Christmas Mania Re-cap

Whew! The whirlwind of Christmas is coming to an end. We're taking our tree down tomorrow (sad), and I'm sure the rest of the decorations will follow. It will be sad to see it go, but I will be happy to have things back to normal around here and re-claim my living room from the holiday cheer ;)

We said goodbye to our friend Mr.Elfie Elf until next year (which actually made Noah pretty sad). He is currently living in my underwear drawer until I break out the Christmas boxes to put the Christmas stuff away. Every morning when I'm getting dressed, there he is smiling at me :)

Oh yeah - MAJOR ALERT - ALERT!!! Not only is my hubby a hottie, a wonderful dad, a hero in the community ETC. Not only is he hard-working, sweet, smart, funny, ETC. This Christmas he knocked my socks right off. He got me the Cricut!!!!!! WOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I am so excited, I have no words! The next gift he needs to give me is a day without the munchkins so I can learn how to use it and put it to work. I am so so excited to get started. I have a feeling 2011 is going to be a year filled with fun projects and crafts involving this magical little machine. I think it may be my 4th true love!!! I hope you all are getting back to normal and are ready for a fun 2011! I know I am :)

Merry X-mas!!!

Merry Christmas to my fabulous 30 followers! Unfortunately my hubby got called in to work at the fire station today so Santa is coming to our house tonight, and tomorrow we're going to have a quiet little Christmas all together. Today was a crazy day filled with siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles, Nanas, friends, food, gifts, fun, and so much LOVE! Merry Christmas People!!

R.I.P - Whaaaaaaa!

Well folks, here we are. DAYS before Christmas and just look at my 2010 Poinsettia. Boo hoo! We have been having a huge rain storm here in SoCal and last night was the one that did her in. High winds and heavy rain. She hung in the best she could but in the end, the storm won. I guess I'll have to try again next year. Darn you mother nature!

In other news, I got all of my wrapping done in advance (n-e-v-e-r happened before in this house). Plaid paper packages tied up with ribbon....these are a few of my favorite things!

Awwwwwww. The final days before Christmas are upon us people!! Are you done shopping?? Have you wrapped?? I love all the chaos that comes with this time of year (I know, I'm probably alone in this love affair). Ha ha.

Ding Dong the Banner is DONE!

Hooray!! Our 2010 Christmas tree banner is DONE! Noah and I are thrilled with how it turned out. He thought it would be a great idea if we moved the banner out of his room and into the kitchen where everyone can see it. I totally agree. Is it weird that I want to leave this up year round!? Ha ha.

Look at all that crafty-ness. Just look at it!

Don't worry, if you didn't get on the Christmas tree banner bandwagon, you definitely have time to get on the Easter egg banner bandwagon. Seriously people, you won't regret it! Quality time made simpler :)

Um...Yeah. Awesomeness.

Awesomeness ALERT!!! I went with my family to this house that is well known in the community for their beautiful Christmas lights and decorations. Man oh man is that an understatement!!! Not only is the outside of the house completely covered in lights (that are synchronized to music), but the entire inside is completely decked out too. It's A-mazing! When you get inside, you are immediately greeted by this HUGE upside-down Christmas tree. Yep, you read that right. It is nuts!

Their gorgeous living room......

And then room after room full of beautiful snow villages. She actually carved the mountains out of Styrofoam. I know. Crazy!

This is their amazing tree. I am having dreams of this tree. It is the prettiest tree I've ever seen!! Not kidding.

If you live in Orange County CA, go to 25473 Nellie Gail Road in Laguna Hills starting at 5pm, every night until NY Eve and get your socks knocked off! And you'll get some hot apple cider and brownies there too. YUM!

Updates....

UPDATES: First, My 2010 Christmas Poinsettia is STILL ALIVE people - YAY! So far, so good (but definitely not counting my chickens before they hatch).

And Second: Here's a shot of my Christmas card hanger-upper thingy that is quickly filling up with cards (and it looks just as cute as I thought it would). The holidays are so busy with shopping, parties, programs at school etc. There's not a whole lot of time for crafting or DIY in my world at the moment (other than frantically wrapping gifts after my little ones turn in for the night). Still hustling and bustling and fun, just not too much "blog-worthy" stuff happenin' around here. Hope you are all checking things off of your list like I am :)

Decking the Halls - Part 3 - Kiddos

First, I wanted to show you MY Christmas heart. This is how the world knows that MY tree was decorated with LOVE. This little guy is the reason I started selling my Christmas hearts on Etsy this year. My Nana put this little heart on the tree every year, and now it's my turn to carry on the tradition. I have very vivid childhood memories of it and I am thrilled to have it on my tree to share with my kids.

