christmas photo dump

warning: picture heavy post! 

"hi, santa! hi, mrs santa!"

in the frosty zone

playing "jinga bells"

funny faces with uncle joe

love him

christmas on my phone

{{ wordless wednesday }}

we are having a christmas-overload hangover today. too tired for life. will post more (or at least a few better) pictures tomorrow....maybe. ;)


linked with:

the paper mama

parenting by dummies

project alicia

jenni from the blog

bree: his honey and her mommy

live and love outloud

fresh mommy

5 minutes for mom 

sarah halstead

love bug

 seven clown circus

christmas cookie baking and delivery

two nights ago we made a whole lot of sugar and peanut butter blossom cookies (the ones with hershey kisses in the middle!). then yesterday morning we packaged them up, added a christmas card and delivered them to our neighbors. norah was a good helper with the delivery part, but she definitely enjoyed the cookie baking more ;)

so excited

i do it mommy

i was actually very impressed with how well she did with the cookie cutters. most of them came out ok with just a missing limb or a crooked head ;)

my two favorite shapes of norah's, and the cookie that she sprinkled all by herself 

::drool::

half the batch

packaged and ready to go // my little delivery girl

- - - - -

hopefully we brightened some peoples day!

thrifting thursday // v. 11

The parts for Norah's "big" Christmas gift this year all came from thrifting in some form! I'm really excited with everything we got and even more excited about the money we saved by buying second hand. 

Because we were able to save so much, we were able to help out two separate families this holiday season by sending them gifts for their children who otherwise wouldn't have had anything to open on Christmas morning. And THAT is what Christmas is about right? (At least part of it.) I'd much rather help others who need it more than buy for my family who doesn't need a single thing this year. True joy is found in giving and that's what I hope to teach Norah. 

We decided as a family to keep Norah's Christmas gifts on the small side. She will get 3 gifts from Santa, as Jesus got 3 gifts, plus some small stocking stuffers. I don't want her to grow up thinking Christmas is all about her and all the new toys she might get, but I also don't want to rob her of the excitement of opening presents on Christmas morning. By limiting her gifts we're doing good on her part and we're also doing good for others. Win-win in my book.

Anyway, I'm rambling and I've yet to share my thrifting scores! Here we go:

I found both these wooden pieces from the same consignment shop on different days. The high chair was already white so we simply painted the cradle to match!

The cabbage patch doll and the mini granny square quilt were each from separate thrift stores. 

Total cost: $24

The dress that the cabbage patch doll was wearing was hideous, so after searching around on ebay for a new one, I came across a listing for all of these (handmade!) doll dresses, plus the one she's wearing in the first picture. I ended up winning the auction and I'm even happier with these than I thought I'd be. They are so cute in person!

Total cost: $5.50

I can't wait to see Norah's face on Tuesday morning. She has been really interested in her one baby doll lately and I'm so happy to be able to add to her "collection" of baby things. She's quite the little mommy! 

SANTA!

{{ wordless wednesday }}

linked with:

the paper mama

parenting by dummies

project alicia

jenni from the blog

bree: his honey and her mommy

live and love outloud

fresh mommy

5 minutes for mom 

sarah halstead

love bug

 seven clown circus

our christmas cards!

Sarah over at In the Moment hosted a Shutterfly giveaway a couple of weeks ago and I was the lucky winner!! Woooooo! Here's what we went with this year:

Thanks Sarah and Shutterfly for our amazing cards. I love them!

makin' it monday // green and glittery salt dough ornaments

being a cheap and easy craft, salt dough ornaments are pretty popular for Christmas. i put our own little twist on a basic recipe to get these beauties; hand-glittered by Norah.

i started with this recipe:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup salt

1/4 cup water

and then just added green food coloring! super easy.

mix the ingredients together and knead for a few minutes. add small amounts of extra flour as needed until dough doesn't stick to your hands.

roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter to get your shapes. i couldn't decide if i wanted to do red dough shaped like stockings or green shaped like christmas trees so i had norah choose for me :)

line your dough shapes on a non-stick pan. using a straw, poke a hole near the top of your ornament for the string to go through.

bake at 250 degrees for 2 hours

after the ornaments have cooled completely they are safe to decorate! i left ours on the baking sheet to make clean up much easier.

i gave norah a paint brush and elmer's glue, a few tubes of glitter and some gold stars. with some direction and an extra hand norah made these "all by herself!" ;) grandparents, if you're reading this, act surprised when she gives these to you as gifts! :)

ta-da!

after the glue and glitter dried i ran some baker's twine through the hole in the top so the ornaments can be hung. any string or yarn would do!

thrifting thursday // v. 10

thrift stores this year are FULL of awesome (and tacky. so yea, awesome) Christmas decor! it's extremely hard for me to resist buying everything i see. it just doesn't make sense this year when i don't have my own space to decorate :(

however we were in need of some new, unique stockings so i've had my eye out for the perfect set.

today my local thrift store - which, by the way is continually proving to me that they are my favorite shop every single time i go - was having a HALF-OFF Christmas sale! whaaaaaat!

and i saw these:

only $2 for all three!!

