Holiday Festivities

I was pretty excited about the holidays this year. The day after Thanksgiving, I started putting up the tree and slowly adding different decorations. I would love to have a real Christmas tree,but they are really expensive, and then just get thrown away so until we have kids, we will make due with the fake tree. Also, we have never seen Christmas decor as a need, so most of it is bought used or on sale each year with my allowance. So, I slowly am adding to what I have year after year.

Here is how I decorated our mantel. This year I bought the garland on sale at Michaels, and the “Be Merry” was printed from THIS website and hand painted since I didn’t have the correct colored card stock. Our Stocking Tutorials can be found HERE & HERE.

I also bought this wreath from Michaels on sale, the candles at the dollar store, and didn’t have actual decor for the Adventskranz, so I just laid small pinecones on it, made bows from leftover ribbon, and wound the white ribbon into it to keep it cheap. Also, I tried to find the pillar candle mounts so I wouldn’t have to set them in the middle,but they only sell the tapered ones in the States that I can find at least.

Grant actually helped me decorate the tree by handing me ornaments. Most years he just kinda watches or ignores me putting up the tree. Not that he is against it,but since we don’t host Christmas, I think he finds it kind of a waste of time.

I added one set of black ornaments to our tree this year just to add some depth, but they are incredibly hard to find, but the set I found HERE. Well, Grant hates glitter, so I had to give half of the set I bought away on craigslist since he didn’t want glitter all over the house. That is love!

I tried THIS recipe, and always get confused on which cookie Scoop size they mean. So I made this batch, and had to ask Grant if the cookie to kiss ratio was off. He informed me that is was LOL, so then cookies after that turned out much better,but it gave us all a good laugh. I didn’t grow up making these types of cookies so I am learning kind of late.

For my coworkers and our mail delivery men, I made THIS recipe which turned out AMAZING! Grant said it was too sweet, but I really liked them. IF you don’t like coconut, don’t make these.

I bought myself some Old Navy fuzzy socks to wear around the house since they were on clearance for less than $3 a pair.

For Christmas, I got my dad this shirt from HERE. I thought it was funny, and we never know what to get him.

Then I also gave him this shirt from HERE. If you aren’t familiar with this character, one of his only lines in Star Wars, is “it’s a trap,” and here you can see him with a chinese finger trap.

My Mother in Law Gail wanted this Case for Christmas from us. I have the same one, and really like how it holds my serger.

My mom and I are both SUPER picky when it comes to Art and Jewelry. I am sure there are more things,but I would prefer someone to not buy me anything than to get me something I don’t like and am then stuck with. Anyway, I saw this Ring and knew my mom would love it.

Here you can see the front of it. It was was handmade on Etsy HERE, and is so beautiful. My mom doesn’t wear  a lot of jewelry,but on Sundays she does, and she has a few pieces with opal I think a brooch and necklace.

 

My Mother in Law Gail gave me this beautiful basket that she handmade for me. I mentioned I had wanted a basket, and then sent her pictures of 5-8 different types of baskets since I wasn’t sure what style would be the easiest to make. If you want more information on the basket, HERE is her blog post where she explains a little bit more about it.  I love it, and it holds most of my throw blankets and pillows in our living room! She told me I could stain it or leave it natural, and I think for now I will leave it natural, and if I ever have a house maybe stain accordingly then. THANK YOU GAIL, I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

VIA

My mom got me a few gifts, but this is one that I have already used once and really thought was fun and practical. The Kochblume is set on top of pots to keep it from boiling over as well as you can set veggies into the top to steam them with the same heat and water that you are using for the pot below. I love practical gifts like this, and this one works really well so far.

I don’t get many gifts for Christmas which is just how I grew up, but this year I got such amazing things, I couldn’t help but show them off. I hope you are having a great day!