Christmas Time is Here!!

We are in full countdown mode in nanny land. The kids are all hopped up on Christmas cheer and with three advent calendars to keep up with and all the presents under the tree taunting them it's becoming more and more real.

I loved this link up idea so much!

 

 

I was raised in a family that loves Christmas. I know that about 95% of it comes from my mom and her happiness for Christmas. It was always and still is my most favorite time of the year.

 

Our Christmas begins Thanksgiving Night, after we get back or get done eating our Thanksgiving meal then we put up all the decorations or the tree. My mom would give us our first gift of Christmas and it would always be a new ornament. Then when you moved out of the house you would get a shoe box full of the ornaments to take with you and put on your future tree.

 

This year at my apartment I put up the decorations the weekend before Thanksgiving. Both my roommate and I were leaving for Thanksgiving and every weekend leading up to Christmas is packed for me, so I got it up while I had the chance.

 

 

 

A couple of my favorite things to do at Christmas time are watching ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas, no matter what there is some good Christmas movie on and even if I am not "watching" it, the noise is on and it just feels right.

 

Growing up we always went to Christmas Eve service at Church and then went out to eat at IHOP, who doesn't love a good breakfast meal to get in the spirit!

 

Then we go home and everyone would pick either to open one present or open their stocking and we would go around and do that. On my mom's side of the family we all draw names since there are so many of us and that is the person you get the "big gift" for. It's an easy way to ensure not everyone spends a ton of money and everyone gets a good gift. Then of course my grandma would give us all something cute and small.

 

The next morning we would wake up and my dad would set up the video camera as we opened presents. Every year someone was appointed "santa" and they would get the role of calling out the person's name and welcoming to the front of the room to open the present in front of everyone. This took about 2 hours with 6 people in the family, and longer if we were out in Phoenix with my mom's family but it was always fun.

 

Stockings at my Grandma's House....yes. It's that crazy.

And yes we are that family that wears matching shirts at Christmas (Hello Crazies)

 

We have other traditions such as driving around every single night leading up to Christmas looking at Christmas lights. As we are all getting older things are changing and life is making it more difficult to all get together. I cant wait to have my own family one day because I plan on implementing my own traditions.

 

Here is my list so far

 

1. Advent Books (wrap 24 books and read on each night before bed)

2. Christmas PJs (But I plan on making them for my kiddos)

3. Gingerbread House Making

4. Elf on the Shelf

5. The Christmas Tree Pickle (Hide the ornament in the tree and the first kid to find it gets a special present!)

 

The list will continue to grow as I spend hours on Pinterest looking at things.

 

 A lot of things I will keep though and I guess that's what makes a tradition, a tradition.

 

Make sure you link up and check out everyone else's posts!

 

Jenny 

 



 

Twine Christmas Trees

It's Tuesday and now my second post of the week...I am on a role. I already have one planned for tomorrow as well!

It is probably the Christmas season since I have so much stuff I want to do and accomplish and being able to share it with all of you lovely readers makes it that much more fun! 

It was so cool to see that my Gorilla Bread was featured this week on Tell-Us Tuesday. I am so honored. You can see the post here.



If you missed my post yesterday, you can find it here where I shared a few of the Pins I have found that I want to make for our apartment.

Lindsey and I were at home last night like we normally are on a Monday (I mean Sleepy Hallow and the Blacklist come on back to back) and she mentioned how much more our apartment was starting to look home-y. Our last apartment across town was our first place in Atlanta and we didn't really do much in the decorations department, but as we moved into this apartment I knew that more needed to be done. I frequent all the crafting stores and Goodwill and pick up pieces here and there to put on the walls or side tables or shelves and now our apartment is looking better every day.

After my post yesterday I knew that I was going to go home and work on something. After dinner I sat down at our little table and got to work. I am linking up with Tell-Us Tuesday again this week.
  I originally found this pin from Fab You Bliss on pinterest and knew immediately that it was something I wanted to make. This is the original picture.  

