(NOTE: This is a guest post by Julee Russo.  A big thanks goes out to her! I’ve never thought about having a costume party at Christmas . . .)

Cherished Memories: They Grow up Too Fast

by Julee Russo

Tell me this is not ADORABLE! I dare you!

One of the most important things to remember when you have grandchildren is to cherish every moment — and to make an extra effort to insure many opportunities for creating long-lasting memories for them in the future. So you know what that means, Pictures, Pictures, Pictures! One of the ways to make wonderful memories that they look back on once they are older, is to make sure they have beautiful and creative kids costumes for birthday parties, school holiday parties and public holidays. Let’s take 4 holidays as examples: All-Saints Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

All Saints Day
Whether you celebrate Halloween or choose to celebrate All Saints day, these two holidays have one thing in common; costumes are involved. If you’re going to a church party for Halloween, dressing your child as an angel is always popular. Some churches have parties that ask attendees to dress as one of God’s creations, which includes animals and other fun things like flowers or butterflies. There’s also the option to dress in clergy clothing from different time periods as well such as dressing as a friar or even a monk.

Halloween
At non-religious Halloween and school parties children typically wear costumes based on popular TV and cartoon shows that the child may like. There are always a certain number of the evergreen costume ideas such as witches, devils, angels, Princesses and Princes. A child can also dress up in a costume that reflects what they want to be when they grow up, whether it be a doctor, lawyer or firefighter. Halloween is all about a day of fantasy.

Thanksgiving
This holiday is about having a great meal and giving thanks for the great year that you’ve had. Is your grandchild going to be a Native American or a Pilgrim? There are also Pilgrim and Colonial Era costumes that let you dress to fit the same time period as when the first Thanksgiving took place. Another idea is to dress them like a turkey or food that is served during the traditional Thanksgiving feast.

Christmas
Lastly, it’s great to have a costume party for Christmas. Although, children will probably focus more on the gifts under the tree rather than Christmas dinner. Your child may also want to play a role in a presentation at Church or even at school that will require a costume. Some roles that children often play are angels, a Sheppard boy and one of the three wise men. If it’s a school holiday party, think about dressing your child as a baby Santa, a cuddly reindeer, a snow flake, an elf or a ginger bread man — or even a candy cane or sugar plum fairy.

ALWAYS focus on getting great photographs. Create these unique memories before they grow up, youth is fleeting and it is up to us, as their grandparent, to make sure they have great pictures to look back at when they are older (not to mention we will be sharing them with everyone we know!). Whether you’re celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas, each of these holidays provide great opportunities to create memorable events that you and your grandchild will treasure for the rest of your lives.

Tomorrow starts the first giveaway so make sure you come back then!

Oh her site,  Grandma Lizzie shared the idea of a gratitude table runner. She gets a long piece of butcher paper.  Then, family members make a turkey by tracing around their hand.  In each finger, they write what they were thankful for. This is used as a table decoration.  (You know, if you don’t visit Grandma Lizzie’s website, you are missing out on some fabulous ideas!!!  She is one creative Grandma!)

I loved the idea and thought I would give it a whirl.  Since our children will be visiting their in-laws this Thanksgiving, we had a Thanksgiving meal with them on Saturday.  Yummy, yummy food!

Afterward, we did a modified gratitude table runner.  It was a . . . a . . . a . . .  square piece of paper!

Natalie loved taking all of the colored pencils out of the box.  She even colored a bit.  Simon loved picking up the pencils, looking at them, dropping them, picking them up, looking at them, dropping them — rinse and repeat.  Spencer was great at tracing his hand and coloring.  Kaylissa was great at being a darling little girl!

I wanted to have a picture of the finished product.  As you can see by looking at this picture, Spencer and Natalie were patient with the picture taking process.  Kaylissa was enthralled with her toes.  And Simon, well, Simon needed a nap. Bless his little heart.

Now For Big Things Coming!

 
I will be having a couple of giveaways during the next two weeks.  You might want to check back often to see what they are.  You could win something cool that you could give to a grandchild for Christmas!  If you are interested in the giveaway, be sure to leave a comment on that posting!

