december...

The long awaited month is finally here. This is my most favorite time of the year. Bring on the snow, garlands, trees, and carolers. I'm ready for it! This will be mine and Jake's first Christmas together. We are super excited. We're having a lot of fun decorating our home. We have a tree that only lights up half way. Yes mom, we checked the lights before we put them on the tree. Our lights in our windows aren't ready for Christmas yet. They are on strike. They fall down in the middle of the night making me jump and wake Jake up telling him there is a monster in our house. I tried my hand at being crafty this year. I made some (well...one, I'm still working on the others) sock snowmen. I attempted to make a tree out of plastic cups. We made a sign that decorates the cut out in the wall between the kitchen and living room. And Jake made a decoration for our tree. It's going to become a tradition. Hopefully. But, that's as far as we've made it this year. I'm proud of us. And yes, I have had Christmas music playing since Thanksgiving and I will be singing it until at least New Years. :) 

The snowman. He is made from socks and rice. Check out how to make them here.

Our on-strike lights. The one's in the window won't stay up. ^----this picture is a miracle

I got this idea off of pinterest. They used flower pots, but I couldn't find any, so I improvised! Check out this lady's site here.

our half-lit tree. Isn't it cute? :)

The sign and more lights and the snowman. The sign is made from 2-12x12 sheets of decorative paper and 2-8x11 sheets of white paper. Then cut out, glued and placed in frames that my mother-in-law got at the dollar store, I believe. Don't quote me on that. 

Jake's ornament. It's a 3D ball made out of pictures of us. He cut one of the pictures in half and glued it at the top and bottom. We wrote on the back of it: Our 1st Christmas. We want to do this every year so that someday we are at: Our 15th Christmas, _________'s 5th Christmas, __________'s 3rd Christmas, __________'s 1st Christmas. (___________'s <---- our kids names). Hopefully we keep up on it. :)

Well since today is the first day of December, you better turn your TV on to ABC Family and watch the 25 Days of Christmas Countdown or a touching Hallmark movie. Whichever you prefer. Enjoy! Let the holidays begin!!