Together we read, The After-Christmas Tree by Linda Wagner Tyler.
It's a cute story about a family that is sad that Christmas is over. They talk about how much fun they had during the season while they put away their decorations, and then think of a way to make the season of giving last just a little bit longer. They invite friends over for an "After Christmas Party" where they go ice skating and collect pine cones. Then they make bird feeders from the pine cones, and string popcorn and cranberries. Then they haul their dead Christmas tree outside and "redecorate" it with the bird feeders and popcorn garlands, and sprinkle nuts around the base of the tree. They go back inside for hot cocoa, and watch through the window as the "party" continues outside when the birds and squirrels come to enjoy the tree's second season of giving.We decided to have an After Christmas party of our own today! We tried to go ice skating (horray for me, I am no longer on "pelvic rest"...at least for the time being so long as I "take it easy") but unfortunately, there was an ice hockey tournament going on at the rink! We were bummed, but we're going to reserve tickets and go a different weekend.
Instead, we decided to make an After-Christmas Tree out of the Dogwood outside our kitchen window.
Aaron and Q popped popcorn (and ate a little too) while Reese and I gathered pinecones from the backyard.
I'm sure every person in America has made these before, but just in case you haven't, all you do is roll the pinecone in peanut butter
(Quin did NOT like the feel of sticky peanut butter on her fingers, and REALLY did not like the taste of the pinecone she tried to eat.)
They did enjoy the part where you drop the sticky pinecone into a plastic cup that is 1/2 filled with bird seed and "shakey-shakey" the cup.They were sure to get bird seed ALL OVER the kitchen floor, to make sure their mother had plenty of opportunities to "just have fun and let the mess go" like she's trying really hard to do this year. (actually, Aaron made Reese Swivel Sweep (clickety) the floor when we were done, win-win.)
Aren't they cute? We only had tiny pine cones in the yard, so we made about 15 of these little "bird ornaments". Reese was pretty sad when we took down our tree, but LOVED the idea of giving an After-Christmas to the animals in our yard.I even had a "pointless" plastic needle threaded for Q to "make" a popcorn strand with, but she was more interested in eating it.
Reese had a hard time time, at first, using a real needle and thread. She kept poking herself, and her thread kept getting tangled, but eventually got the hang of it and after that she was a popcorn-stringing machine and even came up with the idea to add a blueberry every 10 inches or so.
Camera-shy Aaron tied fishing line to the pine cones and when everyone is up from naps we are going to go decorate our very first After-Christmas Tree and come inside for hot cocoa while we enjoy the bird party in the yard. Our neighbors are quite the bird watchers and already have attracted families of cardinals, finches, woodpeckers, bluebirds, and orioles to our properties with their zillions of bird feeders, so hopefully, a few feathered friends will make their way over to our tree so we can watch them enjoy their "party".
We had a lot of fun doing this and are going to make it a January tradition. Do something to have an After-Christmas Party of your own this week, and 'enjoy a second season of giving'.
