Showing posts with label 12 Days of Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 12 Days of Christmas. Show all posts

Monday, December 6, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 12: Decorations

Sorry this post is a couple days late. I've been busy decorating and working with the kids at church on the Christmas Musical.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is getting all my decorations out and decorating the house. I get so excited unwrapping each and every ornament, to see which one its going to be. We went and got our 2010 Noble Fir this past Friday night and then Saturday I decorated. I've gotten so many of my decorations from PartyLite. A couple other decorations are from Avon and then the rest were homemade by myself or my mom.

The tree before decorations.

The tree after decorations.

Our living room decorated for Christmas.

The end-table in our living room. The reindeer, candles and musicbox are all from PartyLite.


The snow globe and infinite reflections are both from Partylite, the clock is from Avon and was a gift from my MIL. It plays a Christmas carol every hour... I love it! The nativity scene I've had for probably 10 years or more. Not sure where I got it but I've set it out every year.

My new table runner I got his year at Hobby Lobby for 50% off!!

The decorations in this picture are all Partylite except the frame. I think I got this frame at Walmart the first Christmas Jake and I were married. It has our first family Christmas Picture in it from 2007.
All the decorations in this picture are from Partylite.

The dining room table decorated for Christmas.

A close up of the place setting.

A close up of the centerpiece.

The bakers rack all decorated for Christmas.


 This is a super cute glass block night light that my mom made this year.

And the stockings were hung. All 6 of our stockings! :-)

 Jake's Great-Grandma made this tree skirt for him before he was even married. She made one for each of his brothers as well. It has been under our tree every year. I'm very sentimental and I love stuff like that. :-) She's in her 80's and still makes us a Christmas present every year.

Friday, December 3, 2010

12 Days of Christmas, Day 11: New Years Resolutions

I don't normally make New Years Resolutions because I don't normally stick to them. Last year I said I was going to try and be more punctual and well, that hasn't really happened. So I'm going to continue to work on that. I'd also like to be credit card debt free by the end of 2011 and thats actually a pretty attainable resolution. When we bought our house we did many updates to the house and we unfortunately used credit cards as a means to pay for all the improvements. For the last couple years we've been working on paying it all off and are very close to having no credit card debt!!!! So in 2011 I hope we will be able to finally say that we're credit card debt free.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 10: Favorite Christmas Songs/Caroles







There are so many great Christmas songs, but some of my favorites are...

Carol of the Bells by Transiberian Orchestra
O Come O Come Emanuel
What Child is this by Mercy Me
O Holy Night by Mercy Me
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Mercy Me
Wizards in Winter by Transiberian Orchestra
Christmas Time is Here from Charlie Brown Christmas
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire by Nat King Cole
The Nutcracker Suite
Baby its Cold Outside
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland
I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevey

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 9: Favorite Holiday Food

This is a tough one, but I'd have to say its a tie between chicken and dumplings and pumpkin pie!

Don't forget to link up here:

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge- Day 8: Least favorite thing about the Holidays

I would have to say my least favorite thing about the holidays is all the hustle and bustle. I wish it could be a more relaxing time, rather than being stressful. With the Christmas Musical and Christmas Store at my church that I'm involved in, and the three Dec. birthdays in my family and then all the Christmas shopping and gatherings with different family members, it can be a pretty busy time of year. I think thats why I always look forward to our Christmas Eve service at church. Its seems like that evening is when I finally get to relax and focus on the real reason we celebrate Christmas. :-)

Link up here...

Monday, November 29, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 7: Holiday Craft

My church has a Christmas store every year where we make crafts and sell them. My craft has recently been these few ornaments!

For this ornament, you just buy some clear glass ornaments and then take strips of scrapbook paper and roll them individually on a pencil, then stick the paper into the ornament. You continue to do this til the ornament is filled up. I then tie a piece of pretty ribbon onto the top and I might also put a cute Christmas sticker on the front.

