I know it's mid January and everyone has moved on from the holidays, but since I didn't post this year during the Christmas season, I thought I'd recap some of the creative things our family did over the break.
I decided this year to slow down our pace around the holidays so we could enjoy doing the things that are important to us as a family. I stayed off the computer, and I also decided not to go
overboard decorating-just a tree and stockings on the mantle. I don't know how it is at your house, but at ours, the decorating all falls on my plate. Don't get me wrong, I love it (once it's done), but this year I just wasn't up for it. So... I decided on a real tree and all home made ornaments, that way everyone in the family could take an active roll :)
I had this romanticized vision of cutting down a real tree ourselves and how our trip to the Christmas tree farm would be...Christmas carols on the way there; hot chocolate waiting for us; happy kids so excited to cut down a real tree for the first time; family pictures of us bringing home a gorgeous tree that we could decorate Martha Stewart fashion... expectations!!! Ha!!
Well, I'm sure you can guess from the picture, one person my romantic vision affected! Hubby was not happy with my decision from the get go. Our adventure to the Christmas tree farm was like a clip from Christmas Vacation. We loaded up the fam, on NFL Sunday, and drove almost thirty minutes to a tree farm in the middle of timbuckto. As we pulled up, we saw a big "cash only" sign, and of course, we had none. So, we back tracked into civilization to find an ATM, paying an outrageous fee at the general store and twenty minutes later we were back. Farmer Joe handed my frustrated hubby a basic hand saw and you should have seen the look I got. We made our way through a marsh to find the perfect tree, which with three opinionated children is no easy task. Finally, after lots of complaining and arguing, a decision was made. Hubby, old fashioned saw in hand, got down on all fours in the mud and conquered the tree, but proceeded to get stabbed in the eye by a pine branch. I kid you not! He dragged the tree back to the front looking like he had been punched in the eye. I still giggle at the memories! Guess those are the times we remember, right?
When we (hubby) finally get the tree through the door and secured in the base at home, my cat is so overjoyed by the fact that we would bring a real tree home just for her, she jumps from the stair rail to the tree and found a nice perch on a big branch. At this point, my defeated Hubby said we would have to get used to a crooked tree-he was done! And frankly, I didn't blame him!
So, we learned to affectionately live with a crooked tree for the holidays!
Never the less, I had a great time making ornaments with the kids. Even hubby had the idea of cutting snowflakes and made some with us.
We made them out of coffee filters.
We used recycled Christmas cards from years past to make our chain garland. As an advent activity we compiled a list of traits for Jesus for each letter of the alphabet and wrote them each on a link.
Better Homes and Gardens had some great ideas for making ornaments from old Christmas cards that we tried out. We also made some pop corn garland. Just a short strand... I'd forgotten what a pain that is to make!
Over all, I think our crooked Christmas tree looked very pretty, and the clean up was a snap....it took me a half a day to clean up and get things back to normal. Here's some highlights of some other crafty gifts I made over the break.
Looking forward to sharing a creative 2012 with you!
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