Christmas Decor

In years past, I've done a Christmas house tour. I haven't done one since we have lived in this house so I thought I'd take a few photos of our Christmas decorations.

I have a love/hate relationship with this wreath. It is big and pretty, but some of the balls and pinecones fall off every year. I always store it very carefully, but it still comes out of storage looking like it got ran over by a car.

This little Advent tree has been a favorite in our house since Roz was little. My mom got it from Avon (of all places!) many years ago. The kids take turns putting on an ornament each day. Wesley usually does the math to figure out what dates will be his turn and makes sure he gets to hang the ornaments he likes (like the cardinal).

A lot of my Christmas decorations are hand-me-downs from our parents. It is hard to see, but this wreath is made from nails and string. Below it is our unbreakable, kid-friendly nativity.

I got this advent wreath from Jerry's parents. It has symbols similar to that of the Jesse tree around the ring. My mom gave me the stacked snowman in 2005 when we had Hayden. At that time each of the seven faces could represent a family member (Jerry, me, Roz, Wesley, Eli, Justus, and Hayden). Now we have two more kids and say it represents the seven kids.

The front door landing turned into snowman corner. The little wooden snowman box on the floor has lights. They died this year and I had to replace them.

We got this wood cross from some friends who lived in Jerusalem for a year. The cross-stitch below it was another hand-me-down from my mom. I'm not sure who made it. I made the little wreath below that a few years ago.

Lots of people ask me if I made this quilt. It's not a real quilt at all, just a fabric panel that looks like a quilt.

My card holding ribbon was bare for a REALLY long time this year. I was starting to wonder if I was going to get any Christmas cards at all! They finally started rolling in the week before Christmas. I'm afraid Christmas cards are going to be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. Too bad really, it's a fun tradition.

Each year when we take down the cards put them in a little pile. At dinner we pull one out of the pile and pray for that person or family. It takes us awhile to work through them all and helps us to pray for people we might not usually pray for. After we have gone through them all I put the photo cards into an album to keep. I love looking back and see how kids and families have grown!

Here is my little Christmas village. I don't have an outlet on this section of counter so I used a little battery powered light set to light up the houses this year. It's small, but the kids enjoy looking at it.

I ended up with a lot of candles around this year. The real advent wreath is our centerpiece all month long. I place it on a pretty nativity runner my mom gave me. The "yule log" with candles below was a new addition this year. I made it from a piece of a birch tree from my parent's yard. I want to add some greenery and maybe a bow, but that will have to wait until next year.

I made these jars using dollar store vases and candlesticks. I filled one with candy canes and the kids were mad because I told them they had to wait until after Christmas to eat the candy. The other one is just filled with some glittered dollar store ornaments. The cute, little trees are a salt and pepper set I bought on impulse at the grocery store.

The last two years Hayden has gotten a Lego Advent calendar for his birthday. Since his birthday is about a month before Christmas it works out perfectly. He really enjoys opening up the little door to see what he got every day.

Here is the Jesse Tree. You can read more about that here. It is such a great Christmas tradition. I hope our kids continue it with their own families someday.

We even decorate the bathrooms a little bit. I have had this nativity window cling set for a long time.

The little shelf in the guest bath is a perfect spot or some more snowmen.

In our bathroom we have this cute little bucket full of Christmas washcloths. Each of our bathrooms has a potpourri light jar. They didn't have one previously, but the boys actually requested I make one for their bathroom this year.

We have a little alcove in the back hallway that is the perfect spot for our other nativity set.

I saved my two favorite decorations for last. The Christmas tree…

…and our stockings.

The house always looks empty for a few days when I take the decorations down, but I think only having them out only one month of the year makes us appreciate them a bit more!

Christmas Ornament 2014

Every year I give the kids an ornament. In the past couple years, I've stamped metal and hand-stitched felt to make their ornaments. I thought I'd do something a little different this year. I found a tutorial for these cute little hot cocoa mug ornaments on Pinterest. They are made mostly of paper towel tubes and card stock.

I think they're adorable! I guess it is a bit hard to judge their size by these photos, but the mugs are only about 2 inches tall (not including the peppermint stick).

I bought a dollar store bag of plastic candy canes and broke off the ends instead of using a straw as suggested in the tutorial. The only other thing I bought was the baker's twine to hang them with, the rest of the items were either recycled or I had them on hand.

I had a little assembly line going and made seven. I customized each one with the year and names. You'll notice Justus' doesn't have any "whipped cream" on top. That's because he hates whipped cream so I thought I should leave it off his!

Now I wish I would have made one for myself. I might have to make a few more!

Do You Want to Build a Snowman (Arizona-style)?

Our Keepers Club (church group) meets a couple times a month. Jerry and I are the leaders. At our meetings we have a short Bible lesson and learn about a skill. In between the two we usually play a game so the kids can get their wiggles out.

