Christmas Things

This week has been busy. Busy because I made it that way. If I have too much time to think, it's a bad thing. Your comments on Monday were so needed and I loved them. An "on-edge" pregnant woman (is there any other kind?) isn't a pretty thing...I needed some love to set my mind at ease.  So this week I've been doing some organizing and projecting. We've also been doing a lot of Christmas things because my holiday spirit needed a good dose of peppermint extract.

Yesterday the kids and I went to a production of the Nutcracker. I love this ballet. It was so good. Sophie could barely stay in her seat.  Girlfriend wanted to DANCE!

We made snowmen...with glitter to go along with some snowy books we read. It's so fun to watch them create. They are so particular and want things just so. I love it.

We also made gingerbread houses. I'm just gonna call it...making gingerbread houses stinks. Unless you can find a preassembled one and just have fun sticking on the candy, it's no fun! They're always breaking.  Ugh! I bought some kits from IKEA and to my surprise there was no candy or frosting included. I did not want to go to the store, so we improvised. We used marshmallows and sprinkles and a bag of old M&M's I had. To stick everything on we used glue. They actually turned out pretty cute. They are now on our balcony adding some Yuletide Tidings for the Cardinals. They dig it.

We've also been doing our Jesse Tree tradition every night. We haven't even skipped one, which is crazy. My kids love this. We can brush up on all the big bible stories all advent. On Christmas Eve we read the Christmas Story all together. I love that.

Today we are heading to Target so the kids can buy gifts for each other. They drew names and are keeping it a secret who they got. It's so suspenseful being all three of them. ;) Then to draw out the  festivities we are making our own wrapping paper and wrapping them. Then I will make the kids bless the kids with the job of stuffing all our Christmas cards so we can send those out.

Tomorrow night my shop is closing for the season. I still have some Christmas things in there, but a lot has sold. I'm offering FREE SHIPPING for all of today and tomorrow til 8pm tomorrow night. Just use the code MERRY when you check out! Yay!!!

I better get this show on the road...we have gifts to buy. This weekend we are not doing much...I'm finishing a couple little projects and we are relaxing. We need it. This planlessness has been taxing...our brains need rest and relaxation. :)


Have a great weekend!

xo,
{alicia}

just keep busy, just keep busy

Let's just be honest. Not all of December is pinecones and glitter. There's parts of the holiday that are hard. Life doesn't stop just because it's December. And life is hard sometimes.

Families are separated.
People are sick.
Relationships are complicated.
Disappointments happen.
It's not all happy business.


For us, I'm looking at my belly and then looking back at the calendar that says "due date" on April 16th and "lease is up" on April 1st and then I look to our "Life Planner" and all the pages are blank. We don't really have a plan. It's really hard because I'm like Super Duper Planner lady. I'm just wired that way. I try not to let this lack of life plan bother me, but it's not easy. Instead of thinking about it...or at the very least, in an attempt to distract myself from this I have made a big LIST.

Just keep busy.

Some fun things, some mindless things, some necessary things.

To distract myself this December, my list looks like this:
-Go through kids' toys/donate  (half done!)
-Decorate buffet  (done!)
-Work on 2012 photo book
-Make a baby Smash book
-Go to IKEA   (done!)
-Boys Room:
     -change duvet covers  (done!)
     -hang pennants  (done)
-Clean my closet
-Organize my craft area
-Make stamps  (done!!)
-Plan next etsy line
-Organize files
-Address Christmas cards (almost done!)
-Make robes for kids for Christmas

This is my plan for right now...to just keep busy til there's a plan in place.  Better go check some more things off this list :)

Happy Monday!
xo,
{alicia}

Personalized Giving



Some of the most fun and meaningful gifts I've ever given were the ones I searched around for...looked for just the right thing...created a meaningful gift basket with my friend's favorite things...or found something that meant something important to them right at that season in their life. Nothing says "I love you so much" as a custom made piece that you had made just for them.

 

 

My friend Becky is famous for her custom cuffs. She's got all the leather posted in her shop...you pick the metal piece and you pick what it says. I can't imagine your friend/mom/sister/daughter won't be thrilled that you took the time to order them a custom piece that fit their lives right at that moment.

