christmas card display.

I love Christmas cards. I have always sent them out, even when I had to hand write a note on each and everyone. I've traded hand cramps for photo session planning as we've transitioned to photo cards over the last few years. I love sending them to all of our family and friends and I love getting them even more. A few years ago I struggled with the "perfect" way to display all of the cards that we got - especially because more and more families have started sending photo cards. Rather than buying a ready made card holder, I decided to make one myself so that I could show the cards all around my kitchen. It was such an easy and inexpensive project - definitely a unique way to decorate for Christmas!

Materials:

• Clothespins 
• Decorative item for the end of the clothes pin (I used buttons)
• Command strips
• Ribbon (at least 1.5 inches wide)
• Flat painted ornaments (found at craft stores)
• Glue gun 
• Scissors

Directions: 

• Measure the length of your cabinets or wherever you wish to display your cards 
• Cut the ribbon to the desired length 
• Use the glue gun to attach the flat painted ornaments at each end of the ribbon 
• Let the glue cool on the ribbon 
• Attach the ribbon to the cabinet or wherever you wish to display your cards with the Command strips (I've never had a problem with these stripping the finish off of my cabinets)

• Use the glue gun to attach the buttons to the end of each clothespin 
• Let the glue cool on the clothespins
• Display all of your Christmas cards by affixing them to the ribbon with your clothespins 

The end result will look a little something like this, a beautiful wall of all of your family and friends wishing you well through the holidays! 

elf on the shelf, week 1.

I started doing Elf on the Shelf with my son last year and had SO much fun. In all honesty, I think that there's a good chance that I had more fun than he did because I got to scheme about the daily reveal and then watch his reaction. I bought our elf last year two weeks before Christmas and it looks like only one week made it on the blog, so I'll be more diligent this year.

Day 1: 
I probably didn't go by proper elf on the shelf protocol, but we didn't re-read the book this year. I asked Nate if he remembered Santa's elf that came to visit and sometimes got into silly situations and he remembered! He even remembered the elf's name (Rhino) and opted not to change it.

I wanted to do a few more mischievous scenarios this year, so we started with a classic. What says mischief more than some drawn on facial hair?!

Daily Cost: Free if you already have some framed pictures (what parent doesn't?!) and a dry erase marked handy.  

Day 2:
I'll admit that I am trying to not reinvent the wheel this year. While I don't want to necessarily recreate any of the same scenes that we did last year, I've relied on my fair share of Pinterest pins and Instagram posts to fuel my ideas. One of which was to have Rhino make a "snow angel". Somehow our elf's hat came off, so I've used it as a little prop

Daily Cost: Free as long as you have some salt on hand. I opted for salt rather than sugar because I wanted to avoid the sticky factor. I also did this on top of a silicon baking sheet for really easy clean up!

Day 3:
We've really stressed the importance of responsibility with Nathan this year and, as part of that "training", you may remember that we started to use a chore chart. I love how this little chart has helped Nathan initiate cleaning up after himself and helping other people in our family! Naturally, this was a perfect outlet for our elf to work some of his magic. Instead of Nate's normal chores, Rhino filled the chart with some funny (and gross) "chores". Nathan thought that it was hysterical but also was very concerned that "all my money is gone" where the total amount earned had been erased :)

Day 4: 
After a few days of fun and games, it was time to reintegrate some sweetness back into our daily elf visits. Nate loves this Santa decoration and spends time alternating between dragging him around the house and wearing him on his head. The back story to this scene was that Rhino saw this Santa and it made him miss Santa in the North Pole so much that he just had to give this little guy a huge hug. A little contrived, but Nate thought it was sweet.

 Daily Cost: Free!

Day 5: 
Another warm and fuzzy day! Nathan found Rhino all cuddled up with Rudolph and the Abominable Snow Monster! Also, my favorite Nathan with Santa photo ever is in the background - what child doesn't have that freak out, stranger danger moment?

Daily Cost: Free!

Day 6: 
We have these decorative Christmas blocks that we bought a few years ago that are made to spell out things like believe, noel. and joy. You know, Christmas words. Well, while this was on the right wintery page, Rhino rearranged our letters which had said "believe" into "I Love Snow".

Daily Cost: Free! Notice a theme this year? Trying to keep our expenses to an absolute minimum and make use of all of our decorations and things around the house!

Day 7:
Let me put it out there that I didn't see this anywhere, though I'm sure it's not an original idea. However, I did share it with some friends and put it out on my Instagram. I was thinking about how accustomed Nathan is to flipping through my phone, especially my pictures. How perfect is an elf selfie?! So, so easy to set up and Nathan was more than excited to find this in my phone!

 
Daily Cost: Free!


Well, that wraps up our first week! This has been another fun way to focus on the upcoming holiday and enjoy all of the moments leading up to it! When schedules are chocked full of work and school, this has been a nice thing to know we'll do every day together :)

santa.

After the amazing Santa experiences that we've had over the last few years, I'm more than convinced that I will never take my child to a mall Santa again!