This isn't one we've made for the store because its so personal, but I've made them for my tree and I've made them as gifts. You just take a 2x3 acrilic stamp block (from Archivers) and a 2x3 wallet size photo. You buy some two sided tape sheets (also from Archivers) and you rub the tape onto one side of the block. You then set your picture, front side down onto the block and press firmly to make sure every part of the picture sticks to the block. Then I glue some ribbon all the way around the 3 sides and tie a pretty bow so that it can hang on your tree. I've also used photoshop to put the year on the picture so that I can always remember what year it was. I then put 4 little rhinestones on each corner for added decoration.

This is actually an ornament my made for our store a couple years ago. She just painted a penguin onto a light bulb and attached some ribbon to the top.

This is just a red ball ornament with a piece of 2 sided tape around the middle. You then roll the tape in black glitter and then use a gold glitter pen (stickles) to put the belt buckle on. Then you glue a white pipe cleaner to the top and add some ribbon.

 This is an ornament I just started making last year. I made this one Twilight themed for my tree, but we've made them Christmas themed for the store. You just poor a little bit of pledge floor wax, swish it around to get all of the inside covered, then poor the remaining pledge out. You then take any color of Martha Stewart fine glitter and poor it into the ornament. You will swish the glitter around to cover the whole insde of the ornament as well. Then put the top back on and add some ribbon to the front. You can also add some vinyl cut out using the cricut, or you can add a cute Christmas sticker.

This is an ornament I made last year for our store. I'm also making several more this year. Its just a cookie cutter with scrapbook paper glued around the outside edge. I used my xyron to glue the strip of paper on. I then tied a piece of matching ribbon onto the top and then I made a little bow and hot glued it onto the side along with a couple of little bells. I made these in several different shapes.

This is a craft my mom made for our Christmas store a couple years ago. Its just a stone paver from Home Depot or Lowes thats been painted to look like a snowman. She then tied some fabric around his neck and glued some pom poms onto his head and some wire to make them look like ear muffs.

And last, but certainly not least, my mom is making these glass block lights this year with a snow man face on them. We've sold several of them already and the store isn't even til this coming weekend. We just buy the glass blocks from Home Depot and drill a hole in the side of them. You then put a strand of 20-35 christmas lights in there. The face is put on using vinyl and the cricut. She also hot glued a sock hat on the top and tied a piece of ribbon around the bottom or you can also use a scrap of fabric or fleece for a scarf.

Thanks for looking at all my crafts and don't forget to link up here:



Sunday, November 28, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 6: Gift Ideas for Me!

A few things that I'd like to have for Christmas are...


1. I have been collecting Disney Classic DVD's for the last few years, so a couple I'd like to have for my collection are...
Each of these just came out of the vault this year or are about to come out.

2. I also collect Japanese Teapots, so I always put that on my list. Here is one I'd like to have...
3. I'd also like to have just about anything from this website. There are so many cool things at this store and some of the proceeds go to help rescue animals.

4. Edward and Bella Hallmark Keepsake Ornament


12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 5: Favorite Holiday Movie

This is a hard because I love so many Christmas movies, but if I had to pick just one, I guess I would have to say National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. My husband and I watch it every year. Its hilarious!!!

Some other favorites of mine are...
~Meet Me in St. Louis
~A Charlie Brown Christmas
~Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
~Disney's A Christmas Carol
~White Christmas
~Its a Wonderful Life

Link up here...



12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 4: Tips/Tricks to a budget friendly holiday.

Normally I'm a lot better at keeping my blog up to date, but I haven't been doing so well at this 12 Days of Christmas thing. I have some catching up to do since I'm supposed to be on day 6 already. LOL.

I don't really have a lot of people to buy for and therefore don't have a lot of planning to do for buying Christmas gifts. Jake and I don't have any kids yet and only really buy for our parents, siblings and nieces/nephews. As I said on a prior blog entry, I normally just make a list of the people I'm buying for, write down the amount I plan to spend for each person/family and then write down what I plan to get for that person/family. Then as I buy the gift, I cross that person off the list. I usually don't spend all that much because we draw names on my side of the family and then we just buy for Jake's mom and then I put a basket together for Jake's 2 brothers' families. I usually don't start shopping til after Thanksgiving and I get pretty much all of it done in a matter of a couple weeks. I try not to stress over it too much.

