our new Christmas tradition

I've been meaning to post this idea for a while now and I just didn't get around to it. I love Christmas advent calendars. I wanted to create one that would be meaningful, inexpensive and wouldn't take a lot of time. (I love to sew but I didn't want to get into a project right before Christmas)

So I searched online for some ideas and came across this idea from Martha Stewart. I changed some things here and there and I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I bought 12 pairs of baby Christmas socks, put numbers on them and hung them on a ribbon, that's it!

Aaron and I wrote things that we love about each of our kids. It worked out great because they each got 8 turns each so we had no fights there. We put all the little cards in a Christmas tin under our tree and I will put them in our Christmas journal to keep. You could put scriptures, stories, candy, activities for each day in December to do as a family...lots of ideas. You can do something different each year if you wanted to. I'm looking forward to this new Christmas tradition!

Materials I used:

-the numbers are digital brushes from Ali Edwards that you can find at designerdigitals.com.

-the ribbon is red and green polka dot May Arts ribbon

-I used those Contact hanger things from 3M so I wouldn't have nail holes

-I got the socks from Old Navy. They range in sizes from 6 months to 3-6 years. You could do a mix of kid and adult socks as well. Now that Christmas is over, you could score some good deals right now for next year.

-I thought about using mini clothespins to hang the socks but I just used some mini bulldog clips I already had. These are Tim Holtz ones I got at the scrapbook store but you can get these at Staples.

-I downloaded the "What I love about you" cards for free from Oprah.com. You could make your own in Photoshop as well, that would be really cute! I just stamped the B, P and H on there.

Merry Christmas!

Just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
(this picture is from last year)

Tuesday

So how’s everyone doing? It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. December gets a little crazy every year. Aaron has been in China on business and got home Sunday, I’m so happy to have him home. He brought us all back some goodies...the DVDs and knock-off designer purses are always a favorite!
The kids finished their soccer season and team parties up last week. I’m always happy when soccer season starts and I’m equally happy when the season ends. I found this gingerbread kit at Costco last week. The kids had a lot of fun decorating it (even though in the picture it looks like they're being tortured)We're looking forward to spending some time together as a family.

teacher gift idea

I was browsing all my favorite digital scrapbooking websites last night and came across a really cute Christmas gift idea for teachers. The great thing about it is you can personalize it with whatever you want and it doesn't cost a lot of money. (and come on, who doesn't love chocolate?! After dealing with our children 5 days a week, these nice people deserve a treat and then some)

You can download this for FREE here

One of B&P's favorite things to do at Christmas is to make their own handmade cards and letters for their teachers so we'll include those with the chocolate. I wonder if their teachers enjoy Diet Coke as much as I do...I need to look into that...

our Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving and I hope all of you did too! I did the same thing that I do every year, I ate way too much. We spent Thanksgiving at my brother’s house again this year. It wasn’t quite the same without Mike, Linda and Company (Linda is my mom’s older sister) but it was still good. My cousins and I could tell you stories about my relatives and our past Thanksgivings that would have you laughing and then asking, "Is that really true?"
When Jeff Foxworthy does his ‘You might be a redneck’ stand-up routine, everyone laughs because it’s funny. I laugh because I have relatives that are exactly like the people he talks about. Good times…

I posted some pictures this summer of the kids on my Dad’s tractor. He put the backhoe attachment on it and let B&P give it a try out in the garden. Braden LOVED it! He would dig the hole and then put the dirt back in and pack it down. That’s one of the things that I love about going home to Vernal. My kids get to experience and do things they don’t normally do. Paige and Heston found leaves in the back yard and enjoyed raking them up and jumping in them.

I know it's totally cheesy but I love the shape of this tree.