Every Christmas Eve our family gathers together to eat and celebrate and especially laugh because one of our family traditions is a white elephant gift exchange. If you've never done one, you are missing out! We have so much fun unwrapping silly gifts and watching the drama as one present becomes the most prized. I made a fun list of some of my favorite white elephant gift ideas this year for you that I hope you enjoy. Bring on the present stealing!

Ok, so I did realize that food related gifts always seem to be my favorite. Interesting.. but in any case, I think anyone you know would love to be wrapped in a giant tortilla that is soft and cuddly and won't go stale.

Another food (Mexican food... hmmm I do see a pattern) is this delightful taco fanny pack that even has a spot for your beverage. It's Handy and makes a statement.

This light up basketball is a super fun gift I think any basketball enthusiast would enjoy. Now you can hit that jump shot even in the dark!

This little treasure was actually I was super glad to have at the beach this summer so that I could snap some pictures of the kids in the water without getting my phone wet.

I love to paint, and this paint-by-number makes it possible to have a fun evening of painting without having to know much about the skills! Super fun and it turns out every time!

DILL PICKLE CHAPSTICK. I don't think I need to say anything else.

You know how cute baby pigs are, right? Well, won't someone you love just be so happy to enjoy a whole calendar of pictures of baby piglets? I thinks so.

When the next stay at home order comes, you'll be ready with this really difficult ROUND rainbow puzzle. It could take years, I don't know.

For the person who loves sushi but also really loves socks.. this has you covered. Who knew! Sushi sock rolls. Yum?

It's that time of year again where I come up with approximately one thousand magical Christmas ideas that I want to accomplish before the twenty-fifth day of December. Well, this year I thought if would be fun to put a little twist on our tradition of making gingerbread houses, and instead, make one large enough that the kids could play in it. And guess what guys? It wasn't that crazy difficult and actually turned out to be a lot of fun. The kids have also been playing in it everyday since we made it!

I bought a simple cardboard playhouse (you can buy here) that had a brown interior, so all I had to do was put it together inside out basically.

I cut two triangles to make an awning and hot glued them onto the box and made a simple window out of paper.

Then I used some white paper tape (you can buy here) to add some details to the edges. I criss-crossed the roof to make it look like frosting and I stuck two pieces together along the awning to make the snow. Then, I made it look a little extra fancy by cutting a wave pattern into it.

Finally, we added our candy pom poms and candy canes (you can buy here) with our trusty glue gun. I also used our chalk marker (you can buy here) to draw a few extra embellishments around the windows.

Ta da!! A magical gingerbread house everyone can enjoy for the holidays! Tag us if you make one, we would love to see it!

My daughter told me Thanksgiving is her favorite holiday. What?? Even with Christmas and all of its treats and treasure? I was shocked and delighted to hear how much she loved a holiday that is all about giving thanks. Being an artsy Mom, I LOVE making holidays special for the kids. I can't just stop at a simple perler bead craft. No, I spend my free time dreaming up educational and artistic projects for us to undertake, sometimes to my peril, as my monthly craft store bill often exceeds the amount of craft projects that three tiny humans can complete in an entire year. On top of that, my husband and I homeschool, which only fuels my fire to dream up new, innovative projects for our family. This year I’ve really decided to run with it, creating and embracing all the fun things we can do inside to stoke the fun and excitement for Thanksgiving. I'm going to try to point us all back to thankfulness during a year that has been trying to say the least. Hey, maybe this will become my favorite holiday too. Nothing would surprise me in 2020!

This Thanksgiving I created a few fun printables for us to do that you can use as a break from school, as an add-on for the little ones' schooling, or just as a fun activity to do together! I hope you enjoy them and have a Happy Thanksgiving! I'm very thankful for you.

First, we made Turkeys because that is a must! You can download the printable to cut out your turkey head and glue it onto a cardboard paper roll. Then, use your imagination on how to create a fun turkey plume. We painted coffee filters here but you could use anything, including real feathers.

Next, I created a printable playdough mat, which you can download and use as base for counting kernels of popcorn. We used yellow playdough to make the cobs and then the kids had fun pressing popcorn kernels into them. We also talked about how the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow corn. There is a lot of fun information on that if you want to add in more learning.

Finally we had fun digging up a recipe that my mom makes every holiday, and we made it with the kids. We wrote it down on our printable so that we can keep it and pull it out whenever the mood should strike for Grandma Joanie's Yorkshire Pudding. Cooking with the kids is always more work, but so worth the joy they have seeing something come out of the oven that they helped to make.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!

I was so excited to use one of our new products for my daughter's birthday party! She loves all things rainbow (she can spot them anywhere), so the Rainbow Party in a Box was obviously perfect for the occasion. I loved how quickly we were ready to host, just by unpacking the box!

First we hung up the cute birthday sign to make things festive. I happened to have some rainbow pompom garlands already, so I strung them all up together!

She loved that the cups, plates, and napkins all matched - and the two sizes of plates were great for our brunch, and then cake!

Her favorite piece was probably the cake topper! It brought a big punch of color to her requested chocolate-chocolate cake. :)

Of course, once the party was underway I forgot to take pictures. :) But it was a happy, colorful party for our little rainbow!

I noticed the other day that the toys that get the most play in our house are - hands down - building toys. They're the best source of open-ended entertainment! Plus everyone likes to build...from the baby (who, I guess, is more into demolition) to grandparents. Our current favorites are wooden castle blocks and MagnaTiles, but I have my eye on some of these new sets! There's something endlessly fascinating about creating miniature worlds...

I love that this city includes landscape pieces.

The configurations are endless with this erasable chalk paint DIY!

This one reminds me of "It's a Small World"...in a good way ;)

I want these stamps so badly. Look at all of the brownstone detailing!

Doesn't get simpler than a washi tape city grid! I love this idea for rainy days.