the true meaning of Christmas

enough said.

all through the house

I've been wanting to post these pictures for a while now and am just now finding time to do it.  What's with all the hectic chaos this time of year anyway?  I'd love for it to go away........I think.

While we know that the focus of Christmas is not in "things" but the birth of our Savior and spreading His love to others, one way I like to show love to my family is by making the house look festive to make fun memories and emphasize that this is such a very special time of year.  I enjoy decorating and making things and finding bargains so it's fun for me to do, too.  With that said......

 here are a few of my favorite things

Love these ornaments hanging from the light over our table.  Thank you to Hobby Lobby for having enough of these at 50% off (and thank you to my family who went about 5 times with me - they prefer this over the fabric store anyday since there are model trains and planes to look at, not just fabric - ugh!)

Our very first Christmas card of the season on the new Christmas card frame holder thingie I made (yep, even used the drill under supervision) this year.  AND, the card came all the way from the Netherlands! 

This was the card frame 2 days ago!  LOVE that we get to hear from so many friends and family.  We ended up having to put the regular cards in a different spot and keep the picture cards up here cause we were running out of room.  Have to add another string for next year.

The Advent tree.  Put little notes of special things to do on each card and hung them from some branches that we found, where else but the church parking lot (good thing there are trees somewhere, since we wouldn't have found them in our backyard, huh?).  Would you believe that I had to hot glue some of the branches on to make it look fuller and then found them deserted on the table the next day?  Looks more like a Charlie Brown tree now but doesn't matter.

Our family ornament for this year.  We get the new version from Hallmark every year and put our Christmas card picture in it.  Very fun to see all of them when we decorate the tree each year.

Found this garland dirt cheap (like $2 or $3) at Michaels and made it into a wreath that hangs on the window in the dining room.  It's perfect with the colors in there and I love that it's shimmery and frosty.

New bows for the garland on the stairs this year.  I guess I decided that I was done with the red plaid ones that we had had for almost 12 years last year cause I couldn't find them anywhere when we unpacked the decorations this year.  I got all this ribbon 70% off on Black Friday so it's all good.

More shimmery, frosty, lusciousness in the dining room.  I've had the tray for years.  I think we may have received it as a wedding gift or I bought it with some money we were given around the same time.  The Peace sign is from Walmart, and my favorite part is that I got to use some of the white vases that came from Grandma's house.

a closeup of course (did I mention I have a photography obsession?)

the ornaments that sit in the tray in the dining room - thanks again to Hobby Lobby and their 50% off goodness.

Another deal from Michaels.  I like that it looks snow-covered.  Which I guess I didn't have to worry about since it probably will really be snow-covered with the storm that's coming our way Friday.  Yay for a white Christmas!!

Look at my babies!!!!  I want to go back and squeeze those cheeks so so badly.  The front picture is probably my favorite Christmas picture of the boys EVER.  I always intended to switch the pictures out with current ones but every year I just want to look at those sweet chubby faces instead.

Thanks to Google Reader I have access to tons and tons of free ideas and printables everyday!  (It can also be a huge vacuum of your time, so use with caution).  I printed this from a blog and it's one of my very favorite new decorations this year.  Such creative and generous people out there.

Not the best picture but I love the tree glowing at night.



Again, thanks to Hobby Lobby, there is much needed color on the tree this year.

Thanks to Mom and Dad we have Wisemen in our Willow Tree Nativity now.  No Nativity is complete without Wisemen right?  I love how simple and beautiful these pieces are and that this Nativity is the first thing you see as you come down the stairs every morning.



"snow"icane

So maybe it wasn't hurricane force winds, but it sure seemed like it on our way home Sunday.  Brian was awesome and drove the whole way (he always does, but I definitely would've handed over the reins if I were in the driver's seat this time)

This was our view most of the time. 

It looks like we're in the middle of nowhere but it's actually I-64.  You just can't see much of it.  The wind gusts were horrible, and all you could really see was white when the wind picked up.  We saw so many cars off in the ditch and in the median.  A couple of semis jacknifed.  And many accidents.  My poor sister had to drive below 20 much of the way home - I don't know what we were thinking, thinking we would stay in IL till afternoon - we were so glad we left when we did.  Needless to say, we felt so blessed to just get home safely.   It only took 2 extra hours, too!  What an experience.

stage debut

Elliott was so excited to have a speaking part in the very first holiday program at his school last night!!  He did an awesome job, too.  Nervous butterflies were definitely present, but he was so thrilled that he was going to get to have a "solo" part in the night that he could not stop smiling - so cute.

He chose his own outfit and let us know that he looked "cool".

And Grandma even made it over to watch him, too!  We love that you were there with us!

So proud of you Elliott!

thanksgiving

Went to my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving this year.  On the way we stopped at Grandma's and helped decorate a little for Christmas.  We had such a good time talking to her and catching up while we figured all the decorations out.  She actually ended up with 2 trees - lucky girl! 

We got to see Eli and Ben.....a reason to travel over there all on its own :)  These 4 boys are totally goofy and totally love each other.  And look how color-coordinated they are.....we didn't even plan that.  What awesome moms they have!

And they love their Aunt Meemer, too.

Making Thanksgiving dinner.  She actually made 2 huge dinners within 2 days!!  



pantry organization

My pantry had not felt very loved for such a long time.  If you look closely (or maybe you don't have to look very closely) you can see things just thrown in there, canisters toppled over, bags spewing everywhere, nowhere to put your feet when you do actually need to step into the pantry.  It was driving me nuts.

I would really love to have one of those Container Store dream pantries.......but I don't see that happening anytime soon so I opted for this much less expensive version that really only involved sorting, purging, and reorganizing.  I did buy a few items to solve some issues, but nothing major and I think it all totaled out to less than $60. 

It's not very dramatic, but it radiates calmness and simplicity to me (and we can actually get into the pantry now, so it's way more functional)....here's the before and after

 See how you can see the floor again?

This is one of the items I bought - to stack cans so that I can see what we've got in there without lifting each can. 

Got to use the label maker - LOVE the label maker.  I put things like cookie decorating, kids' treats, kids' snacks, medicines, etc. into these plastic Glad containers.  I even did this with my common baking staples (baking soda, salt, baking powder, vanilla, etc.), so now when I'm baking I can just pull out the whole container - so much easier!

This is my favorite purchase.  These are 18 inch turntables that we got at Bed Bath and Beyond.  We used to have to reach over bottles to reach whatever was in the back corner of the pantry.  Which was fine if you miraculously didn't knock any of them over in the process - I'm not that graceful.  Now we just turn the thing to get to whatever we want.  So perfect!  I was cringing at spending $15 a piece for each of these (we have 3), but it was definitely money well spent - highly recommend them!!

Veterans' Day

We were so excited that Grandpa and Grandma came over for the Veteran's Day celebration at the boys' school!  The boys even got to sit by Grandpa during the assembly instead of with their classes AND got to stay for the cookie and drink reception afterwards. 

Each of the boys made a poster about a veteran.  Ethan created his about Grandpa.  It's in the picture above, to the left and a bit above Elliott's head.

Elliott made his poster about PaPa.  It's right in between the boys in this picture.  We wished he could have been at the celebration too :(

Both of them (PaPa and Grandpa) were military policemen in the army.  We're very proud of you!!