Christmas Decorations

Christmas Decorations went up a few weeks ago. It takes me a good week to get them all put out. I like to try and decorate every room in my house in some way. 

The kids are always SO excited to unpack the Christmas nativity, toys, books and DVDs. Baby A wasted no time to dig into the boxes. They come by it honestly :) 

Here are all the boxes, bags and tubs waiting to be unpacked. I really don't think this is that much and could probably use a few more tubs (or four). 

Lucy claimed her favorite spot this season. Only until she is kicked out by presents 

Every year I change up my decorations a bit. In the past it's been either red and silver or peacock, or red and lime green. This year I wanted more of a classic rustic look.  I was able to use a lot of what I already had on hand to achieve this. 

Jute wrapped mason jars 

Burlap wreath with a tartan bow (I made all of it...woo hoo) 

I added burlap and ribbon with some poinsettias and a few cardinals to my staircase

Up close shot of the staircase decorations 

My nativity is in the entry where I always have it. 

It's the first decoration to go out and the last to be put up.

My mantle this year was so fun to play around with. I have always had the tv up there in the past and there is only so much you can do with a tv up there. 

I made the little Christmas tree on the left and the "O come let us adore him" sign. 

The kids decorated the tree this year and I stood back and let them do it all. 

It is perfectly imperfect this year and I love it! 

And here it is all finished and looking so pretty!

Tim braved the cold windy weather and put our lights up last weekend. 

 

They look so perfect!!! 

Christmas Decorations

I love decorating for Christmas. 

No.... I REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE decorating for Christmas. 

You can just call me Mrs.Clause! 

I typically start decorating around the first of NOVEMBER! 

I know that may sound crazy but I don't see the point and putting up so many decoration just to enjoy them for only a few weeks. 

We do save the outdoor decorations for after Thanksgiving though. 

I thought I would share some of the decorations that I put out this year. 

Tim brought this adorable advent calendar back from Germany. Each door has a piece of chocolate behind it   and I wrapped each chocolate with a piece of paper that has what our activity for the next night (we open them on the night before so we don't have the kids eating chocolate in the morning) on it. 

Of course the German chocolate isn't safe for Rascal and his nut allergy so we give him and Baby A a Hershey kiss every night. 

This is the cute little smoker man that Tim brought me back from Germany. This is a very common decoration there from what he was told. 

His top half comes off and you light an incense cone, then set the top back on it and the smoke comes out his mouth. He had a solid white beard when I got him but it is stained from the smoke now :) 

Yesterday you saw our real tree all decorated in our dining room. 

This is the second tree (fake) we have up. 

It's new and I LOVE IT!!! It's much smaller than my previous tree but it is so simple to put together. 

Last year I used the decor mesh on our tree but this year it covered up too much of the new tree. I didn't  really like it very much. I thought about changing it all up and going with a rustic themed tree but in the end just used what I had. 

Here's my mantle. It's probably my least favorite for many reasons. One.....I need some new garland. The stuff I have up there is thin and on it's last leg. Two..... I HATE my TV above my fireplace. That leaves me little to no space to decorate and like I said before I LOVE to decorate. Mantels can be the most fun to decorate but not this one. The past few years I have snagged up some 99 cent poinsettias at the hardware store on Black Friday. I can manage to keep them alive and they add just a little color here and there in my house. 

I have my Willow Tree nativity set up on the entryway table. I usually just set it out on the table but this time I decided to add some burlap underneath. I am so glad I did that. I think it adds so much. 

I also added one of the poinsettias this year and I like it a lot! 

This table used to be in Baby A's nursery. Since she has her big girl furniture now I put this table in my entryway. This "vase" is actually an old empty dishwasher tab container. I hot glued some twine around it added a simple red ribbon and then filled it with some sticks and berries I had around the house. 

The grapevine reindeer went perfect with it. This greets everyone as they come into our house. 

Well maybe I should say that this greets everyone as they come into our house! I had so much decor mesh since I wasn't using it on the tree. I thought about using it outside but changed my mind and added it to my staircase instead. I know it's a big impact as you walk in my front door but I absolutely love it. 

Here is a up close of the decorations I stuck in the decor mesh. It may seem like a small addition but it helped add the finishing touches to it. 

My front door is pretty plain. 

I may change that up next year but ran out of time and energy this year. 

This decor mesh wreath is HUGE! I made it last year and the only place I can really put it is on the wall in the entry way. It's up high so that makes it look a little smaller I think. 

So that is about it. Of course there are nick knacks here and there all over the house but these are the main decorations.

We have spent a lot of time watching Santa feed the reindeer on the reindeer cam. If you haven't gone and checked it out YOU MUST! It is so neat and even though my kids don' t believe in Santa and know he is fake they still love watching the reindeer. 

