CHRISTMAS VACATION 2015

Christmas 2015

Christmas time around the Place Under The Pine?
Busy is one way to describe it. The citizens are busy trimming trees, wrapping present, making cards, baking cookies...when the 25th hits the busy-ness only increases. The Place bursts at the seams with friends and relatives all sharing in the events of Christmas.
Early Xmas morning, before the sun even rose, over a dozen people were busy distributing presents and drinking hot, strong, coffee. The kids were overwhelmed with all of the stuff given to them by their generous relatives. The Place was full of laughter, smiles, and full stomachs.

Over the next week the citizens spent day upon day hunkering down at home; soaking in hour upon hour of quality family time (and playing with all the new toys). It was a much needed break from school, work, and regular life. A great time to recharge for the upcoming winter.

Here is a little video showing some of the things we did over the holidays. Enjoy.

 



Oscar lives up to his Sesame Street personality...

..Grouch :)  (He frowned on purpose at the very last second)

DECKING OUR HALLS

UP GOES THE XMAS TREE

The Place Under the Pine was bustling with activity this weekend - Christmas inspired activity.
It was the second biggest (or maybe third biggest, depending on who you ask) event of the Holiday Season - Putting up the Christmas Tree!!!

For many reasons, from cost to bendability, the PUTP uses an artificial tree. The 'construction' of the tree is an activity everyone participates in.

Lifelike branches are sorted.

Once the tree is assembled and strung with lights the glass balls come out. A nice base layer of green, pink, clear...almost every colour...fragile (very fragile) glass balls are placed strategically on the tree.

Lolli is almost as tall as the tree!

Sometimes the inevitable happens...little hands drop balls.

Action shot!

 

Whoopsie!

Xmas-tree-decorating-with-three-year-olds-tip#53 : Place something soft under the tree. A cushion made of a thick felt tree skirt will ensure glass balls do not break when they fall from a height of around three feet. Help your child learn that glass balls can be their Christmas tree decorating friend.

Bodies of older siblings will also work.

Me? Again? I did it last year!

 After the appropriate number of balls were put in the tree, a photo op was taken.

Photo contains: Sad puppy, middle child, and ?

 Next, giant plastic bins filled with ornaments were cracked open. With an overabundance of décor Jen took control and prevented mass chaos. With her in charge, distributing ONE ornament at a time, the decorating process ran smoothly.
With the classic Christmas songs playing in the background, the tree was filled with memories. It seems each ornament has a story - some dating back to Christmas '79. Every bough was weighted down with some trinket. Lolli focused on getting the top branches, Elliott the middle, and Oskie...well, he focused on one branch and one branch only.

 



 

 

 

 

With the Christmas tree comes the annual advent calendar. This beauty has 24 little pockets each holding a hand crafted felt ornament to be hung above. Every day brings a surprise (what ornament are we getting today? Is it the pink fish!?) and every decoration brings us one day closer to the big event!

CRAFT SALE

CRAFT SALE KEEPS CITIZENS BUSY

What has kept the citizens of the PUTP oh so busy lately? A mixture of crafting and helping to set up and run a craft sale for the kids' school. The energy around the PUTP has been full of creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and charity as every person (young and old) has gotten involved in this event at some level.
Many hours and countless litres of creative juice were used by local crafters who made a variety of things; felt ornaments, rainbow loom bracelets, playdough kits in jars, and stockings.

Felt owls - natural habitat is a Christmas tree.

Grammy and Elli take their shift at the sale

The day of the actual event was hectic, but, as anyone who has taken on events like this (even for a great cause) know how time consuming and energy depleting they can be. They will also know the great feeling of satisfaction and pride when the events are successful. And, this event was such a success that it will have to be repeated next year! Click here to see more.

In addition to the crafts and baked goods there was a henna artist

Oskie was one lucky recipient of a henna dolphin

ARE YOUR KIDS DOUBLE AGENT SPIES TOO?!

MYSTERY PACKAGE FOUND UNDER CHRISTMAS TREE

Pine Tree Press | Secret Page

There have been suspicious activities going on around the PUTP over the past few months. There have been secret meetings, code words, complex knocking patterns on doors, papers intricately folded up and put into pockets, and also the building of a secret-spy-for (just out of eyesight when the Parents looks out the front door).

Things became stranger just before Christmas when a mystery package, labelled TOP SECRET, with no return address was found under the Christmas tree!

The TOP SECRET mystery package

With strong reservations the package was allowed to be opened. The contents were shocking...

"Authorized eyes only"

Suspicious paraphernalia

"Micro Spy Kit Delta" & Walkie-talkies!

The package contained:

• Magnifying glasses
• Mini spy sized notepads
• Fingerprint kit
• Invisible ink
• Date stamp
• Top Secret labels
• Micro Spy Kit Delta - night vision telescope, hear-through-wall device, motion detecting alarm
• Walkie-talkies

It appears there can only be one reasonable explanation - the children of the PUTPs are undercover double agent spies!? That would provide an explanation to the strange behaviour and the mysterious package.

This just goes to show that you may not really know anyone - including your kids! If it can happen here it can happen anywhere. 

Be vigilant people or your kids could be a dark cape wearing spy...

In the PUTP spies wear garbage bags and hockey gloves

Kingston | 4:35