My Favorite Time of Year

I think I say that every year.

I mean it.

Not only for the reason for the season, but for the season itself.

I LOVE Christmas time.

I LOVE giving my children gifts, and can hardly wait for them to open them.

Can you tell my love language is gift giving?

Tonight the kids and I wrapped our gifts for our nieces and nephews.

I used my very favorite paper from Target.  (The BEST place on earth.)

When I put the presents under the tree, I started looking more closely at the things on the tree.

I mean, I looked at them when Grace and I were putting the tree up, but I forgot how much I LIKED the things I decorate my tree with.

Some are things I made, and some are treasures I found...like all the shiny brite ornaments I've come across in the last several years.

Then I stepped back and really looked.

There really is nothing more pretty then a tree all lit up in a warm, dim room.

I love Christmas.  Hope you're enjoying the season too.

Preschool Highjinks

Tonight was the Preschool Christmas Program at the Preschool I help out at.

My job is to help a set of triplets with their everyday tasks at the preschool.  They are a great set of girls, and so are all the other boys and girls in the class.

For weeks we've been practicing Christmas songs, and little dittys, and even Bible verses in anticipation of tonight.

This past week we practiced three times in the sanctuary in front of the microphones, so the kids were ready.

We thought we were good.

I arrived tonight 15 minutes before the kids did, to help get things ready.

Then everyone came. 

Things were looking good.  We brought the older kids (pre-K age) down to the circle where we have "circle time" everyday.

We went over some songs ONE MORE TIME, and then got them lined up in the order that we thought would cause the least hassle, or fights, or stop the talking problems between best friends. 

I turned around to lead them upstairs, (the other teacher was at the end of the line...) and noticed the first boy in line had the start of a bloody nose.  I quickly wiped it up, only to hear the other teacher helping a boy who was THROWING UP at the end of the line.  We were rushing around to find a trash can, and she had his mouth covered with kleenex, and I knew I needed to get the other kids UPSTAIRS, and FAST.

We headed upstairs, everyone was following the person in front of them.  All we had to do was enter the sanctuary, and go to the front, and turn to the left and sit down on the front pew.  THAT'S ALL WE HAD TO DO.

I walked with the first boy in the line to the end of the pew, and turned around one last time, only to see the whole line disassembling themselves.  They had moved to where their friends were, and NO ONE was in the same place as when they were downstairs.  I heard some tinkling laughter from some parents, but what was I to do, I had only turned around for a second.  I didn't get them back in the right order, but I got them in some kind of order, and we all sat down on the pew. 

Once it was our turn on the stage, they handled things pretty well.  Some did all the singing and the motions, some just looked shell shocked.

After that there was cookies and drinks. 

Whew.  What a night.  I can honestly say I'm SO GLAD my kids are not pre-K age anymore. 

They are good kids that I help at the Preschool, but quite a handfull!

To settle myself after the festivities, I came home and made some more things for my ETSY shop. 

Would you like a preview?

Some flower pins/hair clips...

 and some more Christmas items.

Hope your Sunday afternoon was less chaotic than mine!

Black Friday

It took me all day to re coop from our Thanksgiving festivities and Black Friday madness.

We had a great time going to my aunt's house and eating till our sides hurt.

My cousins and family are great.  The older we get, the more we seem to have in common, even though I am the oldest cousin by 6 years.  (my youngest cousin and I have 17 years between us.)

Once our food settled somewhat, we headed for home, and the kids and I went right to bed.  (It was 4:30pm)

We had a BIG night planned.

I wasn't sure if I was on board or not, but we forged ahead.

At 8:30 pm, the kids and I headed out to Target for their 9pm Black Friday opening.

It was C-A-R-AZY!!!  The line started about 5 stores away from the front of Target.

But it moved VERY FAST.  Once you got inside, you had to file single file through the aisles.  It was total and complete MADNESS.  I had one thing for Brent in mind, and I got it, with only a few to spare.  WHEW!

This was Evan's first time going with us.

