Well, we made it! Hooray for Christmas. I hope you’re snuggled up with your families and staying warm, wherever you are.
The presents are all wrapped and cookies are baked. Can’t wait to let Jude rip into his presents as we celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Much love to each & every one of you!
Are you relishing in the season or are you overwhelmed by the busyness? I find myself swept in the tide of the latter, but I’m making an attempt to enjoy each day as it comes. Isn’t it funny, though, how we can set ourselves up for failure by expecting perfection? There’s so much pressure, I think, in making memories, especially at big events such as holidays or birthdays.
Take my little advent calendar, for example. I keep thinking, “Oh, how marvelous it will be when we participate in whatever day’s awesome activity together! The memories! He’ll remember it foreverrrrrrr.”
Well, let me just say that I hope he doesn’t remember a couple of them forever because they’ve been complete & utter motherhood failures on my part. Day no. 10 for example. We planned on baking cookies and decorating our IKEA gingerbread house but as it turned out that day, we spent the entire day at my sister’s house helping her stage it as they were listing it on the market w/ Simon this week. Jude had no nap and passed out in the car the second we left at 6:30pm. So when we got home, I thought I’d just put him to bed and call it a day. UM, NO. Cue the sleepyhead epic meltdown as he realized where we were headed halfway up the stairs (TO BED!). Me, not wanting to break a promise, said rather shortly, “Fine. Which one do you want to do? Gingerbread house or cookies?” He woefully muttered through the tears, “Gingerbwead house.”
So I got out all the trimmings and set them up on the island in the kitchen. I was exhausted but had to make cookies later that night anyway for a cookie swap I was participating in the next day. As I turned around, I saw Jude dump out half the container of sprinkles all over the floor. Then as we tried to put together the gingerbread house, it kept breaking & crumbling. It was the biggest disaster.
Just as I tried to attach the roof, one of the two pieces slid off the top and right onto the floor (frosting side down OF. COURSE.) and promptly crumbled into 1000 pieces. Jude’s sobbing, I’m nearly sobbing, then I yelled for him to go upstairs and get ready for bed. MOTHER OF THE YEAR RIGHT HERE.
AND. AND! As he’s sobbing heading upstairs while I’m cleaning up the frosting lard mess up off the floor, I hear a huge thump and wailing. HE FELL DOWN THE STAIRS. I flipped out and ran to him and made sure he was ok (which he was). It was not the proudest moment of my life, that’s to say the least. It was an early bedtime for both of us.
Oh, and the gingerbread house? More like a gingerbread shanty. Or lean-to. Take your pick. See how I tried to strengthen it with ‘Nilla Wafers? Yeah, not so much.
Well, live and learn, no? This week has been a flurry of work activity as I pressed through to meet my Etsy shop deadlines, which was insane. People were buying like crazy, and that is awesome, but I’m not gonna lie – it brings its own fair share of stress, too.
Have you met TomSam? That’s our Elf. He’s a busy little booger. One of my favorite things this year is seeing all my friends on Facebook as they show the creative ways they’re using their Elf on the Shelf. This was TomSam the other day – he got really busy wrapping presents & tying bows on all the packages.
Tangent: Do you like Brussels Sprouts? I think they’re my most favorite vegetable of all time. I simply adore them.
I can’t get enough of this kid. I hope he knows how much I adore him. I just want to bottle his sweetness up. Today he told me, “Mom, we’re gonna have to move the TV out of the fireplace so Santa can get down the chimney. Oh, and I don’t want him to see all the presents that are already under the tree.” Hahaha
Did I tell you that I got bangs? Yup. Lovin’ ‘em, too!
Speaking of beauty issues, I love how red lipstick dresses up even the most basic look. It really is the perfect accessory.
Wow, ok – completely random post, but sometimes those are the most fun. Certainly the most authentic, huh?
Gearing up for Alt Summit – only 35 more days, y’all!
The Santa Claus at North Pole City is particularly convincing and he tells a lovely Christmas story that focuses on the true meaning of Christmas. The children all sat on a rug and stared up at him with huge eyes as he told them a story. Jude hovered in the back of the room with me and every now & then would turn to me and say, “He looked right at me!!!!”