 

I even bought one of these for my brother and he loved it...these are totally boy or girl cuffs.

 

Even better for you...using the code "alicia" you can get 20% off all orders in Becky's shop until December 15th. If you're thinking about ordering you better do it fast. She's closing her shop December 15th until February. 

 

Enjoy!! And happy shopping!!

 

Also, don't forget...my friend Amy is offering 20% off her shop as well.  She just added alllll these great vintage Christmas things that are so fun.  You could do a whole gift basket with vitage Christmas pieces! How fun would that be!?!



Mom-Bit Monday: Making Memories

Today's challenge: How many m's can you pack into one blog post title? It's not as easy as it looks.

How was your weekend? Ours was Christmas-filled. We got our tree and decorated it. Sunday started Advent so we kicked off a couple traditions that we've done for years. I'm going to talk about our Advent traditions later this week, but today I just want to stroll down memory lane.  Or I guess, lay the bricks of Memory Lane.

 

Because as much as we probably don't feel like adding one more criteria to our duties, the bricklaying of Memory Lane is on us, Mamas. Here's how I felt this weekend: I really just wanted to do nothing. My tight pants are gauging a change coming soon and we have a lot of variables in the air right now. I tend to think and rethink every scenario and then rethink it again. I've been doing that a lot these last few weeks. I just kinda wanted to grab a bag of potato chips and sit in my room for a day or two and really get myself worked up...not do anything fun.

 

But here's the dealio: sometimes other people are more important than us. Gasp!!

 

Sometimes doing something that we don't feel like doing or that seems like too  much work is worth it ten-times over.

 



 

Usually in our house the "living room" tree is my territory. I like a pretty tree. I have beautiful ornaments and love to do up a big beautiful tree.  We get a second tree for the school room or kids area that they have free reign over to decorate. This is how we always do it. I do the regular tree by myself and then we move on the kids tree and rock some Veggie Tale Christmas and I let them stick ornaments wherever they want to, even if it's all 5,000 handmade ornaments on the same two branches. It's their deal.

 

But this year I decided to downsize. Our garage is chock full. It's hard to get to stuff. It's all buried. I could handle getting out some decorations, but not all. So we made our main tree the kids tree and we made it a party. 

 

I made all kinds of fun foods. There was a cheese ball.  I used our champagne flutes for ginger ale. We turned on the Christmas tunes AND Charlie Brown Christmas and took our time decking out the tree. 

 

Noah got into it and made these sweet cards for us all. Isn't that sweet?!

 

I have a feeling they are going to want "champagne" and  a cheeseball next year too. It was too fun not to.  We will probably have to revert back to the two-tree tradition though as I'm staring down Darth Vader hanging mid-bough right now, but for this year...it works.

We made a memory.

 

But mama got the ball rolling...cause that's what we do. That's what we have to do. And that's what we'll be thankful we did.

 

See? ???

 

Ya.....

 

xo,

{alicia}

November (and October) Mock 365

So here we are...December 1st. That day when we're like what? what?? And brace ourselves for the whirlwind. It's really our choice whether it's a whirlwind or not though. We can say no to things we don't really need to do. We can online shop. We can carve out quiet moments. We don't have to do all the stuff that other people are doing. But here we are....December.  I'm ready.

 

Before we move on to Silver Bells and jolly everything, I want to look back at November one more time....and um, October since I forgot to do that a month ago :)

 

Our November went really fast. Our feast we beautiful though and we took some time to remember and slow down.

And October? Well, since I was all pregnant and stuff I didn't really feel motivated to take a ton of photos. But I did manage to pull together a little photo sesh of these three. Precious memories.

Today we are getting our tree! We usually do two, but this year we're just getting one. I'll explain all that later. We're going to set it up and string the lights.  Then tonight we're making fun finger foods and appetizers and having ginger ale in champagne flutes and ringing in the season in style as we trim our tree.

This morning we're laying back...eating fresh banana bread and watching cartoons. 

I have a couple hours carved out as well to steal away and be quiet by myself and meditate on some things I've had anxiously laying on  my heart this week.

That's my weekend. How about yours?

Here's to a holly jolly December!!

xo,
{alicia}