Christmas Merriment

The holiday season is jam packed with activities and it is definitely hard to keep up let alone blog about it all.  So this is my catch-all blog post about the past 4 weeks!  There aren't even pictures for everything we did this past month - trust me, it was non-stop.  So busy in fact that several times I had to stop and think am I enjoying this at all or am I just checking this off my self-imposed Christmas To Do List?!  Next year I hope to tone it down a little bit and remember to enjoy the season more and endure the season less!

Despite how exhausting the past month has been, I am blessed to have a full calendar, lucky to have all these memories, and thankful for every minute I get to spend surrounded by Christmas magic! I want to hold on to these moments as long as possible and I am fully aware that I will miss all of this terribly when it is gone.

2013 Christmas Season Recap - 

•  Meg and I braved Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving night to kick off the holiday season! Scored some good deals and were home by 11 p.m.

• Celebrated Jeff's birthday with a seafood cioppino dinner and mud pie dessert. 

 

• We hosted the Sahotas for our annual Freeland/Sahota Christmas brunch and Emmie helped me bake and make homemade marshmallows.  We made cherry turnovers, pumpkin bread, lemon strawberry bundt cake, cowboy quiche, cinnamon roll casserole, and a Belgian waffle bar.  It was delicious!

• We played Holiday Lights Bingo in the car as we drove around in our pajamas (with Gidgit) to look at Christmas lights.  Logan won Bingo and Blackout.  It was great fun! 

• We went to Silveyville Christmas Tree Farm to cut down a real tree and enjoy all that place has to offer.

 

• Brought in our 9 tubs of Christmas decorations and set up our 3 Christmas Trees!

•  Got all dressed up and watched Joey and Logan sing in the DECS Winter Art & Music Program.  Also got to see some of their artwork on display.

•  Enjoyed Elf on the Shelf antics all month long (separate post on Oliver's activities). 

•  Joey got to ride on the Cub Scout parade float at the Clarksburg Lights Parade.  This year we were prepared with glow sticks and pizza.  Of course no amount of being prepared stopped us from encountering a few hiccups like rain and Emmie peeing her pants... oh well! Unfortunately Jeff had to bartend and missed the parade. 

• Jeff and I volunteered at the school Pancake Breakfast.  I served sausage all morning (ironic for the non-meat eater I know) and Jeff made pancakes. 

•  We went Christmas caroling through the streets of Clarksburg with the Cub Scouts.

• We went to Victorian Christmas in Nevada City (there is a separate blog post about this).

• We baked Christmas cookies and made ornament crafts with the neighbors (separate post about this too). 

• We participated in the annual preschool Santa visit.  Santa was very Scottish this year... Emmie was scared at first but eventually got on his lap.  
  
    
  
  
  • We attending Jeff's school's Pancake Breakfast and Holiday Craft Fair and Sing.
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  • We performed random acts of kindness including collecting and donating books to the library, making cards for sick children, and donating blankets to the local animal shelter. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Well that pretty much takes us up to Christmas Eve!  Throw in the usual Christmas movies, lights on the house, school parties, work potlucks, shopping, wrapping, getting Christmas cards out, etc. and you have our crazy month.  Wouldn't want it any other way though - okay, maybe a little more time between activities would have been nice - but otherwise wouldn't want it any other way! :o)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Oliver Returns 2013

Oliver the Elf on the Shelf returned to the Freeland house on December 1st and has been delighting the kids with his antics ever since!

Here are a few of the highlights from this year's elf adventures...

Oliver has something to tell Santa...

Sword fighting with Mickey

Stealing Woody's hat!

Sending a message to the kids.

Flirting with Rapunzel under the mistletoe!

Joey requested he toilet paper the Christmas tree - he left a tp message.

Rounded up all those pesky Smurfs!

Zip lined across the living room!

Had a pirate adventure!

Hung out in the trees.

Watched over us from up high!

Ornament Wreath

This year I was determined to make an ornament wreath but wanted a reason to do it (just wanting one for our house wasn't a good enough reason!).  So when my Secret Santa listed that they wanted something "pretty to hang on a door for the holidays" I jumped at the chance to make one.  I scoured Pinterest for tutorials and armed with my hot glue gun set out to make something pretty. 

Here is what I learned - you need way more ornaments that you think you need, you will spend way too long in the craft store ornament aisle trying to come up with a color scheme, you will get hot glue everywhere, and it will turn out great! 

Step 1 - Select Your Colors
For my color scheme I finally settled on dark jewel tones - purple, blue, green, red and gold.  I ended up finding a box of mixed ornaments in that pallet that I loved and used it as inspiration to find the bulbs that matched. 

Step 2 - Purchase Ornaments, Filler, and the Wreath Ring
Buy more than you think you will need, vary the textures and vary the sizes.  Also a good idea to pick up some wreath filler like sprigs of holly, glittered beads, etc. to help fill in the gaps. When selecting the wreath ring, remember that the bigger the ring the more ornaments you will need to fill it up.  I chose a styrofoam ring, but I saw other tutorials that used wooden rings and even wicker rings.

Step 3 - Remove the Tops & Start Gluing 
Remove all the tops of the ornaments and start with the middle of the wreath.  Glue the ornaments in place and then do the same for the outside of the ring.  Once that's done, flip over your wreath and start gluing in the bulbs to fill in the space. 

 

Here's how mine turned out! 

Victorian Christmas

Jeff and I have this routine where after a day of doing something for the kids that one or both of us didn’t really enjoy one of us says, “Did you have fun?” and the other responds with, “the kids had fun.”  And that is our very diplomatic way of saying that while we wouldn’t really list that as a top ten day, the kids had fun therefore it was worth it.  This routine played out on Sunday after a day spent at Victorian Christmas in Nevada City. 

I didn’t really know what to expect, but visions of casually strolling through adorably decorated Victorian era streets were quickly dashed when I saw the crushing crowds, the porta potties, and the icy streets.  It was not exactly what I had expected and it was one of those activities that you think could’ve been fun if you and hubby went alone, but not so much when you are constantly freaking out that you are going to lose a kid in the sea of people.  Throw in my inability to enjoy things like hot buttered rum and warm mulled wine since I am six months pregnant, add in a dash of baby on the bladder and no decent bathrooms in sight, and you don’t exactly have a top ten day. 

However, the kids had a blast.  Not because of the giant pretzel they got to eat, or the chocolates we got them, or the toy flare copters they got – nope, they had a blast because there was snow on the ground.  We weren’t dressed for snow, didn’t really expect that much snow, but they are kids and to them snow is magical and amazing! They were so excited about the snow they could barely contain themselves.  Joey said he, “gets energy just from looking at snow” and Emmie didn’t care that her sparkly red flats weren’t built for trudging through snow banks one bit! They probably played in the snow a total of 10 minutes throughout the whole day and yet they had, “the best day ever!” 

So at the end of the day, the kids had fun, and that really is all that matters. 

 

 And, this over the top cuteness happened while we were there and these pics will always be something we treasure - so again, all worth it!