Giving with your children this Christmas, homemade Christmas ornaments, Advent calendar ideas, a FREE eBook just for moms, cheesecake turtles, carmel-apple-cider, 20+ Preschool Christmas Crafts, 12 Christmas Books with matching crafts, Baby Jesus Song and so much more are all featured this week at Family Fun Friday.

Our vision for Family Fun Friday is to help busy moms find the best blogger resources on the web. The party highlights ways to save time and money in the areas of teaching young children and cooking in the kitchen. We also love to feature ways to have fun together as a family. Well the party has grown, and so have the categories – we’re going to add a DIY/craft element to family fun friday to celebrate all the talented DIY bloggers out there.

We had an amazing week at our last link-up with over 200 link-ups. Woo-hoo! To celebrate we are giving away a copy of “How to Plan a Party Without Losing Your Mind“. It’s written by Mary Carver. Our winner is Holly over at Kids Activities Blog. Holly has some great ideas for Thanksgiving fun. You may want to check out her post and pin it for next year. Thanks for linking up!

If you all link up 200+ posts again I have more prizes to give away. You all share so many wonderful posts – thanks for linking up!

If you enjoy the features on Family Fun Friday please leave me a comment, I would love to hear from you! If you see things that you like here – please PIN them on Pinterest! If you PIN these lists it will help this blogging party grow. To PIN a specific blogger’s post please click through and pin directly from their site. Thanks so much!

If you’re a mom keep reading because we have some wonderful fun ideas to inspire you with your little ones and family. My blogging friends are linking up craft ideas, fun in the kitchen, preschool & homeschool ideas, and ways to spend time as a family. My blog is growing but I need your help, please like my facebook page or PIN a button and help spread the word about HappyandBlessedHome.com. Thanks so much.

I’ve created the FREE printables for our letter “F” Learn to Read series – 56 pages and 30+ activities but I haven’t had a chance to post about it yet. My plan is to post it over the weekend. Between hosting last week’s Thanksgiving dinner and three Christmas parties this week (one I’m hosting this week at my house) it’s been a bit crazy here.

But, in case you missed it (see above), this week I created 24 beautiful Advent ornaments to make it super easy to incorporate Advent into your Christmas activities this year. You simply print the three pages of ornaments and print the coordinating scripture on the back of each ornament. There is a PDF with a collection of all 24 scripture verses from Bible Gateway.com in NIV. The verses coordinate with the images on the ornaments. Best of all, they are FREE. Consider it my Christmas gift to you. Merry Christmas!

This year I’ve also created a super fun Christmas Fun for Preschoolers Activity Pack. I’m selling it as a way to raise funds to support my blogging. It’s only $1.99 and includes 36 Fun Activities for Preschoolers. You can dress a snowman, decorate a Christmas tree, count reindeer and so much more. Click the link to read more.

And, if you haven’t been introduced yet, please meet my friend Chelsey Hall and new co-host from Life Unabridged. Chelsey blogs about her real adventures in motherhood, marriage, homemaking, and homeschooling.

Chelsey has graciously agreed to co-host Family Fun Friday with me and since she has many years of experience in homeschooling, Chelsey selected and wrote about our features for learning and DIY/Crafting here at Family Fun Friday. If you have a minute, please show Chelsey some love by liking her facebook page. It’s not required or anything but its a nice way to thank her for putting together some of our features.

Thanks to all my blogging friends for linking up last week at Family Fun Friday. I have a special YouTube Video for you at Thank You All My Blogging Friends! So many great ideas, crafts and things to do! If you link up, you permit me to use your pictures/ideas as part of future posts and/or social media. Now on to some fabulous posts for moms.

Featured Bloggers:

Family Fun

One of the things I love about blogging is that I get to meet so many wonderful bloggers who have really big hearts. Big hearts for their kids, for the community, for their family. It’s so inspiring and encouraging. I think you will love the features this week. If you like this list, please PIN it on Pinterest.

1. Sharon at Rediscovered Families shared a wonderful post just perfect for the holidays, Advent A to Z: Prayerful & Playful Preparations. Sharon has co-authored this book which is an Advent devotional book for families. Check out her post for more information.

2. Georgina from Craftulate made some shiny and fun Christmas tree ornaments with her kids in her post Fill and Shake Christmas Tree Ornaments. What a wonderful way to spend time together as a family.

3. Army Wife to Suburban Life created an adorable advent calendar for her family and in her post Advent Calendars and What to Put In Them she shares some great ideas for things to put into an advent calendar. I love that this is a very visible and tangible craft.

4. Kelly from Dixie Dollar Deals wrote a guest post over at Heidi’s blog One Creative Mommy on 12 Days of Christmas Books and Activities. She has paired some warm children’s books with some adorable crafts. If you are looking for some Christmas fun for your kids, make sure to read Kelly’s post.

5. Looking for Encouragement as a mom? Check out the FREE eBook over at Christina’s blog, Amanda’s Books and More. Nurturing Joy, by Moms for Moms includes interviews of 14 different moms who write from their experience about how they walk out the joy of motherhood.

