Christmas Decorations 2015

I'm skipping ahead and showing some sneak peeks, because otherwise I might end up posting Christmas decorations in July!

I didn't go crazy decorating this year, since we still have workers coming in & out of the house with dirt, mud & dust.  But I'm having fun finding new places to put decorations, and buying a few new things to go with the new rooms :)

A new wreath for the front door

I think the tree is the best looking one we've found in years!  I needed to buy extra lights (luckily did that early this year!) and then I ran out of beads because it was wider than we usually get!  Mike even had to add extra tracks for the Polar Express Train to go around the bottom (it usually fits on that green board under the tree!)  So, that's taking up a quarter of the family room, ha ha!

I kept it very basic in the foyer... sticking with my Santa card display this year.

The kitchen didn't get too much either, with work still going on.  I put these vintage cardboard serving bowls up on above the stove.  I figured those aren't likely to get broken since the workers are messing with the hood!

Then we've got elves that keep moving around (we are infested with 9 of them!)  They were my grandmothers and my brother & I always searched for them around her house when we were little kids- long before the whole Elf on the Shelf became popular!

More elves... on the new dining room chandelier!

...which then got some ornaments, once the elves hopped over to other rooms.

Back to the family room... I hung the wreath that had been on the front door, over the mirror that's above the fireplace.  I gave it a new bow, and then put this pretty angel in front.  It was just one of those random groupings that now I'm really liking!

We've been enjoying lots of cookie baking- I feel like we hadn't done any good cookies since moving to this house (I just wasn't feeling up to it in the old icky kitchen!)  This year we've baked several nights during the weeks leading up to Christmas.  It's so much easier with all of the baking supplies at our fingertips in the new kitchen!

Projects from Un-decorating

As I was taking down the rest of the Christmas decorations this past weekend, it sparked a few mini-projects.

The foyer table and the shelf above suddenly looked so bare once the Christmas stuff was put away.
After digging around a little bit, I came up with 5 old, pretty keys and decided to hang them from the shelf hooks with ribbon.  I also placed the painting done by Mike's father up on the shelf.

Next I had to do something with all the Christmas cards that I took down from there. 

Lots of them get put into a photo album, and a couple I save to put in the frame on the table next year. 

There were a few though, that I thought would make really cute tags for next year's Christmas gifts.

I snipped away, punched holes, and put them into a little box to store until next year.

Finally, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I decided something needed to be done about our little table prayer holder.  We made it a few years ago at an Advent Workshop (inspired by one that I had originally made in elementary school!)

It has about 10 prayers printed onto bookmarks, and the kids get to pick out which one we say for grace. 

Anyways, it's seen better days! 

Since my older son is now reading, I thought it would be nice to make a new set so my youngest can pick it each night, and my oldest can read it. 

I still had extra bookmarks from making the last one, I wrote out some "easy-to-read" prayers, tied each with a ribbon, and stuck them in a wide-mouth mason jar. 

Easy- and it looks so much better on the kitchen shelf!

A Merry Little Christmas

First up, here are two activities that kept the kids busy while waiting for Christmas to arrive!

Trivets

Made from clear glass stones used for vase flower arrangements.
(adapted from this image using river stones- gotta love Pinterest when looking for random ideas!)

We first tried with Elmers Glue- don't know what I was thinking, what a mess!  The felt got all gooey, and then I had to clean the film of glue off of the stones before we could start over with new felt and the glue gun!

By the 3 year old

 <---This photo was taken before I trimmed the excess felt.

We put a trivet in a basket with homemade sparkling holiday jam, applebutter, & pickles that I gave to my mom as a little hostess gift.

By the 6 year old



StarWars Snowflakes 

Some of the designs were a little hard to cut out, but my six-year-old really enjoyed working on them.

Having a good set of little kids' scissors was the key.


(Get the templates here)

The weekend finally arrived! 

My parents' Christmas Eve party had all the requirements...

Great decorations, Great food, Great company...



Pretty trees

(you can tell my boys didn't help decorate these!)







Pinecones stolen from my yard

(hee hee- just kidding, mom, you can have as many pinecones as you'd like!)

Sparkling wine

My aunt made her famous eggnog!

... And a visit from the big man himself (much to the delight of all the children!)

What a wonderful way to spend the weekend!

Almost Silent Night

My Christmas gift arrived a few days early- a new camera!

So, I ran outside to take some night shots of the house with the candles in the windows- since they didn't come out when I tried with my old point & shoot.  (Bear with me- I'm in the process of figuring out the best settings for different shots!)

Check out that crazy sky! 

Soon after I took this we had a torrential downpour with thunder (hence the title of this post) & lightening.  It got so windy that the tree on the porch was knocked over!

Porch tree and candle

Good thing I already snapped photos of it!

