On The 11th Day Of Christmas

We Drove Around To Look At Lights

This has been a tradition in my family since I was a young girl. Every year, the week of Christmas, there were neighborhoods we always knew had the best lights and our family would drive around, drinking hot cocoa, and with sandwich bags of cookies and we would look at the lights.

I remember my sister and I getting so excited as we approached each new brightly lit house. It is to this day one of my fondest and most vivid memories from Christmas’ past. I think this is the best time to remind all of us parents that it is not the gifts under the tree or the extravagence of the season, but its the memories, the family time, the closeness that make Christmas magical and that makes lasting memories for our kids.

It’s so easy to get lost in the presents and the tree and Santa and cooking and preparing. But what really matters, is the smiles and the laughter and teaching our children that the magic of this season is not what we get, but what we give. So give smiles. Lots and lots of smiles!!!

Last time I checked, driving around looking at lights costs just a few dollars in gas and is completely priceless with memories that will last. So get in the car, and just go.

I Came Up With Last Minute Gifts!!

Forget about your Aunt who is coming to dinner on Christmas Eve? Want to do something small for the mailman/pool guy/pet groomer and not sure what, or worse forgot? Need a gift for a teacher or pastor or even a friend who bought a little something for you?

Here are some solutions!! Even better, they won’t break the budget and you might have them already in your home!! So enjoy, and think outside the box! Even if you don’t use anything from this list, hopefully it gets your creative muscles flexing and your come up with something perfect!

Hope you got some fun ideas!! Don’t forget the good old cookies or banana bread in the mailbox or on the porch for your favorite delivery drivers!! Please share your fave go to last minute gifts in the comments.

WE CLIPPED FRESH MISTLETOE!!

The worlds greatest parasite. Brings romantic bliss and kisses at Christmas!! We are lucky enough to have a fabulously huge bunch of mistletoe that grows nice and low so even my daughter can reach it to pick some branches for us. We hang some in the doorway and the enjoy adding it to our cookie trays for the neighbors so they can have a little kissing fun this Holiday too.

My favorite is to pick it fresh when the berries are perfect little pearls. It’s so magical that it berries right now at the perfect time of year…unlike my Christmas cactus that only bloomed on Christmas the first year I got it, LOL. This year, we actually took some berries and pressed them to the pear tree in our front yard and hoping to grow our very own little parasite bush. I’ll update you next year if the experiment actually worked. Sort of like when you self pollinate your fruit trees. You don’t know until you see the fruit!

I must type a bit of a disclaimer here, be careful not to let your animals near your mistletoe. It is toxic to dogs and cats and if consumed, you will want to call your vet immediately.

It’s Candy Making TIME!

I love giving gifts. I love giving homemade gifts even more than store bought ones and that is probably why I spend most of the year canning jams and jellies and dry soup mixes and sugar scrubs and… So when December gets here I make CANDIES!! Cookies too, but that’s another day.

My staple candy are truffles. I make them every year and have for years. Everyone expects them, and I’m not one to dissapoint so every year I make them. I usually make Amaretto, and Bailey’s truffles and this year I think I am adding salted caramel Crown Royal to the mix too. Hopefully it won’t be a flop like the champagne or kahlua truffles were. Kahlua is too blended with the chocolate to provide a good flavor diversity, FYI.

This year’s candy confections also include pecan turtles, whiskey soaked cherry cordials, kid friendly cherry cordials, fudge, cornflake wreaths, and pretzel rods! So if anyone is wondering where I am this week, it’s tethered to the kitchen. And loving every single minute of it!! What’s even better is the girls are totally into it this year too! Every moment is building traditions and bringing smiles. We watch Christmas movies the entire time and look forward to bringing all that joy to our friends. Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally drop a fresh made tray of cordials all over the fridge, or burn a batch of chocolate. But that’s just the fun of it all.

So what are you baking? Any candy traditions in your home?

Find a Santa who will drop the mask for your kids at Christmas

Oh my goodness do I know how controversial this is here in the year 2020. So let me preface with, our family has been careful of our circle. We stock up on sanitizer, and the small scare we did have, we immediately quarantined, tested, and let anyone we had contact with know there was a risk. I understand that there are many high risk families and I completely understand your choice and necessity for a plexi glass or masked Santa picture.

However, we wanted the magic. We wanted the lap. We wanted the Santa who is jolly and happy and greets our kids with a warm hello right there next to them. We wanted some normalcy for our Holiday and I am so happy we found it. If you haven’t and you want it, you can call some local photographers in your area or small venues and see what they are hosting. This was what we wanted for our family, and I respect every person’s right to a choice. I also would like to thank from the bottom of my heart the Santa and Mrs. Claus that showed up, that held our babies, that made a moment of this Holiday completely magical. Most of all I know and appreciate the risk they take at their age just by showing up for the pictures and I hope health and blessings follow them all season and well into the new year.

