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.

Remember these?

Congratulations Jenny from Our Nifty Notebook!

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:
3

Timestamp: 2010-12-06 05:00:46 UTC

These now belong to you ;)

Email me your address and I'll get these shipped off to you ASAP!

Thanks so much y'all! This was fun :)

Countdown to Christmas ~ 2010, ♥ Week 1 ♥

It's only day 2 of December, but Christmas cheer is in high doses around these parts! The girls were so excited yesterday about the start of Countdown to Christmas. No surprises, though. They knew what our activity would be:

Making Hershey's Advent Calendars.

Even Kam helped {by eating the leftover chocolates}.

Check out yesterday's post for details for making your own.

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The rest of our week will be filled with fairly typical holiday activities.

Today, after homeschool, we will be decorating the house. The Rubbermaid tubs were brought down from the shop yesterday, and you should've seen the girls ooohing and ahhhing over all of the decorations. They are so excited to put them up.

Friday we are going Christmas shopping. I had wanted to finish up before Thanksgiving, but that didn't happen. We'll see what we can get done on Friday. My girls love to shop, so this will definitely be a treat for them. Hopefully our day will include a nice lunch out :) {And I don't mean McDonald's. Mmkay}.

Saturday we will get a tree! If you've been around here for a Christmas season you may know that this is an area of contention ;) Jeremy would love to wait as long as possible to put a tree up. He claims this is because of safety issues {the tree drying out, etc.}, but I dunno. I, on the other hand, would be happy to put a tree up the day after Thanksgiving. Once we are through eating Turkey, I'm ready to celebrate Christmas as long as possible. I don't, however, keep the tree up for long after Christmas. Typically I'm taking it all down on December 26th.

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And the rest I'll leave for next week!

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How about y'all? What do your holiday plans look like? Are you celebrating already? Or is it taking awhile to get into the spirit? Link up your activities, traditions, crafts, outings, recipes, whatever! We'd love to read about what you're doing!

Need an incentive?

Oh, alright. Twist my arm.

I found this adorable little plate {perfect for small candies, nuts, etc.} when I was shopping, and fell in love with it. I thought one of you might like to have it.

And also a cookie cutter. Because we ♥ LOVE ♥ making cookies, and I thought you might too :)

So . . . . . . .

Leave me a comment on this post . . . and you'll receive 1 entry to win 'em

Leave a separate comment if you're a follower . . . and you'll receive 1 extra entry

and if you link up to Countdown to Christmas this week . . . leave me 2 separate comments . . . and you'll receive 2 extra entries

♥ Oh, and please leave your email address in your comment. If I can't get in contact with you, you can't win, and that's just sad. ♥

*The giveaway will end at Midnight EST on Sunday, December 5th*

Hugs!

Liz

December 1

It's December! Can you believe it?! We started our Countdown to Christmas today, and I wanted to share in case anyone is looking for a fun and easy project to enjoy with the little ones.

Today's activity was:

These are such fun, and super easy!

You'll need:

Hershey's chocolates {or whatever treat you like!}

Saran Wrap

Yarn, Ribbon, or String

We cut a bunch of ribbon

Tore off a long strip of red saran wrap, and placed 24 chocolates in a row.

Then we tied a ribbon between each treat.

And voila! Our own advent calendar.

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Don't forget to come back here tomorrow to link up your first week of Countdown to Christmas!

♥ Countdown to Christmas 2010! ♥

<a href="http://sugarplumcreations.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img alt="Countdown to Christmas" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs8VN-zvFeOKI2rIN_cFbIAD2GDFfnMCQ6DdPXfEd6-rwM9GZBTrfIGbw8Za3mMfwOPoSn0y2ZHqAQcylsq15daEMNXsZ7LrX2ZgXIVeFFo_NWfSw3ohheyvV_WiyJbT9qXMMjoX6HtvVZ/s200/Countdown+to+Christmas+Button+2.jpg" /></a>

Oh my goodness, I can't believe we are only two days away from the first of December! It is definitely time to get organized for Countdown to Christmas!

So, the details: I think we'll link up on Thursdays throughout December {December 2nd, 9th, 16th, and 23rd}. Since we'll only be two days in for the first link up, I thought we could blog about what our plans were for the first week {or even the entire month}. Or, if you don't care to link up until the following Thursday, join in on the 9th! Either way, we'd love to have ya. It's a great way for all of us to gather ideas for crafts, activities, and outings to enjoy with our own children as we count down the days until Christmas! And, of course, feel free to post about your fun creations, projects, outings, and recipes each day, if you like. And on Thursdays, we can do a recap.

Grab my button for your blog, if ya like. I worked REALLY hard on it {just kiddin'!}
Most of my projects will be centered around my children, but if you do not have children {or they are too young to participate}, please consider linking up some of your favorite crafts, holiday traditions, recipes, anyway. We all could use some inspiration!

Need ideas? Have a look through my December 2009 archives. Last year we made our own advent calendars, hair clips, gift boxes, gift tags, and snowflake decorations ~ to name a few. If you're not feeling super crafty, think about making Christmas cookies, going for a drive to look at Christmas lights, or snuggle up with a cup of cocoa and some good Christmas stories {or a movie!} I've found that children just love the idea of having something fun to do each day.

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Oh, and also, there may be a giveaway at some point ;) I'll give you more details about that later!

Now go! Plan out your activities, and think of joining us. We had so much fun last year!

Thanksgiving in Pictures

We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving ever!

It started with the making of some de-licious cornbread dressing. I found the recipe on Foodnetwork.com. It's the Neely's Holiday Cornbread Stuffing Recipe, and it was scrumptious. If you are in need of a recipe for Christmas dinner, try this. You won't be disappointed.