This month's activity was making over 80 paper plate snow men to take to the nursing home residents. The game was building a snowman Arizona style. 

We broke into teams and each team built a snowman by wrapping a kid in toilet paper and decorating him. It was pretty funny so I took a few photos. 

Wrapping someone in toilet paper is harder than it looks! Toilet paper rips so easily.

Unfortunately, one of our volunteers (not Hayden) was a little claustrophobic and didn't really like being wrapped up in the toilet paper. He was a good sport though and let his team finish.

When they were all wrapped their team "decorated" them with a hat and scarf as well as a construction paper nose and eyes.

When the boys busted out of their "snow" we had a "snowball" fight with the pieces.

 Then we had to clean up the mess because this snow doesn't just melt on it's own!

Queen Creek Holiday Parade 2014

This year we didn't just go to the Queen Creek Holiday Parade, we were all in it! Our Keepers and Contenders club from church had an entry. We worked hard on design and prep for a few weeks before the parade. After tossing around a few ideas, we decided to go with a "sweet" theme. This was my original sketch:

The main feature was a gingerbread house made from two big pieces of cardboard Jerry got from work. We also had sucker balloons and paper plate candy decorating the sides. We used dollar store tablecloths for the skirt. I think it turned out really cute!

We had the kids paint parts of the float over the course of a week. We were going to get together with the club and put the float together, but Jerry didn't think the float would survive the trip across town. He was right. So we cancelled and decided to go early and put it together in the staging area.

We packed a lunch and headed over just after noon. When we arrived at the staging area, this is what the trailer looked like:

During assembly:

And a short time later, this is the final product:

One of Jerry's co-worker was kind enough to lend us his trailer. It was the perfect size! Jerry drove our van pulling the trailer. The moms and little ones sat on the float while the other dads and big kids walked alongside to hand out candy.

The whole event was very well organized. We filled out our application, they confirmed it and gave us very clear rules and instructions. There was never any confusion about where to go or how to proceed.

We had a great time! It was so much fun! I thought even the weather was perfect - very "winter" like with clouds and a lower temp. It was a lot of work and waiting for a such a short ride in the parade; the whole parade route is less than 3/4 of a mile. We all wished it would have lasted a bit longer.

There were so many people lining the streets. It was hard to scan faces for people we knew. I am sure I missed seeing several people. Grandma Molly and Grandpa John were nice enough to come and watch us. Thankfully, we knew right where they would be sitting so we were able to wave at them. Seeing them as we drove by was the highlight of the ride for Annabeth!

The little girls sitting with me, including Annabeth, waved and waved. In fact, at one point Annabeth said her arm was getting tired. I told her to wave with the other arm and she kept right on going!

The only thing we definitely need to improve on for next year is to get more candy! Part of it was the kids being excited and generous and part of it was we just didn't have enough. We had over 20 pounds and that didn't even last to the halfway point. Next year, in addition to getting more candy, I think we will wait to hand it out towards the end of the parade. Those poor kids didn't get anything.

After it was over we decided to try driving home with the float still assembled. The parts were flying off once we got over 20 miles an hour and the gingerbread house bent back over the back of the trailer. We ended up pulling over and taking it apart before driving the rest of the way home.

I can hardly wait until next year! I already have a few ideas brewing!

St. Nick's Day 2014

Yesterday was St. Nick's Day! The kids woke up to find their stockings filled with a few sweet treats. Actually, they weren't all sweet treats. Jerry did the St. Nick shopping this year so everyone had a beef stick in their stocking. They love them!

We enjoyed the warm glow of the Netflix fireplace video while dumping out the stockings. Oh, how I miss the fireplace we had in Wisconsin! I didn't get many pictures, but I couldn't resist taking one of Wesley with his neatly organized stash!

Speaking of St. Nick, I had an interesting (unintended) conversation about him on Facebook. I posted I was feeling lonely filling stockings because only a handful of people celebrate St. Nick's Day in Arizona. The post turned into a little discussion about who does and doesn't do Santa and why. I've talked about St. Nick's Day and why we celebrate it before (short answer: mostly family tradition).

Like breastfeeding, homeschooling, and stay-at-home moms, Santa is one of those parenting gray areas that can cause all kinds of discussion and even controversy. People on both sides tend to feel judged by the other. Personally, I don't mind one way or another… your family, your choice. I love my friends and family in both camps. If your family has made a conscious decision to do, or not do, something and feel comfortable with it then, by all means, carry on.

One of these days I plan on writing more about our Santa choice. Not to change any minds, but because I print these posts out as books for my kids and I want them to remember why we do - and don't do - certain things. When I write things on this blog or Facebook, I'm not trying to convince you to do things my way, I'm just sharing my personal feelings. Hopefully, you will think carefully for yourself about ANY gray areas and, if you're a Christian, look to God's word - and not the internet - to find answers.