Before I share the idea that I got from Grandma Mary, I need to give you some background information.  Many, many years ago, Mary (before she was a grandmother) asked me to be the back up piano player and the synthesizer player and the player of elegant rhythm instruments (i.e. cloppers) for her singing group.  She had faith in me.  Highly misplaced, but faith nevertheless.  I managed to squeak by without embarrassing the group too much by my brilliant musical inability.

I left the group after being with them for about five years.  Time marched on.  I developed wrinkles, flabby arms, gray hair, Alzheimer’s, tinnitus, and a propensity to be the same miserable musician that I was in days of yore.

Recently, Mary called.  Will you join the group for one last Christmas season?

She  must have Alzheimer’s, too, and can’t remember just how bad I played.  Or else she is extremely desperate.  I think it’s a case of both.  I acquiesced.  (For you non-logophiles, that means regardless of all of my failings and lack of musical ability, I said yes.  Seems like I have the inability to say no when I know better . . .)

Come to find out, Mary expects me not only to play the synthesizer and rhythm instruments, but she needs me to sing with them.  Can’t she remember that a chicken with a sore throat sings better than me?  And if singing isn’t bad enough, I have to do dance steps and make elegant motions with my flabby arms.  She doesn’t expect much from this old geezer, now does she?

That brings me to what I wanted to share today.  (If I had an editor, she would have made me delete the 197 words that I just wrote.  I’m rather glad I don’t have an editor.  Rather.)

Mary is a grandmother and has a grundle of grandchildren.  I can’t remember how many she has.  It’s that Alzheimer’s thing, ya know.

Anyway, as the singing group practiced in her family room, I noticed a village of cowboys and Indians off to one side of the room.  It happened to be an activity that she did with her grandchildren at her grandma camp earlier this year.  (Seems like grandmas everywhere are having grandma camp!)  Maybe after the holiday season and after all of the musical performances that we have, I will take time to talk to Grandma Mary to get more of her ideas of what she did at her grandma camp so that I can share them here!

I whipped out my iPhone and took some pictures because I think this would be a fun activity to do with grandchildren for Thanksgiving Day. (I haven’t taken the time to fix them up in Photoshop to make them better.  Oh well.  You still get the idea.)

For the Indian teepees, her grandchildren tied string around the end of three sticks and then hot-glued them to a cardboard base.  They cut half circles out of brown paper grocery bags, glued them over the sticks and then decorated the teepee.

For the covered wagon, the wagon was a milk carton spray painted brown with a white strip of paper glued on as the ‘cover.’  Mary got wooden wheels at the craft store and then cut dowel sticks and jute string for the tongue and yoke of the wagon.

The granddaughters made handkerchief dolls.  The large piece of material was draped over a Styrofoam ball with yarn tied around the neck area.  Yarn was attached for the hair.

Now, I know that this is more of a ‘pioneer’ activity.  But at least you could use the Indian part as a Thanksgiving activity with your grandchildren.

Have any of you created any Indian-and-Pilgrim things like this with your grandchildren?

P.S.  Here is a fun idea for turkey cupcakes.  Cute, cute, cute!  Oh, and a fun table setting for children.  (Maybe I’ll do this for the ‘adult’ table so I won’t have to worry about fine linen table cloths and lovely centerpieces.

After reading the title to this post and, for those of you who know that on a scale of one to ten (with ten being outta this world spectacular) that my crafting ability ranks a minus one hundred, you are probably rolling your eyes and thinking, “Yeah, right!”

But it is true.  These crafts are easy to do.  At least it looks like it to me.   (Haven’t tried them — yet!)

I just discovered a great site that shows how to do Fall Leaf Decor.

Then, there is the Corn Table Crafts. This was my favorite.

They have a very short video that demonstrates these easy crafts AND written directions.  Sweet.

They have ideas for all holidays, for birthday parties, for entertaining, for food, for kids, baby showers, and even an article about how to handle an annoying relative.  (Note to my relatives: please read this article.  Then, you will know how to handle me . . .)

What is this site?

I thought that you’d never ask.  It’s Holidash.  (Isn’t that a clever name?)  When you go there, make sure you have plenty of time to browse.  It could be a time sucker a place to get lots of good ideas.

What are some of the activities you plan on doing with your grandchildren this Thanksgiving?