CRAFT TIME...

Lately I've been reading about a lot of people making homemade Christmas ornaments.  Last night Terry was going out with some friends and I figured the girls and I would have some "craft time".  I got the idea from a fellow blogger, whom followed this recipe.  Like her, I felt that the recipe needed a little more water to help the dough take shape.  The girls had a great time helping me measure out the ingredients.  Rather than kneading out the dough, we let the dough hook on my fancy mixer do all the work. 

Alexis waiting for the mixer to do it's work.  She told me several times that it was taking too long.

Addison checking out the dough's progress.  Yes, she insisted on wearing that hat all evening long.  She put her bib on just in case she made a mess.

Before they went into the oven.....  The dough was kind of sticky.  If we do this again, I would probably recommend spraying your child's hand with cooking spray first if possible.  The dough really stuck onto their hands.  We had to do Alexis' a few times.  Rather than pressing her hand into the dough she wanted to smoosh her hand into it and squeeze.

UPDATED:  I forgot to originally add....I also baked these for probably an hour and 15 minutes to make sure they were hard enough.  The recipe states 45 minutes.  At 45 minutes they were still relatively soft

Terry came home during the middle of our process.  I had a tiny bit of dough left so we decided to make a family ornament with all of our thumb prints.  It didn't turn out great but I didn't want to waste the dough.

 Terry laughed at my chart that I drew to remember who's hand print is who's. 

The almost finished product.  After the girls went to bed I started painting them.  I knew better than to let the girls attempt to paint them by themselves.  Painting in our house always turns into a ginormous mess.  I didn't have any white paint on hand to paint the middles.  I'm hoping to get that done tonight. 

We are having a great holiday season at our house.  I love all the traditions we are starting and the memories we are creating.  I'm not sure the girls fully grasp the concept of Christmas yet, but it has been so fun to watch them as the begin to understand the meaning of the season.