Abby and Lily's Christmas Tree

Just a couple days ago I shared that I had plans to make some felt ornaments with Abby for a small Christmas tree that we will be putting in the playroom upstairs (here). We did that today. They turned out really cute! Plus, the color of the felt really stands out on the tree and looks awesome, despite how fancy or unfancy the ornaments are. Trust me, my workmanship was nothing fancy, I admit I actually used a stapler (gasp!) and a lot of glue. We probably only worked for about 45 minutes.

We let Abby pick out a new strand of lights for it, as the selection was slim here. I really thought she'd go for an all purple strand, but instead she went with multi-colored twinkling lights. I'm not really a fan of the twinkling lights for my main tree, but for this tree they are perfect.

Here are the girls in front of "their" tree.

The Dog

For those of you who can't read kindergarten:

The Dog

By Abby

I see the dog. I like the dog. Then one day he laughed at me.

The End

(To my knowledge, she only got help with the words "then" and "day." Oh, and maybe "end.")

Making Ornaments

Last year for the first time, Matt unearthed a small Christmas tree that used to be his when he was a kid. We put it in the playroom for Abby and Lily (who was too little to "get" it) and put pretty much all homemade ornaments on it.

This year, all Abby can talk about is that tree. She remembers it very clearly, way more clearly than I would have thought.

We haven't pulled it out yet, it will probably come out this weekend, but I am trying to think of a way to be a little more creative on how we decorate it. The most recent Family Circle magazine had an article about Felt Crafts in it with a focus on homemade ornaments. Here is what their tree looked like:

Very cute.

This week, I stopped by JoAnns and picked up some pretty colors of felt, some sparkly doodads, and embroidery floss to create our own ornaments inspired by the above picture. I have some heavy duty glue already, so we should be set. They won't be the same, but they should be quite a bit prettier than construction paper. I think Abby will be very excited.

Do you do any homemade ornaments?

What's on your Christmas List?

Christmas Lists.

This is the second year that the adults of our family have not exchanged gifts in the typical way. Instead we have done a fun game/gift exchange. It is so much more fun and makes so much more sense because we really don't need to be spending that kind of money on each other when we all don't need much. A little lesson we learned after taking the Dave Ramsey class.

Matt and I do still buy gifts for each other, and of course the girls (and nephews and niece). Matt just asked me recently what I wanted for Christmas and I had no good answer. We are so blessed and don't NEED anything. So, it comes down to want. Most of my wants are things that I need to buy myself, like clothes, so I have been working on a "husband friendly" list. Here is what I have come up with so far:

I have heard a lot of good things about this book series and want to try it out-

These are a winter Croc that is just a whim idea. I thought the silver was kind of cool.

Might be fun?

Can't go wrong with pajamas, right?

How cool is this sweatshirt? I'm not sure if I'm really going to ask for it, but I thought I'd share. It's kind of cool, I thought. Maybe an idea for Matt even. It's from here.

I wouldn't mind another cool flower pin from The Pleated Poppy. This is a different style from my other ones. She has a bunch of cool colors to choose from.

What's on your list?

The Golden Hanger of Destiny!

What, you're saying to yourself, right? The golden hanger of destiny? Seriously?

I know.

Abby came up with that one a while ago. It originated from Sesame Street, I think. Telly played a game on an episode called the Golden Triangle of Destiny. Passing me hangers while I put away laundry somehow turned into the Golden Hanger of Destiny. I'm not sure how. We have lots of colors of hangers. None of them golden.

Anyway, passing me hangers while I put away laundry is actually a pretty sought after job. The girls love it and now Lily loves it too.

Last night, we watched TV in bed since Matt was gone and Lily helped me out (you can see a glimpse of Abby's jammies in the bottom picture).

This morning, we awoke to a bunch of dry, wispy snow on the ground. Brrrr. I guess it is Mother Nature's way of telling us that December is here. Can you believe it?