That said. Find a Magical Santa. This season it can be tough. Even if it’s not with a Santa, there are a lot of really fun Grinch Pics to be had and they have to wear a mask. But don’t walk away from this Holiday with that regret of missing magical moments with Santa and your babies.

I mean isn’t it sad enough that most of the country has a darn toilet paper ornament adorning their tree?!

Buy And Wear ALL The Tacky Holiday Gear!!

I own leggings (yep, more than one pair) t-shirts, sweaters, fleece shirts, ALL the fa la la gear one’s heart could desire. And you’re dang right I freaking ROCK IT all season long!!

I’ll admit, that maybe it’s a mom thing. I mean I have been shamelessly dressing my kids to the 9’s in every Holiday’s gear for almost 8 years. And finding the most ridiculously cute Christmas suit makes me start noticing how much they make in my size too. And I buy it. So we match. And that is how I have shamelessly turned into my mother in my 30’s. And I LOVE IT!!

I love wearing smiling reindeer. It makes me smile every time a bell on my reindeer’s collar jingles. Working out in Santa legging’s absolutely makes the workout that much more fun. Sleeping in Christmas PJ’s everyday of the week definitely ensures the best Christmas dreams.

So do it. buy the clothes. wear them every dang day and spread all the Christmas joy your jingle can jangle!!

Send The Cards!!

Yes, send the cards!! They don’t have to be perfect posed portraits of you and your family. They don’t have to each have a beautiful thoughtful message written specifically for each person on your list. But they do need to be selected, and mailed out. Like today.

Our family has done all the cards. We’ve done family poses, pet poses, just the kids, a year in review, the newsletter, and just a simple card.

This year, we made seed paper as a recycling project for homeschool and are sending pieces of our seed paper with our cards. I love the sentiment behind it, and to keep it simple we have simply pasted a sweet message inside a blank card. It feels SO GOOD to send a small gift to friends and family all over the country with our cards. It feels even better to know as the seeds grow, they will be reminded of our family, and hopefully that will bring a smile.

I haven’t yet created our post on how to make the seed paper, but watch for that to come early next year. But here is a picture of our cards for inspiration. If the thought of sending cards makes you want to roll your eyes or feels overwhelming, remember to start small. Send a few cards to your best friends, or family you know you won’t see, or select the 10 people you know might not get a card or a gift and be the smile that shows up in their mailbox this Holiday season. It is the season of giving, and a sentiment of a card can give all year long.

We Forget The Wrap!!

Truth. I detest wrapping presents!! Especially when I spend so much of the entire last quarter of the year hiding gifts in my closet and on Christmas Eve am up all night wrapping them while my husband builds everything and we try to do both of these things super quietly so we don’t wake the sleeping excited cherubs who would LOVE to catch a glimpse of Santa himself!!

So, last year, I decided to QUIT wrapping gifts. Yep, I freaking quit! They do not make enough wine to make me do it, and if they did I couldn’t handle Christmas Morning as wonderful and early as it is sure to come.

Instead, I saved one larger Amazon box for each of us (my husband and I share one), and medium ones for the grandparents and aunts and uncles, and wrapped them. And they sit wrapped as nice little decorations under my tree all season long. Then I simply used tissue paper to ‘conceal’ the gifts and as they arrive, they come out of their shipment boxes, easily into tissue and Voila, under the tree!! Yes, I do still hide the kids gifts in our closet, but everyone else’s go right under the tree.

Santa, luckily at our house, Santa fills the santa sack we leave out by the tree with his gifts. He’s such a busy guy that he’s never wrapped his, besides how could he know what presents he was grabbing if they were covered in paper?! So the kids know that anything in the box is from Mom and Dad.

Extra Bonus! Christmas Morning is SO MUCH EASIER when everyone just get’s their box from under the tree and opens each gift. No digging to find one with your name on it, no comparing to make sure they all got the same number of presents. It’s just easy, and enjoyable, and seamless, and well, I have to say it, Organized!!! Which I love. And I love even more being able to sit, sip my mimosa, enjoy my strata, and watch the kids light up as they open their gifts.

BUY MATCHING JAMMIES!!

I know it’s cliche, and I really don’t care, because I love our pajama tradition!! I haven’t revealed this year’s yet, but it’s something our whole family looks forward to every Christmas Eve, and anyone who attends our Christmas Eve has to keep with the tradition too. I mean rules are rules and traditions cannot be broken!! LOL!

So, we buy the pajamas, and everyone gets theirs in a box with a new ornament, a movie, and their favorite box of movie candy or popcorn. Of course our Christmas Eve consists of much more than pajama’s and movies and ornaments. We have the traditional Seven Fishes Feast. We drink Candy Cane cocktails and eat cookies and play games. Honestly it’s probably more fun than Christmas day because the kids aren’t all preoccupied with their new toys and everyone is just excited with the anticipation of Santa coming to town.

