The Dreidle Game, Good Mail, and More Present Prep

Here's the finished sock monkey that the Princess made for Wolfman. If I have some extra time I may do some embroidery on his face and embellish him a bit, but since I'm just beginning to paint the KITCHEN I'm not sure if I'll get to that. Yes, you read that right. The first gift I started will most likely be the last to be finished. Ridiculous. Honestly, I started that sucker in August so that I wouldn't be doing anything crazy like painting on Christmas Eve this year. Hah. I guess it just wouldn't be Christmas without last minute gift making. At least not in this house.

I'm still doing the prep for Wolfman to make his gifts for everyone. He's making them soft swords. These are the hilts and the sword will be finished when he helps to slide a foam pool noodle and craft foam hand guard on them. I'm looking forward to sending everyone outside to beat each other with them for the happiest Christmas morning ever!

For Family Home Evening tonight we had a short lesson with Wolfman sharing the Christmas story, then I read them a story called "When Jesus was a Yeled" [It's a book I made with hebrew words for cool household stuff Jesus would probably have used (house, bed, mama, daddy, teacher) and eaten (fish, honey, dates, olives, etc.] Then we played a traditional Jewish game that he might have played - Dreidle! We play using pistachios. Playing dreidle every Christmas is one of our favorite family traditions.

and Woohoo! I got the best good mail from Michelle! She made this darling Missionary plaque for me. It made me cry! Soooo sweet! Thank you Michelle. You made my day! (Just in case it's too small to read, it says: Mis-sion-ary (noun) someone who leaves their family for two years so that others may be with their families for eternity.) I choke up every time I read it. Really. Thanks Michelle. I love it!