CHRISTMAS CARD BOOK (UPDATE)

Posted by Lori~

My photo books looked like this:

And, honestly I really liked them.  However, they needed something better.  I found this awesome free Christmas card book download here.

AND I AM LOVING THEM!  I made books for 2011, 2012, and 2013!

I am also thrilled for my recent end of season purchase!  For 90% off, I was able to purchase a pink tree for under $10.00!  This will be perfect for my basement!  (Steve and Mur-Man prefer green!).

AFTER-CHRISTMAS CLEARANCE!

Posted by Lori~

Black Friday--WHO CARES?!?  Day after Christmas sale--MY FAVORITE!  You can get Christmas items, gift sets, decorations, and so much more for over 50% off!

Mom (Crafty G-Ma) and I always have a tradition to hit the sales super early the day after Christmas (like 7:00 a.m.).

This year, we were in Florida the day after Christmas, but I did get some good shopping in a few days later (and the best part is that the clearance was knocked down even further--up to 75% off)!

I like to pick-up some little craft projects for Mur-Man to complete.  Here's a quick run-down of my finds:

Sticker ginger-bread house for Mur-Man.  ONLY 25 cents.

Ornament kit for Mur-Man.  Original price:  $3.00.  Sale price:  .75 cents!

I was hoping to save these projects until next year, but Mur-Man could not wait!

And...I bought an assortment of other items.  Perfect for crafting, decorating, and so much more!

CELEBRATING ALL THINGS XMAS ON A CRUISE SHIP (FOR KIDS)!

Posted by Lori~

Before we left for our holiday Cruise, we wanted to be sure that we were prepared and ready to celebrate with Mur-Man.  Santa does come to cruise ships too....

We packed in our suitcase several things to make it feel like home including:  Our remaining advent books, our elf Stan, our old-school chocolate advent calendar, and our Christmas gift from Santa (i-pad mini).

Before we left, my girlfriend and WOM-MOM follower Holly, had whipped up some really cute magic reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn (or better yet, over the ship edge into the water).

And that's exactly what we did....we wanted to be sure that Santa knew we were in the ocean (and could find us).

I think the reindeer food is an adorable idea.  

Royale Caribbean also did an amazing job celebrating the season...

They showed Christmas themed movies on the outdoor movie screen like "Polar Express".  Check-out the people in the hot tub with their cocktails! 

Santa made an appearance on the ship.  The staff had a listing of all the kids and their ages with a special gift for each of them...isn't that amazing!  I guess there were over 1,000 kids on this trip!

They held several church services and had hot cocoa and ice skating for families.

And, the dining room was amazing!  The meals were delicious and the staff sang Christmas songs to us.  It was truly magical.

LORI'S CHRISTMAS CARD 2013

Posted by Lori~

SPOILER ALERT:  If you are on my Christmas mailing...do not read on.  This invitation will literally be going in the mail this weekend, so save the suprise.

Once again, Steve whipped up our annual Christmas mailing.  I just LOVE IT!  We wanted to hold-off until after our Christmas vacation.  That is why there is a delay.

Check it out here:

You can also view past Christmas cards.  Check-out 2012:

 And, here is 2011:

I cannot believe how BIG MUR-MAN HAS GOTTEN!

Here's wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I will be back tomorrow!

TRAVEL CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS!

Posted by Lori~

We just got back from our family vacation on a cruise to Belize and Cozumel.  It was dreamy...especially the temps.  We loved every minute of it...and I do plan to give a recap of the trip as well as provide you with some thrifty travel options and ideas to consider when booking a cruise. 

But first, a few quick Christmas themed posts.  I realize tomorrow is New Year's Eve, but I am still in the spirit and wanted to get these in before the New Year.  

We continued our Christmas ornament travel tradition...and picked up three ornaments from our latest vacation.  You can read more about the tradition here.

A mini-ornament of our cruise ship Liberty of the Seas!

Unfortunately, we did not visit the Belize islands, but did explore the main land and it was BEAUTIFUL!

Finally, an ornament from Cozumel!

My sis also decided to start the ornament tradition.  Souvenirs are GREAT, but to me this is the BEST!  Each year as you decorate your tree, you can talk about your travels.  

Steve and I look forward to adding to our collection.  

Happy New Year's Eve!  More holiday posts tomorrow!

Per Steph, TOYS R US exploded in our living room.

Posted by Ethne~

KD and Easy Mac got some pretty cool gifts this Christmas.  Two of those I'll probably have some seriously good fun with are their Our Generation dolls (Target's version of American Girl).

It's been my observation that you get a lot of doll for the money, and considering that my kiddos are still pretty tough on their baby dolls and Barbies at this point, I wasn't keen on American Girl money being spent only to have their faces being scribbled on.

I'm loving all the little accessories.  I'd have loved this stuff as a kid.  I remember when AG came out, but I was just past doll stage, so it was really a no-go for me anymore.  I was into clothes by then.

