Christmas gathering

How blessed I feel to have family around at Christmas! My mom and Scott came on Christmas eve. Scott cooked dinner while we went to church. Lovey was a shepard and he looked so sweet! My in-laws met us at church and then everyone came over to enjoy Scott's delicious spaghetti. The kids opened a present (Christmas pajamas) and then were off to bed.

Lovey was surprised when I told him he could wake up before 7:30. When I went to check on him at 5:58am, he told me he was waiting until 6. Littlebit was still asleep, but Lovey soon woke her up. Lovey was so excited that Santa brought him a bike and Littlebit was thrilled with her dollhouse. We opened presents and then took a break to make breakfast. (Littlebit was done opening presents; she just wanted to play with her dollhouse. Lovey opened some of hers for her.) Turnovers, cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs were on the breakfast menu. Thankfully my mom brought her convection oven because the ham was in at 5am and we needed the extra space.

My inlaws were able to join us and then we opened more present. We spent the rest of the day enjoying delicious bacon wrapped crackers, cranberry margaritas, cookies and artichoke spread before an amazing dinner.

I am so thankful for my fabulous family and and a very, Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I think we finally have all of our decorations up this year. I love this snowflake that I made after seeing it here.

The Joy my mom gave to me the first year I had my own place. I think it is absolutely beautiful.

My mom made this Santa and originally my aunt had him, but she gave it to me two years ago. Love it.

I made the angel in 3rd grade, but looking at it closer, I don't think the wings are mine. The initials do not match. My mom gave me the Pere Noel when I was in high school and studying french.

This year our tree is a mix of old and new ornaments, purchased and homemade.

We have beautiful ornaments, such as Lovey's school bus below

and ornaments that Lovey made in religious ed.

Last year I found the pipe cleaner and yarn ornament on the tree and it went back up this year.

Littlebit and I made this ornament this year. I took some inexpensive ornaments I bought last year and with a littel glue and glitter we have a customized ornament.

And even this little guy found a spot on the tree. I may have to take care of him later.

The kids and I made these little candle holders when our advent envelope said it was craft day.

And now the house is decorated, cookies are baked, presents are wrapped and shipped, and glitter is everywhere. I have one last present that the kids and I made. If you are a grandparent or godparent to my kids - look away.

Littlebit and Lovey made these notepads as gifts. Super easy with a little help from Kinkos (apparently my copier does not reduce). After cutting the paper I paper clipped it together and rubbed a glue stick along the top. We even made one for Lovey's teacher that says: From the desk of....

Felt Christmas Tree

Littlebit and Lovey love to decorate the Christmas tree, but we end up with a lot of ornaments just in the front. This year I think we came up with a compromise. I let them each put a few ornaments on the tree and then that night put up their own trees in their room to decorate.

I saw this idea on Ruffles And Stuff and decided to adapt it. I made felt trees and hung them from a hook on the wall of their room. I hot glued ribbon to the tree and made a button hole at the top for a ribbon to hang the tree. Then I cut out a variety of ornaments to put on the tree.

Littlebit and Lovey enjoy rearranging the ornaments on their trees and this gives us some Christmas decorations upstairs.

Travel Tic Tac Toe

Very good friends of ours are moving to another state. I wanted to do something for them for the long car ride ahead so I made little packages for each of the kids. I also made the girls a travel tic tac toe game. I made it up as I went a long, but I like the way it turned out and now I need to make one for Lovey.

This is the game board. I used white felt and sewed on ribbon. I made the pieces out fo felt so that it would stick together in the car.

This is the back of the game board with two pockets to hold the X and O pieces.

It rolls up with the pieces on the inside and ties with a ribbon. Hopefully it won't take up too much room in their car and will entertain the girls for awhile.

I've linked this to DIY day on  and

Advent Calendar

This year I wanted to create an Advent calendar that included activities for our family to do together. After looking at many different ideas on the web, I decided to create envelopes using the pattern from the book, Art Connections. I traced the pattern onto Christmas paper and folded it into an envelope. Hopefully this gives the kids and the family something to look forward to everyday.