HollysHome Family Life: December 2017

My son just got engaged this Christmas. He and his fiance love to go to Disneyland so I decided to put together a survival kit with some of the fun things that I happen to be hoarding. Here is what I came up with.

Here is a list of some of the fun things in the kit:

Happiness scent soap
Charming scent candle
Mickey hand shaped soap
Magic in the Air body cream
Haunted Mansion key chain
Matching Mickey Ears
Princess charm for the cell phone
Minnie as Princess Leia action figure
Socks for both of them
Various treats to eat
Gum
Notepad with Minnie pen

I put it all into a fun insulated picnic bag that I bought at the Disney store a few months ago. I added some Disney tissue paper that I got with an old order. (I told you, I'm a hoarder!) Here's a picture of it all packed inside:

It came with a matching Mickey blanket.

I wrapped them both up in brown paper. Then I tied them together with a fun black and white string and added the gift tag. Here's another look:

Here's the happy couple with their awesome Disney survival kit.

Don't they look happy?

Here is the printout for the gift tags. Just click on the picture to make it large. Then right click and save it into your pictures or copy and paste it into you printing program.

I was having so much fun making Mickey heads that I came up with a few other versions. Here they are:

Mickey:

Minnie:

Disneyland:

If you love Disney stuff as much as we do, here is a fun Minute to Win it game that you can play:

This year for our Christmas party we did a Scandinavian Christmas. Every year we like to put together some games for the family. This year we thought that the Frozen theme fit well with our Scandinavian them. Here's what we came up with:

You can read the Frozen story as you play, or you can retell the story in your own words.

Here's a Frozen Fun Scoreboard for you to keep score. To print it out just right click your mouse and save it into your pictures. Size it to fit a full size piece of paper and print it in your favorite printing program.

Here's an explanation of the games we played:

We had a full cup of ice at one end of the relay and an empty cup at the other end. Each person had a spoon except for the end cup holders. You can use as many people in the relay as you would like, but it's best if you have at least 4. Each team uses the spoon to pick up an ice cube, then passes it along to the next person. The team with the most ice cubes at the end wins.

Each team was given a roll of toilet paper, two sticks, a set of eyes, a carrot and three large buttons and tape. The best snowman in a minute wins. Here's a printout for the eyes and buttons.

We gave each team a set of gloves. We placed a pillow in front of each of them. On the pillow we had a gold Christmas ball and a gold stick. Each team had to put on the gloves. Take the gloves off. Pick up the items. Put the items down and then put on the gloves again. The first team done wins.

Have one person from each team lie on the floor. The other person drops marshmallows into their mouth. The team who ends up with the most marshmallows in the mouth wins.

Each team gets a package of white plastic cups. The team that stacks them up into the best ice castle wins. We used styrofoam and it was really hard because the static nature of the styrofoam was to repel each other. This made it really hard, but fun, to stack up.

Each team gets a box sleigh with a rope to pull it. The other team gets a stack of wolves to throw into the other team's sleigh. The team with the least amount of wolves in the sleigh wins.

Here is a printout for the sleigh and the wolves.

Print the wolves out on cardstock.

Print out two copies of the ice monster on cardstock. Cut out the ice monster. Attach the three stands along the bottom. Set them both up on table. Have a player from each team stand several feet away and throw marshmallows at their ice monster. The team that knocks their ice monster over first wins.

Tape a picture of the rock trolls to the ground. Roll the small rocks from a couple feet away towards the center of the picture. I placed a homemade rock troll in the center for fun. The team with the most rocks in the center wins.

Here's a picture of the rock trolls. Print out two.

Give each team a stack of several unfolded blankets. Have a team member fold the blankets and hand them out to their team. The team that folds the most blankets wins.

Have a team member from each team make a Swedish paper heart that is half red and half white. The one who is done first wins. You can also have every team member make one and the team that is done first wins.

Here is the pattern for the heart. Print one out in red paper and the other out in white paper. Fold it with the writing on the outside, and cut it out. Then fold it so that the writing is on the inside.

Instructions for making the Swedish Paper Heart.

Have one printout in red, the other in white. With both patterns folded with the writing on the inside, take strand A and weave it around 1, through 2 and around 3. Take stand B and weave it through 1, around 2 and through 3. Take strand C and weave it around 1 through 2 and around 3. Your paper heart should be done.

Another alternative is to freeze hearts in ice cubes. The team that can thaw their heart the fastest wins.

Using marshmallows and straws have a member from each team suck up the marshmallows and put them into a bowl. The team that cleans up the most snow (marshmallows) wins.

We made trophies from bags of Lindor Truffles. I printed out the medallions and glued one on to each bag to give to the winning team. Here is a printout for the medallions. I printed it out on gold cardstock.