December - Giles High School

Fun Christmas Activities by Stephanie HallTeenagers have tons of thoughts when they think about Christmas vacation. We think about hanging with our friends, sleeping in,staying up late, going to visit family, staying home with loved ones, and possibly doing a few odd jobs to get some extra cash forChristmas. For those who are looking for something to do, or are going to be doing one of those odd jobs, popularly known asbabysitting, here are some enjoyable activities you can do yourself or with the kids onChristmas vacation.One fun thing you can do is to make some Christmas ornaments for the tree, and whatbetter thing to make than a Puzzle Piece Ornament. For this project you will need some oldpuzzle pieces, paint, glue, beads, ribbon, a jingle bell, a paint brush, and scissors. Start off bypainting the puzzle pieces, these pieces will make up the main part of the wreath. After theydry, lay them down in a circle to form the wreath’s shape, you should start out with six but ifyou want it bigger, just add more pieces. After you have that part token care of, get somemore colored pieces and lay them on top of what you just did. There should be a little gapbetween your pieces on the first layer. This is where the pieces for the second layer will be.After you are done with that, look it over to make sure it looks good, then glue the pieces theway you like it. After that, you have to add the berries; you can either have red beads or paintthe beads red. Glue them to the wreath where you would like them. Then, you should cut offa piece of ribbon that is about 8 to 10 inches long. After that, fold it in half and glue the endsto the back top of your wreath; this will be the hanger. Then if you want to add a little styleto your wreath, you can take another piece of ribbon and make a bow to glue to the bottom of the ribbon facing front, and add the bellright above or on the bow.Another thing that you can make is the ever popular candy cane mouse. For this you will need two pieces of felt, a wrapped sixinch candy cane, two plastic wiggle eyes, and a small pom-pom for thenose. The first thing you should do is cut out the body and ears from thefelt. Next you will cut out two slits where the ears will go and slide theears into the slits. Then glue on the eyes and nose and insert the candycane in the backside of the mouse threw the ears. Now you can look inamazement at your candy cane, turned mouse.How to Save EnergyDuring the Holiday’sby Katie DavisEvery year during Christmas people put holidaylights up. Have you ever wondered how muchmoney it costs the residents who live there? Here aresome ideas so that your energy bill doesn’t turn youinto a scrooge.Images by Google Images and information fromfrugalliving.about.com/.../Save_Energy_During_Holidays.htmholiday-entertaining.suite101.com1. Leave your lights on no more than six hours or put your lights on a timer so they come off and on automatically.2. Think about using the new energy efficient light called LED lights. The LED lights take about 99% less energy than thebigger bulbs. The LED light bulbs can last up to 100,000 hours so you won’t have to replace them nearly as much as youwould replace regular light bulbs.3. You could purchase a pre-lit LED artificial Christmas tree. It will save time in decorating and use less energy too.4. Buy fiber-optic decorations. In most cases they use a single light bulb located in the base of the unit.5. When you are doing the dishes in the dishwasher, make sure that it is full before running it.6. Close curtains and blinds when it is cold outside to trap in the heat.7. Immediately shut the refrigerator and freezer door after a sneaking a midnight snack of left overs.8. Throw out unusable food from the cluttered fridge. The most energy efficient way to operate around the airflow around theitems.17