Cookies! My favorite thing about christmas is always the cookies. I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t made a single christmas cookie yet, but these chocolate espresso ones are on deck (or in the freezer, whatever) and I have a gingerbread project in the works. In past years I have made (and loved) these fig pinwheels, these amazing spoon cookies, english toffee, gunpowder balls (but everyone has a different name for them), chocolate gingerbread cookies, surprisingly good earl grey tea cookies, prune rugelach (could a cookie sound more geriatric? don’t let that stop you -they are good), these pain in the ass, but so so awesome chestnut cream cookies, and I guess I could just go on and on, but I’m getting hungry. What cookies are you making this year? Feel free to put it off to tomorrow and just sit down and color with your kids today. Download the cookie page here (and buy the whole book here, if you like).

We are buried under a foot of snow here this morning! So the day’s plan is to bundle the kids up and put them outside to play, thaw them out with hot chocolate and then get out the art box and color color color.  Whatever the weather is like where you are you can download today’s coloring page here.

As always, buy the coloring book here and show off your work here!

We are bracing ourselves for a big storm here in the midwest and I don’t even know if the lakes are frozen over yet. Wasn’t it 60 on Thanksgiving? My system is a little in shock, so I’ll be staying in and coloring today’s picture: download it here. But I’m sure we’ll be able to skate this weekend as the high temperature will be 1 degree fahrenheit, but I’m guessing we won’t even try to go outside.

As always, buy the coloring book here and show off your work here!

December can’t just be all black and white on the ol’ blog–it is christmas time after all. These beautiful colors came from my local thrift store and were absolutely free. I have always like the childcraft series and had my eye out for the “make and do” volume, but never could find it. The other day I was dropping some stuff at the thrift shop and spotted the whole series in the donation bin. I was tempted to swipe it, but the dude working there was right in front of me and besides stealing from charity is just bad mojo. So I asked him and he said the lady who gave it away was still there and I could ask her. She gave me a thumbs up and I threw all that awesomeness in my trunk.

It’s the 1964 edition and the illustrations are fantastic. The make and do volume is of course my favorite: the projects are super simple and make me feel like I could do them with my children, unlike when I look at Martha and feel like a second rate mom because I can’t deal with glitter.

There might even be some christmas presents in there for the kids to make, or if nothing else they have given me some quiet while the kids l0ok at all 15 of them on the couch, which is a huuuge christmas present for their mama.

Growing up we were a very lazy (and cheap) get your christmas tree on christmas eve kind of family. I won’t even go into the time we didn’t have a tree, but instead clothespinned pine branches onto our fig tree (I thought it was because of my whining, but I think it was the laziness, see above). Needless to say, I am now fully in the christmas tree the day after thanksgiving camp. So ours is up and decorated–by my 2 and 4 year old, but decorated nonetheless. Even if you don’t have a tree yet you can download, color and decorate this lovely one just the way you like.

Show off all your pretty trees here and buy a coloring book for under the tree here!