Countdowns

Wow! I can hardly believe how fast the holidays are approaching us! I have many countdowns going right now. The are 4 nights left until Heath's overnight work will be over and he will have a full week off for Thanksgiving! Hallelujah!  There are 9 days until Thanksgiving and we have SO much to be thankful for! There are 10 days until Black Friday and I do love me some savings and sales!  There are 39 days until Christmas! And I do believe there are 45 days until 2011! Wow! I am not looking forward to 2011 though, because it brings too many changes. Jamie will be graduating high school in 2011!

As you might have already guessed or seen, we have had our Christmas tree up for about a week and we love it!

And here is the small tree that is in the kitchen. I made a curtain for the back door window from some fabric I found leftover from last year. Funny thing about that fabric is that I bought it again this year not knowing I had it leftover from last year. Guess I must have really liked it ;) The tree is decorated with Emilee's tiny spoons, measuring spoons, small spice jars, and cookie cutters. For an added "kitchen" touch, I put the rolling pins at the bottom of the tree for more decoration.

Our Advent calendar is small Christmas stockings and is hanging up behind the small tree in the kitchen.

 

This year, I am really going to go all out with the decorations. Emilee loves the Christmas decor. She woke up from her nap to the tree being up the first time and the look on her face was priceless! She was so excited! She yelled, "Oh Me Gosh! Where did it come from? All the stuff! Where did all the stuff come from? Oh Me Gosh!"  So cute!  Yes, she still sounds like a pirate with the "Me" instead of  "My" and I still think it's the cutest thing ever. I still never correct her. It just makes me giggle and happy, so why stop her? winks!

Letters to Santa

Since moving into the new home, this will be our first year without a fireplace. Of course I'm already trying to think ahead and prepare for questions in advance. You know, how will Santa get into our house if we don't have a fireplace? 


Problem solved people! And I am SO EXCITED!!  I have been wanting to get a SMALL mailbox and put by the front door because Emilee is forever asking to go check them mail. I wanted to get a small one so she could just have fun with it. Well, I never did get around to finding a SMALL mailbox. So, I've decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I am going to get a mailbox and put it on a short stand (4x4 board) and put it on the front porch. I am going to put stickers on the outside of it "Letters to Santa."  On Christmas Eve night, we are going to walk out and put a note in the mailbox for Santa letting as well as the key to the front door (fake key of course-I'm not THAT crazy!)  I thought that was such a cute idea! What do you think?

Now don't get me wrong, we don't go all crazy over Santa and we make sure to stick to the true meaning of the season, but in the few years that she will believe in the big guy in red, I want to have fun with it.  We do plenty of other activities to center Christmas around Christ.  I don't think there's any harm in having fun with
the flying reindeer bit.

So, we'll put the letters and key out and then head to the front yard and put out carrots and water for the reindeer. I'm so excited! And of course "Santa" will leave her a note in the mailbox thanking her and some personal details in there like how her room is painted, the treats left for him, etc.


Here is what I was thinking of but naturally I'd do a good paint job on it.

This one is cute and would be a nice decoration for the front porch. So you get the idea. Mailbox painted red with "Letters to Santa" on it.