by Minette Sternke
As I noted on a comment on one of the 12 Days of Wishmas, I decided to try to replicate it to some extent here in Illinois. These are GREAT snowy weekend activities!
Instead of making reindeer food for the 3rd Day of Wishmas, I decided to actually go visit a reindeer ranch nearby. They have brought reindeer here to Illinois from Alaska! You can pay for a tour and get to feed them “reindeer cookies” (otherwise known as graham crackers!). One of the reindeer’s name is Jingle Belle. One apparently decided I was a tree – and was rubbing his antlers up against me!
On the 4th Day of Wishmas, I made my own ornaments. They were a little hit and miss but what the hey, it’s not like I’m being graded on it! I did discover that glitter paint does not run as much as regular paint does! As Einstein would say, “a successful experiment”!
On the 5th Day of Wishmas, I made my own gingerbread house, along with the “residents”- Kim and Jason! (I gave Kim a red skirt in honor of the University of Wisconsin!) The house was a challenge. My icing was too stiff – and broke through my icing bag! So, I got the Ziploc baggies out. My decorator tip blew right threw the first one – so I just “made my own tip” by cutting out a tiny corner of the next baggie. After a few rough tries and a few fallen sides, I finally arrived at a finished house! (With a Snowman Peep in the front yard!)
On the 9th Day of Wishmas, instead of making gourmet hot chocolate, (I’m one of those ‘weird’ people who don’t really like hot chocolate.) I made my own tea party for one! For the tea, I used a blend called “Comfort and Joy” with cinnamon and spices. MMM good! I had cookies and even shared with my new “cookie monster” (my 8-month-old Pointer puppy, Molly!).
On the 10th Day of Wishmas, I created edible snowmen. I didn’t check out your site first for ideas so went with my own – looks like I was pretty close! I used fondant for the snowman cap but never thought about using licorice strips! I made two snowmen, one with a purple “magic cap” of sorts and the other is my “spice girl”! I have a food coloring marker and used that to make the eyes and mouth! I had to hold my spice girl up – she hasn’t learned how to walk on high heels yet.
On the 11th Day of Wishmas, I decorated some stockings- one for me (Minnie is my nickname from my nephews), one for my twin sister, Marietta (we call her Acey) and one for Molly.
On the 12th Day of Wishmas, the “free gift wrap” day, I decided to recycle what I had around the house. I used some craft paper for wrapping (and some leftover green wrapping paper for my nephew’s gift – I didn’t want the Tonka toy labels to show through his wrapping!). I also used some of the stickers left over from my stocking decorating and magic markers. You’ll notice one present (the small one) is NOT a Christmas theme. My mother’s birthday is Christmas Eve – and she MUST have a present wrapped in BIRTHDAY wrapping instead of Christmas wrapping. Seems only fair. This is why, in my house, we have always saved Christmas Eve as “Mom’s Day” and Christmas is “Jesus’ Day”.
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