Didn�t.

I didn�t take my comfy pants off for days till last night. (Not the same pair all that time, mind you. Eww.)

I didn�t put bows on the presents. Wrapped and done.

I didn�t even use many tags. (Just coded them by wrapping.)

We didn�t have a beautiful family picture for our Christmas cards � I ended up making a collage so all four of us would be represented.

I didn�t get out of bed before 9 a.m., ever (even on Christmas morning � our children ROCK.)

I didn�t make �real� cookies with cut outs or beautiful icing (and Santa still liked them just fine�he told me so.)

The Bub didn�t change out of his Christmas jammies for more than 24 hours, and that was just to change into new ones.

I didn�t cook anything on Christmas eve. (Pizza. Thank you.)

I didn�t take enough pictures � I was too busy being in the moment. (But I�ll probably regret it.)

I didn�t pick up the millions of itty bitty legos that have been underfoot for days. (Still haven�t. I kind of surrender.)

I didn�t make the bed once, even with tons of family here.

I didn�t take one piece of Christmas decor down. (But I�m feeling the itch.)

I didn�t mind one single bit when the whole family sat down and watched Despicable Me during Christmas dinner. I loved it � it was easy and fun and relaxed and US. (We love that movie!)

I didn�t break out into hives when the house was trashed for 36 hours straight.

And then I still didn�t clean it after 36 hours � I just left and went shopping. :)

My husband and I didn�t exchange gifts � because being debt free is going to be our gift to each other and our family. (SOON.)

 

Every year, I have all of these visions of what our holidays will be in my head -- usually there�s a soft glow around everyone, birds are singing (somewhere) and I look 15 pounds thinner�it�s a great vision. In my head. :)

And those visions pretty much never happen. It�s never perfect. I never accomplish all that want to. Every year I say, I�ll make a list of those things I want to get done and make sure to do them. And every year life gets in the way.

A whole lot of �didn�t� happens.

And every year I realize how very OK with that I am. Our holidays don�t end up our like my visions -- they always turn out so much better. So sweet. So close. So much family. So much big, fat, LOVE.

I hope your holiday was all you (didn�t) envision and so, so, so much more. :)

 

I�ll be back tomorrow with an update on my office redo!

Merry Christmas to you and yours�

Hello all! We are prepping for the big day around here, and there�s SO much to do, but I LOVE IT.

I wanted to take a minute to thank you all so very, very much for your support and love this year. I have the BEST readers out there. (I really do.)

To wrap up the holiday posts, I thought I�d do a recap in pictures. A few shots I haven�t shown you yet, and some are of my favorites from this year�s Christmas posts.

Enjoy the lights, glitter and cheer. :)

(Click pics to get to posts.)

Merry Christmas from my family to yours�

I hope you have lovely, magical holiday!

Header Challenge 22nd December 2010 � The Light.

 

Well Christmas is almost upon us so this is the last header challenge before Christmas. This week it has been my turn to choose the theme for us to create our header on.

I chose �the Light�. I thought it would give everyone a good scope to come up with something creative, it will be interesting to see what the others come up with.

My first thought was that I wanted to use candles as my light�

but, I felt it needed a little bit more�

so as it is Christmas (or very nearly) I added Jesus to the photo as he is regarded as bringing light to the world at Christmas.

Now for my header to fit it needs to be in the landscape format so I had a bit of a play adding extra candles and foliage�

In the end I�ve gone for a shot taken very low to the ground to get the angle I wanted.

I hope you like it.

I wonder what my fellow headbangers have come up with this week for their headers.

Remember this Christmas to add the true light to your Christmas celebrations.

A few of my favorite things�

Hello! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! We are almost done shopping�but still not one gift wrapped. We LOVE the thrill of last minute. I guess. :)

Tis the season for FUN stuff � I don�t know about you, but I�m a total and complete sucker for anything Christmas-themed or related. If it has snowflakes, I�m hooked. Peppermint swirls, forgetaboutit. Glitter? Gah. I give up.

It�s the one time of the year I give into the stuff � because I have NO self control. And yes, I know STUFF has zero to do with the real meaning of the season, so it�s important to keep it in check.

