Tag Archives: Christmas

It may be 2014, but I am squeezing in another Christmas post. This year was much like the past few years…we had Christmas Eve at Brett’s mom’s house, then Christmas morning at our house with just us, then extended family came over a little later on Christmas day to exchange our drawn-names gift. Let’s get started!

We switched it up a little this year and decided to do a pajama themed Christmas Eve! Hey, that worked for me because I got to be comfortable. When we were in Disney World earlier in December, we spotted these super cute t-shirts that looked like tacky Christmas sweaters and could pass as pajama shirts…Brett and I quickly grabbed one, but unfortunately they didn’t have any small enough for Trent…so he got a super cute Mickey onesie pajama with Mickey slippers instead.

Always a Disney Family…and almost a family photo.

I may get in trouble for posting these, but I am willing to risk it…our crazy family.

We ate a delicious dinner of turkey, ham, Brett’s yummy mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and cranberry sauce. Can I have that dinner at least once a week? Some of us slower eaters were rushed to finish our dinners by the little ones anxiously staring at the gifts under the tree.

It took Trent a few gifts in order to understand he was supposed to rip the wrapping paper off and not put it back nice and neat. That’s my little Junior OCD boy. I won’t bore you with every single photo, but here are some from that night.

Lily got a kitten and you can probably tell how loud her scream was by looking at me…and the cat’s ears. Sorry, cat, hope you weren’t planning on using your cat-level sense of hearing during your lifetime.

Trent says we are too messy for his liking.

The kids made cookies for Santa.

Brett stayed up until 4am putting Trent’s main gift together, but it was so worth it to see Trent wake up on Christmas morning and start playing with it immediately. It was like a train set, but with Cars characters and set in Radiator Springs. When Brett saw it in Costco a few months ago, we knew immediately it would be his big gift on Christmas.

We set up the GoPro behind it and captured the first few minutes…

…before he turned into King Kong.

Then we opened stockings while breakfast was in the oven.

I don’t know what to do about this boy’s hair…good thing he’s scheduled for his first haircut in the Magic Kingdom later this month!

For breakfast, Brett made breakfast burritos….extra cheesy.

Then we opened the rest of our gifts. Here’s a video of our Christmas morning.

Trent got some great educational boards from Melissa & Doug, along with some coloring books and magnets. By now, he was a gift opening pro.

I love his little feet sticking out from under the boards in this next photo.

Trent already stole my pillow.

After more playing and a nap, the family came over for more gifts and desserts and coffee.

Trent got a slide…which he didn’t want to do at first (mostly because everyone was watching) but has since gone up and down a thousand times. We just keep it in the living room and he goes on it all day long.

It was another great Christmas, one that has filled our garage to the max with boxes and our hearts with happiness. We started packing it all up this past weekend, but there’s a bunch more to go - especially the outside lights! Brett can do that while I sit back and wait for the warmer weather to make it’s way toward us!

 

As we move more and more into a technology-driven/dependent society, the joy and thoughtfulness of a handwritten note can be lost among emails and texts. Back when I had a few professors and employers submit recommendation letters for my Master’s degree program application, it felt really nice to give them a handwritten thank you note for their time and effort, but I honestly haven’t written one since.

And as much as I try to move more of my stuff to my laptop, iPad or phone, I still find myself writing to-do lists on post-it sheets. I don’t know why, but I seem to feel more accomplished with the act of actually crossing through an item once it’s complete.

If you like the idea of handwritten notes/cards and pretty stationary, but don’t really find yourself actually shopping for those items, let me introduce you to the new mail subscription service from Ginger P Designs called Ginger Mail!

Ginger Mail is composed of stylish stationery goods by Ginger P Designs such as greeting cards, monthly calendars, notepads and more of their latest products. Each mailing pertains to a theme, which varies based on seasons, trends and other inspirational ideas.

The subscription service arrives on the subscriber’s doorstep every six weeks. Each mailer is accompanied with an introductory and greeting message explaining why the theme was chosen as well as an explanation of each item included. Perfect for gifts or for enjoying oneself, Ginger Mail will fill the need and desires for creative sparks and little surprises, all of which are conveniently sent straight to the recipient. Ginger Mail is perfect for busy moms who are constantly on the go but still have a creative side they like to feed!

ABOUT Ginger P Designs:

Ginger P Designs is a modern and fresh stationery business that specializes in wedding invitations, save-the-dates, holiday cards, greeting cards and all sorts of custom paper goodness. Started after Gina Peterson, owner & creative mind behind Ginger P Designs created her own wedding invitations, Ginger P Designs has evolved from a modest shop on Etsy, to being a key player in the custom design and paper goods business.

