find out something so special this week…Can you guess what the news might be with this picture hint?

We pray God’s blessings for your family as we all begin one of the most beautiful, special seasons of the year.  May this season of Advent be full of anticipation and joy for you all.

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