I Can Safely Start Prepping For Christmas Now . . .

Y'all, it is November 1st!!!

Eeeeek! 

That means I can *now* start openly talking about Christmas.

I promised Sierra: No Christmas movie-watching, Christmas music, or Christmas prep 

{aside from a bit of shopping here and there so it's not all heaped on at the last minute, *and* crafts for our upcoming Christmas Bazaar},

until after Halloween.

And here we are ~ November 1st!!!

Yay!!

So . . . one of my most favorite Christmas activities is wrapping gifts.

I love the wrap, the ribbons, the bows, the tags.  All of it.

We've been making our own gift tags for years: 

Here

Here 

Here

But last year I tried something new.

I printed out a bunch of my favorite, wintry prints in wallet-size,

punched holes at the top, and strung string through, and voila!

Gift Tags.

This year I got fancy and adhered cardstock to the back to finish them off, 

and sturdy them up a bit.

The photos I used to make my tags this year are general, wintry images as I am selling them at our local Christmas Bazaar.
BUT ~ how adorable would it be to print off images of your littles playing in the snow, baking cookies, or enjoying other holiday festivities?

To make your own just print off your favorite images, slap some glue and cardstock on the back, punch a hole, slip some ribbon through, and you can have your own, personalized tags.
Let me know in the comments if you make some!

Tree!

I ♥ LOVE ♥ putting up a Christmas tree. 

Love. 

If it were up to me, it would go up the day after Thanksgiving.

If it were up to Jeremy, it would go up on the 18th of December ;)

So, we compromise :)

Sunday we went up to Mom and Dad Fraijo's to pick out the perfect tree.

And Grandma and Grandpa had the fixin's for S'mores all ready.



The girls picked out their tree, we picked out ours . . .



And then, the traditional family picture ;)  We just started this last year, but two years in a row constitutes tradition, right?  {And also?  Heavy coat + weird camera angle = mucho added pounds}.



And . . . TA DA!  Our tree.  All 11 feet of it.  Can you just picture me up on a ladder trying to string the lights?  Good times.

♥ Countdown to Christmas 2010 ~ Week 4 ♥

Welcome to Week 4 of Countdown to Christmas! I hope this month has been a special one full of memories for all of you.

If your family is anything like ours, you are frantically wrapping the rest of the gifts, running to and fro to find that last forgotten gift {oops!}, trying to calm a few overly excited children who can't WAIIIIIIIIIIIT for Christmas, baking a few hundred dozen cookies, and trying to plan and organize for a very busy Christmas day.

Whew!

So, because we're ALL busy, I'm going to try to be concise here. {If you know me well, you know that's not usually a possibility for me}.

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Week 4 Recap:

Last Thursday we made cute little snowman candy cane holders.

Friday was Sierra's dance recital. I was SO proud of her. She is the youngest in her Jazz class, and she keeps up with the other dancers and choreography just beautifully. I got teary during the recital realizing that she isn't one of the "tiny little dancers" anymore. She is a a real "big girl" dancer now. Sigh.

Saturday the girls baked cookies at Nana's house. Aunt Nat and cousin Kuaile came over to help!

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Sunday was the Christmas program at church. We haven't been involved for the last couple of years {still in prayer about a church home}, but it is such fun to watch the other little ones onstage.

And afterward was a donut fry. Enough said.

Monday we went into town to finish up the last of the Christmas shopping. We had thought we were pretty well done, but it seems we always have at least one surprise.

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Tuesday we went out to look at Christmas lights. Each year we visit a local Christmas display, and it is always amazing. The girls were in awe, as you can imagine.

Wednesday was our "spa day". I try to do one for the girls every so often. We painted fingers, had a foot soak, and then painted toes.

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And today we will watch a couple of Christmas specials that we haven't gotten to see yet this year {Charlie Brown is at the top of the list}, and wrap the last {fingers crossed} of the presents. Christmas Eve day is always jam packed for us. I hope to bake Santa's cookies in the morning, then we usually head to Grandma and Grandpa's {Jeremy's parents} in the afternoon to watch previous years' Christmas home videos. After that we'll stop by Nana and Grandpa's {my parents} to have a quick visit. Then it's home {hopefully early in the evening}, and the girls get to open one present on Christmas eve {new jammies}.

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So much for being concise ;) Link up your activities, crafts, outings, etc. below!

