Crayons, Cards and Christmas Fever

Hello blogosphere! I have missed you. I am so sorry that I took a week-long hiatus. I know, it felt like forever.

I'm finally done working the extra hours at work. I'm not going to say it wasn't a blessing because we've got Christmas covered with the extra money I was able to pocket. As many of you know, that can be a huge relief!

Speaking of Christmas, the Winslett house is officially decked out for the holidays. I tried really really REALLY hard to wait until after Thanksgiving, but I couldn't do it. I have no will power when it comes to Christmas. I will do a post next week to showcase the festive decor I came up with this year. However, I'd like to introduce you now to the first ornament that was placed on our tree this year: Jimney Cricket! He is a special memento from our honeymoon in Walt Disney World this past September.

I'm very sorry to report that I cannot seem to find the Mickey and Minnie Mouse ornament which we also bought on our trip. I have not given up though! I'm still on the hunt for it so wish me luck.

Now then, I did manage to get a little crafty in our time apart. I work with three-year-olds at a daycare. When you are three and you are tired of scribbling all over your color sheet (and the table), you entertain yourself by snapping your crayons in half and peeling the paper off of them. The stripped and broken crayons below were annihilated in two and half months.

Lucky for these kiddos, Mrs. Miranda came to the rescue and made new multi-colored crayons. Thanks to a super easy tutorial I found on Pinterest, I had these suckers melted into new crayons in no time.

My kids had done the difficult (and most time-consuming) part for me - peeling the paper off. I bought a $4 mini cupcake tin at Kroger, sprayed each cup with vegetable oil, put my crayons in the cups and stuck it in the oven for 10 minutes at 250 degrees. After pulling them out of the oven, I found it most efficient to stick the batch in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Once you do that, the crayon slides right out of the pan.  

The kids loved them and I might have had some fun playing with them too. After Thanksgiving break, I am moving into the two-year-old room. Pray for me. Haha!

Bentley missed the blog world too. I thought you'd all enjoy seeing his furry face before we parted. So, what've you got to look forward to? Christmas crafts. Christmas decor. Christmas gifts. Oh! I can't wait!

See you then!
Miranda