Erica and I will be taking a break over the next week or so until the New Year. We'll be traveling a bit and I hope to knock out some projects during my time off from work. We actually have a bit of a deadline coming up soon, and I hope to share some more about that in January. What have you got planned for the holidays?
Before I leave you -- a few of my favorite moments over the last month.
#1 Celebrating the Advent
We have been horribly inconsistent and we even started late; but I'm okay with extending the celebration of Advent past Christmas. Our little boy loves opening each bag with a special ornament inside -- and we're enjoying reading the Story of Jesus with him.
I shared my first real wreath in the Christmas Tour last week. We have a Fine Arts Center as part of our local extension office and they host free classes involving crafting and the arts. My mom joined me for wreath-making and it was just one of the coolest things ever. It was so fun to watch it go from a simple metal frame to a beautiful, full wreath -- all made with items from nature.
I used these new wreath-making skills to make swags from magnolia leaves for our mantle.
Then, a week or so later, the Fine Arts Center hosted a Terrarium class, in which we filled an ornament with more natural items. This was also a "first" for me and I'll be finding a permanent home for this little globe after Christmas is over.
#3 Cutting Down and Decorating our Tree
Our most-loved family tradition is getting the tree. I've cut down a tree {as in I watched while Dad or Mike cut it down} for Christmas as long as I can remember. Mike and I love celebrating this tradition with our little boy.
This tree was a bit stubborn -- you may have noticed the fishing line holding the top straight in our Christmas Tour photos -- but we got it decorated eventually. Enjoying a decorated tree is one of my favorite things about the holidays. It's just. so. pretty!
#4 Printing Old Christmas Photos
...and looking through old Christmas photos. It's hard to believe this is our fourth Christmas with our little boy. I think I'll be looking for some more silver stands during the after-Christmas sales so that we can keep adding black and white Christmas photos each year.
