Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas from our family to yours :)

Our 2011 Christmas Card

This is our Christmas Card for the year! We ordered it from tinyprints.com and I think it turned out so nice! In the past, I have ordered from Etsy and printed cards myself, and I just think this turned out so much better. We used a photo from a shoot we did at the end of October. It was freezing so we didn't get even one little smirk from Landon (I tried everything except standing on my head - hah!).

Do you have a good way to display your cards? I used to stand them all up along my china hutch but my friend Jill texted me a picture of them all hanging on her pass-through from her Living Room to the Kitchen and I thought that was cute. Maybe I could hang them on the mantle? What are you doing with yours??

Merry Christmas!

Things

1. I was at Hobby Lobby yesterday (boy is that place a zoo!!) and saw these adorable initial knobs for a little over $1. I wish I had somewhere to put them!

2. If you are still looking for a gift for your parents or in-laws, might I suggest the Kodak Pulse digital picture frame? Anyone can email pictures right to the frame! My in-laws have one and we can instantly send them pictures of Landon.

3. Babies 'R Us is having their additional 40% off clearance clothes. I *love* their FAO and Koala Baby stuff. They have held up just as well as our "fancier" brands like Tea Collection and their designs are simple and sweet (aka: no "my mom is hotter than your mom", etc. I hate that stuff.)

 coming home from the hospital outfit was Koala Baby

 Koala Baby Organic

first shots in Koala Baby romper

4. I bought a Paciplay for Landon for his stocking but we broke into it early and we love it! It's a pacifier holder that's also a teether. It's BPA free and all healthy so safe for chewing. Isn't that a neat idea??

5. Tomorrow night is our monthly craft club and I think I'm going to make this. Oh Lord, help me to only eat a few...

Happy Tuesday!!

Oh (Landon's) Christmas Tree...

I am of the belief that all kids should have a Christmas tree in their room (as long as it's safe, high enough not to be reached, etc!) :)

This year I got Landon a little 3' tree from Hobby Lobby and put it on his side table by the glider. I didn't do too much with decorating, his room has a lot of turquoise accents so I used some blue and turquoise decorations I already had. Eventually he will have a whole tree of ornaments we've given him.

I got some little initial ornaments from Wal-Mart for $0.99 to put his "monogram" on front.

I wish I could leave his Christmas tree up all year long ;-)

Christmas Traditions

It is so important me to provide yearly traditions to our kids at Christmas time. I want them to understand the reason we celebrate Christmas and really associate the holiday with family time. Joe and I had already started some traditions before we had Landon but now we are adding even more for our little family of three.

1. Yearly Ornaments
Since the first year we had been dating, Joe and I have exchanged ornaments. At first we didn't have too much of a "collection" but the idea is that eventually we can decorate an entire tree with our special ornaments. This year we will pick out one ornament for Landon so we can start him a collection of his own. I love the idea of looking over our tree when we're 60, 70, 80 years old and we have hundreds of ornaments (and memories) from over the years :)

2. Christmas Movies
We always watch Home Alone because it's my favorite but I also want to make time for It's a Wonderful Life, The Polar Express, Miracle on 34th Street, etc!

3. Angel Tree Child
I'll be honest, this is the first year we have actually made a point to go adopt a child for Christmas. Shame on us. We are definitely making it a yearly tradition though! This year we shopped for a little boy, 11 months, named Liam! Eventually, when Joe gets out of residency, we want to adopt an entire family for Christmas!

4. Pajamas
Every year we pick out a set of new pajamas for each other that we unwrap and wear the night before Christmas.

5. See's Candy
This is a new one too, we get a box of assorted See's Candies (seems so old fashioned to me :) and eat a piece or two every night leading up to Christmas.

6. Picture with Santa
We just had Landon meet Santa and got pictures for the first time. I loved it!!

7. Photo Christmas Cards
I love, love, love getting Christmas cards. I have noticed that people don't really send out cards like they used to, but I love getting them in the mail. We just sent ours today!

8. Christmas Party
For the last several years we have hosted a Christmas party at our house for Joe's co-workers. I love getting everyone together and we do a Dirty Santa/White Elephant type thing. Such good memories!

What kinds of traditions do you do for the holidays?

Sick Day

I woke up this morning with a terrible cold. I told Joe when he left for work at 5am that unfortunately with this job (being a stay at home mom) there are no sick days. And we don't have any family that live here to come help so I can stay in bed and drink hot tea and watch old movies in my pajamas. Actually, I will probably stay in my pajamas today. Hah!

I put this little man in a footed Christmas jumper since we will be staying in. I thought he looked cute :)

Let's hope for lots of naps today! Hah!

Happy Thursday!


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