The night before Christmas...

Or three nights before but who is counting. I was so lucky this year because not only do I have Christmas eve off I also have the weekend before Christmas off. La-La, Me-Me and I planned on having our family gathering on Saturday so that they would be free to spend the holiday with their Dad. Gerard's parents will be at his sister's house for most of the holiday and my Mother will be at my other sister's house for the entire holiday.

We decided to do a low key celebration with a gift steal so that no one had to spend much money. Everyone got the perfect gift. Hans bought Anna Jingle the dog. We ate something I found on pinterest called funeral sandwiches that were out of this world (even Gerard liked them which is a big deal). I made homemade Danish rice pudding like when I was a child. Jenny loved it too.

But by far the best part of the evening (in my humble opinion was the Family Fancy Project). Yes, I am over the top. Really Christmas is no longer about the presents. It is about making the memories. Perhaps this is happens when you get older or wiser or both. Prior to everyone arriving I talked with Anna about getting presents and the rules that go along with receiving a gift. She got two gifts and has been over the moon about them both. Jingle has not left her side. She remembered all of the rules which makes me a proud Momma.

Back to the Family Fancy Project. I know it sound a little crazy but really it is fun. The cost was pretty low and everyone who was involved really thought it was the best part of the night. Me-Me and I decided on The Night Before Christmas scene. We talked it over drew it out did a little pre-painting.

Here is the finished project



 

 

I pre-painted the snow, sky and house. I am impatient so I use a blow dryer to dry the paint faster.

 

There were 12 of us here last night but a project like this can be for and little as 2 or as many as a 100 or more. Here is a break down of what we used and how we did it.

 

Materials:

 

20x24 art canvas I bought it on sale for about 10 dollars

Acrylic craft paint multiple colors

Foam 1 inch brush

3 random paint brushes that I used for the fine features such as the deers legs and outlining the sled.

 

Santa's Sled was the side of Jim Deer's hand (his was the largest hand the curled up part was the tip of his pinkie

Santa was Greg's thumb. I painted it red, cream then red in a strip fashion.

Sled's runners was the side of Grammy's hand

Reindeer were Anna and Hans hands

Light on the house were finger prints

For the tree I painted fingers to the second knuckle

The deer in the yard were thumb prints one vertical one horizontal

 

Of course we put the year in the corner. When we got towards the end of the project we still needed presents in Santa's sled so we used finger prints again. Rather then doing presents under the tree we decided that this would be the perfect place for everyone to sign the project. The signatures look like little presents under the Christmas tree. Everyone signed I thought about how blessed I am to have each one of these special people in my life.

 

I urge you to try something like this instead of exchanging gifts. Honestly it looks pretty cool in person but it is the laughing and memories that make it feel better then any gift I could have received.

 



 

I wish I had thought to make someone in charge of the camera when we were doing this project. We did manage to get really cute pictures of Hans.