 

My shipment came mid-December and was conveniently Christmas themed!

It came in a bright pink mailer and inside was a bunch of Christmas-themed goodies.

I liked how they sent just 1 or a few of each item, as I often buy packs of stationary items and have several go to waste because I only need a couple.

One of my favorite things was this little mini calendar of December. Even though we were already halfway through the month (I opted in late), it was still a cute little addition to my desk. I already have a calendar, but it doesn’t have cute Christmas trees on it.

I also love this little notepad for making lists that says “Making a list and checking it twice.” So cute!

There was also a recipe for Candied Pecans, which we can testify make awesome Christmas snacks and gifts.

You can never have enough gift tags and these are much more unique than any I put on our gifts this year.

There were also 3 Holiday cards in various sizes, perfect for that last minute card you need to give Aunt Edna or your neighbor because you forgot to order enough photo cards…oops!

 

The costs for Ginger Mail is $15 per mailing and are available in increments of 1 mailing, 3 mailings, 5 mailings, 1 year or an on-going membership. You can gift it to yourself or someone else. To find out more, you can visit their website here: http://justaddgingerp.com/ginger-mail/

 

Connect with Ginger P Designs on Facebook

 

I received this product in exchange for a review. All opinions are my own and honest.

Last year, I shared our Christmas decorations that we have inside the house. Noticeably absent from that post were our outside decorations….because we didn’t have any!

It was a tough decision, but because we were getting a new roof and the dates were tentative, we couldn’t put any lights up as early as we normally would, so we waited. And then by the time the roof was done, it was just a week or so before Christmas, so we decided there just wasn’t enough time to make it worth it. I secretly think Brett also feared for his life having to climb up on the roof, but I guess he’s allowed to because I surely don’t want to go up there.

But this year…it was game on! It was time to channel our inner-Griswolds and decorate the crap outta this house. We were gonna ho-ho-ho up this hizzy.

Ok, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…here is our house in all its lit-up glory.

Isn’t it beautiful?

We did mostly everything the weekend after Thanksgiving. I decorated most of the inside of the house and Brett had 100% responsibility for the outside. And yes, that included going up on the roof. But after watching some tricks of the trade from the roofers last year, he was equipped to scale the house mountain.

Want to know the secret? Egg crate FOAM!

Because we didn’t get any for the purpose of this project, Brett took the foam out of the dog’s bed and cut it in half. You just place the foam down and it DOES.NOT.MOVE. Then, when you want to move, just throw the other piece down where you want to go and step onto that. It’s the weirdest thing, but it works.

So after a day of scary Instagram photos from 50 feet in the air, Brett survived to revel in his masterpiece.

Our house was also included in the Tour of Lights in the local paper. As soon as Brett found out we may have cars driving by to see the house, he added even more lights. Because that’s what Brett does…I can only imagine how much more will be up next year.

The inside of our house is pretty much the same as last year…Disney everywhere. To see the details and plenty of photos, you can look at our post from last year here.

Setting up the tree was so much easier this year. We recorded the entire process so we could share another time lapse video with you like we did last year, but when we went to play back the videos (the GoPro separates the recordings into segments as it records), one of the files was corrupted. Brett stayed up for hours trying to figure it out and fix it just short of paying someone hundreds of dollars. So much for a yearly tradition.

Anyway, very differently than last year, where Trent was in his Jumparoo the entire time, this year he ran around and tried to help as much as he could. He wanted to hang ornaments and touch the tree…but most of all, he was fond of the box our tree came in. I swear, toddlers don’t need anything but a box to be happy.

Notice I said our tree came in a box? This year, after bugging Brett the past 2 years to make the switch, we finally got a fake Christmas tree. Yeah yeah, bah humbug and whatnot…but it was the easiest thing ever putting it up, we haven’t had to water it twice a day, no needles are laying on the floor for Trent to eat, and all the ornaments have stayed in their spots. And when it’s time to put it away, we don’t have to drag anything outside. And the even best part is that next year, we won’t have to pay a dime for a Christmas tree…Merry Christmas to me!

It came pre-lit, so all the lights we would normally have put on it were now put outside. It can be switched from colorful lights, to the warm white lights and it can blink or stay lit. So many options…I love it.

While we were in WDW a few weeks ago, we picked out our new Christmas ornament just like we do every year. We chose one of the new Mickey ear hat ornaments…Dumbo!

It was a difficult choice because there were so many cute ones, so I let Brett decide.