I went to Michaels which is having a super sale right now with Vetran's Day. My dad was in the army for 22 years and so I still have my military ID which gave me an additional 25% off of my whole purchase.

I got all of my supplies which were

3 Styrafoam Cones
Ball of Twine
Glue for my Glue Gun
String of Beads

 

The first thing I did was start at the base a put a dot of glue and the end of the twine and let it set for a little bit before I started wrapping.

After that I would keep going around and around putting glue and wrapping the twine as I went up. making sure to keep the twine close to each other so it didn't show too much of the Styrofoam.

At the end I circled around the top and clipped the twine just so I could stuff the little bit in the middle and it was done.

After that I took the sting of beads and started at the top and just glued one bead. Then I went around and glues a couple beads to it here and there. In the original one she used a pin to place them so she could change them out, but I don't plan on it.

(See that big clock in the background? I got that at Michaels on sale. It was originally $60 and I got it for $14....I love a good bargain.)

 

I continued on with the next two cones until all three were done.

 

We have a side table that sits in the corner between our love seat and recently it has housed my old milk pitcher and a coffee pitcher I found at the Country Living Fair. I decided that these would replace those lovely things.

Here they are in all their glory! The first Christmas item to grace our apartment's presence. I brought the Christmas Bin out of the storage room and just set it in the living room. I was looking through it last night and just dreaming up where I was going to put everything. I think it is going to slowly start getting put up these next few weeks.

That's it for today. Tomorrow I am going to be posting about a Thanksgiving Craft I did with my kids this week that they loved!

Jenny

 

     

Prepping for Christmas

I know it's not Christmas yet.

I know that it's still 43 days till it gets here.

I know that I get a little over excited....but I don't care.

Christmas is my favorite holiday all year. I think the reason I love Fall so much is because it leads right up to Christmas. Christmas was always an exciting even at our house. With 4 kids there were tons of presents to be opened as well as fun to be had. We all got so excited giving gifts to one another. There are many VHS to this day that I can sit and watch for hours because Christmas has no bad memories.

My mom was a stay at home mom and she loved decorations. I grew up in a home that changed from Snow mans at winter, to bunnies at Easter, Pumpkins at Fall, and tons and tons of Christmas decorations come Thanksgiving night. It was always a thing for out family that after the Thanksgiving festivities we would pull out the Christmas tree and decorate it, then usually go to a movie. My mom had about 3-4 bins yes I said bins of decorations that she would start pulling from the attic and then in a couple of days our house would be transformed.

Moving out into my own apartment with a roommate and a dog I knew that it would be up to me to carry on that piece of my mom. I am just so blessed to have a roommate who doesn't mind my craziness and my love for house decorations. She lets me do my thing and is often coming home or waking up with new decorations spread throughout the house. I always check her reaction and she is always so receiving of them.

Right now I still have all the Fall decorations up since Thanksgiving has not arrived yet, but that Christmas bin that is sitting in our storage room is calling my name and I am doing everything in my power to resist. I am staying up in Atlanta for Thanksgiving this year and so I know that come that evening that bin will be out and everything will get put up. I slowly but surely add stuff every year. Last year was my first year and I got a good loot but I can't wait to add more this year. I have been on Pinterest the past few days looking at ideas and I think I have a few I want to implement.

 

I love this Pin I have sooo many Popsicle sticks in my craft stash and I think it could be so easy to do something like this to fill in some empty wall space.

 

 

I am always looking for a way to use my sewing machine. These look like the perfect thing to fix that.

 

 

I actually went to Michaels yesterday with my many coupons and purchased all the supplies to make these. This week I will hopefully complete them and put them up here.

Super simple, lots of fun and would look great in the house! Pin here.

I am hosting our Bible Study Christmas Party and organizing our Missional Community Christmas Party this year, so I am planning all sorts of neat things to incorporate, and one of them has to be these adorable name holders.

I think that's probably all I should be posting on November 11. I am working on getting some kids crafts together for Thanksgiving this week.

Have a great Monday!

Jenny