christmas is over...

...and I'm still recovering.

No.
Not from the abundance of amazing food.
Or gifts galore.
Or even late nights.
Just plain old cold/sinus infection/stomach bug fun.
We actually had a great 4-day Christmas extravaganza
{yes, 4 days straight of Christmases,
apparently we're trying to transition into Hanukkah}
but Christmas Eve my littlest puked on the way to church
- all over his adorable outfit that he was pretty much going to wear ONCE -
I was pretty bummed about missing the candlelight service
but what are ya gonna do?
He missed the Christmas Eve festivities at home
but woke up stellar on Christmas morning and has been great since.
The day after Christmas it hits my oldest.
At Chick-fil-a.
And our car.
And our house.
All night long.
I don't know too many details however,
as I put myself to bed early only to wake up for my own sesh
at 4am.
Awesome.
The next day was spent in bed recovering,
but at least this stupid bug that's been hitting the entire
western hemisphere only lasts about 24 hours.
So I'm back on my feet
...with a mile long to-do list.
So here's Christmas,
in the smallest nutshell I could manage. :)

***************
First up,
a little holiday baking at Grandma's.
And some of her delicious apple cider to get me going.Don't let Jett fool you.
He's really just eating the dough.And probably telling me "no" here.
{Apparently Grandma thought he needed his bangs gelled back to bake}
Rolling bon bons.
Pulling taffy with my mom.Jeez, looks like somebody has been indulging in too many holiday goodies...

I walked around and took some photos of my mom's
elaborate Christmas decor.
I wish I would have gotten some of my mom Melissa's as well.
Her decor was SO cute this year {okay, every year}.
Their styles really differ from one another,
but I feel like the style I've developed for myself falls right in the middle. :)
And the only decent photo I got of the kids opening gifts...
It was a tornado of activity, wrapping paper, & noise.
But fun, as usual. :)

***************
Next,
Christmas with Mimi.
Her and my stepdad came to each house to watch {& enjoy}
the grandkids open gifts.
Then we went to their house a few days later for
a big Christmas celebration with food & family.
This is the only half way decent picture I got all night.
My children were blurs in the rest.
Here are the gloves I brought to the girl gift exchange.
I got a sudden inspiration {craving?} for cranberry and off-white. :)My mom and stepdad recently redid their bedroom
in all shades of brown & cream.
It looks great and my mom loved the ruffle pillows
I made for my sister-in-law's shower
so I made her one for Christmas with chocolate and taupe satiny fabric.
I love how it turned out!

****************
And finally,
our very own little Christmas...Here's Jay on Christmas Eve...
all dressed up with no place to go.We made the most of our night though.
Polar Express, popcorn & hot chocolate around the Christmas tree.
Jaymin was so cute this year.
Him and daddy sprinkled {okay, dumped} "reindeer food" outside
and he also asked to put out cookies and milk for Santa. :)My mom always assigned a wrapping paper per kid when I was growing up
and my friend emily does the same.
But she also puts a scrap of paper in the bottom of her kids stocking
so they know which gifts are theirs.
I love this idea and decided to do it this year.I also adopted the 3 gift tradition from another girlfriend.
{Just can't remember which one.}
Jesus was given 3 gifts - gold, frankincense & myrrh.
Emily also does 3 gifts per kid and does a want, a need & a surprise.
I like that and did it this year, kind of without even realizing it.
I think its important to set limits
and stay grounded when it comes to gift buying for your kids.
As our debt grows smaller and our paychecks grow larger,
it would be so easy to buy and buy and buy.
I mean, we love our kids and we love to see them excited and happy.
But receiving gifts is so NOT what I want my kids
to think Christmas is all about.
And so, no matter how much or how little
Jeff and I have in our bank account,
my kids will receive 3 gifts.
And as they grow older,
they will learn more and more about giving to others
and the ultimate joy that brings.

Merry Christmas. :)

christmas happenings.

Ready for 3 Christmas events in 1 post??
Yeah, I don't feel like blogging about each one,
but they need to be documented,
basically because my children are adorable.
There, I said it.
We all knew I was thinking it. ;)

First up is Jay's preschool program.
My photog friends are gonna cringe at these photos
cause I had to use my flash half the time.
I did my best but photographing low/weird lighting events is tough!
And I still have A LOT to learn.
Jay sitting with his class.
How cute is this live Nativity scene??
Mary and Joseph kinda started fighting half way through though.
Maybe they were trying to make it more realistic...?Daddy entertaining Jetty with my phone.
Videos from Branson.
It worked for like 5 seconds.
Seriously.
Adorbs!
Look!
He's actually singing!
Did you notice how my son is a head taller than the rest of his class?
Yeah, that means we probably should have put him
in Kindergarten this year.
But keeping him in preschool makes him appear smarter AND bigger, lol!
Just kidding of course, deciding to opt out of Kindergarten
this year was a highly researched and well thought out decision.
And I only regret it every other day when he's not in school
and I wish he was - lol!
Jaymin and his idol - my 14-year-old brother.
Our celebratory dinner at Panera.
Presh!

