Christmas is Open!!

We put our tree up on Sunday and it looks gorgeous!  I love all our homemade ornaments!  Every year since the kids were babies, we started making a family picture ornament with the date. We either make the ornament ourselves or we buy one and refurbish it in our own way then we add our Christmas Picture to it!  We all get a kick out of pulling those out every year to see how we have grown! 



This year we started the Christmas Book Basket, which I found on Pinterest.  There are 25 books in my basket though because I couldn't leave out Christmas night!  The present in front of the basket is a little something my kids can enjoy throughout the whole month and it helps with grammar!  MadLibs Christmas Style!  They each do 1-2 pages a day!  It's funny!

 

Every year we make our own ornament of some sort.....Thumper wanted to use recycled stuff.  So we came up with these pretty, dainty Christmas flower snowflakes.  That's what they kept calling it!

We used toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls....cut them into strips....hot glued them together....painted them....add a little shiny pompom and twaaalaa!  Beautiful on the tree!

 



Check back next week for pictures of our annual Gingerbread House Decorating.....We always have a kids decorating party where we all get together and decorate their own gingerbread house that I put together for them in advance!  This has been an exciting tradition each year, though it is a lot of work on my part! Everyone brings a candy (cereal, etc.)  of their own!  This year my hubby & I will have a Gingerbread House Decorating Throw Down!  We will make our houses together, then we split and decorate them up.  At the party, we'll have the kids & parents vote on which they like the most!  I don't know if I can stand the wait!


So we didn't get the chance to do our Gingerbread House Throw Down, but we did still have our Decorating Party with the kids and family.  It is always an exciting party to throw!  For some reason I cannot upload pictures to my blog from my computer.  I'll have to figure out why later and get them posted!

Okay, so the picture feature on Blogger was down.....But now it's up so here are some of our gingerbread houses from our party!

 I prepared 16 houses to decorate using graham crackers.  I make my own Royal Icing that has never failed me.  I put the icing in ziplock baggies for the kids to pipe it on.

 My little house!

 Everyone had their own inventive ways of making cars and all sorts of yummy figures!

Until next Christmas.......!