Christmas Snapshot

Opening presents on Christmas morning can be so exhausting!



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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! We are enjoying time with family in warm and sunny Tucson, so I have been taking a little break from blogging. But there will definitely be more pictures and posts coming soon. Hope you are having a fun and festive Christmas!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {12-18-11}

What is it?

I got my new bokeh kit in the mail today! I was so excited to be able to do some fun, custom bokeh. I had my camera pointed at the Christmas tree and was playing around with the settings on my camera and accidentally snapped this picture. Yep! One of the bokeh discs is a smiley face.

Children sleeping

This is my youngest boy, Eli. He is the kind of kid that runs nonstop all day until he just drops! He is almost 4 and refuses to take a nap, but some days it just catches up to him!

I admit that I have posted these last two pictures recently, but they are my favorite pictures of my two youngest kids sleeping. This picture was from the first weekend in December at my family Christmas party. My dad (HiFlight) put my baby girl to sleep and I got this sweet picture.

Joy

For the past few days I have been delivering little Christmas ornaments to my neighbors. It has been such a joy to see all the people that I love. It was also a joy to find this lovely glass block at my friend's house tonight, since I didn't have anything for this prompt yet!

 Window

I love the way that shops downtown decorate their windows for Christmas. It wasn't until after I took this picture that I realized that it kind of looks like a monster face in the window. Can you see it?

Half

Oh how I love oranges at Christmastime! Every year when I was little we always got an orange in our stocking and somehow I still crave them in December. This is the last orange left in the box that we bought a little less than a month ago. I cut in it half just for you and took a picture (right before I ate it!).

Shoveling the "snow"

Can you believe that we haven't really had any decent snowstorms yet this year? The boys have been waiting and waiting for it to snow. They were so excited when they woke up one morning this week and found snow on the ground!

It wasn't a very big storm and as the day got warmer, the snow got wetter. When we went to pick Jonah up from Kindergarten he told me he was disappointed that the snow was all melted. So I told him that there was still a little snow on the driveway that he could shovel if he wanted. He was so excited! The minute we got home he had me get out his shovel so he could get to work!

You would not believe how fast the boys were running back and forth on the driveway! They were having such fun!

It was actually nice that the boys shoveled so our driveway would get clean and dry. Goodness knows Honey Daddy would not have enough time to do it!

More Christmas Craftiness: Preschool Handprint Santas & Snowmen Ornaments

This week it is my turn to teach our cooperative preschool. Of course the topic is Christmas, since this is our last week of the year. At the end of the week I get to focus on baby Jesus and the nativity, but our lesson for today was about Santa.

So first we used our hands to make some cute hand print Santas.

I painted the thumb and lower portion of their hand red to make the Santa hat, then I painted the rest white. I added the flesh colored paint and faces after the hand prints had dried. Then we finished it off with a pom-pom. I think they are adorable! Even my Kindergartener came home and wanted to make one, so we did!

As a nice gift for the parents, we also made hand print snowman ornaments. I painted the kids' hands white and then had them squeeze a round ball ornament in their hand. Since our kids are only three, that is where their involvement ended. Later in the day I added faces, hats, arms and buttons to the snowmen and I think they turned out to be absolutely adorable!

I also wanted to do a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament for my little girl. Can I just tell you how hard it is to paint a baby's hand and try to get that onto an ornament?

I ended up wiping off the ornament a number of times. When I finally got a good handprint, I filled it in with a little extra paint. Then I added some ribbon. I think it turned out cute. I am going to use my new Silhouette Cameo to cut some vinyl to put Aubrey's name and date on the back of the ornament. Can you believe how small her hand is in comparison to her brothers?

So that is what we have been up to so far this week. How about you?


Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {12-11-11}

Less is More

As we get older, sometimes Christmas becomes too much about the presents and the hustle and bustle of giving and getting. As I watched my baby girl gaze in wonder at the simple beauty of our little Christmas tree, I think about how Christmas really is much more simple and wonderful for our little ones. They have fewer cares and enjoy the holidays so much more. I guess it really is true.... sometimes less really is more.

Holiday Lights

There are many houses with Christmas lights around where I live, but I loved the simplicity of this house that simply had the star of Bethlehem overhead. That's what it is really all about, right?

