Christmas Traditions

Christmas traditions are what really make the holiday for me. I love seeing my kids eyes light up when they remember doing this same type of activity from the year before. It was important to me as I became a mom to use some of the same traditions I grew up with as well as add a few new ones for my kids.

Starting in November the day after Thanksgiving we start with our Christmas traditions.

We put up our tree. The kids help decorate it and add the star as well as light it.

Our Elf on the Shelf shows up December 1st and stays until Christmas Eve and boy is he naughty!

We watch Christmas movies almost every night. Our favorite is Elf!

We start our Countdown until Christmas also on December 1st.

 We bake a lot of yummy treats through out the season!

And I tend to get a bit crafty! I made these for the boys teachers!

 

Now for Christmas Eve we have another set of traditions that we have done since the boys were toddlers. 

We start the night off with watching The Polar Express. They love that movie.

We then open a Christmas Eve present which is new pajamas! They put them on and while they are getting ready for bed, I sneak in their room and place a Polar Express Ticket under their blankets and go and make hot chocolate.

 You can get your own Polar Express Tickets HERE

 We then send them to bed and this is when they notice they have a golden ticket! They get so excited as they know that they aren't really going to bed and instead we are taking them on our version of the Polar Express.

Our version is we grab a cup of hot chocolate with a lid, the conductor (daddy) loads them up in the car. And he whisks us away to check out some Christmas lights. We listen to Christmas music and just enjoy the family time together. 

Once we are done and home we read The Night Before Christmas.

 

Then they head to bed and Santa comes! 

Christmas morning comes and the boys are so excited to see what Santa brought them!

These are our Christmas Traditions. What are some of yours?

What I Want for Christmas

With Christmas only 9 days away and all the presents have been bought for everyone in my family. I figured it was time for me to write up a Christmas Wish List for my husband. He likes me to be specific and he likes to have pictures of what I want. He says it is easier for him and that way I get what I truly need and want. 

This year I decided I wanted beauty stuff as it is the one thing I don't really buy for myself through the year as there is always cheaper stuff available.

 

So this is my Christmas Wish List!

I picked all of my items from Ulta as keeping things simple is easiest for him!

 

  1. Bed Head Blow Dryer / 2. Love Your Hair Caddy / 3. Batiste Dry Shampoo / 4. Feeling Beautiful Clay Mask / 

5.  Self Grip Rollers / 6. Healthy Sexy Hair Shampoo / 7. Healthy Sexy Hair Conditioner / 8. Body Loofah / 

9. Butter Lip Gloss Set / 10. Purity Face Cleanser /

(no affiliate links)

What is on your Christmas Wish List this year?

Deco Mesh Wreath Tutorial

I have been in love with deco mesh wreaths for a while now and never could make myself make one as I had a hard time understanding the tutorials, even though they are super easy. I finally sat down to try to figure it out and decided I would make an easy tutorial for beginners like me! 

To start you need

A wreath form. I got mine at Hobby Lobby. If you can't find one with the pipe cleaners attached just buy a normal wire wreath and find pipe cleaners that you can attach yourself. 

1 roll of deco mesh in any color you choose. (5 1/2 x 30 feet)

Some type of accent ribbon ( I went with tinsel wired ribbon)

Decorations of your choice for accents

(I accidentally bought more than I really needed for this wreath but you get the idea from this picture.)

 Now let's get started!

To start you take your wire wreath and deco mesh. You will need the whole roll of deco mesh for this wreath so do not cut at any time. 

Take the end and scrunch the piece and twist the pipe cleaner around it. I started with my inner ring of my wreath.

 Now you just start making bumps in the deco mesh. Try to keep them the same length and bumpiness around the whole wreath.

 Go around the inner ring once and then go again a second time. Keep making the bumps as this adds fullness to your wreath.

 Once I had gone around the inner ring twice without cutting I headed to the outer ring. Continue doing the bumps just like your inner ring on the outer ring.

Go around the outer loop twice and you should be at the end of your roll. If not keep going because the more bumps you have the fuller your wreath will look. 

 At that point my main part of my wreath is done.

Next I added my tinsel wired ribbon. I just zig-zagged  it throughout my wreath to my liking using the same pipe cleaners that were on the wreath to begin with.

Then attach your accent pieces to your liking. I attached mine to the back and had it pop up through the center. (I later replaced it with some snowflakes for my Christmas decor). 

There is my finished Christmas wreath! I had so much fun making it! 

Have you ever made one of these? If not give it a try!

Christmas Shopping List

Christmas shopping season is here and with that I like to have a nice list that I can easily track what gifts I have bought, what I need, and what needs to be wrapped still. 

This printable makes all of that easy peasy! 

 

At the top I place the person's name that I am shopping for. Then I list the gifts and prices as I find them. On the left side under the little present; I check when the item has been wrapped. The right side I check under the check mark when I have completed everything that deals with that gift. 

This process really has helped me when shopping for my husband, my kids, and family! 

I hope it helps you too! 

You can download the printable HERE!

Preparing for Christmas

It has been awhile and I will say I'm sorry. Life is extremely busy with my classes and all of the boys activities. 

That said I wanted to share a few pictures of our Christmas preparations!

We decorated our tree and this was the first year I really let the boys help. I am very particular about the way my tree looks so letting go this year was hard for me but the boys really enjoyed it!

The boys did a great job!

Our Elf on the Shelf showed up today (a couple days late) with our normal North Pole breakfast. He made green milk, brought donuts, new bowls, new cups, and a couple little toys.

