Early this fall, Aaron and I made the decision that we were going to make a huge cut to our Christmas Budget because we are getting this beautiful new home right at Christmas time. The girlies don’t really need anything, and we have such a big family, they definitely won’t be going without. It not only made the stress of purchasing gifts so much easier, it was the first year we actually planned out what we were going to get them, and it made shopping and sticking to our budget SO MUCH EASIER!!! Novel concept, I know. 😉 We also decided that we would not get each other anything, just that we would get one gift for the family. Now, let me pre–empt this by saying that we normally would not even spend close to this amount on our entire Christmas, but we have been saving specifically for this one thing. We bought a new flat-panel TV for the Great Room. Since it has to be at the new house when the satelite technician moves our service to the new house, we “opened” it early. Also, I don’t think the big 36-year-old kid in our house could wait to have it open and hanging on the wall. 🙂 The girls were so excited they squealed. I need new eardrums.
Remember the craft project I talked about with the snow-sprayed pine cones? Reagan got to finish that, too. She combined her pinecones with miniature green and gold Christmas balls and Christmas Lights in a Hurricane Jar. She thought it was a great thing to do with her pinecones. When we were done, she found the cut-out piece of counter-top from our sink and made a little table with a couple of pieces of styrofoam. Then she moved Mr. & Mrs. Moose and arranged her table “just so”. I think it looks wonderful – she did a great job!
Mom and I made chili Friday (that smelled so good all day long), and after a nice hot meal in the new house, it was time to decorate. Goliath finally got dressed. It’s amazing to me how long it took to decorate him, and how many additional boxes of lights it took to fill him up! I guess when you have a giant tree, that’s what happens!
These are some of my favorite ornaments. A fish I got from my parents, an elk for Aaron, four little angels hand-crocheted by my aunt for the girls, the balls with the moose on them, and the words I got from my mom.
Just to show that I can make fun of myself, I am posting this picture. I may chicken out and take it down in a day or two, I don’t know. When I was unloading all the Christmas decorations, I found these two candles that had gotten a little warm and bent. You can’t tell in this picture, but from the side, they look like walrus tusks, so that’s what I was doing.
Please . . . don’t call the mental ward, I really am okay. The stress of the house hasn’t gotten to me that bad – yet. I don’t think. 🙂
Nature Girl. Mom. Wife. Friend. Photographer. Sewer. Crafter. Artist.
To borrow a phrase – “Yeet Ye Riche”