Quoth the raven! I made this wreath two years ago, Here's how: Tutorial. It needed some minimal repairs after a year in the closet, but it's still going strong.
I bought this on on Etsy, it stays up through Christmas. We love Jack!
Halloween Riley style!
Festive Treats!
Even the dog is ready for Halloween
My new decoration this year, Pumpkins and pixie dust!
She does a fair Winifred Sanderson impression, doesn't she? Boooooook!
All the decorations made their appearance a little on the early side this year. Mike couldn't find the tree lights so he pulled everything out of the shed looking for them. It's hard to tell a four year old who hasn't seen her sparkly pink tree in a year that now that it's out of storage we have to put it away again. That just won't fly. We had to replace the lights on her tree because they were stored with the batteries still in, but Dad found her a sting of purple only mini lights. Pretty snazzy.
After her tree was decorated I dug out the pieces to her Christmas village and we set them up next to it. She built that sleigh at a Lowes workshop last year. Did you notice the my little ponies pulling the sleigh? So Riley! Isaac put up a his little green tree and his multicolored lights were still working. I even found him a green tree skirt that I decorated with gold glitter snow flakes.
We got in the mood with Christmas music and some festive head gear. Most of the inside stuff has a set spot so my job was pretty easy.
Mike put up my winter pond scene with a little help from Riley. All our friends returned even my peacock. Although, the tail lights er...lights on the tail feathers gave us trouble for a few days. I observed a handful of times how much more I was seeing that peacock sell for (more than double what I paid). I started joking that maybe I got a deal because ours was for one time use. In the end Mike got it straightened out. Our mom and baby deer were joined by an animated daddy deer. He drinks from the pond. We had to expand the pond this year actually. Our collection of animals grew I suppose.
Ta-da!
We donned some festive shirts before we set to work. I got Roo's on after Christmas clearance last year it says "Santa's Little Helper." It looks like she has an elf body when she wears it. Cute, right. While the adorable seasonable shirts for a 4yr old girl are bountiful I didn't find anything for the big kid so he put on his "Shrek the Halls." Roo's shirt wasn't the only thing I bought and put away either. I got the kids each a Hallmark ornament too. Isaac's is E.T. and he clips on a light and his heart glows red. Riley's is Tinkerbell peeking around a leaf. It was so nice to just have those ready to go.
Mike came into our relationship with a tradition passed down from his father's bachelor days. Ordering Dominos Pizza on tree decorating night. This is non-negotiable for Mike. This is also the one night a year Isaac is allowed to have Coke. In pervious years we got Riley a milkshake so she didn't feel left out, but this year my big girl had Sprite. I had no idea how emotional I'd be about my baby joining in the yearly soda tradition, but I cried a little. She felt like a rock star though. After a floor picnic with a view of the tree it was time to decorate.
Pretty amazing, isn't it? They did a great job being gentle with the ornaments and not moving them once they were in place. I think the tree looks stunning. Now if the kids in front of it would slow this growing up nonsense down. Looking at pictures of tree decorating from the last couple years I teared up. Everything changes so quickly it's nice to have these yearly traditions to come back to. As grateful as I am for the constancy they are an unavoidable benchmark for change. Happy decking your halls everybody!
These are our favorite new toys. They're called "Holiday Specs." We picked them up when we got the tree. They make any bright, distant light (like Christmas lights) look like a holiday figure. We got one of each so we have Santa, Snowman, Christmas Star and Snowflake. Completely worth the $2, endless fun. For now we keep them by the the tree, but we'll take them on all our holiday outings.
They are just little paper glasses with plastic lenses. The second picture is Isaac trying them out with Riley's little pink tree. We got it at Target she carried through the whole store she looked like the fanciest lumberjack ever! This was after we put the lights on it, before ornaments. Also, pre-mom's surgery notice the tidy toys.
There's my fancy girl putting some ornaments on. The finished product was photographed a few days after my surgery (oy! the mess). Cute as it can be, isn't it?
Isaac got a regular colored tiny tree. A few years back we got him a live tree for his room. It was a disaster. He confirmed multiple times that this one did not need to be watered. I'll have to get another picture of it with the lights on.
Roo with my reindeer that lights up and sings Jingle Bells. He's also a favorite. I got him from Hallmark when I lived in California. It wouldn't be Christmas without singing, light up toys that annoy mom and dad.
All my helpers!
101 uses for Mom's cruthes: fluffing the tree. Hard to reach? Not with a little resourcefulness.
Drum roll please.....OUR TREE
Again I'll have to get a good shot of it lit soon. Even so, it's a beauty. The boxes underneath are Mike's DIY tree water-er.
Riley insisted on putting up our Valentines decorations last weekend. I don't have a lot. I'v got some hearts with cartoon characters (Mickey and Snoopy), a few things the kids made in prior years and a sign for the door my mom gave us last year. It took us all of 3 minutes to have them up.
I don't know where she heard about Valentines Day, but she was insisting we needed to "Hang up da hearts! And wear a reeeeeeed tu-tu and (s)pin!!" She's absolutely my mini me sometimes. We also borrowed Clifford's First Valentines Day and we've been reading it a lot.
Spreading the love, that's my little Miss Roo.
Ta-Da! We decorated our tree. In our family it's tradition to order a pizza and it's the one night a year Isaac is allowed to have Coke. It's a big deal. Since Riley is too little for Coke, but big enough to get some kind treat. She got her very own small milkshake. It was the highlight of her week.
This year, I sat at the table and unwrapped and handed out ornaments to be hung. Since hopping around with a walker near my precious ornaments seemed unwise. Everyone hung their baby's first Christmas ornament. We each picked a new one this year too.
I went in search of a house ornament for our first Christmas in the new house. I struck out completely. I decided instead to let everyone pick a new ornament. Riley picked a sweet little corduroy owl with button eyes. Mike picked a purple monster. Isaac picked a shiny green snail because they're in the cephalopod family. I got a little girl with blonde braids and a red winter hat. I doubt we'll make that a tradition though because we're pretty heavy on ornaments.
Mike and I also have a beautiful green partridge for the first Christmas we were together. Other than those we came into the relationship with our own ornament collections. I always let the kids hang the ones they made too. Riley did very well considering being a tired, sugared up two year old. Mainly she wanted to hang one and then take it down and run away screaming. She managed to get a few on though.
The kids found my big jingle bells and started dancing and jingling to Christmas music. It was adorable. Then they started rolling bells down the hallway. Loud and also the most fun ever based on laughter levels. They had a fun night. I had back spasms from all that sitting, but a beautiful tree. I really over did it this weekend with back to back Christmas parties and tree decorating. I hope Santa appreciates the effort.
My gesse made it ouside! Then we put down blue rope lights for a pond. Good idea, right? I was proud of that. Mike put some reeds by the pond and with deer it gave us a woodland theme out front. I'm loving it.
Here's a close-up of our Christmas that's in background of the last picture (through the window). It's lit, but not decorted. We're gonna fix that tonight.
Last Christmas a family in our neighborhood had these geese. Christmas geese with hats and scarves. Super Cute, huge hit with Miss Roo.
Ever since I saw those I began formulating my outdoor display around acquiring some of my own geese in the off season. Well, guess what finally came after a shipping error last month, my geese!
Helping daddy assemble them.
Straightening a baby "GUCK" (duck and goose at the same time?). Aren't they pretty lit up?
We're off and excited!
We inspected the options...
Loaded it up
Brought it home
And after rearranging some furniture it was in the house.
Tree's up and decorating the house/yard's begun!
