Christmas - according to Grant.

My Mom wanted to take Grant to have an over-night (or two or three) at her house. I did not have to think twice. (Christmas prep without a five year old under foot...? Um OK. Twist my arm.)

My Mom called me to tell me a funny Grant story. Apparently, she and Grant were walking through her house and looking at the different nativity sets she has. I think there are at least six. They discussed each one, worked on pronouncing the word nativity, and went into detail about the birth of Baby Jesus, and that we celebrate Christmas because we celebrate His birth.

So after this 15 minute tour of nativity sets, my Mom asks Grant, "So... Why do we celebrate Christmas?"

Grant flatly responded, "Because we aren't Jewish."

Merry Christmas everyone!

I have more cereal boxes than I do common sense...

Every year I pass out baked good to friends and neighbors, and every year it's fun for me to make or embellish the container the goodies are packaged in.

This year I decided to re-work cereal boxes.


Flatten the box and cut out one of the side panels and about 2 inches of the front (or back... whatever.) I left about a half an inch on each end of the side panel. I'm no engineer, but it seems to me like it'll be just a bit more sturdy that way.



It should look like this when you're done.



Then cut off the remaing part of the panel.



It should look like this when you're done.

These have had their seams all hot glued back together.

Spray paint them whatever color you like. Make sure you get all sides, including the bottom, and the inside of the box. I found I had to do at least 2 coats to ensure that the Quaker Oatmeal Man wasn't visible anymore.

Poke a hole on each side of the box so you can make the ribbon handle. I ended up using an ice pick and a cutting board and just carefully pushing/twisting the ice pick through to make the hole.



Because my Christmas colors are black and gold this year, these are the colors I used to decorate the box.







I used my Favorite-Thing-Can't-Believe-I-Ever-Lived-Without-It (my Cricut) to cut out the shapes. These were hot-glued, taped, glitter-glued, etc. I plan to do some with lots of ribbon too.

Now I just need to get baking.

Um, NOT a good deal....

I was grocery shopping this morning.
Thanks, but no thanks.
(Usually if you buy more than one, the price goes down. This tag says if you buy more than one, the price goes up...)

I'm dreaming of a Black Christmas.

OK...

I've actually been dreaming of a black and gold Christmas. We've been under Christmas Construction around here and I'm almost done. However, the Nesting Place is having a Holiday Tour of Homes and I wanted to post something. If you click on any of these pictures, you must promise to ignore the dust (how can there be dust on things I just set out yesterday?!) and ignore the shopping bags/wrapping stuff. Just keepin' it real.

First, let me explain this color scheme. I change it up every year. I have so many ornaments and Christmas decor items, that were I to put it all out at once, it would be like Christmas threw up in my house. Editing is a must, hence the annual color scheme. (Last year was red. The year before that, copper & teal, before that blue, white and silver....)

I decided on black and gold when doing my post Christmas shopping. I spied this black ornament and fell in love.Everything took off from here.

Coming in through the front door, you'll be greeted by pine boughs clipped from the bottom of our Christmas trees and by lots of gold sticks.
Sticks are free.
Spray paint is cheap.
I think cheap and easy works out to be pretty elegant.



The 3 tin squares that are hanging on the window were a JoAnn's clearance item about 5 years ago. I bought 3 of these and never used them. They were originally a shabby-chic white. Spray paint, a Cricut and Mod Podge. Viola.
I am not a blinking, ani-matronic, multi-colored light, inflatable lawn ornament kind of person.

I like simple.

I like coordinated. (Not to be confused with matchy-matchy.)

Your home's exterior decor sets the tone for the interior, and I want my tone to be peaceful. This year I am making more of a concerted effort to focus on the birth of Christ as THE reason we celebrate in the first place, so I have Nativity images, ornaments and candles all over.
This wreath was made from tree clippings and the roses are made from coffee filters, leftover from Mother's Day Brunch, that I spray painted gold. (Spray paint can change your life, I'm tellin' ya!)
This is the first year that Grant is really cognizant of how slowly time can pass in December. (If you're a 5 year old.... if you're 42, time flies by!) We've had a lot of fun opening the little doors on this Advent calendar each morning.I just don't think there is very much that is easier or prettier than a dish with ornaments with little pine clippings tucked into it. Simple is good.

I like simple on our dining room table, and I love to decorate with framed photos of Christmases past. Each year I spray paint the frames to match the current color scheme. There are probably 8 layers of paint on some of these frames.

We decorate in the bathrooms and the bedrooms....

We decorate in the kitchen....
The ornaments under the glass and the multi-colored hanging ornament were from my parent's first Christmas tree, in 1960. Vintage and precious!

We have two trees each year too. Mom's pretty tree in front of the window.... and The SpongeBob Tree. This is the boys' tree. All things plastic, fun and handmade go on this tree.


But the focus is on the living room with the main tree and the fireplace.(Again, I cannot stress enough how much I love tree clippings and sticks from the yard...)
And bowls of ornaments...
But I really love the reaction from the kids. Right after Thanksgiving, out come the Christmas books.

And the Christmas toys. And the Christmas movies.


And our favorite part?

Marta, Helga and Jingles.

When I was a little girl, this card was hung by our stockings:
Click to read. It's late and I'm too lazy to type. In a nutshell, if you're a good kid, once the stockings are hung up, you never know when Marta, Helga & Jingles might leave a treat in your stocking. I remember coming home from school and patting down my stocking to see if there was a treat in there. Gum, nail polish, Christmas toys, etc.

This card is the original one that my mom typed the Elf Info onto way back when. She laminated it for me to keep it safe, and it is one of my most treasured possessions.

I love watching Grant check his stocking. Now that the Big 3 know the scoop about Santa, it is wonderful to watch them try to sneak items into family members' stockings too.

No matter how many color schemes I cycle through, no matter how much spray paint I use, no matter how much things change visually from year to year, our Christmas traditions are strong and clearly defined.

Joy to the world.
Peace on earth.
For God so loved the world, that He sent his only son.
Merry Christmas!

There's much to be said for slip-on shoes...

Wanna see what it looks like when a kindergartener asks another kindergartener for help tying his shoes.....?
It was like macrame` and took me a good 5 minutes to get the knot(s) undone. I miss the velcro closures.

'Tis always the season for spray paint.

Ever heard of freecycle.org?
You should google it and find a group in your area. If you sign up, you get email notices when people in your area have things they want to get rid of...and by get rid of, I mean give away. For free.

Sometimes the people give away weird things. Just yesterday I got email notifications that someone was giving away pork chops and another person had cotton balls. Odd. I am not willing to drive too far, but when something is posted in my own neighborhood, I'm on it.

A lady around the corner was re-doing her kitchen and was giving away the old chandelier. I originally thought I'd refurbish it, but then I decided to rip out all of the wiring and get out the spray paint.

I spray painted it a pretty Christmas red, strung beads and hung crystals on it. I tucked in some greenery and added candles. I hung it up on a friend's patio for a party and it looked great.

I didn't get any photos of it at night, but it really looked pretty.

I've already decided that for Easter I am going to paint it a robin's egg blue and put little bird nests on top of the candle holders and put the candles in the nests.....

This free find will be painted over and over again and will look like a different piece each time... all for the cost of a can of spray paint. Score!