Cousins and crafts

Nice to get back to our roots and nurture some cousin love; our youngest with their youngest.  Both count the days, hours, minutes until they get to see each other, and both get all giddy girl excited to be together each and every time.  I’m hanging on to the young laughter and silliness that still comes at these ages.

Our Saturday began at the Christmas craft table, putting together some Christmas magnets made from juice lids.  So easy. I did discover, though,  one should use a glue gun to adhere the magnet.  My night before trial run left a still-wet magnet on the lid.  Good thing I saved a few more than my original plan of “one each” juice lids, as the crafting cousin was in her element, going to town with mass producing magnets.  Our next craft was another oh so easy popsicle stick snowflake (yes I glued them ahead of time in my night before trial run). All that’s required for the kiddos is gluing on buttons. I forgot how much six year olds love glue!

After our crafting session, we headed into town for the holiday horse and trolley ride that runs from 11-3 on Saturdays and Sundays during December as part of the Dickens of a Christmas special events in town.  We made the line-up just at the perfect time, with hardly a wait to hop on the next trolley.  Good ol’ St. Nick (and he really was a good one!) bellowed at us with his deep down jolly laughter and ho-ho-hos from his bench as our trolley passed him.  The girls decided they’d go give him a hug before stopping to get some hot apple cider and cookies.

Once home again we had a tea luncheon with little triangle sandwiches, scones (and I couldn’t resist buying the clotted cream to harden my arteries a bit more), cheese and crackers, fruits and veggies, and mini quiches.  I think we must have just been enjoying ourselves too much at the time, but I didn’t take a tea shot (which I promised in my About page that you’d see lots of in my abode.) Next time.

I am realizing how deprived craft time has become in our household the older the other children get, and the more academic our agenda gets.  After the cousin departed that afternoon, our poor little upside-down cake couldn’t stop doing crafts, and went on into the night crafting creations.  More bins were brought from the basement, ribbons, buttons, bells littering the table, with the crafting genius fixed on her work, and loading on the glue.

And the cat slept on, through it all, mouse affixed to her head courtesy of the I’m gonna-love-on-you-like-this cousin.