Homemade Christmas

Hard times come to everybody.  It's even worse when they come at Christmas.  One of my favorite Christmas's happened as a result of hard times and I wouldn't trade the memory for anything.  Our house was destroyed by tornado in the later part of May.  My parents used every penny they had to rebuild and we were in our new place by fall.  However, there was not a lot left over for extras.  We had lost everything, including Christmas decorations.  The only decoration that made it, was an angel that had been passed down to my Mom, and  was in need of repair.

I woke up one morning in December and made my way down the hall.  Every light in the house was on.  The tree was up in the living room, bare, but up just the same.  When I went in the kitchen Mom had every bowl, pot, pan, recipe book, and ingredient out.  She announced with a smile that we were going to have a "Homemade Christmas" and that we were going to make all of our decorations.  She wasn't kidding.

One of my favorite ornaments that we made was "Shredded Wheat Wreaths."    They were made with shredded wheat, glue, and green food coloring.  They were messy,  gloppy, and so much fun to make.  We made dozens of them!   I have made them with numerous classes of kids, and they still love making them.


Nabisco Shredded Wheat Cereal- large biscuit style (or a generic brand) - use one  biscuit to Plastic bowl
Canning lid or plastic lid
Spoon/or rubber gloves
Glue (Liquid glue)
Paper clip
Green curling ribbon about 8 inches long
Scrap piece of red ribbon for a bow
Three red beads or something small, red and round for decorative “berries” (optional)
Directions:
Pour about 1/4  of a cup of glue into your bowl.  Add green food color and stir to create the shade you want for your wreath.  Using your hands, break apart half of the shredded wheat biscuit into the bowl.  Don’t crumble the biscuit too fine, because they  will  break   apart and you want it to look like branches.    Using your spoon, toss the cereal around with green glue until completely coated.  Kids like to do this with their hands! (Have them wear the plasticgloves.  Otherwise, they will have green hands!!)   If the mix appears too dry, add more green colored glue.  Turn the mixture over onto the canning  lid and using your hands, press into the shape of a wreath.  Press firm enough to hold together, but not too firm that you lose all the texture of the cereal.  Don’t worry about it sticking to the lid.  It will peel off when dry and have a nice flat back.  Using a brush or your finger, coat the wreath thoroughly with non-colored glue. Bend the paperclip so that it is in a U shape.  Push the clip in upside down so that it forms a hook.   Add  red beads and a bow for decoration.  Allow to air dry.  Tie the curling ribbon onto the wreath so you can hang your ornament on the tree! 

We then began measuring, rolling, mixing, cutting, baking, designing, and decorating.  We made every kind of cookie possible, M&M, chocolate chip. oatmeal raisin, oatmeal butterscotch, stained glass cookies (which looked very cool with the melted hard candy centers), stiff gingerbread, and my favorite, candy cane cookies.

We baked all day.  When the cookies were done, cooled, and decorated Mom brought out plastic sandwich bags and we wrapped the cookie ornaments in clear plastic  and tied the tops with colorful ribbon and hung them on the tree.  We made chains out of popcorn and cranberries and stuck cloves in oranges to make pomanders. 

The tree was amazing!  The house smelled of pine, cinnamon, nutmeg, and peppermint.  When Dad walked in the door, his smile lit up his face as he looked at all the decorations that were hanging around the house and on the tree.  Mom said that we had one more thing to add to the tree, and she brought out the angel.  She had been reglued, reglittered, a new face put on, and cotton clouds added on to the bottom of her dress.  She was beautiful.  When I got married the angel was handed down to me.  
Hard times come to us all, but memories are made by how you deal with them.  Make some memories today...bake some cookies, string some popcorn, talk about ornaments that you have made and make some new ones.

Sunday
Linguine with Lemon Shrimp***
Corn
Easy shortcut gingerbread cookies***

Monday
Beef Noodle Skillet Dinner
Green Beans
Crescent Rolls

Tuesday
White Bean and Ham Soup***
Garlic bread
Clementines

Wednesday
Chicken Fingers
Roasted potatos
Carrots
Applesauce

Thursday
Going out to dinner and going to the movies

Friday (Christmas Eve)
Roast beef
Twice baked garlic mashed potatos
Rolls
Cranberry salad
Overnight salad***
Baked Corn Casserole
Carmel Pecan Cheesecake