Ok, now on to the kid-space decorations. Not too magical, but still fun. I kind of feel like my kid's rooms are always a disaster of toys, laundry, and just kid-icky-mess. I try to keep up with it, but as most of you moms know, it's tough. I try to keep their holiday decor somewhat simple so I don't just add to the clutter. This first pic is of "Noah and Mommy's 2010 Christmas tree banner - in progress." We still have 3 more trees to go. It sort of blends in with his map, but he insists on it going there. That boy knows what he wants ;)

Pretty little trees strung across the nation spreading holiday cheer. Love it!

Noah's little tree has some of his (giant) favorite ornaments on it. Ha ha. He hung them on there all by himself and is very proud of his creation.

Hayden's room is girly girly. basically anything pink I find in the Christmas stash gets displayed here. Isn't her baby snowman on the right adorable!?

Please disregard the mountain of clothes and focus on the pretty satin balls and mini-shabby-chic-Christmas-dioramas (is that how you spell dioramas?). Cute :)

This wreath actually stays up all year, but I originally made it with Christmas in mind. So fluffy and girly. PINK!

Our "Santa's Workshop" advent calendar hangs in the living room (Hallmark from a few years ago). Each day, you stick on one of the numbered magnetic holiday symbols until the whole thing is filled. This is Noah's daily job and he takes it very seriously.

Preschool art on display. These are keepers, for sure!

This is our other advent calendar, Mr.Snow Man. He looks vintage but he's from Target a few years ago. I think I'm in love with him :)

And last but not least, this guy is still hanging' around, moving from place to place, spying on the kids. It seems to be working, we haven't had many major meltdowns or freak-outs since he arrived. He's watching us right now, you know. And he's MAGIC!!!
Christmas was SO much fun when I was a kid and I definitely want my kiddos to feel the same magic that I did (& still do). Ok, gotta get back to addressing my Christmas cards....seriously, I have a claw for a hand. Ha ha!

Decking the Halls - Part 2 - TREE

Here is our 2010 Christmas tree!! Isn't she magical!? As you can see, I'm a "more ornaments, less branches" kind of gal (definitely my mother's daughter). This year we switched from colored lights to white lights and I am lovin' it so much more!

Ooooooh Ahhhhhhh.

Here is a close-up of my favorite ornament from my childhood. My twin sis has the other one that matches, only her angel is carrying a Christmas tree in her thimble. I just love her so much!

See this tiny little red ball ornament? This is the ONLY ornament that my husband hangs on the tree every year. He also does the lights and the star, but as far as ornaments go, this it is. I love that guy! Ha ha.

And here's a shot of her with the lights off. SO twinkly, I think I'm in love!!! Now if only I could get my baby girl to stop taking the ornaments off one by one and showing them to me, we'll be all set. Happy holidays people!!!

Tree-Teaser

We f-i-n-a-l-l-y got our Christmas tree last night - WOOHOO! If it were up to me, we would get it on Dec 1st, no ifs ands or buts about it. But, we've been busy and I'm not the only "boss" over here, so we waited a few extra days. Anyway, I thought I would share a few pictures of some of my new ornaments this year. I made a few more book page ornaments to go with the
original three I made. I typically like to have some noticeable "base" ornaments to be evenly spaced throughout the tree. I used to do merchandising for a local boutique, and the trick I learned is to have something that helps lead your eyes throughout the whole space, or in this case, down the whole tree. Anyway, this first one is MY FAVE! Ha ha MY husband used to work in an office before he became a firefighter and they always had a white-elephant gift exchange. We took this photo of him, he autographed it "to my #1 fan," and we put it in a frame. Rumor has it, there were several people fighting over it. CLASSIC!

Feelin' the love :)

Noah's first Christmas (& yes, this was the photo we used for our card that year - bare butt and all).

And the last one is from when Hayden was born. She was such a sweet tiny little peanut. Sigh.

I got some awesome store-bought ones on super sale at JCPenny (random, I know) like this sparkly peace sign.

Pretty glittery snowflakes.

Sweet nest - LOVE it!

And I couldn't believe that even JCPenny is doing sheet music. Who'd a thought!? My next post will be the fully decorated tree reveal. Stay tuned people!!