A couple of Saturdays ago,
we actually had nothing going on
and I wanted to do something fun and Christmasy with just our family,
before the chaos of gigantic family gatherings ensued.
So we headed downtown to Crown Center and walked around for a bit...
The boys loved this huge gingerbread city.
Its really incredible!Then we had dinner at Fritz's.
And I know Fritz's is old news to most Kansas City locals
but we had actually never been!
This blurred picture cracks me up
cause it shows the actual fight it took
to get Jett to wear his hat for 2 seconds.
In the end Daddy just held his arms down so I could take a picture. :)
This picture makes me laugh too.
You order your food with the telephone at your booth
and then a little train on an electric track delivers it to your table!
The boys went gaga over this.
When our food was delivered Jett said, "thank you train"- lol!
I love this one too cause Jaymin cannot stop pointing at things
even to take a picture. :)

After dinner we went to Union Station
to check out their incredible Christmas train exhibit.
A whole city of miniature trains.
The boys loved it.
After that we drove through the Plaza so the boys could see the lights
{and Daddy could cuss at the traffic}
and I had this whole elaborate plan of getting hot chocolate and
gingerbread cookies I had see at Panera.
Aaaaaand of course Panera was out.
Thank goodness I hadn't said anything to the boys yet.
We've learned not to tell them ANYTHING until we are driving there,
they are eating it, or it is happening at that very moment.
Too many things have been canceled or not worked out
and the devastation it causes is just not worth it.
That or they'll drive us crazy asking about it for weeks on end
until it happens. :)

And finally,
Jay's Christmas program at church.
The kids were so cute and did a great job.
Jaymin's cousin Nevaeh in the front in red.
And Jetty living it up in the church coffeeshop...
You can always find him here...
Scrounging for snacks...
Off the floor, in trash cans, off someone else's plate...
And leaving the evidence on his face.

Merry Christmas!

my guest appearance

Hey everyone!

Head on over to emily's blog
to check out my tutorial today!
My very first one - ha! :)

Here's a sneak peak at what you'll find over there...

christmas :: night & day

Here's my own little

"christmas home tour"
for 2011.
Most of my decor stays the same from year to year
but its always fun to tweak this and that
and perfect your style.
And with my new kitchen and living room setup
it was even more fun!
And I've been having a blast
with my camera at night with all the pretty Christmas lights
- something I used to loathe since my point & shoot couldn't handle it -
so I thought it would be fun to show my house in the 2 different settings.

The wreath I made last year.

My new entry table decked out for Christmas.
The greenery is real {thanks mom!}
and I had everything else on hand.

Our {real} tree.
Pretty sure this is the last year I can handle real.
See all the pine needles on the floor??
Yeah, I'm SO over it.

The best part of decorating for Christmas... :)
A favorite ornament from my childhood tree.
I used to have 4.
Was down to 3 this year.
Thanks to Jett throwing them like baseballs
onto the hardwood floor,
I am now down to 1.
Sad face.

I got these cute little glass clip on ornaments from the dollar store.
Can you believe that?
I might actually be officially hooked.
No thanks to this girl.

My mom found these GORG glass trees at Sams or Costco this year.
A set of 3 for like 10 bucks.
I love the vintage/retro mercury glass look they have.

My favorite Christmas piece.
I was too scared to hang it on the tree this year
{see rose ornament}

and thought I'd give it a {safer} more centralized location on the mantle. :)

My mother-in-law started my Fontanini Nativity collection
when Jeff and I got married.
It's nice cause its pretty but unbreakable.I could say this is how the Nativity SHOULD look,
but I have to admit...I love that it looks like this most of the time.
My boys love playing with it.
Especially baby Jesus.
Jett puts him in the manger and says "ni-ni baby, shhhh"
and kisses him. :)

And my kitchen...

This cluster of Christmas and yarn wrapped balls
actually came directly from Starbucks a few years ago.
My mom and I fell in love with their decor that year
and tracked down a store that hadn't promised all their decor
to their employees.
This is where I got the idea for the yarn balls in my wreath.

I've had this "joy" sign for YEARS
and absolutely love it.
My mom made it for me and actually made it vertical
but this year I decided to restring it horizontally
and hang it across my shelves.
{heart!}

And of course,
I have to have my jar of silver bells.
They migrated into the kitchen from my living room mantle
after I got my new glass trees. :)
I think they fit in nicely.

And my sweet boy after his bath.
Christmas lights just make every night feel magical...
don't you think?