Santa's Busy Elves!

Nana's house has been a very busy place these past few weeks!  Like Santa's workshop...almost!
Aidan's great-grandma 'GG' has a lovely little fabric tree that she made for her home, so I decided to try my hand at making one as well. It's McCall's pattern #3777.  Then I thought it would look cute as an 'advent tree' and so set about making little felt 'balls' and embroidered the days of December up to Christmas Eve, made them into little pockets and filled each one with a chocolate treat...

Aidan's Advent Calendar Tree

In my travels through 'blogland' I found some wonderful projects.  Some fun for Aidan, and some fun for Nana.  From my friend Kimmie at The Serendipity Cafe I found these very cute chocolate cars.  Gathering all the ingredients together, Aidan and I spend a fun afternoon assembling the teddy bear cars...

Decorated by Aidan...of course!

Look yummy, Nana!

We had to have snow...naturally!

 We were both very happy with the results, however it didn't last very long, and teddy's and cars were soon gobbled up!

I did manage to find the time to work on a few sewing projects of my own.

I found the instruction for these fabric bookmarks at 7 Layer Studio and just had to make them for all the kids in Aidan's Kindergarten class...

And for family and friends...

I designed this cushion cover myself from scrap fabrics, and made it (and bookmarks, of course!) for Christina, the Teacher's assistant in Aidan's class...

 I found some great fabric printed with musical notes and bars, and decided to make up a set of men's suspenders, belt and and bowtie (and bookmarks, of course!) for Aidan's teacher, who is also a music teacher, and a set for a friend who is a musician...

  

Of course, Aidan had to have suspenders, bow ties and belts!  I found a great tutorial posted by Ashley at Make It And Love It  I made a set for both Aidan and his cousin Emmet in Christmas fabric, which they both wore to their school concerts.  I thought they were so cute, I just had to make more (and more, and more...)  All the nephews are getting sets for Christmas this year!

I ran with the bow tie theme and made up several headbands for all the girls...

  

  And then there was egg painting for the Christmas Egg Roll at the family Christmas party...

More eggs please Nana!

The sewing is all done for this year, and I still have a little more baking to do, but I did take the time to enjoy the wonders of the season through my livingroom window...

 

And today,we made gingerbread men for Aidan to give to his classmates...

Lots of Naked Gingerbread Men!

These decoration taste good, Nana!

  

I did it!

 So you see, we have been very busy little elves! 

Aidan and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Deck the Halls!

Well...that part was Nana's job!  Aidan helped decorate the Christmas tree today!  Naturally, all the shiny baubles and balls were placed on the lower two feet of the tree!  (Fear not...the Christmas Fairy will weave her magic in the night!)

Aidan's Christmas Tree

The most fun...for Nana at least...was decorating Aidan's own little tree.  Once the lights, tinsel and garland were in place, Aidan placed the decoration on his very own tree.  And each decoration is special...there are 'grandson' baubles, five in all, purchased each year since he was born (his momma has thirty-four, and counting!)  There are handmade felt decorations I made for his momma when she was a little girl...there are decorations passed down from both his great-great Nana, and his great-grandma.  The tree is topped with a mother-of-pearl 'star' which came from Bethlehem, a gift from a friend many years ago.

It's a lovely tree, filled with little charms, all with special memories.  But the best memories are our time spent together, Nana and Aidan, placing all the decorations on a very special little tree.