25 Days of Christmas: Day 9

We got to read tonight's book somewhere else!!  We spent the evening hanging out with Sue Sue, Poppy and Auntie Abby snacking and decorating the Christmas tree! There's was lots of eating, laughing, coloring and quoting Elf....and lots of decorating of course, haha.

Sue Sue had a snowman book we'd never read before, so it was a perfect book to read with all the beautiful snow we have to look at!

Book #9: Snowmen at Christmas

Don't hate on my leggings + sock combo 😂 I'm fully embracing my Christmas spirit.

Christmas at VHS

The week before Winter Break was a great week at work!  It seemed like everyone was very much into the holiday spirit, and everyone was just in a great mood all week!

Each day had a different theme, and we could dress up to go with the theme. I tried to take a picture of my outfit everyday (because I knew I would eventually blog about it..haha), but I forgot on Friday!! If you cared or wanted to know, I wore my Christmas Story "you'll shoot your eye out!" shirt, haha.  After looking at these pictures....I just don't know what to think.  a) I have too many options for Christmas outfits (that's not really a problem, though); b) I need to clean our mirror; c) WHY do I automatically put my hand on my hip?! haha

We also had a door decorating contest!  There ended up being an even bigger competition between the Main Office and School Counseling!  It was so funny, all of us going back and forth over who was going to win!  Plus, our doors ended up as scenes because we kept wanting to expand! haha.  I mentioned that for next year, we just all need to combine and work together, and connect the doors in the main hallway by making a big candy cane forest! haha

The Main Office scene was as if you were sitting in your living room, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace, and looking outside at the falling snow.  We love how it turned out!!

 How awesome is this mantle Andrea put together?  And that's our secretary photo from our Christmas lunch and gift exchange!

Everyone in the Main Office also had their own snowflake to write a Christmas greeting or quote on it and sign it.  Of course, I wrote my favorite quote from the Santa Clause movies:

 

25 Days of Christmas: Day 23

On two of the Christmas trees we had at our house growing up (we had a lot of trees! :) I loved it!!), there were these sets of little heart ornaments that smelled of cinnamon and were decorated with lace.  On the tree in the den, the set of ornaments had a red felt background and red bow; on the tree in the living room, the ornaments had a light pink felt background and pink bow.  This way, each set matched the theme of its respective tree. 

Somehow, I managed to get one of each color to hang on my own tree in my room...and those ornaments have made their way with that tree to our house now!

Anyway, my mom had made these ornaments years ago, and I think several times I or we have said we should make some again.  As I was brainstorming ideas for this year's 25 Days of Christmas, Mom came up with the idea of finally making some of these ornaments! Today was the day!  I headed over, was greeted by Annie of course, and got set making some new ornaments (because really, you can never have too many ornaments.)

They're very easy to make...just take a little bit of time and patience!

Here's what you're going to need to make them:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon of Allspice
• 2 tablespoons of ground cloves
• 1 tablespoon of Nutmeg
• 1 cup of applesauce

Directions:

1. Mix together. Simple as that. haha. 

2. Roll out dough and cut out ornaments. We sprinkled cinnamon over the counter so the dough wouldn't stick. Flour would've turned the dough white.
 

Look closely at these pictures...it's a little hard to tell.

Mom is on the left; I'm on the right.

We ended up wearing the same shirts today! haha. Christmas presents from Abby last year!!

 

Loving how these turned out!!

 

3.  Let ornaments dry on a flat surface covered in wax paper for 4 to 5 days.

Also, be sure to poke a hole at the top of your ornament, so you'll have somewhere for the hook to go!

 

Merry Christmas Eve eve!!!!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 20

I could decorate Christmas trees any day!! This evening, Matt and I (okay, just me really, haha) helped Mom and Abby decorate two trees.  It was lots of fun...lots of laughs and lots of distractions!

We had Pizza Hut for dinner and watched Elf--could there be a better Christmas movie to watch while decorating?? :)  Matt also made some chocolate chip cookies, recipe from the famous "Nestle Toulouse."  Okay, if you haven't seen Friends, that won't be the least bit funny to you. haha.

There was also a bit of jump-roping involved, while Mom was stringing up beads.  I was holding the beads, making sure they were untangled and everything as she was putting them on the tree, and I kept swinging the strands around.  Then, Matt grabbed the other end, Abby jumped in, and she got a few good jumps! haha.

Before....

Don't know what we're doing here...

Matt "supervising"

 

Annie enjoyed some snuggles with Matt.

 

We stopped for a cookie break...

While Abby was fixing milk and Eggnog, Annie just stared at me and this tin of cookies! haha

 

Mom's Eggnog picture:

 Matt putting his touch on the tree..

 

All done!

 

Moving on to tree #2!

 

...but not until we had a piano concert. haha

This brought back some old memories!

 

Putting the "hula girl" angel on.

 

so pretty!

 

Abby and I very carefully and strategically  placed the nativity scene, haha.

 

Abby's turn on the piano ;)