Five handed holidays

Hand me down, homemade, made with love, handmade with love... Five sets of hands working together on Solstice and Christmas projects...

 (go ahead and picture us all on the bed, on top of one another while Mama attempted a photo of all of our hands together... Yes, comical. I wish we had someone from above taking a photo of us all tangled together, it must have been quite the sight!)
AnaSofia working hard on coloring pictures Mama can use as gift tags and cards, Kasper and Mama roaming around in the woods to saw down just the right birch tree, Far taking it to work and cutting it to pieces, and Magnus - sweet Magnus sleeping through it all so we can get this work done.

 And finally, ten little packages sent out into the world to bring some joy to friends. A little later than the start of advent as Mama had hoped, but still in time to enjoy the light for the holidays... We love you friends.
This year we relied on some old favorites I have posted before (look back to our 2009 winter and valentine's day to see photos, I am too tired to link them up! Someday I will do categories and search functions!) that we love to do each year. As the littles grow, so does their skill level and it is amazing to see the changes in these past few years when we do the same project.
Here are a few that make great teacher gifts, add extra glitz to packages or make your own tree beautiful:
:: Salt dough ornaments. There are a ton of different recipes out there but I found this one some years back and we always come back to it for reference.
:: Paper stars. These decorate our house year around and look so beautiful. Even Kasper can do the folds, cutting and glue. I take over and use the hot glue gun at the end to join the two stars together.
:: Paper mache boats. Any paper mache project is pretty special, but a few years ago AnaSofia and I made a boat together from this design and we decided to do one this year for some friends who have a new little girl and together our husbands have a five year plan of our families sailing the Pacific together for a year, or something wonderful and crazy like that...

I am secretly working on some big projects for Solstice and Christmas that I am hoping fit what each little love needs right now. I start December with a huge list of ideas that I continually pare down as I realize I do not have enough hours in the day (kid free and awake anyways!) and knowing I want to enjoy this time too. It is the balance between merrymaking together, secret Santa work and just wanting time to be together that I am still working on... Watching AnaSofia get into the excitement and feverishly creating her own little gifts brings me such joy and I know we are on the right path... Hope you are finding joy in these days of December too!