The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Narnia movie night

Time for a family movie night!  We just had to get around to watching the Narnia movies sometime during our Narnian Christmas theme.  Yes, it did start out as a November Narnia theme during the C.S. Lewis memorial week, but now it has transformed into a Narnian Christmas!  The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is the second book in the series, but the first movie (Disney version) that has come out in recent years, so we started with that one.  I wanted the kids to enter into the land of Narnia to watch the movie.  I’ve been thinking about this theme for awhile, and about ideas to do, so have been gathering a few props.  But in the end, I had to throw this movie night together quickly because there happened to be a free, non-school-night that would work.

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What images pop into your mind when you think of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe?  I guess those three things would be the first obvious ones, the Lion Aslan, the wardrobe full of fur coats which leads into Narnia, and the White Witch who has made it always winter and never Christmas in Narnia.  And if you thought of something to eat…would it be the Turkish delight that tempts Edmund into betraying his siblings to the witch?  How about that famous symbol, the lighted lamp post, where Lucy first meets the Faun, Mr. Tumnus, in the middle of a wintry wood.

It wasn’t too hard to find some of these things and to quickly decorate my room for movie night.  I love the idea of the warm fur coats that the kids push through to get into the back of the wardrobe, and later borrow to wear in the wintry Narnia.  Of course I dreamed of making wardrobe doors that would open up and lead into Narnia (I was just going to make them out of large cardboard boxes) but (also of course) I didn’t have time to make all of my ideas.  So I passed on the wardrobe and just focused on pushing through the fur coats to get into the land beyond.  No fur coats around here, so I used my faux-fur throw (the dark brown color was perfect).  Here’s the simple how-to:Get a fur blanket and a tension rod, install the rod in the door frame and drape the blanket over it, that’s all!This is what the inside of the door looked like.  The blanket was too heavy to cover the whole door, which would have been cool, but I didn’t have safety pins to pin it, and clothespins didn’t work, so just draped it hanging as long as I could.  It gave the right effect, when each kid pushed past the fur “robe” and slipped into Narnia….To create an instant and easy forest did require one purchase.  I found this canvas picture of an evergreen tree at IKEA.  When I first saw them advertised, I thought that they were kind of strange, especially when I saw that ornaments were pinned on, as if it was a Christmas tree, but now I totally changed my mind and love my canvas tree picture!  I scored this one in the As-is section for half-off, but here in Canada the regular price is about $14.50.  It looked really big in my room, and only took 5 minutes to tack up on the wall, right along the edge of the ceiling, though it does have a sleeve at the top to run a rope or curtain rod through…It really gives the feel of being in a winter forest, though there isn’t actually snow in the picture.  And in the process of setting up movie night, I found out that the tree glows in the dark!!  How fun is that?  Especially where the lamp post shines on it…Which brings us to the all-important lamp post (lamppost? lamp-post? I don’t know how to spell it…) which I wasn’t going to do without.  Another IKEA hack!!  I have a small Ikea lamp that cost about $7, it uses smaller round bulbs, so I just pulled off the shade and made a lantern-like top out of black cardstock (heavier than paper, lighter than card).  Since I was rushed, I didn’t spend much time on it, and the post at the top is proportionally way too big, but “la idea es esa” you get the idea.  I won’t leave the lamp post turned on for long, for fear it will burst into flame.  It would probably be great with a night-light bulb in it, but oh well.  The top is just a square of cardstock, creased cross-ways and basically just setting on, with 2 dots of glue.  There are 4 kinda rectangle shapes glued to a paper circle at the bottom, just to give the illusion that it’s wider and solid at the bottom.  And that was it, but kinda cute!It’s not at all sturdy, but fine for just a display.  I’m sure there would be ways for making it last longer…oops, I forgot to take a before shot of the lamp….I draped a white sheet over the little bookcase (for snow) and set out a few things…. (hey, right when I typed that sentence out about snow, I remembered that I was going to throw white tissue paper on the floor, so that when you stepped “through the wardrobe” you would “crunch” on the snow!!!  What a bummer I forgot!!  That would have been super easy but really cool).

The craft store (Michaels) had a great plastic lion (used a 40% off coupon!) for Aslan, I really like the expression on his face.  We had Susan and her horn from a McDonald’s meal from a long time ago….And of course, a box of Turkish delight!  Didn’t have time to try making our own Turkish delight from this recipe from SprinkleBakes that I want to try, and I think (the adults) we were kinda tired of the real stuff anyways, so Henry picked up some of my favorite chocolates….yummy! That went over well!  So the rest of the “decorations” were easy, just lots of comfy pillows, and a small white tree with white lights…I had wanted to make chocolate beaver lodges for dessert, but just let it go for another time… We all piled together and got comfy, ate pizza and our Turkish delight for dessert, and enjoyed the Narnia movie!  Happy to report that a fun time was had by all.  It helps to have heaps of snow outside in the freezing weather and early darkness to make you feel reallllly cozy!  Hope this helps with some ideas for a family movie night for your family!

A home-made Christmas

“Christmas time is here….” that’s the theme from A Charlie Brown Christmas, I can hear it playing inside my head.  There’s something cozy and comforting about watching Charlie Brown and Snoopy’s Christmas cartoon (that’s older than I am! haha!) while snow falls outside.  The kids love watching it to.  Is it because it makes us think back to simpler times?  Remember the sad little tree that Charlie Brown finds, and the kids give it a bit of love and spruce it up?