Porch tree at night

  

Candle and tree through window






Our other photos and posts about this year's Christmas decorations can be seen here and here.

And one last random photo- these guys crossed in front of the school bus the other morning! You can see five of them in the photo- there were seven in all! 

Decking the Halls

Well, I didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped, but figured I'd share the photos anyway!

 Family Room:



Love the nativity set- the figures are rubbery/plastic,
so the kids can play with them (and they do!) 

Collection of Snowmen from my aunt

Vintage Santa

These ornaments were
Mike's grandmothers

Silver Bells-After seeing "The Polar Express"
at age 3, my son asked for a sleigh bell
from Santa- So precious!

Collection of Santas from Mom

Foyer:

Hanging from the shelf is our card holder-
a Santa face that holds the cards in his beard

The cat keeps knocking these down!







Dining Room:

Not much else in this room... next year!

                                                  


 






Gates to the barn:

The previous owner left the greens for us,
I added the bows.

 





We also put electric candles in all of the windows, and decorated the front porch (photos here).

This year it was all about finding places in the new house for our old beloved decorations.

Next year, I plan to do a lot more with greens both inside & outside the house!

Plus, now that I know the areas of the house that need a little something, I'm going to shop those post-Christmas sales to add to the decoration collection!

Holiday Baking

With the holidays quickly approaching, we decided to take a little break from the house projects.

Here's what we've been up to insead, in this old kitchen. 

I wasn't feeling quite up to baking a bunch of cookies, so opted for some easy & less-messy holiday recipes this year.

Spiced Pecans

These are incredibly easy, and my boys LOVE them.  In fact, I baked them on Saturday & they were almost gone by Sunday morning.  So I'll be making more this weekend!

 Ingredients-
1 lb pecans, halved
1 Tbsp water
1 egg white

1 cup sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coriander

1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Whip egg white with water until fluffy.  Coat Pecans with mixture.
Combine rest of ingredients together.
Pour over Pecans & stir until fully coated.
Spread Pecans on baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake for 30 minutes, turning/stirring Pecans every 10 minutes.

Then it's just a matter of putting them in a pretty jar/container. 
I opted for old fashioned glass-lid canning jars.  They can't be used for real canning, so I've been using them for all kinds of stuff (one for old buttons, another for spare change, and now two for storing snacks!)





I used 4 oz. jars for gift baskets that
I'm making with other canned items.

Sparkling Holiday JamHere's another recipe I tried for the first time- SO easy.
The kids enjoyed it as a warm sauce on top of vanilla ice cream.

I got the recipe from here.  The only modification made was adding the lemon juice for a little tartness &  it supposedly makes a brighter red.  Judging by the comments on allrecipe.com, it's very forgiving/ tweakable!

 

Ingredients-This recipe makes 12- 8 ounce jars

• 2.5 quarts of strawberries, coarsely chopped (or if buying frozen, get ~54 ounces)
• 1 (12 ounce) package fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces powdered fruit pectin
• 1 teaspoon margarine
• 5 pounds white sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice

-Prepare jars & lids by boiling in water for at least 10 min.

-In large saucepan, combine strawberries, cranberries, pectin, margarine & lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Stir in sugar, and return to a boil. Cook for 1 min, then remove from heat.

-Fill jars to within 1/2 inch from top. Wipe rims clean, and put on lids.
-Process in a boiling water bath for 5 min.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I've been waiting for this since April! 

I didn't do much decorating for Christmas last year, because we were in the middle of showing our old house for potential buyers.  So, it's been two years and I'm VERY excited to re-discover all the fun decorations, & find places for everything in the new house!

This past weekend, I worked on the front porch:


I took in the wicker furniture for the winter, and brought out our sled & ice skates.

I love the little black pair that are hanging from the top of the sled.  They're the old double blade training skates, and just fit my 3 year old!  Can't wait for some ice!







I moved the wrought iron cafe set over to the one side of the porch- it just looked so empty over there!

Since we have a lot of landscaping to do, we decided to get a little live tree for the porch that we can plant somewhere in the yard after the holidays.  I wanted to do the same for the inside tree, but my 6 year old revolted against me on it- and I caved!

Good tip from Mike's mom- dig the hole for the tree now, before the ground freezes... otherwise we might have a big problem trying to get it planted in January!

I went with a simple wreath for the door, and hung a curtain with a little red trim.  Our usual crocheted curtain looked too busy with the wreath.

And check out this little guy --->

My brother's girlfriend made it for us a few years ago out of a patio paver.  Cute, right?

The inside decorating is going a bit slower.  Everything is down from the attic- but I keep moving stuff around, trying to find the perfect spot for things! 

We'll be putting up the living room tree this weekend- I can't wait!

Update:  See the inside decorations here