6. Missy at Dot To Dot Connections shared some wonderful ideas with her post 5 Ways to Give with your Children this Christmas. All of Missy’s ideas are doable even for a family with young children. If you’re looking for active, hands-on giving ideas this Christmas, make sure to check out Missy’ post.

Delicious Recipes

I am amazed every week by the talent of our recipe experts! If you’re looking for some refreshing new tastes and dishes to try you’ve come to the right place. Read on for some delicious recipes.

1. My family loves chicken but my same-old recipes can get boring which is why I love this Chicken Brest Rolls w/Onion Mustard Stuffing recipe from Lori over at Lori’s Culinary Creations.

2. Gina and her family from Klienworth & Co. were all sick. So, Gina cooked up this Idaho Potato Soup. It looks amazing. Gina – I hope you all are feeling better this week.

3. And check out this recipe for Dads Beef Short Ribs from Sarah over at Thank you Honey Blog. Sarah’s dad is practically a chef and he gives good advice when it comes to Short Ribs.

4. And just look at this Carmel Apple Cider by Danita from O Taste and See Blog. She writes that it tastes just like apple pie. I love the carmel and whipped cream

5. Do you whip bananas into banana bread? How about something new? Check out The Best Frosted Banana Bar Recipe from Elena over at Cropped Stories. Elena raves about the frosting too – a fantastic dessert post.

6. And Veronica, at Digiscrap Boutique created these Easy Turtle Cheesecake Bites. I was intrigued by the combination of chocolate and cheesecake and even more interested by the idea that there were easy to make. I read through her entire post and am encouraged to inform you that these are totally doable. If you need to take an amazing treat to a party – check out Veronica’s post.

This section was written by my beautiful co-host Chelsey Hall.

Learning

This week is all about bringing to light new and exciting ways of learning through discovery. From bubble lights to marble tubes, I am featuring some awesome posts where the fun of learning never ends.

1. It’s all about bears today over at Annie’s Adventures in Homeschooling. Annie has put together a fantastic Bear Unit Study where your child will discover all the amazing qualities of different types of bears. I can’t wait to do this with my own children!

2. Using popsicle sticks and cute cut-outs, Debbie from Bible Fun for Kids shows you how to make a Baby Jesus Song come to life. Cut and inspiring, your kids will have fun discovering and recreating the birth of Jesus over and over again.

3. Creative, cute, fun and inspiring all wrapped up in a big giant Bean-Chute Marble Run. Emma from P is for Preschooler gives step by step instructions for creating this hands-on masterpiece with materials found around the house.

4. S is for Scientist today as Ashley from Life with Moore Babies explores the scientific theory with a great “mad scientist” experiment that will leave your children wanting to make more discoveries on their own!

5. Over at Where Imagination Grows, it’s all about Bubbling Color Mixing on a Light Table. This is one of the coolest experiments I have seen ever. I have GOT to get me one of these light trays. Although, even if you don’t have one you can still pull of this great experiment!

6. Kim from Savor the Days, shares a great lesson on stewardship as she helps little ones discover Where Food Comes From. She hits all the senses, touch, feel, site and even taste using real sugar cane to talk about food processing.

DIY/Craft

We have a brand new DIY/Craft Category that we are introducing this week. Whether it is children’s crafts, crafts for around the home, or your favorite do-it-yourself project, we’d love to see you join in! This week I’m highlighting fantastic crafts and projects to bring Christmas into your home!

1. At Crystals Tiny Treasures, Crystal shares a sweet Wooden Fingerpainted Ornament that even her toddlers can do. With a little pain, supervision and a bit of imagineation, she turns an ordinary ornament into a keepsake.

2. When I was a little girl, I remember my mom having beautiful frames she would sit around the house for Christmas time. Cami, from TitCrafty shows you how to take a cheap dollar store frame and turn it into a lovely Ribbon and Masking Tape Photo Frame to show off those special holiday photos!

3. I am all about doing things on the cheap and saving money when it comes to decorating for the Holidays. Lindz from Interior Fun shows us just how to create a charming Christmas Tree Craft for under $2. You can’t beat that!

4. I love seeing projects that use repurposed materials. And I’ve seen some pretty creative and beautiful things come out of them. Linda from Crafts Ala Mode, transforms an old house shutter into a Red Shutter Christmas Door Decoration. It’s classy and creative all at the same time. I think it’s time to start looking around for some old scraps!

5. Catherine from Happily Ever Crafter has come up with a fantastic way to decorate the walls for the Holiday season AND get the kids involved. I am really impressed with how well these cute Popsicle Stick Snowflakes turned out. I’m pretty sure these are going to make it to the walls of my home sometime this season!

6. To finish things off, Le Baby Bakery has a great roundup of 20+ Pre-School Christmas Crafts. I’m looking forward to doing these with the children to hang on our Wall of art!

Thanks again for all your wonderful ideas! I hope these Family Friendly and Fun ideas inspire you. Button Code:

I pray you are blessed by this effort to share ideas on having Family Fun.

In His Grip,

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