They have an entire room devoted to those little Christmas villages.
Tiny Vespas! Yes!!
I’m partial to the little glitter houses myself. I’ll have to show you the one I attempted (rather unsuccessfully) to make.
Did I mention they have a miniature train for the little ones? Right after Santa’s story we lined up for Jude’s ride.
Visiting North Pole City has been one of my favorite traditions for us since Jude was a baby. But adding to the tradition, we pick out an ornament (or two or three or four) for our tree when we go. This year Jude chose the lovely firetruck below.
I went with these stunning Christopher Radko Shiny & Brite balls. The Shiny & Brite collection is my absolute favorite because all the designs are based on Christmas decor from the 1940s and 1950s. Plus the price point (for Christopher Radko) is excellent.
I giggled to myself as I hung my ornaments on the white tree when I found a shoelace hanging languidly from the branches.
On Tuesday, I pulled into the driveway and squealed with excitement at the large box awaiting me on the front porch. (Side note: in my opinion, the FedEx & UPS men are like Santa Claus for grownups). There, on my front porch, was my white Christmas tree that I won last week from Treetopia.
Backstory: a couple of weeks ago when I dropped the bomb that I was really loving the look of white Christmas trees, we were sitting at my parents’ and laughing with them about how Mom & I are a little bit Christmas-tree-crazy. Simon was, shall we say, less than thrilled at the idea of purchasing a tree when we already have a perfectly good (green) Christmas tree. So, I tweeted about my great love for white Christmas trees and publicly thanked Mom on Facebook for her support of my white tree fascination.
The next day, my friend Lauren told me about the Treetopia sweepstakes for an artificial Christmas tree from their extensive & fun inventory. I laughed to myself and entered the sweepstakes on a whim. And wouldn’t you know it? I got an email stating that I won! I about fell over from shock. I had pretty much given up on getting one and then voila! I won! You wouldn’t believe the look on my parents’ or Simon’s faces when I told them!
While my winnings didn’t allow me to get a full-size tree, I’m really happy about my darling little white tree. It arrived today and it’s a really nice, high-quality tree. I’m very impressed with how dense the branches are and it even has little slivers of tinsel among the white branches. It’s the perfect backdrop for some of my brightly-colored, fancy ornaments.
I’ve been finding inspiration photos for how to style small trees, and I love these two below. I think the key here is putting them in some kind of container or decorating the base in some way. I’m still at a loss for how to style mine.
// source //
Regardless, it’s coming together and looks super pretty!
Through the rest of this week, I’ll be decorating it as well as adding the rest of the ornaments to the main tree. Jude keeps scalping ornaments every now & then!
Thank you, Treetopia!!! You really made my day!!
Wow. What a weekend! It’s Saturday today but it took me a few minutes to figure that out! Wednesday was a total blur of preparation, waiting in lines to pick up food, and then preliminary stuffing-of-our-faces. Thursday was lunch at my parents’ house followed by supper at Simon’s grandmother’s house. In between, we were spending the night at my folks’ house with cousins (the best part). After succumbing to a total food coma, Friday was full of online shopping and then an outing to see the Muppets movie.
Here’s our holiday weekend in iPhone pix (I forgot the camera at home! WAHHHHHH).
And of course we had to put up all the Christmas decor at Mom & Dad’s.
Then I got busy rooting around in my childhood bedroom closet where I found a treasure trove of art school terrible paintings (another post for another day) and — AND! — my prom dresses from the 1990s, AKA, my princess fantasy phase. No sequins for me, folks – just fabulous faux satin! So while the boys decorated the tree, I modeled the finest in prom fashion from 1998. hehehe
I use the term “prom” loosely. For the record, we went to a verrrry conservative Christian school and there was not an actual prom. No sir, we had a Junior/Senior Banquet. In other words, we were not allowed to wear anything strapless, revealing, etc. and there was certainly nooooo dancing. You can imagine my horror when I went to college and had a sorority formal to attend my freshman year in which there would be dancing. I made one of my guy friends who was a social butterfly show me how to dance in a series of tutorials in the dorms. Ahhh, memories.
SO there you go. A post in which I manage to include Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Prom. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.
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