I was a little unsure of how that would go.  He's my sleeper, and when he falls, he falls HARD.  I didn't know if he could make it all night.

Once we were done at Target, I got a text from two of my cousins who were a couple stores away.  They wanted to know if we could all ride over to the mall (45 min away) for the next jaunt.  This wasn't planned, but we met up, and went together, and had a blast!

We stayed out till 4:30am, with a stop at Steak and Shake on the way home for "Happy Hour" from 2-4am.  1/2 price milkshakes...Evan was in heaven! 

There was one point in the night when we were in line at a store for 1 hour, when it looked like Evan was gonna hit the floor, but he rebounded well, and made it through the rest of the night.

The kids and I made it home about 5:30 am, and went straight to bed, only to sleep till about 11am.

It was a good time (I think), and we made some good memories. 

'Course today was set aside for Christmas decorating.

We started by turning on our FAVORITE movie ever.

ELF.  Classic, and hilarious!

The village got set up,  (My own PUTZ glitter village that I made myself out of wooden bird houses, scrapbook paper, and glitter.  LOTS of glitter...) with plenty of snow and  trees.

Grace set up the tree with "flair."

and Oreo staked out her spot for the whole Christmas season. (She loves the tree skirt.)

There were shiny brites...

lights...

and flocked trees galore.

It was a good relaxing day. 

As for Black Friday next year...well...we'll see.

Christmas Card Organizer

Many years ago when my kids were little, and I was heavily into Martha Stewart magazines (I still am...just don't get the subscription anymore) I made one of these Christmas card organizers.

I have no idea what happened to it over the 3 moves since then, but I figured it was time for another.

This summer I picked up a sewing/cross stitch/quilting loop at Goodwill with high hopes of putting material in it and hanging it on the wall....but it hasn't happened yet, so I thought it was time to use it for something else.

I got out some wooden clothespins too.

First, before you hot glue any one, place them around the circle (or in this case...oval...) to make sure of the placement.  I alternated the way the pins were going so all my cards weren't on top of each other.

Then hot glue in place, but NOT on the hinge.

I thought it was a little plain, so I added some material roses and some old scrabble tiles I had.

I put some green ribbon on the top, and just tied it around a nail, topped with one of my old vintage doorknobs.

Finished product...

Ready and waiting for more Christmas cards.  One down, many to go!

A happy accident

The other day when I was trying to put some things together for my giveaway (good till Sunday, Nov. 28) I stumbled upon something by accident.

I originally wanted to make some ornaments out of book pages, but when I started making some, I just didn't like them like I thought I would.

I got out some twine, some book pages, a hole punch, and tried something different.
This was the end result.  Book page garland.

Needless to say, THIS soon became part of the giveaway.  I'll show you how to make it, though.  It's easy, just takes a little time.

First, you'll need a hole punch, scissors, book pages, twine, and some tape (any kind will work.)

Cut some pages, the width of the paper.  Cut as wide as you'd like.  I think mine were about 3/4" thick.

Punch a hole on the end of each strip.

Next, pick one end of your length of twine (cut to desired length of garland...can be any length), and add tape to the end, since you will use this to thread through the holes punched in the pages.

On the other end of your twine length, tie a knot about 3 inches from the end.  This will be where your first paper "bow" will start.

Fold one strip of paper in half so the punched holes line up and thread the taped end of your twine through it.

Add as many of these folded over strips as you'd like, rotating their positions until you have a bow similar to this....

I don't know how many folded over pieces I used, but I just kept adding till it looked full.  The number is up to you.

Before you start another "bow", tie a knot where your bow ended.
Then tie another knot about 6 inches from the bow you just finished, and start another bow.

Repeat until your entire length of twine is filled with bows.

Now you're done. Add it to your tree, and stand back and bask in the brilliance of something so simple and cheap to make.

I'm sharing this homemade craft/gift over at Funky Junk Interior's Saturday Nite Special linky party. (click on the link below to visit.) And Shabby Art boutique.

Good luck with your garland.  Once you make some, you won't want to stop.