As pretty as everything is, my favorite reason for doing all this is for Trent. Every other night or so, I like taking him outside when it’s dark so he can look at the lights. As soon as we step outside, he says “Ooooh!” and he’ll go up to the hippo on the porch and pat it, and point at all the lights. He’s not as impressed with the tree…probably because we say “No!” every time he goes to touch it, the poor kid is probably scared of it. But he does make us laugh by putting random things in it. One day, Brett couldn’t find Trent’s Mickey slipper and then found it in the tree. He wasn’t completely wrong…it IS a Disney tree, after all!

I’m going to try to post a mini trip report of our evening at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party by tomorrow, as well as some various review posts…so we’ll be around, but if this is the last post you see before Christmas, I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

 

This past Friday, we took the short drive to Thomasville, Georgia for their Victorian Christmas festival. It’s held for 2 nights and is supposed to “transfer you back in time” with people dressed in Victorian clothing, carriage rides, carolers, and a nativity scene reenactment.

I really wouldn’t go that far…there were some people dressed up, but basically it was a street fair. And I think it kind of lacked in that department as well. Although, there was a bear.

Nonetheless, we ventured there with family and shared some interesting moments. When we first arrived, we did a quick stroll down the street, taking a look at all the vendors. Luckily, we had eaten on the way out there, so there wasn’t a pressing need to buy food. We arrived at Santa, but the line was incredibly long, so we passed on that for the moment. Instead, the older kids played in the “Winter Wonderland” aka “The every-kid-for-themselves pit of slippery ice”

Funny how most of these kids have never seen real snow.

While the kids pelted each other with ice, we took Trent on the train ride. Front row baby!

He mostly just sat there, but I could tell he enjoyed it and I was very grateful that he did not complain when the ride was over, contrary to when we rode the one ride at the fair. That was fun, now it’s time to run!

We then strolled back down the street. Some of the clan stood in line for corn dogs and funnel cake, while some of us took Trent to pet the sheep from the nativity scene. He had fun running around for a bit, but once the crowd started gathering for the show, I took him and sat by the fire and did some more walking because he did not want to sit still. Not even in his awesome stroller.

After the show was over, we went back towards Santa and stood in line while the kids went to pelt each other with ice again.

The last time Trent met Santa, it was last year after the Christmas parade. Trent’s nana was working at the fire station when Santa came back after the parade (he rides the fire truck). So everyone was just standing around and taking pictures and Trent was fascinated with his beard. This time, we waited in line for a half an hour and then went up on a stage where I went to put him on Santa’s lap…and he did not care for it one bit! Here’s our first freak-out-with-Santa photo!

I haven’t decided if the wait was worth it or not. I kind of expected it to go that way, so does that make me a bad parent for doing it to him anyway? Ahhh oh well….he survived and was happy as can be just a few minutes later.

Although I wouldn’t put it on my must-do list, it was fun spending time with family and experiencing the festival for the first time.

 

Last month, I told you we ordered our Christmas cards from Simply to Impress and when we returned from our weekend Disney trip, they were waiting for us!

I couldn’t wait to see them and the box they come in is so pretty, it just adds to the excitement.

Of course, we continued with the humorous theme from last year.

We upgraded and got the Fashion Pearl Finish, which puts a pearlescent/shimmery finish on the card. I like how it gave it that little something extra. It also made it impossible to take photos of the cards to show you the finish, but trust me, they looked so purdy.

A little behind-the-scenes info: Brett set up the camera at the edge of our yard on a tripod. He set it to take a photo every 2 seconds, so he didn’t have to worry about a remote and we could just do various poses and let Trent act silly and just go through them all at the end and pick which one we liked. To get Trent to look toward the camera, we put the iPad on the ground by the camera and put Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on. Worked like a charm.

We wanted to show Brett and I relaxing with our drinks while Trent is supposedly doing all the hard work with decorating with lights. I really wanted him to hold his arms up with all the lights, kind of in frustration, but the one time he lifted his arms up, this happened.

Parents of the year, right here. I love how Brett is still just chilling in his seat while I’m the one running up to get Trent.

After we submitted the card to Simply to Impress, we had the idea of putting the outtake on the back of our card, but it was too late as the cards had already started printing.

I am glad I got to work with Simply to Impress for these cards…we really like them and hope everyone else enjoys them and gets a little chuckle from it (or they can come here and look at the outtake).

And for added fun, here is our Christmas card from 2012:

Can we take a moment while I pick my jaw off the floor after seeing how little Trent looks in last year’s card?

Tell me: do you prefer funny cards or traditional cards? I like funny cards, but I hope we can keep coming up with ideas every year!