We mixed the yummy ingredients together {which included bacon, mmmmm}. And I used cashews instead of the pecans. What can I say? I love cashews. Anyway. This was my first year cooking a turkey, and I think it turned out well. I love turkey ;)

First stop: My Mom and Dad's.

Kam went right to Aunt Nat . . .

And cuddled right up to her. Is that the sweetest thing ever?

Once it was time for food, I had a happy little camper on my hands. Poor thing, we'd been telling her about turkey all day long, and I think she was wondering when on earth she was going to actually get to eat some! She was the last one at the table, lol!

Sis snuggled with Daddy.

Kenners smiled for the camera.

And we celebrated Aunt Nat's birthday with some yummy chocolate cake.

Oh, and Kam announced her big news ;) Thank you all for the sweet, sweet comments, by the way. We are super excited!

Then we hurried up to Jeremy's parents for more turkey, more dressing, more potatoes, more, more, more. I was too stuffed to take any more pictures ;)

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Hope you all had an equally blessed Thanksgiving day! And no, I haven't forgotten about Countdown to Christmas. I'm just a little behind this year. Monday. I will get a post up on Monday. ;)

GUESS WHO . . .

. . . Is going to be . . .

A BIG Sissy . . .

I'd say we're all feeling extra thankful this year :)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Craftin' the day away ~ Turkey Style

Miscellany Monday

This is my first time linking up with Carissa at lowercase letters for Miscellany Monday. Shocking, really, since all of my ramblings are pretty random.

1. I'm making the turkey for Thanksgiving this year. Can you believe this will be my first ever attempt at cooking a turkey? I'm a little nervous, but excited too. I found the yummiest recipe ever for cornbread stuffing!

2. Saturday I went on an all day shopping trip with my dearest friend for the first time in . . . ever! I think I've only been shopping without my girls once, two years ago, before Christmas. I missed them like crazy, but uninterrupted conversation with another adult is so wonderful.

3. I have been horrible about taking pictures lately. I got out of the habit a couple of weeks ago, and then we got hit with the flu, and I just haven't picked up my camera more than a time or two in the last few weeks. I miss having it permanently attached to me.

4. I'm still drawing up my Countdown to Christmas list of activities. I'm excited that some of you are interested in participating. Of course, that means I need to get movin' and start planning things out a little. I'm thinking maybe we'll try to link up on Thursdays {if you're not ready for a post by December 2nd, no biggie}. That way we can finish off the countdown on the 23rd. I don't know about y'all, but I can almost guarantee I won't be near the computer much on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so it might be nice to wrap it up on the 23rd. I'll think more on this, and get back to ya :)

A little bit o' random

Wow. A whole week has gone by without even a glance to poor ol' blog here.

In my defense we have been battling some horrible stomach bug . . . YUCK! The first few days I couldn't pick myself up off the floor, let alone turn on a computer. But I think we're finally on the mend.

In other news, our sheetrock is finished, and the inside of our house is completely painted. Also, our garage door was installed on Wednesday. YAY! Next up, we lay the underfloor in preparation for the cabinets and flooring that will all be installed within the next month or so. It's so fun to walk through and actually get a good idea of where things will go. We're starting to envision ourselves living there someday ;)

I can't believe Thanksgiving is six days away! Seriously, where does the time go? We're going to hit the grocery store today, so I've had my cookbooks out. My mouth is watering just looking at some of these yummy recipes. And that's a good thing, because I haven't had much in my stomach lately.

We're trying to plan our Countdown to Christmas this year. Last year we had such fun with a special activity, outing, or craft each day of December, I knew we'd have to continue the tradition. If anyone is interested in linking up again this year, let me know. Otherwise I'll probably just do a regular post on our activities, and maybe a few tutorials on our chosen crafts.

That's all! What's been keeping you busy?

And The Winner Is

I think we've chosen our Christmas Cards . . .

With Love Chartreuse Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shop Shutterfly for elegant custom Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Have you?

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If you haven't already, go HERE for your own Christmas Cards from Shutterfly.

WordFUL Wednesday ~ Christmas Photos

The other day we did photo re-takes for Christmas Cards, and it went more smoothly. Kam was in a better mood, and actually sat for more than a millisecond ;) And I've let go of my perfectionist ways, and am learning to be happy with the photos we got.

I only got one {out of over three hundred!} shot where all three were looking at the camera, and not in some stage of a blink. So this is it. My only one of the three. But that's okay. I'm fine with doing individual pics on the card too.

I just love this one of Sierra. I know I may have a little Mama bias, but I think she is so beautiful. {That's inside and out} And she loves the camera. I think it's safe to say that the camera loves her too ;)

And I was so happy to get one of Makenna. She has the sweetest smile, and an infectious giggle.

And Kam. Oh Kam. She wasn't into sitting much, so I just followed her around while she did her thing. She got a kick out of playing peek-a-boo with Nana's door. That's her. That's my Kam. So full of joy and energy. This photo just sums her up.

I think she locked herself out ;)

Another one of the older two that I love. They are so close, and I love it. It's everything I imagined when I found out I was expecting my second girl. I was so excited to give Sierra a sister. They are delighted to share a room together, and it's been months {maybe a year or more?} that they've insisted on sleeping together in Sierra's bed every night. They can't go to sleep without one another. Ohhhkay, getting teary. Sorry.

Oh how I love this one. Their smiles just light me up!

So . . . now comes the difficult task of narrowing these down. I can probably only use 3-4 at the most on our cards. Any opinions would be welcome! ;)

And Happy WW! As you can see, I have a hard time keeping it WordLESS ;)

Hop on over to Miller Racing Family for the Wordless variety.