But I love it, and it�s my blog, so I�m going to share some of my very favorites of this season with YOU. Or more specifically, I�m going to GIVE some of my favorites to one of you. :)

It�s my way of saying Merry Christmas, thank you, I don�t know what I�d do without you, paying it forward, smooches�all that.

So let�s get on to the good stuff, shall we?

If you saw my dining room post, you know I�m quite enamored with Walmart�s ornaments this year. I can�t stand it, they are so stinking cute. So I picked up a couple of the pretty trees:

Glittery goodness!

Pretty much every single night this time of year, I enjoy a big, fat mug of hot chocolate. So I got a (cute!) big, fat mug for you to enjoy some hot chocolate as well:

And while I was at it, I remember that I�m a bit obsessed with the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate from Starbucks. If you have not had it, please, I beg of you�GO NOW. Or as soon as humanly possible. Starbucks is not paying me to say this, but I wish they were.

OH my. It�s so stinkin� good. So I got a $5 gift card so you can enjoy one and a half of your own Salted Caramel Hot Chocolates:

And then I remembered another hot chocolate I love, and that�s when I add a candy cane Hershey�s kiss to it and let it melt inside. Uhhh�YUM. I told you about these kisses here and I still love them now. And I�m not even a peppermint kind of girl really � but they are YUM:

This has turned into a hot chocolate post. Moving on�

The folks at Waverly sent me some of their beeeeautiful new holiday party-ware to try out. They have some really pretty plates, napkins and even cups, and I�m IN LOVE with all of it:

We haven�t hosted any holiday parties this year, so I�m going have hubby pry them out of my hands and so I can give them to you. Yes, I know it may be a bit late for you to use them this season too, but maybe next year? Honestly, I kind of think they could be used any time of the year � aren�t they beautiful?

And finally, my very favorite part. I know this one won�t be a big deal to some of you, but I LOVE THIS THING. I found a gift wrap storage thingamabob at True Value a couple of weeks ago:

And for all that is good�I finally found something that WORKS. For years I�ve had a few rolls in a long, thin storage bin, but it�s too short to hold most of our wrapping. Then last year I got one of those storage jobbies that stands up, but the wrapping was still too long.

I swear to you, I even considered taking my miter saw to them, to make them fit. I kid you not.

But they don�t have to be sacrificed now! This thing is the BOMB. It�s long enough, and holds a bunch of rolls. And instead of the wrapping rolling off our tower of Christmas bins every. time. I walk by � now they are all contained, and that makes me SO happy!

So I went back and got one for you too, because I can�t be the only one with this problem. Am I? Crickets.

It really is the little things. Candy cane kisses and a tall gift wrap tube, and I�m a happy Chick.  :)

Soooo, I�m giving all of these goodies away to one of you! I wish I could give something to every single one of you, I really, really do. I just hope you know how much I�ve appreciated your sweet comments, emails and support throughout this year.

To enter, leave a comment here. Tell us your favorite part/thing/food of the season. I�ll only have this giveaway open through Monday at midnight, so I can get this all mailed off to the lucky one on Tuesday.

For now, I�m off to write 75 Christmas cards:

I�m just hoping everyone gets them before Christmas. :)

Have a wonderful Monday!!

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Thank you to my sponsor!:

The Christmas stairs

So, remember that little bitty project I took on early this year? The one I wanted to tackle late last year, mostly because I couldn�t wait to see it all dressed up for Christmas?

That �little� project was taking the carpet off our stairs � and I may have mentioned it 149 times or so. :)

Our house has been decorated for Christmas for a couple weeks now, but because I had been waiting all year to see our stairs at Christmas, I saved that for the end.

But then I got a little lazy (OK, a LOT lazy), and didn�t want to unravel all of our lighted greenery I usually use. Knowing my luck this year, I�m pretty sure half the lights are going to be out anyway. That�s how I roll. (Apparently.)

So I had something else in mind, and I love how it turned out! I started with sprigs of greenery � I�m in LOVE with the beautiful greenery I�ve found at Big Lots this year and last, but they were completely out of it. Instead, I found this lovely little tree:

Isn�t it fantastic?? :) He�s just a little sad. But I loved his branches, so I just cut the pieces off and twisted a few together:

I had some small red ornaments I wanted to throw in, but I couldn�t find my floral wire anywhere (GAH), so I used some picture wire from True Value that I grabbed for another project:

And it worked great! I just cut little pieces off and strung a few ornaments on:

I nestled them in into the greenery pieces and called that part DONE.