So be cliche, buy the pajama’s. Pick a theme and make it SO MUCH FUN!! Here are some pictures from Christmas Past (Grinches and the Girls; Everyone In A Onesie; Star Wars Dark Side; Red Plaid and Expecting) and stay tuned for our Christmas Present Pajama’s Coming Soon!!

Build Gingerbread Houses!!

I was never the one to build the house, but they are SO MUCH FUN!! The kids love decorating and then eating all the decorations and I really love it too. Top secret info, we even buy them on clearance after Christmas and make Cupid Houses too decorated with conversation hearts.

I will definitely advise not to spend a fortune on the super nice house, especially if you have kids my daughter’s ages (5 & 7) we buy two houses for $10 a piece and they are perfect! My best advice is to get the new ones that have the locking walls instead of the straight edge walls that you have to hold in place for a while to get them to stick and stay. Also, don’t be afraid to use your own candy for decorations and just let the kids eat the ones that come with the house!

Let them do the decorating. Sounds simple, but if you are like me, it’s really hard. My OCD kicks into overdrive with their mismatched designs and eating more of the decor than actually goes on the house and taking swipes of icing off the edges, but they just have so much fun!! So I just let go. I let them run with it, and get as creative as they want, and at the end. They really do turn out quite beautiful and perfect for our house. I mean, we’re definitely not winning any competitions, but I do love how proud the kids are of their work of art.

So go buy the houses, and after Christmas, buy more, and most importantly HAVE FUN!

Deck the Halls!

I love *LOVE* making the magic of Christmas appear ALL OVER THE HOUSE!! But I’m on a budget, so I can’t run out and raid the local craft store or Kohl’s of all their fabulous decorations (even during their million black friday events or with their 10,942 coupons). But, I can afford a few Dollar Tree ornaments and glittery decorations and a couple rolls of shiny wrapping paper.

This is a tradition I started a few years ago while living in Florida and sulking about how hot it was-before I came to appreciate and love and now miss a warm weather Christmas. I was sitting on the couch enjoying a hallmark movie, of course, and realized how gosh darn crazy Christmassy every house, shop, and street look in those movies! Which brought me to wonder, what makes their house so festive and while I had a tree and garland and village it was staggeringly sub par in comparison. So I took a deeper look into the background and noticed that ever shelf, wall, everywhere had Christmas pictures or plaques or bows. So I looked around. Then I looked up some fun decorations and started filling my virtual shopping carts at multiple stores with all kind of fun wall hangings. Clicked checkout and couldn’t afford or bring myself to pay that much for decorations that would be up for a month-ish.

As I drank my third glass of wine, I had a moment of brilliance! I may not be able to buy brand new Holiday Canvases and wooden signs to put up all over my freaking house, but I could absolutely wrap every frame already hanging on my walls and add a fun decoration or ornament to them to bring my festive house from a 4 right up to an 8 on the over the top level!! So I did. Cause as Walt would say, If you can dream it, even as a hazy blurred third glass of wine dream, you can totally do it!!

So I did, the very next day I spent $20 on decorations and wrapping paper, got my tape and glue gun ready and transformed every wall into a winter wonderland!! And the tradition has stuck! My kids love it and look forward to the transformation every year, cause it’s one of those things that mom stays up late and does while they are asleep.

A few tips for decking your halls:

>Pick only two or three different rolls of wrapping paper.

>Stick to a theme. In mine you will see a woodland theme with wood designed silver and gold papers.

>Don’t overdo the ornaments and bows. I use mini bows and a few ornaments but also dazzle with some of the large glittery wall decorations.

>Glitter on glitter is too much. Glitter on Foil is perfect!!

> Make It Your Own and LOVE IT!!!

I love filling December with tradition and decorations and celebrations of the season.

When I say filling, yes I mean I try to do something festive EVERYDAY December 1st (if you know me, you know that December 1 actually means like Nocember 12) through the 25th. I realize it’s a busy season, and with 3 kids, trust me I know that doing something festive is sometimes a solo act that only Mom can pull off after bedtime because the kids drank a little too much of the crazy kool aid today and the fun I so thoughtfully planned will just have to be me and a large glass (yep, that means bottle) of wine!

This year, I want to share some fun tradition and so that I don’t bombard you with a month plus of festive possibility, I have narrowed it down to my 12 favorite things that get me, my house, my family into the holiday spirit! Some are activities, some are food, some are new this year and might be a memorable disaster, and some are annual staples that bring out the magic of the season!

My 12 Days of Christmas will begin on Monday December 7 and end on Sunday December 20.

Yes, I can count, I’m obviously throwing in a bonus and 13 days of Christmas just doesn’t have the same ring as 12. You’re Welcome and Merry Christmas!