Mark can be Santa, I get the deer, and Norah picked out her own - a smaller sized stocking with a kitten on it. PERFECT! 

Christmas traditions

Growing up we had some family traditions and I always appreciated them but at times they seemed boring and I just didn't care (typical teenager, right? ;)). Some we didn't even do every year, others were changed or tweeked over time. I always loved them, but after having a family of my own, traditions became more important than ever. Norah is still pretty young to understand but we can still have fun preparing and getting ready. 

Here are some of the Christmas traditions we've started:

-We, plus my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew, went to Historic Smithville (NJ) to see the lights show. We've all decided that instead of getting presents for all the cousins we would take them all out together to do something fun. This year they are still very small so we chose to do something easy. In the coming years we hope to try Storybook Land, Sesame Place, Rockefeller Center and even Hershey Park!

-Norah's Elf on the Shelf was "delivered" on December 1st. I don't like the whole "Elf-is-watching-you-and-reporting-back-to-Santa-so-you'd-better-be-good" bit AT ALL so our Elf is just a funny and playful little dude who gets himself into silly situations. It's mostly just fun for Norah to find him in a different place each morning. As she gets older I have a few ideas on how I will use the elf to teach her about giving and grace. 

-On December 1st we also started our "advent" calendar, which is just an idea I stole off Pinterest. It's just 25 books wrapped up and labeled with a number. Every day (or we do at night before bed) we open up a book and read it together as a family. 

-We bought Norah a dinky $5 (literally) Christmas tree from Home Depot for her to keep in her room. I wrapped a small strand of lights and we gave her some felt and plastic ornaments to hang. She LOVES this one! All day long she'll play with the "orn-mens" and ask me to turn on the lights :)

-I hand-make an ornament for each sub-family in our big giant family on my husband's side. I plan on including Norah with me this year, and each family will now be receiving two ornaments: one from me and one from her.

-We are sticking to this rule when gift giving to our kid(s): 3 gifts were given to Jesus so 3 gifts will be given to them. I don't include stocking-stuffers in the 3 since they are so little anyway - coloring books, crayons, a piece of candy, etc. $10 max. Christmas has turned into a giant shopping event and a battle to see who could spend the most money. We would like to keep the focus on the 'reason for the season' so to say and not on who gets the most stuff. We are going to keep Santa in the picture for now but that is for another post on another day.

-DORKY CHRISTMAS CARD PICTURE. enough said.

-Cinnamon buns on Christmas morning. This is a tradition that Mark grew up with so when we got married I promised that I'd continue it for him.

-Baking lots of goodies and giving them all away to neighbors, co-workers, mailmen, librarians, etc.

And some that I hope to start in the future:

-I would love love love to have a "handmade" Christmas. Pretty self-explanatory, but instead of buying gifts, you make everything for everyone! Of course buying supplies would be ok. Handmade presents are just so special and make me happier than anything store-bought. 

-Hosting Christmas Eve/Christmas Day dinner has always been something I've looked forward to. ONE DAY! We just need our own house ;)

-Cutting down our own tree. Again, something we need our own place for.

-Awhile back I read somewhere that a family had a "Christmas Quilt." Basically a family member (maybe the mother or grandmother, I don't remember) would knit or crochet a granny square each Christmas. After a certain number of years, the squares were all stitched together to form a Christmas quilt. I thought this was very sweet, and could make a wonderful wedding gift, or a Christmas gift for newlyweds. I like to think that Norah would love to receive a quilt like that in 20 years or so (OR MORE! maybe 30 years! 40!). Since I completely forget how to knit AND crochet I would have to re-learn, but this seems pretty do-able even for me! If we ever have more kids I would just make that many squares per Christmas for multiple quilts.

-Volunteering on Christmas Day. I would love to wake up in the morning, have our own little Christmas celebration, and then go out and do something for someone else. It seems so much more beautiful to give ourselves on that day than to sit back and receive gifts and stuff our faces. There really isn't a reason why this one has to wait, it's just not one we've ever done before. More so, I would love to invite someone or even a whole family who is in need to our table on Christmas Day. 