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Wishing you all a Christmas filled with memories, and most importantly, the Holy Spirit.

Tree Time

We got our Christmas tree over the weekend. I don't know about you all, but the Christmas season doesn't seem to officially start for us until the tree is up.

Saturday morning we headed up to my in-laws to find the perfect tree.

I like this one for our room, Dad.

Okay, stand back.

Look Mama, I can carry it myself.

C'mon Kenners, let's take it to the truck.

We finally chose our tree . . .

. . . and it was time to head home.

But not before snappin' a few more photos {mostly to prove that Kam was, indeed, with us}.

Hopefully y'all had an equally special weekend.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland . . .

We've been so busy this week, there's been little time for blogging :)

A quick glimpse:

We've been making Gingerbread Houses

Attending church services and Christmas programs

Visiting with family

{My sis came up for a very quick visit last weekend. We got to spend the evening catching up with her. Sierra loved her "Aunt Annie Time". Can ya tell?

Last night we visited a Christmas light display near our home. As always, it was gorgeous.

Check out these beauties. They were hung all.over.the.property. So beautiful.

A village display. So much to look at!

I wish this picture had turned out better. It would've been so cute. But I was holding Kam, and she was being a wiggle britches as I tried to snap.

Lights, lights, more lights.

The girls were in awe, as you can probably imagine.

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And that's all the time I have ;) Today we're baking {more} cookies, preparing for dinner with Jeremy's parents and my parents this evening, wrapping the last few presents, and trying to get organized! How 'bout you? What are you up to??? Only two days to go!

Blah, Blah, Blah

We have a busy week ahead of us, and I wanted to get some thoughts out of this jumbled mess of a head I have, before I forget them all! Bear with me. This could be long. And a little . . . scattered.

First of all, thank you so much for helping me decide which cookies to take to the exchange. I wound up choosing the jam thumbprints {or Noel Cookies, as they are also called}. We stayed up rather late on Wednesday night making 9 dozen of them. 7 dozen for the exchange, and some extras for us {Jeremy happens to love these cookies!}. I thought they turned out great, and was excited to come home with such an assortment of treats.

*This is a small sampling of what I came home with*

Jeremy watched Sierra and Makenna, while my mom, Kameryn, and I made our way to the party. My friend, Amanda, and her mom were hosting. Amanda had everything looking so beautiful and festive in her home. The tree looked like something straight out of Martha Stewart, and all the tables were decorated perfectly. I don't get out much, so it was such a treat to be able to spend the evening with some of the sweetest ladies around. {And it didn't hurt that we got to sample cookies while we visited!}

I plopped Kam in the Ergo, and set to work displaying my cookies

*I didn't get a good shot of my display, but you can kind of see it in this picture.*

We had to vote on the best-tasting cookie and the prettiest cookie. And let me tell you, there were some delicious cookies there! It was tough trying to come up with the best-tasting. And they were all displayed so beautifully. In the end, I just had to choose one of my many favorites.

*These chocolate ones won best-tasting. Chocolate Hazelnut Latte. Uh, yum.*

I was absolutely blown away by receiving the honor of Prettiest Cookie/Display. Wow. I was not expecting that. Amanda had a gorgeous poinsettia for me as a prize. Is that the sweetest thing ever? It was such a lovely evening. And while I was snacking on cookies and visiting with friends, Jeremy and the girls went to visit my dad and wrap the presents they had picked out for me. Adorable.

Up next is cookie baking with Geri today. We may even brave the crowds and go shopping with her. Tomorrow is the church Christmas program. We are no longer attending our old church, but I would still like to go to the program. Most of Jeremy's family attends church there, and it would be nice to see everyone. I just can't imagine Christmas without that fellowship. Monday night Jeremy has a meeting, so we will most likely be finishing up our wrapping. Tuesday night we are planning on heading up to look at lights at a beautiful house up the road. They go all out with train and village displays, caroling, hot cocoa and cookies, about a million inflatables, the works! I'm hoping to meet up with Amanda and her family so we can enjoy it together. Wednesday night I think we are planning on having the grandparents over for dinner, and Thursday night is CHRISTMAS EVE! WOW! These last few days are going to fly right by!

How are you spending your last 6 days before Christmas? Are you all caught up and ready to go {please don't tell me if you are ;)}? Or do you have a mile-long running list {like me}?