The boys were thrilled when they woke up to all of this fun this morning!

Hope to share the Elf's activities with you all off an on until Christmas!

Cyber Monday + Bonus Tuesday Sale!!!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Did any of y'all going Black Friday shopping? I did for a few things. I got a new set of Paula Deen Cookware and some Old Navy clothes for the boys and I. 

Tomorrow is Cyber Monday as I am sure you all know! Which means lot and lots of sales!!! 

Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Cyber Monday + Bonus Tuesday sale! I am participating by having my sale at 20% off for Monday and Tuesday! If you enter code CMT12 at checkout you will get a total of 28% off my store! 

Now would be a great time to pick up some of those Learning Packs you have been wanting to get! 

I just added a Christmas Learning Pack! 

Included:

Alphabet Match
Alphabetical Order
Vocabulary Cards
Vocabulary Match
Counting Cards
Draw a number
Size Sort
Roll and Graph
Patterns
Maze
Prewriting Practice
Beginning Sounds
Silhouette Match
Measuring
Cutting Practice
Scavenger Hunt
Christmas Sort

Would be a great set for learning plus some Christmas fun! 

Hope you check out the great SALES going on!

Monday I will be posting the winner of the 15$ Kmart Gift Card as well as a new Giveaway! See ya then!

Posts not posting

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted. I scheduled a few posts for Thanksgiving week and they never posted. I plan to start posting some Christmas posts next week and just wanted to give an update on where I have been. I am currently taking classes online and that has been taking my free time that I used to use for blogging. I hope to get some posts up soon though so please bare with me!  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are ready for a great Christmas!! I am completely ready for Christmas with presents all wrapped and under the tree. We have been enjoying some fun with our Elf of the Shelf this month and I plan to do a post about some of the fun stuff he has done around the house! 

New School Stuff

This year when we started buying stuff for Christmas I decided to do mostly school stuff as my boys really dont need anymore toys as they dont play with half of what they have! This went really well and I cant wait to use all the new stuff we have for School.

Dylan got 2 new workbooks.

Austin got a set of Bob Books! He is already through the first one! 

Dylan got these Infantino Matching Colors and Texture Puzzles.

For Free Time Austin will be using this book with our Dot Markers. 

Dylan received this button art. 

We will be having music time at least once a week with our new Musical Instruments.

The boys received this Magnetic dress up guy from my Aunt. He will be part of there Free Play time. We will also use him for our Unit Studies.

We also got a set of Magneatos! I think i had more fun playing with them then the boys but they were so into everything else that when they have free time they will want to play with these more.

We also received a couple of games

Cars Matching Game. Hope to teach Austin how to take turns and also some patience.

And we also got Chutes and Ladders.

They also got a set of Felt Food that I made. We will use it for counting, color recognition, and for free play.

Now I will be missing for the rest of the week and maybe even some next week. I am conquering our school room and hoping to re-organize it and simplify it as much as possible. Plus I have to find room for all this new stuff! 

Hope you all have a great New Years! See you in 2011!

Christmas 2010

Here are a few pics from the week before Christmas and of  our Christmas Festivities.

We did one day of school last week and it was focused on Christmas.

Dylan sorted different color Christmas Trees.

 Austin worked on some Counting practice

Austin did a Sugar Cookie shape sorting activity

  Dylan colored the Number 9 worksheet

  We made handprint wreaths

Austin sorted people and animals

Austin colored the Number 8 

 Austin matched candy canes

 Austin worked on Patterns

 We got our new U- Play mat out that we won from 1+1+1=1

 Here is our Nativity Felt Board Set

 Dylan made a Christmas tree

 Austin made a Christmas tree too.

 They made Reindeer Food and then on Christmas Eve we spread it on the front yard.

 Christmas Eve they opened one present which had there Christmas Jammies, An alien stuffed animal I made and a Polar Express ticket which they used for us to take a ride in Daddy's truck to look at Christmas lights, They had hot chocolate on the ride as well!

 

 There Aliens i made.

 In there Christmas Jammies and with there Polar Express Tickets.

 Dylan on Christmas Eve

 Austin on Christmas Eve showing on his new present! He was so excited!

They put out 2 cookies a cup of milk and there letters to Santa for Santa on Christmas Eve.

 Santa came to our house!

 He filled there stockings with lots of goodies!

 They both got a Dr. Kit.

 Austin got a new racecar game for our Vtech

 Dylan got new color puzzles for school.

 They both loved the set of Felt Food I made them.

 Showing off a couple of presents! They both enjoyed Christmas!

 Austin got a tow truck! He said Santa bought it at Walmart!

 Dylan was putting his magna doodle in his stack of presents he received!

 They both thought it was hilarious to beat on the box that their new musical instruments were in!

 They received Magneatos from my Aunt!

 The boys and Daniel got me a Griddle! Ive been wanting for a while so I can enjoy pancakes at the same time as everyone else and it means more family time then!

The boys and I got Daniel a new jack!

 Then when we finished opening all the presents they dug into there stockings!

  Their favorite thing in their stockings was Jessie from Toy Story! They both got one!

 And I had to show off the yummy breakfast we enjoyed as a family on Christmas Morning!

We had a wonderful day of Family time! Christmas was great!

I will be back this week sometime with a post of what we received from Christmas for our Schooling! 

We are taking the week off of school to reorganize and find space for all our new toys!