Here is the LINK (<<<<<<<CLICK THERE)

Random

Last week was a great week for us. It was probably the most laid back Thanksgiving we have ever had. We needed it after the crazy year full of Tim traveling. We soaked up all the family time we could possibly fit in and it was great! 

Here are just a bunch of random pictures from the last few weeks.....

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Rascal is always making us laugh and this time proved no different. He's one of those kids that make it hard to discipline because your can't help but laugh. 

Baby A got dressed all by herself the other day. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she had Rascal's underwear on. 

Baby A calls this doll her sister. 

I hate to tell her but that's the only type of sister she'll ever have! 

Baby A has discovered the American Doll catalog. She LOVES to lay down an look at every item in the whole magazine. She's still too young to "ask" for one for Christmas so we may jump on that train another year. :) 

We are done Christmas shopping and I have most of the gifts already wrapped and under the tree!! While I am quickly wrapping the gifts, the kids LOVE coloring on the empty boxes and making forts with them. 

Baby A has colored and colored and colored some more!

Rascal is SO obsessed with his sister. 

They were so proud of this "tower" they built. I think it's still sitting in a corner of their room. 

I took the plunge and chopped my hair off:

before 

After

I wanted it shorter but chickened out and did an "in between" style. It will go shorter next time :) 

 Tim was so sweet and put up my Christmas lights outside for me. There was a million other things that needed to be done but he knows how much I love Christmas and all the decorations. So he pushed the other stuff aside and took the day to hang the lights. 

In order to get this picture of him (above), 

I had to agree to get this picture too:

No wondering where Rascal gets his humor from ...

This and That

We woke up this morning to find this:

I had NO CLUE it was supposed to snow. I got up and got ready to go help Rascal's teacher at school. I went and got Baby A out of her bed (she was awake already) and then went and woke the boys up. We all sleepily headed into the kitchen and that is when Rascal stopped in his tracks and said "WHOA!" I turned to look and said the same thing. I turned on the T.V. to find out that schools were closed and we had a snow day on our hands. 

We got dressed and went outside to play for a little bit. It was Baby A's first time to play in snow. It snowed a few times last year but she was way to little to stay out for any length of time and certainly to small to play in it.

She loved it to say the least......

.....but I may have bundled her up a little too much and made it hard for her to walk! 

What can I say, I am a bit paranoid about them getting too cold. You all know they won't tell you if they are cold because that means they have to go inside. 

I tried to get a picture of all three kids but failed.

This one best describes the moment:

Rascal was too busy making snow balls, Baby A hated Scooter telling her to stay and look, and Scooter was the only cooperative one. 

My boys look so big in that picture. My how they have grown since last year. Their clothes are certainly telling that story.

 On to our advent activities.....

Monday night we were supposed to take pictures with the letters J.O.Y.

The boys were VERY wild and would not behave so I had to take their special activity away and replace it with quiet time. We did talk about Jesus being our Prince of Peace and read Isaiah 9:6.

My original plan was to have Scooter hold the J, Rascal hold the O and Baby A hold the letter Y and then frame the picture as decoration. This would have been an annual picture and it would be fun to see how much they grow each year. Needless to say I was the only one who thought that was a good idea.

Last night our activity was movie with special treats.We talked about Jesus being our God and 

read John 20:28.

I rented the movie Zookeeper (which was rated PG and not the most kid friendly movie, it was ok but not one we will own.) and after a light dinner the boys ate popcorn, cookies and had hot chocolate and watched their movie.

 This picture is blurry for some reason but her expression is great. Love it!

 Baby A will not watch T.V.at all.......not even for one minute. She did entertain herself by talking to herself in the mirror behind our chair.

 Baby A is too small for popcorn so she ate fruit snacks and cookies.

I finished all of our stockings! 

Tim is a big Chicago Bulls fan so I made the top of his stocking with some left over fabric I had from when I made the boys pillowcases.

Rascal loves horses. Always has and I am sure he always will. So it seemed appropriate to make his with some of the left over fleece fabric I had from making his new pj pants.

Scooter wanted the top of his to be made with the camo/deer fabric that I made their first set of pj pants out of.  I made sure to put the print the right way this time. 

 Here are all 5 stockings hanging on our mantle. I wanted to do some more decorations on our mantle but that will block the censor on our T.V. and D.V.D player so I am limited on what I can put up there. I hate the T.V. niche above of fireplace. I would love to do something else with it.

 Today we are making gift bows and we may just start that activity earlier since we have a snow day and we need several bows. We will talk about Jesus being our Lamb of God and read John 1:29 tonight.(I just realized that Rascal picked up tomorrow's envelope instead of today's so we will just switch the two days. Good thing he didn't accidentally grab day 9 and ruin the surprise of going to Zoo Lights!)
I may throw a science experiment in the mix too. We tried to blow bubbles outside and see if they freeze but it didn't work. Maybe it wasn't cold enough but I figured with snow still falling it had to be below freezing. That's ok I have a few other ones we may try.