Ornament Swap

This year we participated in the Crafty Crow Kids Ornament Swap. Madi made several ornaments that we got to send to different kids all over the state, then they sent one of their homemade ornaments to us. We sent some to Washington, Georgia, Florida, Washington, DC, Michigan, Arizona, and New York. It was so much fun sharing the holidays with others. This is a little of what we gave and what we received.

Every year we love to grow our own crystal snowflakes and turn them into ornaments, so we didn't have to think long before we knew what we were going to make for our new friends. This year it turned into quite the science experiment as we found we were growing different sizes of crystals. We had to try many different things like the amount of borax to use, the temperature of water, if the pipe cleaner was agitated, etc. Our conclusion was the type of pipe cleaner determines the size of the crystal. Puffier pipe cleaner grows smaller crystals. It took over our kitchen for several days. We had a great time. I think Jon and I may have had more fun than Madi.

Mixing our crystal potion.

Madi is excited for our project.

Now we had to let our "potion" sit for a couple of days while the crystals were growing.

Our finished product.

We thought it would be fun to send a bag for our friends to keep their ornaments in, just a little extra keepsake. Madi and I liked different material for the bags. We ended up compromising and made a few of each. Can you guess which one she chose out?

These are some of the ornaments we received. We LOVED them all. What a fun thing to do! Thank you so much to all of our new friends who shared with us.