Last year, I wrote a pretty extensive post about our visit to see Santa at Merrifield Garden Center.  This year, we set out on a weeknight with the goal of avoiding some of the really big crowds to go see Santa. I really can't sing the praises for this place enough, but they implemented some really great changes this year. First of all, you don't have to stand in line anymore! Praise be! After arriving, you take a number and one of Santa's helpers will even grab your cell number and, get this, text you when it's your turn! What do you do while you wait? Well, in one room they had Frozen playing (genius), in another room they had the more traditional Christmas cartoons playing, and also had tables set up with coloring books and crayons.

Like last year, Santa spent a good deal of time to listen to ALL of the things on Nate's list list (N came prepared!), to ask him Nate if he was a good boy this year, and to answer questions about why his living room was set up like it was and where the reindeer were while Santa was talking to him. We also paid only $5 to have four digital images emailed to us! Such a bargain!

Another thing that this place does that I absolutely adore is that at the end of the visit, Santa asks your child to pick his or her favorite color from a basket of ribbons. After cutting off a piece, Santa tells your child to hang the ribbon on your tree on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning, it will be wrapped around one of the things that your child asked for. We did this last year with some of the stuffed animals that Nate asked for and he was absolutely awestruck that Santa remembered.  Such a great touch to really keep the magic alive!

Here are some moments from their visit:

 

 

 

decorating.

My house looks its best at Christmas. My favorite thing is to look at our tree at night when it is the only thing that lights up my (hopefully) silent house. Getting to that point was a challenge this year! In theory, the idea of prelit trees could not be more perfect for my detail oriented and often critical eye. Evenly spaced bulbs that show the depth of the tree, not just on the out branches? Yes, please!

Unfortunately, the top twelve or so inches of our tree went out this year and despite all of our bulb testing and replacement, could not be fixed. I settled for a string of lights made by the same brand as those that are on the tree, but in my heart of hearts I can see the difference without much more than a glance. No one else seems to think that it's that noticeable, but next year it looks like we'll be going with a tried and true artificial tree with a separate string of lights. You would think that we heft our decorations without a bit of care in the world, as our star didn't work this year either. Now we have a new and improved star that changes colors!

Christmas decorations are seriously the best ... 

And remember the autumn-inspired wreath that I made? It now has a Christmas cousin that turned out pretty well! I can wrap ribbon and burlap, but that is about the extent of my craftiness.

Nathan was a great little helper when we decorated the tree this year. Any parent's eye will notice that anything breakable is on the top third of the tree, while the bottom of the tree is heavy with shatterproof balls and ornaments that Nate has picked out over the last few years. Nate's daily routine has been: come home from school, take all of "his" ornaments off of the tree, play for a while, re-decorate.  A friend mentioned that she dates all of her ornaments and who they were from (if gifts). I definitely will be doing that before we put everything away this year!  Here is my little helper, hard at work!

And what would one of my posts be without a cheesy and posed photo of my little guy? Love this little smile!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

thanksgiving 2014.

Thanksgiving felt so effortless this year. I can't remember the last Thanksgiving that I spent at home - maybe when I was a kid?  There's just something really nice about not living out of your suitcase on a major holiday and spending time in your own house. The last few years we've alternated between spending the holiday with my family and Chris's family - here's a quick stroll down memory lane:

Thanksgiving 2010
Thanksgiving 2011
Thanksgiving 2012
Thanksgiving 2013

So much good food and fun, and so many people that we love! This year, it just so happened that we were without travel plans, so we decided to do a big Thanksgiving dinner here. When I say "effortless", let's qualify with the fact that I did do all of the deal searching, couponing, shopping, and cleaning. My husband is the chef who pulls out all of the stops to put a delicious dinner on the table! It's a good balance and I have to say, he makes it look (and taste) so good!

Naturally he pays (not so) subtle tribute to his cooking muse, Alton Brown, and dons an apron from a job that seems like it was a lifetime ago. After carving his beautiful turkey masterpiece, we struggled it out for the wishbone ... and I won!

After stuffing ourselves and spending time with my family, I had the wild but fleeting idea that I would do some Black Friday shopping. I later opted for some online shopping instead, but Nate was very serious about flipping through those deals!

While I unfortunately did not take part of the thirty days of thanks challenge this year because, quite frankly, the month got away from me, I really enjoyed having a low key day that was still full of great food and family, but ended with a wonderful night of sleep in my own bed. It was a great time to reflect on everything in my life that I've been blessed with and I am so humbly thankful for the people who I get to share my life with! Here's my list from last year's thirty days of thanks challenge and a mini-challenge that I did a few months ago. Crazy, happy, blessed.

nathan-isms, vol. 7.

Because it's been a while ...

My backseat driver ... 
N: That light was YELLOW! The cops are going to get you!
Me: No, it's okay. And did you know that it's the police officer's job to make sure we all follow the rules so that everyone is safe?
N: Yeah, you tell them that in jail.

Singing to the 'chicken dance song'...
N: I don't want to be a goose, I don't want to be a horse, I just want to be a kid HA HA HA HA!

