Christmas Fun

My parents(Also known as PawPaw and Grammy.) and my sister Melinda came to spend Christmas with us. We were so glad to have them and we really enjoyed our time together. The only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been if Melanie, Phillip and Madison had been here too.

PawPaw and his grandsons.

 Simon gets in his snuggle time with PawPaw.

Josh puts on PawPaw's pants.  

We all decorated a gingerbread house.

We all went sledding on Christmas Eve morning.

Aunt Minda's going down with Josh.

PawPaw doing a skeleton with Josh.

Josh actually fell off but got back on for this picture.  

Sometimes we got in trouble.

We put out Reindeer food.  

The boys opened up one gift on Christmas Eve.  Ornaments from Aunt Minda.

On Christmas morning we woke up to find that Santa had been there.

The madness of present opening began and the living room soon looked like war zone.

After breakfast we went outside to play in the snow and do some more sledding.

These boys were ready to go!

It was so fun having our first white Christmas!  It's one I will never forget! 

"Nibble, nibble, little mouse. Who's that nibbling on my house?"

We made a gingerbread house for the first time this year.  I had never made one before but it was fairly easy to do with a kit I had purchased at Target.  It came with everything we needed.  Melinda cut up some Twizzlers that I had in the candy bucket and the boys added them to the roof.  Josh said they were "icicles".

It took us awhile to convince Simon that the candy was to put on the house and not to eat. 

So the house was finished and we left it out as decoration for the next several days.  Until...

Yes....Simon is licking on a peppermint!

Candy was ripped off the roof by little teeth and fingers and the 

gingerbread house was defiled with the tinted slobber of three little boys!

It's 2011!

A great big Happy New Year to y'all!  I barely stayed awake to see the New Year come in but I did make it!  Our New Year's Eve was comprised of cleaning the basement/playroom, the kitchen and the living room.  Then we headed to the grocery store from some essentials and some not so essentials.  I had to get donuts for our breakfast.  We had a fun evening with the boys wearing hats to dinner and playing games on the Wii and watching a movie.  Today has been spent doing  more cleaning and playing basketball.  Right now all the boys are napping and it is quiet.  I like it.

That is supposed to be a pirate hat but it has been through a lot and now looks like a beach hat!

Josh is ready to party!!

 And here we are doing one of my favorite traditions which is to 

lie under the Christmas tree and look up at the lights. 

Wreath Christmas Card Holder Tutorial.

In years past I have hung my Christmas cards from the blinds in my kitchen and have strung a ribbon on the wall to hang them from.  This year I decided to take two great ideas that I have seen out their in blogland and create my own card holder.  You may have seen the many tutorials for making a yarn wreath (I wrote a tutorial on a yarn and button wreath HERE ) and you may have seen some tutorials for a card holder using clothes pins.  I just combined these two great ideas and this is what I got.

I didn't take any pictures while making the wreath so this will be a boring words-only tutorial. Sorry about that.

First I wrapped yarn around a styrofoam wreath. I went around twice making sure that the styrofoam wouldn't show through the yarn.

Then I took some Christmas paper, I used two coordinating pieces, and cut it to fit the the sides of my clothes pins. You could paint your clothes pins first if you wanted. I left mine natural. So you take your cut paper strips and glue them to your clothes pins. I used Mod Podge paper glue. It worked well for this project. I smoothed it out and then did two coats of Mod Podge on top, waiting 30 minutes between each coat.

After the clothes pins were dry I used wire (floral wire will work) and threaded it through the spring hole of the clothes pin.  Then I placed the pin on the wreath were I wanted it to be and pulled the wire around the back of the wreath and twisted it tight.  Cutting off the long pieces and pressing the twist down flat on the back.  

I did this 12 times for each clothes pin.  I left a loop of yarn at the top to hang it up and then waited to get some Christmas cards!  

Here is a closer shot of the wreath.  Merry Christmas, may your mail boxes be full of Christmas cards!

$100 AMEX Gift Card Giveaway at Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House

I enter a lot of giveaways.  I have also actually won a few too.  Here is one that I am hoping to win and you can go enter it also.  It's at a great blog called Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House.  She has lots of giveaways going on right now but a really great one is for a $100 American Express Gift Card.  There will be 5 winners!!  Who couldn't use the extra cash at this time of the year?  I know I could!

Wordless Wednesday-Christmas Cookies

Linked up at Wordless Wednesday.

Yarn and Button Wreath Tutorial

I didn't have a wreath for my front door so I decided to make one.  I can't remember where but I saw some really cute wreaths were yarn had been wrapped around the wreath and then some felt flowers had been added.  I liked the idea so I took some of my yarn and wrapped it around my wreath twice. 

I then made a stack of buttons and threaded them with floral wire.  

I used the buttons I had but I wish I had bought some bigger ones. 

This is just showing the back of the button and how I twisted it for security.

I decided where I wanted the button to be on the front and then wrapped the wire around the back of the wreath and twisted it several times.

Then I used the wire cutters to trim it up.

After I had all my buttons on I put it on the door but decided it needed something else.

Like a huge bow!  Obviously you can leave the bow off if you want.  I just happen to like really big bows!

Back to Blogging and the Basics

Blogging has not been at the top of my To Do list lately and I have missed it.  This season is so hectic for all of us but I am really trying to keep it simple this year.  We've had family here to visit and we have all had our bouts with one illness or another and I have been making cakes.  Yay for cake orders.  I have taken my last one for the year though.  I just have too many other things that I want to do with my family.

While in Michael's, the other day, I was struck with how much is available for us.  I was overwhelmed with the selection of ribbon.  I just wanted green ribbon.  There were too many choices.  I felt stressed just looking at all the stuff.  It made me feel this since of urgency, to craft and create all these Christmas ornaments and decorations and treats.  The message it all seemed to send to me was, "We are here to make your Christmas the most wonderful Christmas that you can possibly have.  If you don't get us, than your Christmas will be sorry."

I almost fell for it.  What a lie!  Wouldn't Satan just love it if he could get you and I so involved with the external and superficial preparation for Christmas that we forget to prepare our hearts?  You bet he would!  He'd like nothing better than for you and I to get all wrapped up in the gift-giving and getting, the decorations, the food, the parties, the pagents, etc., etc... and forget the main reason why this holiday was even created in the first place.  Jesus' birth.  Our Savior.  Thank you God.  So with the warning I received at Michael's still echoing in my heart, I am going to be intentional this wonderful season.  Intending to not be excessive with anything but love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness and self control.  And maybe with blog posts too!