When I figure out loading the good camera pictures onto my new computer, I'll do some pictures worthy of these things (as well as the Furby Booms, bikes, cheerleader Barbies [I died] and DreamHouse Barbie with real eyelashes - and other goodies) but here are a few shots KD took tonight:

The dolls are named Sadie and have the features matching KD and Easy Mac.  I've been the hairstylist and Sadie on the left now has double French braids.  They may also have new names, but not sure.

Sadie 1 has the same knobbly knees as KD.  Priceless.

Red glitter shoes matching KD's for Christmas.  Adorable!  I was pretty impressed KD took this close-up.

2013 Christmas Home Tour at Ethne's

Posted by Ethne~

Hello everyone!  I hope you all survived Christmas?!  We did, though I never managed to get through a whole viewing of A Christmas Story this year.  What the heck?

In my online perusals over the course of the season, I found a ton of lovely blog sites (such as Carmel at Our Fifth House) that participated in holiday home tours.  Now certainly, my house isn't quite like those homes, but there are many little touches that make the holidays special to me.  My family is best of all, of course.  You saw Easy Mac and me in my Christmas post (KD refused jump in for the selfie).  These here are a few of the things I love to see when I look around my own house at the holidays.

The nativity, my Santa mat (I made that and it's one of my very favorites) and my basket of Christmas cards .

A jar of sparkly (unbreakable) ornaments in my kitchen.  I thought I would just replace the ornaments with food, but I like it so much I was thinking I'd maybe just replace it with decor for different seasons now.

We don't have a fireplace at this house, so Lyle had to bring the girls a Santa key so he could get in our front door.  Here, it's waiting to be hung outside.

Lyle sitting on the tree Christmas Eve, for the last day of "watching".  You can see he found a classy spot to sit - amongst Shaun's Homer Simpson, Vikings and beer mug ornaments (all from me).  Just to the left is our Christmas Vacation house ornament.  I'm gonna need a second tree just for more ornaments.

I love crafty stuff.  Christmas crafts may be the pinnacle of all - especially after KD told me, "Mommy, I love how you make everything" as we put up our decorations this year [she was referring to the decorations, BTW, because she was not referring to my gluten-free cooking, which has been hit or miss on their palates].  Melt my heart!

This was our crafty ornament gift to family for 2013 - a car carrying home a tree.  If you looked ANYWHERE online, you saw they are EVERYWHERE.  Ours are made out of Hotwheels: here a '69 Pontiac GTO.  I found an orange Datsun pickup truck for Whit, which was the EXACT SAME VEHICLE we drove in high school, to carry her wee tree. (It clips to the tree w/ a glue-gunned-on clothespin BTW)

I made this ornament this year out of rosebuds and petals from my wedding bouquet, which didn't survive our last move very well.  I figured if I didn't preserve it in something like this soon, it may well disintegrate.  The little blue ribbon held my pearls at the right length on my wedding day (and was something blue) and the ivory ribbon was saved from wedding gifts.  Shaun says the roses look like cigar butts.  SO ROMANTIC!  Ratty or not, it's one of my favorites.

I love the Grinch quote here.  My hand-painting isn't that artistic, but my girls don't care.  This hangs in KD's room this year.

I made Christmas tree hair bows for the girls and their cousins.  They are really cute.

I love kid-made stuff, which we are getting a lot more of nowadays!!

The girls made these button trees last year, but this year we decided to spruce them up with tree skirts and mini presents.  I glue-gunned everything together and put white ribbon (barely visible against the white door, which was the idea) connecting tree and skirt for support.  They look so festive now.  The middle presents are flat, to which the girls said, "those are DVD's".  "Or books," said I.

And much as I want to swat Sandra Lee for coining the term (she's the one I heard say it anyways) "tablescape" I enjoy having company over to my house, so I did have fun putting this [*gag*] tablescape [*hack*] together for dinner.  When I told my sister about it, and cursed Sandra L. for putting the term in my head, she chuckled.  When she came in the house and saw it, she said, "Yup, it's a 'scape".  Sure, it's not over-the top like some of those gorgeous bloggers' tables, but I was pretty proud.  First, it was very pretty, but second, it had some cool touches.  Each person had a stocking for their silverware, with a piece of candy inside (I could pick a meal-plan-approved kind of candy for the girls that way); I tied on a candy cane and name tag.  The girls hand-wrote our guests' names onto the scrapbook-paper tags I made.  I tied on with Christmas color string and placed the stockings on Christmas fabric napkins I found at Target on 50% clearance.  I found Shaun's and my jute-ish placemats there for 30% off, and while I eventually found more of those kind at other Target stores, I elected to get red ones for the other guests because the red ones are washable.

My beautiful Christmas Eve table - ready for prime rib.

Oh, and the silver bows I snatched off the wedding poppers from Shaun's brother's wedding shower last weekend.  I have just the thing, I thought - and I did wait for the poppers to be used before pilfering the bow.

Whitney.D (even though her last name isn't Denham).  So sweet.

The centerpiece was from my work party last year.  I snatched that, with permission, and it was perfect.

I hope your holidays were perfect and that you ring in 2014 with style!  We're amping up for Shaun's brother's wedding just after the new year - very exciting!