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Snowflakes for Sandy Hook...A Winter Break Project With A Heart

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready for an amazing 2013!

I took a self-imposed "chaos and sanity management" hiatus from blogging this holiday (more on that later), but am back and ready to roll for 2013. I have many goals and resolutions for 2013, which I'll talk more about in another post, one of which is to write, write, write and blog, blog, blog. So I hope to be visiting here with you often in the weeks and months to come! But before we get into all of that, I'd like to start the year off with a project that is close to my heart...Snowflakes for Sandy Hook.


I first read about this project last week on the Simple Kids blog, and promptly set to it! Here was the idea: The students and faculty of Sandy Hook Elementary will be relocated to another school building when they return from the holidays. No one wants them to walk into a school with empty, stark walls-- no decoration anywhere, so in preparation for their arrival, the Connecticut PTSA has organized Snowflakes for Sandy Hook. The plan is to gather paper snowflakes from donors and use them to turn this school into a magical, winter wonderland, and hopefully give the survivors of this tragedy a peaceful, new beginning.


Now, since I read this post and we made and sent our snowflakes, the folks at the Connecticut PTSA have said that support for this project has been overwhelming and they truly have a blizzard of paper snowflakes to work with. However, that doesn't mean that you can't have some family fun making paper snowflakes to make someplace else a beautiful, winter wonderland...maybe your own house, your kids' bedrooms, or a local retirement community or children's hospital or rehabilitation center or some other charitable organization...maybe even your local library or coffee house. Any place you can think of where people's days might be brightened and beautified by your amazing, one-of-a-kind snow flakes.


Regardless of where your snowflakes land, take some time over this winter break to bond as a family, be creative, and make your own blizzard on your kitchen table. I know my nieces, sister-in-law, mother, husband and I had fun making ours. And if you need a little instruction or some inspiration, just hop on Pinterest and search "paper snowflakes" and you'll find all kinds of great ideas. (We learned how to make those pretty, round snowflakes there...super easy!)

So go get a stack of paper, some scissors, and a mug of hot chocolate, gather the kids around the table, and settle in for a little relaxing snowflake making...it has the meditative effects of knitting or cross-stitch, without the need for special skills or much in the way of equipment. And the end result is just so gosh darn pretty.

Until next time, go get your creative on!

(And have a happy and healthy new year!)




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