Link up here:

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 3: Best Gift You've Received



I've received soooo many great and generous gifts over the years. However, I'm going to incorporate some exciting news in with this post today. I got an early Christmas present this morning actually, and it will probably go down as one of the best gifts ever. Jake and I had been talking about keeping our foster dog, Max, but we had a prospective home for him to go to that sounded really great. So we had talked about it last night and decided since it seemed like such a great home, we would go about the adoption process and adopt him out like we did his sister. All the while I really wanted to keep him and kept telling Jake that I wanted Max for Christmas. :-) Well this morning the prospective adopters decided they weren't going to proceed with the adoption process, so we decided to keep him after all. So he's our newest addition and I couldn't be happier!!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 2: Black Friday/General Shopping Tips

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I've never actually done the Black Friday shopping thing. I am not a morning person at all and I'm not much for standing in long lines either, so its never really appealed to me, no matter how good of a bargain I can get. We don't actually have all that many people to buy for, so that makes things a lot easier. We draw names on my side of the family between my parents, sister, BIL and Jake and I. So thats only 2 gifts there and we set a limit of $25 to $30 each. Then we buy a gift or 2 for my nephew Landon. On Jake's side we always buy gifts for his mom and then since we have so many nieces and nephews on that side, we just buy one gift for each family as a whole. Normally I make a little basket with a family movie or blockbuster card, popcorn and snacks. He has 2 brothers, so I just make 2 baskets and thats, that. Other than that, we usually get my grandparents a gift card or something small and I exchange gifts with my BFF Carley. We normally set a limit of like $15. So thats pretty much everyone we buy for. I normally make a list ahead of time and then put the amount of money I'm going to spend next to that person. I'll also write down what I plan to get for that person and then I check them off the list as I buy the present. Keeps me organized and helps me plan ahead.

12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge - Day 1: Christmas Traditions

I'm starting this a day late, but I'll do 2 days worth today. :-) I saw this on my friend Holly's blog, who's also participating. Thought it would be fun. :-)

Be sure to click on the button to link up...



 
12 Days of Christmas: Day 1 ~ Christmas Traditions
 
 

Jake and I have several Christmas traditions that we've started since being married. One being that we get our Christmas Tree from Sullivan's Tree Farm every year. The first Christmas after we got married, I knew I wanted to get a real tree. Both Jake and I always had an artificial tree growing up, but thought it would be fun to try a real tree. We've really enjoyed having a real tree, even though its a lot more work. Its worth it in our opinion. The first year we wanted to go all out and go cut the tree down and everything. So we went out to a farm that we found online about an hour away. When we got there, they only had little dinky small trees that weren't even ready to be cut down in my opinion. So needless to say we didn't get a tree there, but we decided to go right down the road from us to a family owned lot and pick out a tree. We loved the tree we got there and the super nice family that runs it, so we've gone back every year since then. Its so convenient too. We get a Noble Fir every year that smells wonderful and looks beautiful. Its probably my favorite tradition that we have.

These have been all three of our Noble Firs so far. I always take a picture with just the tree skirt that Jake's Great Grandma made for us, before decorating the tree. From left to right its 2007, 2008 and 2009. The best looking tree we got so far was the 2008 tree. It was shaped almost perfectly.
                                                                                                             

A second Christmas Tradition is that we've taken a family picture in front of our tree every year. I use the picture for our Christmas card. I also always use the picture to make an ornament to hang on the tree. I thought it would be cool to have an ornament on our tree from every year to see how our family has grown. Below are our three years worth of pictures so far. I'm hoping next year (2011) there is a baby in the picture, ;-)
 2007
2008
2009

A third family tradition, and this goes back all the way to my childhood, is that we always participate in the Christmas Musical at our church in one way or another. As kids Jake and I were always in the play and now that we're older, I help direct it and Jake always helps in one way or another whether its building the set, playing a small role or whatever needs to be done. Its always fun and gets us in the mood for Christmas.

A fourth family tradition, and this also goes back to our childhood, is to go to the Christmas Eve Service at our church. Its always late at night, normally at 10 p.m. Its normally candle-lit and we sing Christmas Songs. Its one of my favorite things about Christmas. Usually the kids come in their pajamas and it just really gets us ready for the coming of Jesus and helps you remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.