Ever since I saw my friend Melissa�s precious mason jars, I knew I had to do something similar. I LOVE using these jars � I�ve collected quite a few at Goodwill over the years. I just needed ONE more for the stairs, and it took a few trips into the GW (we�re tight, so it�s �GW�), but I finally found it. :)

Melissa used Epsom salts, which looked absolutely lovely. I already had some faux snow, so I just used that. I had to buy one more bag, but they�re a great deal for $1.99 at Target:

A little goes a LONG way. Love that stuff � be sure to watch for it after the holidays and grab it up for half off! (You can see how I used this fluffy goodness in our dining room too.)

I just filled my jars, then plopped an LED tea light into the snow.

It�s so sweet and simple:

And you know what? I love it so much, I don�t miss the garland at all! I adore those glowing jars � and of course I only use Ball jars, as a double thump to the chest to my alma mater, Ball State U.  ;)

And yes, I couldn�t resist keeping a couple of our mice from the fall stairs up there. Stink Eye Sis gave me some major stink for keeping them up so long, but I L.O.V.E. them.

I Christmasified the mice a bit:

    

Are you kidding me? Adorable. Aren�t there Christmas mice? Or am I making that up in my head and a wild attempt to explain my Halloween mice on my Christmas stairs?

Whatever. I think they are the cauuutest!!:

I was done, but then walked by a pile of sparkly snowflake ornaments I had in a pile to go the basement.

I thought a punch of red would be fun on the picture wall, so I used mounting squares from True Value (those little jobbies are how I attach my mice to the risers too) and attached them to the backs:

I just placed them here and there in the frames on the wall:

They add the perfect sparkly pop!

And yet again, I�m so glad I ripped that carpet off the stairs:

I can�t believe the difference from last year � the night shot before the ripping of the carpet:

And now:

Wow, the new camera sure doesn�t hurt. :)

And after all that, we�re left with a really cute Charlie Brown Christmas tree:

Or something. :)

I think that�s the last of the Christmas decor around here � but I do have a couple more things I want to show you. You know�inspiration for next year.  ;)

Are you done shopping? I�m half way there�and not ONE gift is wrapped. Wish me luck.

 

*I was one of the bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program as well as my writing about my experience. I have also been compensated for the materials needed for my DIY project. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.*

Thank you to my sponsor!:

Header Challenge 15th December 2010 � Anticipation

 

As most of you know each Wednesday I join some friends, Tom-fishing Guy, imac, Gailsman and Lanny to create a header based on a theme chosen by a member of the group.

This weeks challenge has been set by Lanny. She has chosen anticipation for her header theme this week.

With three kids I thought getting a picture of anticipation would be easy, but, most of the family have gone down with the flu bug over the last couple of weeks. So unless you count anticipation of getting rid of the snuffles, I don�t think they were in the mood for photographs.

So I thought I would look through my back catalogue of photos to see if I had any that would fit the theme of anticipation.

How about anticipation at the start of a relay race�

Anticipation of a lovely new day�

Anticipation of childhood new discoveries�

But I felt that at this time of year the biggest anticipation is the celebration of the coming of Christ at Christmas. So this week I have chosen to take a photo of our nativity scene to show my families and hopefully thousands of others� anticipation of the Christmas message.

Luke 2:11 "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Anticipate and Celebrate the real reason for Christmas this year.

 

Tour of our Christmas kitchen!

Heya! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We were BUSY. Tis the season, eh? :)

My friend the Nester is hosting a holiday home tour, and I thought I�d share our festive kitchen and link up!

Warning: LOTS and lots of pictures!

A couple of years ago, I decided to make our kitchen FUN for the holidays. Like, lots of candy cane stripes, red and white, a little bit of whimsy, FUN.