While trying to enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee ... in public ... 
Chris: Let's have another baby.
N: But I'm the perfect kid! 

Explaining roles in our family...
Me: Did you know that Daddy is your dad but he's also my husband?
N: What?!
Me: So that makes me his what?
N: True love.

I just don't even know...
N: I want apple sauce with my dinner tonight. My bad guy is playing in my car seat. All of these trees are FREAKING ME OUT!

My very picky eater...
Me: Daddy is making his famous mac & cheese from scratch for Thanksgiving!
N: I'll be making my honey nut Cheerios from scratch, too.  

myrtle beach.

It's taken me a really long time to get this up, but we went on our very first family vacation in September. After months of planning and watching the days tick by, it was finally time to go on our trip! And I'm so happy to say that it was amazing and we definitely want to make it a yearly thing. Hurray for starting new traditions! And even more for building new traditions off of old ones.

When I was a kid, my grandparents took me to Myrtle Beach nearly every summer. We would take early morning walks on the beach, play in the sand, eat bologna sandwiches and Pringles for lunch (don't judge), swimming in the pool, and collecting seashells. We also would do family trips with my parents and brothers, too, so there are so many memories there.

We went to The Breakers Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C. for our vacation. About 6+ hours from home, so not too long in the car and not bad on the wallet for filling up the gas tank.

Before launching into what may become a picture-heavy post, here were my ways to save money on our trip -- which also let us do some more fun things:

• Book your hotel in advance. We booked a good 3+ months beforehand and I got lots of discounts while still getting a primo room (we're talking bedroom with a flatscreen, kitchen, full bath, separate "living room" with another flatscreen, sitting area & table, and a balcony on the 22nd floor!)
• Timing is everything - we went the week after Labor Day so that it was technically "off peak" but still warm. I also booked for a Monday through Friday stay to avoid weekend rates! 
• Eating breakfast and lunch in the room (or on the beach!). We had a well stocked cooler full of couponed deals (from all those months of planning, y'all) and lots of snacks to cut down on food runs 
• Plan your activities in advance - even dinner outings (one of our splurges) if you know the area well or do lots of research. You won't be as apt to get suckered into places on a whim that may end up being a bust
• Use the coupons that you see everywhere - for places that you already planned on going! :) 
• Remember where you are - we went to the beach to enjoy the sand, the sun, and (let's be honest) the amazing pools. We got as much time enjoying the water as possible.

Day 1: 
After piling into the car, we took a family selfie and hit the road (after getting properly caffeinated at Starbucks, of course).

We had to work for our vacation on the drive down. I can't remember driving in such bad rain before. There was a terrifying twenty seconds where it rained so hard that I couldn't see past our bumper. Thankfully we made it to the beach in one piece and the sun even started to peak out from behind the clouds!

Nate got so excited about seeing the ocean that he ran headfirst into the sliding glass door on our balcony. If you look really closely, you can see the mark on his little forehead. These photos capture the very first time that my boy set foot into the ocean!

Day 2: 
Operation: spend lots of time on the beach and enjoy the awesome pools at the hotel! We built sandcastles, had a great cooler picnic outside and Nate started to be a little less timid around water. Nate also decided that he wanted to be buried in the sand and thought it was hysterical. Love his fearless nature!

After a long hard day of play, I took Nate out for his first Ben & Jerry's experience. I love that it was across the street from our hotel - along with a Starbucks - and our hotel provided a coupon!

Day 3: 
More fun in the sun!  We also took advantage of some of the neat extras that our hotel had, like this life size chess board. Chris tried his best to teach Nate and I the main premise of chess, but N was more interested in knocking over the pieces and I just wanted to take pictures :)

For dinner, we headed to a restaurant called Original Benjamin's (one of our splurge items). My family went there for dinner on our childhood vacations to the beach, so it was fun to recreate that with my family now. The restaurant is enormous with a huge buffet and lots of maritime decorations. One neat addition that they have now was an activity room just for kids! There was an eclectic mix of video games, maritime objects, a pretend boat and bunk, dress up clothes, and even an aquarium. It was definitely Nathan's favorite part - other than the dessert bar!

 
Day 4:
On our last full day at the beach, we tried to spend as much time as possible outside before we had to come in to get ready for our last big outing (and splurge!). We told Nathan that we had a big surprise for him that evening - preferred seating at Pirate's Voyage! Think Medieval Times, but pirate themed with lots of acrobatics and swimming. Such a good way to do dinner and a show! We bought Nate a flag to cheer on our pirate crew - the enthusiasm in that kid! I thought I would lose an eye :)

 

Being that it was our last night and we would be driving on our last day of vacation, what's better than a night swim and stroll on the beach? It was a little chilly, but thank goodness the hotel had an enormous hot tub! I told Nate to savor these last few moments and he had a blast. 

Day 5: 
Sadly the realization hit us that it was time to check out and start our trip home. After we packed up our bags and loaded the luggage cart, we popped out the tripod to take our one and only family photo from the vacation. We were a sun kissed and very relaxed bunch! 

Can't wait until next year's trip!