Merry Christmas

christmas video 2012 from Sara Peterson on Vimeo.

New Christmas Tradition

With the kids being so little and not really understanding the concept of time, we often make paper chains to count down to a big event, or trip.  It helps them to visualize how much longer they have until the day will be here.  (How many "sleeps" they have left!).  

I've been seeing this idea floating around on Pinterest and decided to give it a try this year!  The idea is to gather up a bunch of Christmas/holiday books and wrap them up.  Each night before bed, the kids get to unwrap one book and read it.  It is something fun we can do as a family, and helps them see how many days are left before Christmas.  

To my surprise, we only had about 4 or 5 Christmas books, so I went to the library while they were at school and checked out a ton of Christmas books.  (Saved me money, and we can get a fresh selection next year!)

Last night I brought out the basket and let them each open one since it was the first night.  (I wasn't sure how I would let them decide who got to pick the first book...lots of fighting over who goes first these days!)  I tried to get an even selection of Santa-ish stories, as well as stories about the birth of Jesus...just to keep things real around here!  With the commercialization of Santa as well as me shoving "Elf-on-the-shelf" down their throat every morning, I want to make sure they understand the true meaning of Christmas.

I think this should be a fun new tradition we can continue each year.

A month? Really??

Wow, almost an entire month and I have not blogged anything?  Not that our life is all that exciting...but I don't usually go that long without posting something?!?  Well, here's what we've been up to since Halloween:

I got the heck out of dodge and went to Florida for a few days with the McKee side of the family.

 

It really was SO much fun, even though I was only there for a hot second. 

...my check liver light definitely came on this weekend.  

Got home on Tuesday, then had to sit through Zac Brown Band on Thursday...poor me.  :) :) :)

We had amazing seats right on the floor, so it really was a great show!

 

Friday and Saturday was Beneath the Tree.  It was Ah.MAZ.ing.  I think I might talk Dan into letting me host our home next year.  It was THAT cool.

First snow...kids were pumped!

Bryce had his first solo play date with a kiddo from pre-school, so Syd and I went on a little date for lunch then Barnes & Noble.  

Sesame Street Live!

 Dan took me out on a date for my birthday so I picked Breaking Dawn Pt. 2...sooooooo good!  Dan LOVED it!  (ha ha ha)

Turned 32.  yippee. 

Decorated for Christmas outside...because it was almost SIXTY degrees in the middle of November!!!!

Busted my hump to try to catch up on Project Life before the end of the year!  More on that coming soon!

 

Got crafty with our Thankfulness!

 

Got a shout-out from THE Rhonna Farrer on Instagram Follow Friday #heyrhonna  If you don't follow her IG feed...you totally should.  She is beyond inspiring!

and finally, we went on our annual Christmas Tree adventure with the Spaniolos to find and cut down our tree.  

So that about sums it up.  That's what we've been up to the last few weeks!  Thanks for stopping by!

Project Life, December

Catching up on some Project Life posting.  One more week and 2011 is complete!  Loved the Turquoise Kit, but I'm kind of ready to start Clementine!

I made this insert a few weeks ago using Ali Edwards layered templates.  I didn't participate with the December Daily project, although I would have loved to.  It takes all I have to keep up with PL, so I highly doubt I would have completed a layout a day for a whole month.  I decided to snap some pics around the house and just include a little insert for the month of December.  I love how it turned out.

Week of December 5-11

Poor Dan celebrated his birthday on Sunday, but unfortunately B and I spent most of Saturday night puking.  Made a little collage of the pics we took on our Christmas Light drive. (got to wear sweats and stay in the car for that!)

also jotted down a few thoughts from the week and a few moments I wanted to remember with some cell phone pics to go along with the story.

Love these Ali Edwards Long Journalers  They make it so easy to record some extra info/pictures without taking up a ton of space.

Week of December 12-18

Week of December 19-25

Full spread of week of Christmas.  Ended up with 2 inserts.

Included our Christmas card we sent out with a gift bag I received.  Loved the Kraft paper and cute little Santa.  (6x7.5 so I just used Becky's 6x12 page protector and snipped off a few inches.)

Love, love, love the "joy" and "peace" cut outs.  They actually came attached to a Christmas card I received and I knew immediately when I opened it up that I wanted to use them in my album.  The joy is glittery and the peace is gold metallic.  Love them.  I am totally going to keep an eye out for future Christmas cards to pull stuff from!

Extra Photos in a "design f" page protector.  Just snipped off the two right columns.  I think I want to add a few stickers or a little journaling?  Not sure I am liking them so plain.  

Anyway, that is all!  I have a ton of elf on a shelf pictures from the month and I really want to do something with them.  The kids had so much fun with Shelfy, so I thought I would make a little flip book for them.  We'll see.

A few of my favorite Christmas Memories

Wheeeeeew.  Hard to believe it has come and gone already.  We watched a DVR'd Prep & Landing last night and as soon as it started playing, Dan and I both looked at each other at the same time and said...."How sad???" All that anticipation really makes it hard for Christmas to be over.

We had so much new stuff come in this house, it was our first priority to make room for everything.  Sadly, that meant some furniture had to be moved around, and the tree had to go.  :(  Talk about depressing!  I like to keep it up well after the New Year, but it just made sense to get rid of it.  Dan was off on Monday so we cleaned, purged, organized and got this house in order.  Buh-bye tree...it was nice having you!

Ok...on to Christmas festivities...

 World's best babysitter made this gingerbread house with my kids...I know...she is amazing.

 Awful picture, but lights up outside

 Kids decorating Christmas cookies with their buddy Ben

The finished product...well, some of them.

 Trying to stay ahead of the game and wrapping gifts before Christmas eve.

 Our Christmas cards.  This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas time.  Love getting the mail everyday!
Here's a few more of my fav's.

There were a zillion more pics, but these are the one's I have printing for PL right now, so that will have to do.  It was a wonderful Christmas and I'm so thankful to have been able to be with each and every one of my families over the weekend.  So much to be thankful for.  Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!