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:

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...

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:

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:

Thanksgiving 2010

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to enjoy time with family! My Thanksgiving was great this year.  We spent last weekend in Kansas City, celebrating Thanksgiving with Jake's side of the family. His Mom's sister and family live in Lee's Summit, MO so my MIL, Jake and I, Jake's brothers and their families and my MIL's brother and his family, all made the trip to K.C. We had a wonderful time there. I also suprised Jake with K.C. Chiefs tickets for the Sunday after since his b-day was this past Tues. We enjoyed tailgating and the game with his Mom, Aunt, Uncle and Cousin.

 Here's a picture from our Thanksgiving dinner with Jake's family.

Jake's mom, Jake, his cousin and his Aunt Deb tailgating outside of the stadium.

Jake and I tailgating before the Chiefs game.

A huge Chiefs flag they brought out onto the field during the National Anthem.

Some Chiefs cookies we bought at the HyVee before the game! Yummy. :-)

Then on Thanksgiving day, Jake and I had dinner with my family at my Aunt and Uncle's house. They always host Thanksgiving at their house every year and thats where my family has spent Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. We always have a great time and have lots of yummy food. Since I've been married, I've been in charge of making the pumpkin pie. Here's a picture of my pie along with a picture of my uncle carving the turkey and my dad playing with my nephew Landon.  :-)