I've made Christmas ornaments with my grandkids for several years. They give them as gifts at Christmas. In years past Lorna's mom, Judy, joined me. This year Lorna's dad, Kelly, and made ornaments with Jack. We made egg carton bells. If you want to do the same here's how:

1. Cut up cardboard egg cartons to make 'bells'
2. Paint the bells so that they aren't gray
3. Poke a hole in the top so that you can run a pipe cleaner through later
4. Mix glue with a little water
5. Give the child a brush and the glue
6. Let the child paint the bell with glue 
7. Let the child liberally sprinkle with glitter (If you are smart you will place a folded sheet of clean paper below the bell so that excess glitter can be poured back into the bottle. We were smart.)
8. Let the bells dry
9. Put a bell on the end of a pipe cleaner
10. Run the pipe cleaner up through the bell
11. Bend and cut off excess pipe cleaner
12. Wrap and place under the tree.

Jack is 4. We made 13 bells. He painted the glue, poured the glitter, attached most of the bells, and he was about tired of it when we were finishing the bells. Gave him a snack and he sucked it up and managed to decide who got which bell because they were not all the same. I have a lot of glitter so he went from color to color and each bell really was different. (Luckily I got the turquoise one!)

Working with Kelly was way fun! He is just as good with the kids as Judy is. What I mean by that is that they are both way more patient with little kids than I am. I was not all that patient with my own kids when they were little and I find that, while I love them dearly, I expect certain behaviors from my grandchildren and I don't let it slide (much) when they don't comply. But they have a smile on their faces when they see me so I figure I'm not that scary. And as they get bigger I love them more – which is good because kids get bigger, not smaller. I can't wait until they are teenagers!

I had the bells ready for glueing yesterday. Kelly was in charge of a lot today. Kelly had not worked with glitter before so both he and Jack learned new things. I pointed them in the right direction and cleaned up behind. It was perfect and I say that truthfully. We all had fun!

Kelly looks a lot like Santa Claus these days. I gave him some white glitter that I think he should sprinkle in his beard. Often. Not with glue, just a bit of sparkle. It'll fall off everywhere he goes. I think life needs more glitter, don't you?

In other news, Linda sent me a small (6"-7") optical fiber Christmas tree that runs out of a USB port. I've plugged it into my computer and it's above my screen as I'm typing now. It changes color!!!! I may leave this up year-round!

It turns to red and green and blue… Can't wait to see it in the dark. If you have a place to plug it in, you can even put this in your car. Linda got it at Target – in case you need to have one too. Or more than one.

What I got for Linda this year was a repeat from last year. I didn't get her anything that needed to be dusted, or stored, or eaten. I sent a card and good wishes. She was oh so happy!

We made deal long ago to not buy presents for each other unless they were the perfect thing. Truth be told, Linda nailed it for me this year. I like shiny things! I'm still looking for her present and we're both OK that I didn't find it this year. She really doesn't want any more stuff. But I'm keeping my eyes open…