Stockings

This is the first year that my parents will be staying with me for Christmas.  We have lived in the same city my entire life but they just moved to California so the holidays have been spent at my house lately.  

Ashley and I hung our stockings on the mantle and then said Mema and Papa need one too.  

I bought 2 inexpensive stockings at Target:

We decided to cut out letters with my felt that I use for roses.  Ashley drew the letters and started cutting:

She wanted to stitch the letters on the the cuff (mind you it was 9:00 at night on a school night)

She has my husbands sense of emotion (she really is happy but smiling on the inside)

When I told her she could use hot glue thats when she got excited and started gluing buttons.

Final Result:

My parents saw them on the mantle this evening and LOVED them.  

Happy Holidays!

Kitty Kitty

Look who we found under the tree...............

Happy Holidays!

Nutella!

Who doesn't love Nutella?  Okay, maybe the chocolate haters- but they don't count. If you don't know what Nutella is its made with over 50 hazelnuts per jar, skim milk and cocoa... Its spreadable!  on anything!  Wow, right...

We were shopping at Costco (on a weekend) when they hand out samples.  Yes, I'll admit that's my families favorite day to go and not mine but I'll go along for the ride....

We saw the Nutella lady from across the aisle and my husband did one of those slow motion runs to get a sample... okay, maybe not... but it sure looked like it.  She was making toasted english muffins and then spreading Nutella over the top watching it melt like butter.... oh so yummy....

We immediately bought a jar (or 2)- You're at Costco- everything comes in LARGE or 2.

This is what we made:

Start out with Nutella and English Muffins (yes, that's it)

Toast them!

Have a little taste test! (Who needs bread?)

Now Enjoy!

Lights and Music

After tap class the other night Ashley and I always go to our favorite yogurt shop, Yogurtland.  As we were heading home I decided to see if the house in the neighborhood had decided to set up their Christmas Fantastical Light and Music Show on their house.   So we took a drive.

Once we turned on the street you could see the lights........you can't hear the music because you have to tune the radio to their channel to hear the songs that dance to the lights.  There are about 7 songs including Charlie Brown talking and reciting the Night before Christmas.  (I love that part).

Ashley and I sat there for about 4 songs while eating our yogurt and started to feel guilty because Dad or Amanda wasn't with us.  We will take them this weekend to get the full experience with our entire family.

Hmm, I think this is yet another tradition...

Happy Holidays!

Elf on the Shelf

I was seeing all the posts on Pinterest and Facebook about this Elf on the Shelf... What is this?  I LOVE traditions.......and I need to start a new one since my children are getting older.  A few traditions I do every year are:

The 12 days of Christmas for both of my children.  I set up a pink Barbie tree in their rooms and wrap 12 small gifts to place under them.  (The gifts are getting more expensive as they age and I didn't think about that when they were smaller but too late now). They look forward to it every year and I love when they open a gift.  We start on December 12th and work our way up to December 24th.

On Christmas Eve we always open a gift.  Guess what it is?  No surprise.... It's ALWAYS new jammies.  Everyone in the house gets new jammies to sleep in.  Yay, for me.  Last year I got jammies AND slippers ;)

We always make gingerbread houses and whiskey cake the 3rd week in December..... The whiskey cakes goes over well as gifts for the nurses at my hubby's workplace.  Stay tuned for the deets on the whiskey cake later on this month.

So back to this elf- Apparently its a long time tradition that an elf is placed on a shelf and when you go to bed it reports back to Santa on good and bad.  When the child wakes up in the morning the elf is in a different place in the house watching you. You ARE NOT ALLOWED to touch it.  I thought Ashley was going to break out in tears when she opened the box and touched the elf on accident.  She screamed, "oh no!  Its magical powers are gone!"   haha, no, I'm not exaggerating!  Our elf is named Lily.  I love the book that comes with it because you can write your family name, your elf name and when he/she entered your life.  I plan to do a little scrapbook of her adventures and place in the back of the book.

So for the last few nights I have had to sneak down stairs to find a "good" spot for Lily.  Its getting harder and harder because I literally have 3 minutes to do this while Ashley takes her shower at night.  Here are a few places Lily has shown up:

I'll keep you up to date on Lily's adventures as I try to find new places for her. Ashley seems to find her every morning and the squeal in her voice makes me happy that I started another tradition in this house.  

Happy Holidays!

December Festivities

Hi everyone~  I decided to close my shop for the month of December.  Probably not the smartest choice for my business but definitely the smartest choice for my family.  I was feeling out of touch with everyone so I'm going to blog this month.  Enjoy: and feel free to comment~

My husband was off last weekend so it was my opportunity to say "hey hon, wanna put the Christmas stuff up?"  It was still November but I was pleased that I got it out of the way.

Here is my tree:

I have been collecting ornaments since my first Christmas tree at 18.  I won't tell you how long that is but its been a while.  My tree consists of childhood memories, ornaments from my grandmother when she passed, some from my mother, quite a few from my hubby and majority of the space is made up of my children's handmade ornaments or memories with them.  Amanda, my oldest daughter has a set of 12 angels that I let her place on the tree every year.  I wrap them individually in velvet pouches every year in hopes that when it's time for her to have her 1st Christmas tree these will be her 1st Ornaments.  I haven't found anything that I want to collect for Ashley yet to pass on- so any suggestions would be helpful.

Happy Holidays!