I really don’t know why I’m mentioning that cartoon, it just popped into my mind, and seemed to fit (in my mind anyway) with the home-made Christmas idea.  This year I was trying to make a bunch of home-made stuff for Christmas, instead of buying new things.  I keep finding amazing ideas online that I wanted to try, but have run right out of time!!  So I thought I’d post some photos of the things that I did get done because I know it will make me feel better to see the loveliness on my blog, instead of surrounded by the boxes and mess and clutter that are here in my house!!  (No I am not going to post a photo of the mess that surrounds the decorating…that would ruin all the loveliness, even though it would show my real life!)

Our Christmas tree is a “throw and go!” tree, as my son called it: throw the ornaments on and then go away!  I let the kids do most of the decorating with only one box of ornaments….I don’t know why.  I guess I was too exhausted to pull anything else out, and they were happy to do a “candy cane tree”.  (Ok, I did buy something new, those wood & fabric words for a buck each!).  This is the first time we’ve ever had a color-coordinated tree.  So that was nice for a change! ;) Here are some ideas I found online to print out… Advent things, Cookie things (for teacher gifts and just for us to eat on a cold winter’s evening), trying out some new recipes…. Ornament things,   Gift things…..I just had to snap some photos of the presents my daughter wrapped, they are so cute!!  She wrote out all the tags with our names on in English and in Japanese characters! And a few anniversary things, Our six year old photographer took this 19th anniversary portrait of us, we had just kissed at 19 hours and 19 minutes on the 19th of December for our 19th anniversary!  Now that’s home-made stuff!!

So that’s a few glimpses of our kinda home-made Christmas decorating and traditions and stuff….really, our life is not as together-looking as it seems in this blog…..I just have to mention that so that I don’t feel like I’m lying too much with all the perfect-looking photos.  I have perfection ideals in my head, but just can’t make them work out….so I take photos of the stuff that turns out…and once-in-a-while of the things that don’t turn out!  🙂

Merry Christmas to you!!!

The smell of Christmas Memories

What smells bring Christmas to your mind??  Gingerbread?  Hot apple cider?  Candy canes?  Turkey roasting?  Mandarin oranges?

My favorite is an obvious one:  the smell of real evergreen Christmas trees!!  This year we have a real tree and I’m just loving the scent of it!!  I can put up with all the shedding for that wonderful spicy smell that transports me back to Christmases past!

Other smells that remind me of Christmas in my childhood are ones found in Guatemala:  the smell of aserrín=sawdust! (dyed many different colors and used for making nativity scenes), the smell of manzanilla (little yellow fruit that is strung into garlands for decoration), the smell of crushed pino (clusters of long-needled pine that are scattered on the floor at parties), the smell of ponche simmering on the stove (a cooked fruit punch full of fabulous fruitiness), the smell of tamales in their green leaves (this now reminds me of Christmas, but I wouldn’t touch them when I was a kid!) and one of my favorites: the smell of gunpowder from cohetes!!-fuegos artificiales-!  (we always lit off fireworks at Christmas and New Years! And even today the smell of gunpowder immediately makes me think of Christmas and celebrations and fun!!)

I was thinking about the smells of Christmas and wondering what scents will remind my kids of the Christmases we have spent together…..baking shortbread? gingerbread cookies? pine tree?

And so I decided that we should make a few “smelly” crafts this year, just to make sure that when my kids are all grown up, they will be transported back to family Christmases every time they smell…….cloved oranges!!  And cinnamon apple decorations!!

I remember working on cloving oranges when I was a kid and my mom would supervise us as we stabbed the hard oranges with cloves…or large needles before we could get the clove in!  This year I found a helpful idea on pinterest, so just had to try it with my kids.  The secret: make grooves in your oranges first!!  The photo I saw said something about paring the oranges, and I tried it with the end of my peeler, but that didn’t work, so I just used a knife to cut a “v” groove down the side of the orange…then let the kids at them with the cloves!!  Ahhh what a lovely smell!!

Another oderiferous craft that I thought we should try was cinnamon and applesauce oranments.  Yes, that’s all they are, cinnamon (lots of it) and applesauce.  I used the recipe found here.  It turned out to be a very crazy craft!!!  I guess we must have done something a bit wrong, because the “dough” was too soft…needless to say, there were a whole bunch of “potty jokes” flying around the table as we worked with that soft brown dough…..(shudder shudder!)We put a tablespoon too much of applesauce, then kept adding cinnamon to try and make it firm up….the dough was so damp that it was super hard for the kids to make shapes out of it or cut it with cookie cutters.. It was so funny to work on these!!!  But it was a little strong and my son’s hands started to turn a bit red and itchy! 🙂In the end, I scooped up all the mushy ornaments and pressed it bit by bit into a small heart shaped cookie cutter and then used a drinking straw to make a hole in each heart…..no one seemed to mind that I did that…..and when the ornaments were slowly baking it made the house smell fabulous!!  Everyone enjoyed that part!!P.S.  the recipe says that the ornaments are not for eating, but my oldest daughter thought they tasted great and kept nibbling at the dough and consumed several baked ornaments!!  Craziness!  There’s like a half a cup of cinnamon in there!

So it was a messy crazy craft, but I think I would do it again, for the laughs and the great aromas that it brought!!  And they look so cute on our little white tree and still smell so nice…. Fun Christmas crafts, and did you notice that we didn’t have to buy anything “special” to make them (I happened to have a new large container of cinnamon on hand!!)??  It gives a nice homey, handmade feel to our decorations…..and the smells!!  For sure those smells have become part of our Christmas memories! 😉