I get some of my best ideas in the middle of the night.
Whether it be in dreams or in my half-awake stumper as I'm feeding my youngest.
I mean really good.
Like the time I woke up and grabbed my phone to type this genius thought about an upcoming sermon Bryan was writing,
remember: tell b to play the "guess what's in the banana" game on stage.
(and yes, I thought it was brilliant, and no, I have no idea what in the world the "guess what's in the banana" game is…)
or the time in college, where I was sharing a bed with my roommate and I thought it was a great idea to poke her in the forehead with my pointer finger as hard as possible. It had to be done. In the moment it was necessary. Afterwards I spent a very long time apologizing and laughing hysterically.
All to say, I have great ideas in the middle of the night.
Last night while I was feeding Olive, I had one of my greatest ideas yet. Ellis and I should make Christmas ornaments tomorrow! As always, I got out my phone to take a note of my idea as I knew I wouldn't remember in the morning.
Come morning, when Bryan and Ellis came barreling up the stairs to wake me up, I could remember I had had an idea, but couldn't remember what it was. I got out my phone to look at the ideas that I had written down.
Make ornaments with E: Salt dough. cooking cutters. make hand print turkeys. let him paint them.
Well, I was 3 for 4.
But overall it was actually a great idea!
Salt Dough Ornaments:
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour
(I added a bit more water and then dredged in flour while rolling/cutting)
You just roll it out and use whatever holiday cookie cutters you have available.
Or, if you want to do handprint turkeys, err ornaments, I just split my dough into 4 pieces, balled it up and then smashed down into round circle like shapes.
Man, this is a super professional DIY.
I didn't get any pictures of the hand printing stages. It happen very quickly and I tried not to make a big deal about the fact that we lost one of the circles due to an overzealous toddler who tricked me by doing the first 3 perfectly and then grabbing the last one so lightening fast and shoving half of it in his mouth.
boys.
Take a poking device (I used a straw) and make a hole in each ornament for hanging.
Bake at 200 degrees for about 2 hours (or until they are no longer squishy)
Then strip down (
your child or course) and paint away!
I was quite impressed with how much he actually painted the ornaments. Of course there was a little leg painting…but that was to be expected. Honestly, I was bracing myself for a lot less ornament painting and a whole living room covered in paint.
A little celebratory dancing while the ornaments dried. He was so proud of them he just wanted to stand and look at his creation. While it may not be the prettiest ornament on the tree, it most definitely is my favorite.
