A Homemade Christmas

This year we are having a homemade Christmas. I did not want to spend money on decorations we could not keep so we decided to make our own. I did buy a small tree for 10 euro and a few red bulbs.The kids made salt dough and paper ornaments for the tree and the house.

Jesse made us a little nativity out of salt dough and the others helped her paint it. We also made us a gingerbread village. I had to go on a hunt and be creative to find some cookies that would work, they do not have graham crackers or gingerbread (they don't have molasses either).

It was fun to see what candy we could use for our little village. Unlike at home where you can walk down the "holiday" aisle and find scores of Christmas candies we had to search and do our best with what was available. The kids had a great time.

Thanks to Aunt Patti- we know how to cut out some pretty cool snowflakes! We turned our house into a winter wonderland with all of them. Jesse & Annie cut out some very large ones out of a paper tablecloth.

Per tradition, once the tree is up they all slept under it that night.

This is where you can buy yourself a Christmas tree.

We are really missing all the lights this year. This is as good as it gets. We have counted 5 houses in our town that have lights on them. The picture on the left is looking down the main street. It's hard to feel Christmasy when there are so few lights.