Last year I made some super easy wreaths using dollar store forms and ribbon (that I bought half off the year before at Target). I hang them on the backs of the kitchen chairs:

 

I love how simple they are, but the candy cane stripe adds a little punch. :)

I kept it simple on the table by just adding some sparkle:

Who doesn�t love a little glitter in their salt and pepper? ;)

I usually surround our back door with garland and lights, but I�m not even kidding you � the lights on almost every. single. strand I�ve pulled out of the bins were burnt out. (I had to replace ALL of them on our outdoor garland.)

They were burnt out on the kitchen greenery too, and I was DONE with that. :) So I went with our simple wreath on the back door:

It�s just a cheapy wreath with red ornaments stuffed in, and a dollar store ornament hanging from the middle.

I hot glued the ribbon over the hanger too. Pretty cute, eh?

I told you about the score that is my kitchen tree last year � I think it was around $80 originally, and I got it for about $15 after the holidays at Michael�s. It came lighted, with the urn, and it is all sparkly and pretty � LOVE it:

I�ve put a bunch of white and red ornaments on it, including my absolute favorite � the little red glass birds from Target a few years ago:

I haven�t seen them there again � which bums me out because they are just the most darling little things ever!

Our Ikea sofa table is decked out as well � it�s the perfect spot for my Santa hats:

And various fun stuff from year�s past(WHY must stores keep tempting me with cauuute stuff?) at the end of the table:

A candy-themed snow globe train, an adorable gingerbread house that sings and lights up (be still my heart) from Hallmark, and the carafe and plate we use for Santa�s goodies.

I don�t have much on the counters � just a couple Goodwill cookie jars:

And another Santa carafe holds candy canes for my nightly hot chocolate:

A friend and I found those adorable carafes at Flower Factory years ago, and we each grabbed up a few extras. I just adore them. Cause Santa does rock.

My giant Goodwill cloche on the island is filled with my standard greenery, ornaments and beady stuff:

For those of you wondering, I take the cloche off, fill it up while upside down, then place the base over it and turn it right side up. :)

Last year I put gobs of greenery, lights and sparkly stuff up above our cabs, but this year I felt like I had plenty going on without them. So I just piled a few big ornaments here and there, and hung a couple from platters:

Originally, I had planned to place a very simple garland over our kitchen window and call it done � but then I pulled up the Christmas bins and it was kind of like Christmas when I opened them up � wink wink.

Every year, I forget about all the fun decor we have. Isn�t that so fun to rediscover everything?

I started with a little vintagey looking tree I found at a consignment shop last year:

Can I tell you how much I LOVE Santa boots? Love.

I ordered these blocks from my friend Amanda last year:

Oh my � they are so adorable!

I found these itty bitty Santa boots at Kirkland�s a year or two ago � and I fill them with red hots (one of my favorites!):

They are sooo small and insanely cute!

Since I still haven�t put any window treatments up on my nekked windows, I thought the window could still use a little somethin� to dress it up for the season.

Instead of the garland I had planned, (which I have enough of around here anyway!), I saw a simple idea in a magazine a couple months ago and decided to give it a try.

I used a tension rod we already had and hot glued some red ribbon around it first. Because I�m freaky like that. :) I hung some candy cane ornaments from it with ribbon:

Those ornaments were $4 (on sale) at Hobby Lobby by the way � and you get a bunch of them!

I think it�s pretty darn sweet:

I think my absolute favorite spot in our Christmas kitchen is the Goodwill shelves I found earlier this year � I had so much fun playing around with this little vignette!:

It was all stuff we had, and I LOVE having this little space to decorate in the kitchen! It makes me HAPPY.  :)

So here�s our Christmasy kitchen:

 

Can you find our Elf on the Shelf in this picture?:

He forgets to move every couple of nights. ;)

Whew! Well, that�s the tour of our Christmas kitchen! Some of you have been following along as I�ve been working on the redo of this room � it�s definitely getting there. And I LOVE how it�s turning out!

The before and after pics aren�t the exact same shot, but you can see the difference a new sink and backsplash have made in the room:

OK, a few other changes too. :) And the after shot was taken at night � now that�s impressive! You can see more of the changes I�ve made in the kitchen by going here.

Oh yeah�there�s 530 fantastic trees linked up! Wooeee!

P.S. Kelly is hosting a linky too � you can go here to check it out!

 

Thank you to my sponsor!: