Currently: Christmas

Watching: The Snowman
Reading: Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
Listening: LeAnn Rimes - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (My favorite Christmas song and I just learned she did a cover....don't judge.)
Making: A blanket. It won't be ready in time.
Feeling: A little panicked. I have a couple Christmas orders that haven't arrived yet and they are for the same person and if they don't come the person won't have ANYTHING to open on Christmas. ACK!
Planning: Resolutions for 2016
Loving: Munch's awesome toothless smile...even if he flat out refuses to sing "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth."

Five Days Until Christmas

Wow, this month somehow has flown by....and as usual chaos reigns. Between being iced in and getting sick, there is still a LOT to do. I know somehow it will work out, but man it's going to be a stressful few days. 

We have checked some stuff off our list though. 

We visited Santa:

We wrote him a couple letters:

 Munch wants a red bike and more Legos. He circled every kit that was $100 plus in his catalog. :o/

Nox spent the whole day saying he wanted presents to share....we got to Santa and all of a sudden he wanted a GUN! Also, a "great green present".

We went to The Gaylord and saw Ice:

Which we all enjoyed until I dropped my camera and broke my kit lens. Thankfully, Santa got me a new lens and got it to me early, so I can take pictures of our Christmases with family. 

We had our very first fire when we were iced in. 

Seriously, the first in almost TEN years of living together. 

Now, if I can get us all feeling better, finish shopping and clean before Tuesday...this month will have turned out pretty well. 

REALLY looking forward to seeing my little sister this weekend. So happy she'll be home for the holidays!

Oh, Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving we put our tree up. The boys had so much fun putting up all the ornaments. Over the past few years we've put less and less of my beautiful glass/breakables up and more and more kid friendly/handmade ornaments up. I love it.

His thinking face as he puts the ornaments on just so, makes me smile

Munch can reach some of the higher branches, so the ornaments weren't all clustered at the bottom. 

(Although, the little bit of my mother's perfectionism I inherited did fix SOME of them.)

Of course Kaiser had to be in on the action, even if he slept through most of it.

Munch insisted on putting the star on the tree.

So did Nox.

And we ended on a slightly goofy note. 

On the 12th Day of Christmas

I finally finished editing Christmas photos. A little late, but I figure since we ended up with 5 days of celebrations this Christmas, it's okay.

Here are some of my favorites.

(Late in the night, after Santa had made his rounds)

(My sweet boys and I on Christmas morning)

(The ONLY thing Munch was set completely on was a Lego Eagle from Santa. He was SO happy when it appeared under the tree.)

(Nox and Kaiser on Boxing Day...just love how happy they both are in this picture.)

(My sweet handsome little men, ready to go over to Grand-mommy's)

(Nox and John. I just can't resist that face Nox is making. I just want to hug him.)

(John and I have too few pictures of just the two of us, I was worried this one would come out a little goofy, but I love it.)

Hope you enjoyed the little peek into our Christmas. I was going to take our tree and all our decorations down today, but it will probably be a slow process throughout the week. Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Christmas Lights as Seen by Munch

The other day we jumped in the car and went to see some Christmas lights a few blocks from our house. I took quite a few pictures, but instead of sharing mine, I figured I would share Munch's. (edited by Mama.)

This last one is by me, but it's important that the photographer get into at least one picture!

List of Lights to See in the Suburbs of Dallas

One of our favorite holiday activities is to jump in the car and drive around looking at Christmas lights. Mostly, it's just around our neighborhood with no location in mind, but really there are so many places to go see lights here in the Dallas area.


With the exception of 4 and 5 other photos were taken from the sites.

1. Christmas in the Square, Frisco, TX. Choreographed Christmas Lights and Music. Runs November 23 - January 6. On December 15th they have a Christmas Event with Santa, Train Rides and lots of other fun things to do. Check out the flyer HERE.

2. Christmas Tour of Lights, Farmers Branch, TX. A driving tour of lights set up to run December 1st - New Years Eve.

3. Deerfield HOA Plano, TX. The whole neighborhood gets in on the action. Apparently, it's quite the sight to see.

4. Hebron Pkwy & High Sierra Dr. in Carrollton, Texas. The owners of the house go all out for Christmas. They take toy donations and if you are lucky you may even catch Santa checking things out.

5. Carrollton Garden Railroad Display. This family is kind enough to open up their backyard to the community and share their amazing holiday display. All they ask in return is food donations that help out the Metrocrest Food Bank.

 

I cannot wait to check these out! If you are in the area I would love more suggestions!

It's Looking a Little Like Christmas

The tree is up and ready to decorate and the boxes have been dug out so we can prepare for Christmas.
A couple weeks ago my wonderful sister took some amazing family photos of us. She wrote about it over on her blog Lavender + Pink. She's not a professional, but I just love how well she captured our family.
We got the edited pictures back just in time for me to get these terrific cards from Shutterfly.

 

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

I cannot wait to get them back and send them out.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and is enjoying a nice start to the holiday season.   

Christmas Ideas: Felt Ornament Round Up

While packing up my Halloween Tree (I'm a tad bit crazy when it comes to Halloween) it became fairly obvious that for Christmas ornaments had to be VERY kid friendly. I think my 2 year old would build a tree house and move into our tree if he could shrink to the right size. He also has ZERO clue about how to be gentle with my ornaments.

So this year we will be putting only unbreakable ornaments on our trees and what is more kid friendly than felt? I've been looking around and there are a million felt ornament tutorials out there. Here are some of my favorites.

(above photo collage created using photo mat by scrapping with liz)

1. Simple Christmas Felt Ornaments from Cards by Paula
2. Felt State Ornaments from In Between Laundry
3. Felt Lights from Wild Olive
4. Mommy and Baby Owl from The Vintage Umbrella
5. Felt Christmas Tree Ornaments from Bugs and Fishes
6. Winter House from Bits and Bobs
7. Holly Leaves from Bugs and Fishes
8. The Stable from Wild Olive
9. Polaroid Ornaments from Sew Mama Sew

Now is the perfect time to start on getting some of these done. I love the idea of maybe putting pieces of the boys past Christmas outfits into the polaroid ornaments...would be cute right?

How do you make your tree more kid friendly?

Christmas Ideas: Melissa and Doug

First, I would like to apologize. I hate thinking about Christmas before December even hits, but our year gets completely insane towards the holidays (doesn't everyone's) and so I try to start thinking of gifts early so I can enjoy spending time with my family. The holidays are SO much more fun and relaxed when all the presents are purchased.

Melissa and Doug is one of my favorite places to go for gifts. Their toys are so durable and always encourage imaginative play. They are so much better than most of the plastic, battery powered stuff out there and my kids LOVE playing with all of it.

This year Melissa and Doug introduced personalized gifts. Like me, my boys have rather slightly unusual names, so finding things with their names is pretty hard. Munch just started writing his name and gets excited when he recognizes his name on something. We may use our last name on some personalized items as they get handed down, but either way I was super excited to hear that Melissa and Doug was offering this service. Munch and I were looking at all the stuff they offered this morning and he already has a list. Here are some of our favorites:
We have been watching a lot of Doc McStuffins and my boys LOVE their pediatrician...so this Doctor's Costume is fantastic.

 

Munch started writing to his friend in Austin this year and so he loves the mail now. This cute mailbox would be perfect for the boys to play mailman.



 

We have been working on writing and spelling so I really think this see and spell game would be awesome. 

 

We haven't flown with the boys yet, but they (as with most kids) are fascinated by planes. Munch got very excited when he saw this set and said he NEEDED it. 

 

At $1.99 per item, personalization is really affordable and Melissa and Doug has a HUGE selection. Can't wait to go shopping with them this season.

 

(all images courtesy of Melissa and Doug)



Birdseed Ornaments and a House

Another gift I decided to make this year was birdseed ornaments. I found a great tutorial over at Saltwater - Kids. It was a pretty sticky project, but Munch and I had a great time making them.

 We saved some to hang outside for our birdy friends (AND squirrel friends...lets not forget them!)

Munch also did a fantastic job painting a bird house for Nana to go with her batch of ornaments.

Didn't the house turn out great?! I have a couple little ones I have to prep so Munch can paint them for our new garden.
The birdseed ornaments barely lasted a week. I'm so happy the birds found our little yard. Munch and I are going to have to make them more ornaments soon. Perhaps ALL hearts this time since Valentine's Day is right around the corner. 

Christmas Card

Big Cheers Christmas Card

Send Christmas cards personalized with your favorite photos.

View the entire collection of cards.

Our Christmas shopping isn't even close to done, but at least I got the cards ordered!! It wasn't easy, Shutterfly has a fantastic selection this year!

My Boys Monday - Ornaments

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was pretty stressful, but in the end I think we all had fun. Munch got a little tired of opening presents, (because we have FIVE Christmases) so we still have some sitting under the tree.

During the month I actually managed to fit in one of the crafts from my list on will craft...tomorrow. Both boys "made" ornaments. One each for our tree and three extra sets for the Grandmothers.

Munch's Hand

Nox's Feet

I linked on my other blog, but here is the link again to the tutorial from the inkling network.

After making ornaments Munch insisted on painting...

And Nox was left with some very green feet!
This was such a fun craft to do with the boys and I love having their little paw prints on my tree!

My Boys Monday

Nothing from me this week...except for the terrifying knowledge that Christmas is only two months away...and I'm already feeling disorganized and completely unprepared! Lots of presents to make...and very little time. Here are a couple things I would like to complete for the boys. I would love to make Munch this cozy car caddy from homemade by jill. She has lots of cute ideas on her site, including a car mat. Christmas next year, perhaps?

I love this car pillow by Noodlehead. Wouldn't it be perfect for Baby Nox? Maybe I'll add something that krinkles or a bell for added baby fun.

Any creative plans on your Christmas List? I would love to hear them!!

Final Christmas Crafts

Finally getting around to posting my remaining Christmas Crafts.

Here is a bag I made for my Nascar loving Mother-in-Law, Kathy.

Here is the ornament I made and gave to the Grandparents and Auntie Ari. I didn't think about it until I had completed all of them...but I think next year I might try to make them into scented sachets.

And here is the mini digi page I did to use for the ornament above.

Finally here is the card wreath I made. All pretty and full with Christmas cards. I'm so glad I made it. It was really wonderful having something to display all my cards on so nicely.
My goal for this year is to have all my planned Christmas gifts done by September. I've already started my list, hopefully I can meet my goal!