It's that crazy time of year again! School parties, family Christmas get-togethers, parties with friends, shopping, wrapping, addressing Christmas cards (oh man...did I forget to mail those? Oops.), menu planning, and getting in those last few "Christmas must-do's" ("Ackkk! We haven't watched Home Alone or Elf yet!"). It sneaks up on me every year. I think I'm going to have time to do all these things (and make Aunt Ronnie's Pecan Balls...yum...), and then it's days away and my to-do list is largely unchecked!
So I did something wonderful about it. Seriously the best thing I ever came up with. (I need to apologize here to my friends who are sick of hearing this, so Liz, Mandy, Lisa, Laura, if you're reading this, you can skip this paragraph. I can hear you now - "Oh, we know what YOU think about it!") Last year, I decided that I wasn't attending any party where I had to bring a gift for a gift exchange (you know, Dirty Santa or White Elephant). Who wants to haul the baby to the store to buy some random gift AND wrap it. You can spend the money on a bag or use up your at-home stash of lovely things? No thank you! And then you can spend thirty minutes play-fighting over the best of the worst? Not this girl.
It was a liberating decision. We had so many of these parties taking up so many valuable evenings. Plus I didn't have to cook or buy food to take to these parties. Bonus.
Anyway, the whole point of this post was supposed to be a gift I made. One of the drawbacks of stay-at-home momming is a smaller gift budget. However, one of the perks is more time for projects! So all the parents are getting handmade gifts this year. The theory was that the kids would make the gifts, but they are rebelling against crafting due to an unfortunate incident where they saw the Christmas card list ("We gotta glue stars to how many cards? You're crazy!"). So I had to do my dad's on my own. Hopefully they'll be more cooperative when it's time to do the rest (gotta finish those...hmm, maybe between cookie decorating and driving around looking at Christmas lights).
My friend Shannon generously gave me this busted mirror. Good good junk. I turned my head sideways and saw a cool last-name sign for my dad.
I made twig letters held together with jute and hot glue. The background is duck cloth from my stash. The frame looked a little too nice, so I took inspiration from the colors and shapes on a horse blanket we have on the couch right now and painted it green, red, and navy. I made a little stamp out of foam stickers I cut into arrows and stripes. It looks really good in my dad's cabin-style house.
Gotta go get ready for three Christmas events at the boys' school! And a party tonight (no gift exchange - just food and friends!).
Merry Christmas!
I'm almost finished with my Christmas decorating. It takes me forever to do it because I'm so indecisive. I do love my branches with the boys' pictures on them. My sister-in-law Leah made the ornaments, and they are adorable! She used my very favorite picture of Jack; he is making the weirdest face!
I had black crows on these branches for Halloween - probably should post a picture of that too sometime.
I can't figure out if I should hang something over the fireplace or not. It looks kind of neat without anything - Swedish or something.
I'm really on the fence about this. I'm considering painting the inside of this cabinet some sort of saffron maybe. I don't think the pink is really me. Plus, it is the reason I'm trying to make pink work in the dining/kitchen area. If it weren't for this, I could just go crazy with the red. This will only be the 4th time I've painted it! 
Sweet little boys. Jack hates his puffer vest. Nick and I tried to show him that Owen had one on too, but he just pouted, "It's not the same!" In the end, we won, and he wore it to church. It's the small victories, people. 