-Another idea on giving back/volunteering: I read that a family had a paper chain hung in their house with 25 links. Each link had a "deed of the day" written on it. The deeds were "easy" towards the beginning of the month (i.e. be nice to my sister today) and got more self-sacrificial towards Christmas Day (i.e. donate $, volunteer time, etc.). This would be a great way to involve Norah in teaching her about giving to others. After all, we are celebrating the day that God gave us the greatest gift we could ever know, the gift of a Savior. 

So, do you have any special family traditions? I would love to hear them! 

TAG!

Who is up for a little Christmas Fun? 
Thanks so much to Jen at That's What She Read for including me in this fun "Tag" themed post.

The fun started over at Raising Reagan, where Lanaya answered 5 Christmas themed questions and "tagged" five other bloggers to do the same, and then on and on until we're all in the Christmas Spirit! 

1. What makes Christmas such a special holiday for you and your family?

Besides the most important aspect of celebrating the birth of our Savior,  Christmas has always (for me) been a holiday based on family. Now that I have one of my own it has become 1000x more fun! From November - December we celebrate each other and how thankful we are for each other. We also try to give much more of ourselves in this season than we do the rest of the year. 

2. Were you told the truth about Santa Claus by your parents or did you find out another way? And..do you plan on lying to your kids (if you have them or plan on having them)? Oh yes…I went there. 

I actually figured out the Easter Bunny first and because of that I was suspicious of Santa that year. Eventually my parents sat me and my brother down and told us the truth even though we already knew, just denied it. I plan on "lying" to my kids but I don't like the idea of telling Norah that she has to be good in order to get gifts. It seems like the exact opposite of what I would teach her about Jesus. So instead, we'll go along with the Santa game but as she gets older and is easier to understand, I want to explain to her that there will always be presents under the tree because like Jesus, Santa operates on grace. 

3. Real tree or Fake tree?

UGH so torn! Growing up we always had real and I love the way they look and smell. Mmm... However fake trees are SO much easier! It's a toss up. 

4. Do you open presents on Christmas morning, Christmas Eve or both?

We do one with the Grandparents on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning.

5. What is your favorite Christmas movie to watch? Favorite Christmas song to sing or listen to? ( I know…technically two questions)

That's a tough one! I really love It's a Wonderful Life and also all the old classics like Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman. However Home Alone (1 and 2) will always hold a special place in my heart ;)

Also, I will freely admit that I still listen to Hanson and N*SYNC's Christmas albums. Don't judge me.

For the next round of  You're It, I am tagging these bloggers:

Lindsay @ You Are the Roots

Wendy @ This Amazing Day

Lindsey @ Ot & Et

Randalin @ Harvesting Kale

Melanie @ Now a Queen

Hopefully these ladies pass on the fun! 

the season of giving

The holiday season always puts me in the mood to help others. I like buying a few gifts for my daughter, but that's about it and even then we don't go overboard. (I will be writing a separate post on our family "policies" on gift-giving.) There are way too many people in this world who need a hot meal or a warm coat more than I need ANOTHER scarf or ANOTHER book or ANOTHER anything!

So when I came across Mandy's post about helping each other out I was elated. I urge you to click that link and read through the comments. I was able to connect with another young mother (our little ones are only 8 days apart!) and we each feel equally blessed to have met each other. My family is fortunate enough this year that we have some extra money to spare but we have totally been there before. Scraping by and unsure of how our bills are even going to get paid. It is not a fun place to be especially around Christmas. 

Please, even if you only have $1 to spare, click on that link and see who is in need. Or, if you need help this year here is a great place to ask! Please do not hesitate to ask for help. We've all been there and we can all understand. Plus the joy of the season is not in who gets to open the most expensive or most amount of gifts on Christmas morning. It is about the Lord our God, it is about loving others, and it is about connecting with each other through the spirit of the season. I would much rather give than receive, remembering that the greatest gift we will ever know was given to us in Jesus. 

the happiest christmas song

{{ wordless wednesday }}

tomorrow is thanksgiving and then friday we'll be in christmas mode! it's been really hard to put it off this year (pinterest, why don't you let me enjoy november first?) but i'm thankful that it's only two more days away! so today i thought i'd share the happiest christmas song. plus, the video is adorable :)

happy thanksgiving to you and your family. remember to give thanks to the One who deserves all our praise. we all have so much to be thankful for in Him! 

linked with:

the paper mama

parenting by dummies

project alicia

jenni from the blog

bree: his honey and her mommy

live and love outloud

fresh mommy

5 minutes for mom 

sarah halstead

love bug

 seven clown circus

norah says

Me: "Norah, what do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?
Norah: "Chrissmasss? A shoebox? YEA!"

Sure thing, kiddo :)