Christmasy home

Do you decorate for the holidays?

This year I didn't want to go too crazy, but each Christmas I notice how I don't have very much decor from the Christmas before. So I dig stuff up out of the basement in their boxes and root around to see what I have that I want to put up. 

We also try to make a few crafts, so I thought I'd "show you around" to see what we did this year. 

Now, this isn't new, we did the candle in mason jar thing last year. But it's soo easy. The hardest part is teaching Ellie not to touch. 

Get some pine or spruce branches, cut them off and stuff into the bottom of the jar. Pile some real cranberries from the grocery store on top. Fill up with water. Plunk in a tea light and there you go. Probably a good idea to replace the water every few days until it all looks sad and you might have to do it over again because the berries don't last forever just sitting there.

See how interested she is? Any time there is a flame around, Ellie goes "Fooof! Foof!" to blow it out. 

"Foof!"

I attempted to make this wreath that was featured on a blog. Alas, I just don't get what they are talking about when they say "wrap this here and do this there". You know how DIY online tutorials can be- freaking impossible at times but they make it sound soo easy. 

So i made up my own bunchy version with scrap fabric and red burlap and glue-gunned it on. And beside it I have put the little mason jar snow globes. That was a tutorial that actually worked. I found the fake snow at Michael's. 

But my big project turned out to be an advent calendar. I have nothing against the little chocolate filled paper ones from the store, but I just wanted something...bigger? And that I could fill with fun treats for the girls but also could look nice in our house. 

It's actually a bulletin board wrapped in brown paper and then lightly spray painted with gold (lightly..because I was running out of paint). I tacked up the strings, and then hung the brown paper bags using clothes pins that I also spray painted gold. I painted the numbers on each bag, rolled the bags up a bit so they'd fit after filling them with candy canes, chocolates and such. 

The girls love it. Wren will ask throughout the day if they opened the bag already for that day. Yes, yes you did. At 6:30am. 

The only...issue, if you can call it that, is that now Ellie will walk by it and point and say "Mo!" for 'more'. Ha, that baby loves her treats. 

Oh, and bonus, if you sent us a Christmas card (or letter!), it gets hung up on the days that already passed.  Thanks to those who sent us one! We love getting them. Until Canada Post makes it's crazy changes and then maybe we won't in the future but hey.

I may have already talked about this in a previous post...but I found small packages of 3 styrofoam ornaments to decorate at the Dollar Store. They came with glitter glue but I wasn't letting Wren near this craft. Once the girls were in bed (like all other times I craft), I found some "old" yarn downstairs, and glue-gunned and wrapped the yarn around the styrofoam ball. Tis the season to glue-gun!

You may have noticed I also added the dried oranges...again. To be honest, I wasn't going to do it this year. I usually burn half of them by forgetting them in the oven. But Kenton had bought a big bag of oranges that no one was eating and I couldn't stand watching them shrivel in the fruit basket on the counter. So I sliced, and dried, and they turned out so nice. Ellie actually likes to go around and pick them off the tree and collect them. And...because they're oranges...she can break one or five and it's okay. 

Wren has also brought home an ornament or two. Here is her "stained glass" bell. Ah, brings back memories of making these as a kid in school too.

And what tree is complete without your kid's face on it? Haha. She made this one at school too. This is why I send her. Keep bringing home awesome projects Wren! Oh, and naturally, it's coloured pink.

And these clear ornaments I found at Michaels. I have seen these on Pinterest a lot but I don't understand how they get crazy stuff in there like toy cars, mini Christmas trees and other objects that seem impossible to jam into the top of the very small and delicate opening of the glass. It's a mystery to me. 

Oh and to answer a previous question, I didn't make the tree skirt. It's actually from HomeSense and it has little mother of pearl (not real) buttons sewn on it. Which Ellie has started to pull off. But it's nice and simple. 

And stockings. Kenton kind of insists on using his childhood one, unfortunately not in this picture. If I remember I will take a picture of it and update this post. 

Who doesn't love a monogrammed mug? "WE" do. Ha...ha...

And mini fabric wreath below. Just because.

And lights. Lights have a way of making a home feel cozy and pretty. Ellie's face was priceless when we plugged these bad boys in. "Oh WOW!" she said. 

I tried to get a pic of the two of them together. This is very hard when no one smiles at the same time or even remotely looks at the camera on cue. Sorry, I am not able to take a sweet candid shot of them being "natural" either. I just don't have the knack. But I managed to get two, so this isn't too bad.

They are holding their Lucy and Linus from Charlie Brown Christmas. 

When Ellie sees a camera now she says "DEESE!" and gives a big smile. Wish I caught it. But how cute are they?? Sigh.

Wren and I made a couple of cards for her teachers. She drew a picture in each. I asked her what she drew in the first one and she said "Oh it's dinosaurs dying. Dey are being stinkct." I almost died and tried not to laugh..too much. I wrote the description of the picture in the card, as I'm sure her teacher will love it. The other one was just "Santa". But dinosaurs going extinct definitely says Merry Christmas to one and all!

At Wren's preschool today there was a small Christmas concert put on for the parents. The kids had snacks and treats and then went to the carpet in front where their teacher led them in a few Christmas songs. Wren somehow made her way right to the front of the group and put on a perfectly serious performance face. She was almost half a head taller than her little lady friends, it was crazy! 

Kenton and I loved going to do something so sweet and fun like this concert for her, and we are totally looking forward to more fun school things like this in the future. It's a bit of a novelty right now, our first one!

And one last pic...the little Miss Jeske. What a grin!