 Ornaments

Our tree has many ornaments that we love because of the memories they are associated with. This particular ornament is my boys' favorite because they can pull the string and make the nutcracker move. They don't really understand the sentimentality of this ornament though. My husband was given this ornament when he was just a boy and I suppose he enjoyed pulling on its string as well.

Cup of Cheer

I was discussing this weeks photo prompts with a friend, and said that I didn't know what to take a picture of for this prompt. When she told me that a cupcake is a "cup of cheer" I thought she was absolutely right and not to mention brilliant! After all, a cupcake is a cup that can cheer up nearly anyone, right?

Nativity

I LOVE nativities. I have three larger sets on top of my piano and several other smaller sets. One of my favorites though is this ornament on my tree that my mother-in-law gave me last year. I love the simplicity of the silhouettes and the light shining through the glass.

Christmas Craftiness: the Knitters Ornament

I love it when you find the perfect gift for someone you love!

You may not know that I crochet. I have long professed that I am a crocheter, but I don't knit (even though I do know how). At least that is what I kept telling my mom when she would show me any cute knitting patterns. Then this Christmas my mom and older sister showed me the cutest Christmas gifts that they were knitting. I knew they would make great gifts for my friends... and I got sucked in!

Since they got me started knitting, I knew exactly what type of ornament I needed to make for them!

I saw a picture of something similar online, but without instructions. So I will tell you what I discovered through trial and error:

I went to the craft store, looking for round ornaments. Initially I bought a plastic ball to wrap with yarn, but they were too big (3 inches) and the knitting needles looked ridiculously small. I could not find any smaller plastic balls and I didn't want to do a glass ball because I didn't want it to break. So I ended up with a cream-colored ceramic ornament that was a little over 2 inches around. I tied the Christmas variegated yarn around the top of the ornament and started wrapping! I didn't use any glue at all (but that doesn't mean you can't!). When I thought the ball was big enough, I used a crochet hook to weave the end of the yarn in really well.

To make the knitting needles I used two bamboo skewers, like you would use for shish kebabs. I cut them the length I wanted and inserted two wooden beads on the flat end. Then I inserted the "knitting needles" into the yarn ball. Add a ribbon bow and you are done!

I think they are adorable and my mom and my sister loved them! I may just have to make one for myself now... either that, or figure out how to make a miniature crochet hook to put in my yarn ball because I don't knit, right?

Honey Family Christmas Party

Christmas has come a little early to the Honey Household! Wahoo!

This weekend was our annual family Christmas party.  So we packed up the kids in the car and headed for beautiful, wintry Wyoming.

We had so much fun spending time with my family. The boys got to play outside in the snow with their cousins and hang out with Grandma and Grandpa.


I had a great time with my sisters and parents. My little sister, who has four daughters, helped me give miss Aubrey her very first hairdo! Who knew she already had enough hair?

My baby girl really loves her Grandpa. He actually got her to go to sleep in his arms, and I caught this precious moment while we were visiting.

If that doesn't melt your heart, nothing will!

Of course the most exciting part of the weekend was exchanging presents! It is by far the kids' favorite activity. We love to make homemade gifts for each other and find fun little things for the kids.

My family has gotten so large that we only have seating for the adults. The kids have to sit on the floor. (I don't think they mind too much, as long as they get to open presents!)

We could probably use some kids furniture, like these fun beanbag chairs that my boys eagerly pointed out to me while I was window shopping online at one of my favorite stores, Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores).

My boys are really into Cars this year, so they LOVE anything that has to do with the movie. They are both asking Santa for toys from the movie this year.

Speaking of presents for the boys, we let the boys open their big present from us. We just couldn't wait until Christmas!

Yep! We got the boys a Wii! They are SO excited and they could barely contain themselves. They even got a Cars 2 driving game. I think it will be a fun gaming system for our entire family.

The boys aren't the only ones that couldn't contain themselves! Even though we agreed not to get each other presents (besides the air conditioner/furnace/dishwasher), my sweet Honey got me a present that I have wanted for a while now...

A Silhouette Cameo! I have died and gone to heaven just thinking of all the fun craft projects I can do with this baby! Wahoo! Now I just have to scrounge up some money to buy transfer paper, vinyl, glass etching cream, heat transfer vinyl, a hook, etc. So much fun stuff!

I love getting to have Christmas early with my family. It really gets me excited for the holiday season and all the fun I get to have with my little family in the weeks to come.



Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.