Love Target’s 75% off sale!

Gotta love Target!!!

I look forward to their 75% off sale every holiday … Christmas, Valentine’s, Easter, Halloween/Thanksgiving.

It’s not enough that they put their stuff on 50% immediately after the holiday has passed, I have to wait till it goes to 75%

… call me cheap … or call me SMART!

Here are some the goods I got for under $15 total!

Got us some big decorations for the outside trees

Can you tell what colors I’m doing next year?

There might still be some stuff left over at your local Target … run out and get some goods for next year!!!!!  CHEAP!!!!!!

 

xo Tara

Merry Christmas to all!

We are ready!  Are you ready?

The stockings are hung and the tree is FULL!!!!!

We have a serious construction site going on in our living room!

Evidence that St Nick was here

{Cookies eaten and milk gone … oh, the carrots and celery is now gone, too}

 

My family wishes your family a very warm and safe holiday!!!!

It’ll be exciting to see what everybody gets!!!!

xo Tara

Christmas around our house…

Merry Christmas all!!!

Hope you and yours are having a great holiday and that your kids haven’t driven you crazy yet {or your spouses}!

Welcome to my home at Christmas

Nothing extravagant, just us…

 

We had a Progressive Christmas Party with our neighbours the other night.  We were responsible for soup, hence the bowls.  It was super fun and a great way to spend the evening with friends … and not have to drive anywhere!  Candles were a glowin and the WINE was a flowin!!!

This is also in our dining room.  I painted these pots with an inspiration I got from a {Decorate It} magazine {I’m bad, I can’t recall the exact mag … I need to improve on that so I can give credits} … anyways, I Christmas’d it up with some balls and bows!   The big empty spot in the middle will soon be home to a mirror that I just framed out … just got to get around to figuring the best way to hang the sucker.

Added a few snowflakes to our HUGE ‘R’ and made it festive!

You know, the banister at night is so much prettier … ah well, it’s decorated too!

A view of our lovely RED wreath!  and our Christmas card display

Our little snowman, the boys take turns at moving the snowflake!

Ah, taking turns, such a concept!

On to the tree…

I LOVE handmade decorations.  I especially love that we are going to be collecting our boys’ decorations.

My mom still has mine from elementary school … and she still uses them!  She ROCKS!

Here’s a cross I made from my Raku Pottery days!  Would love to get back in to that!

I’m thinking that there aren’t many homes with children that does NOT have at least

ONE of these Rudolphs in their collection!

And last, but not least …

The boys have been soooo great with not peaking in their presents.

They just stack ’em instead!

{then if the paper tears, “Oh MOM, LOOK!  … oh, what is it?”}

*snicker*

 

xo Tara

 

Christmas Tree Skirt

I’m all about getting our house ready for Christmas in small attainable ways!

 

I saw this idea in a magazine while I was having a nice ‘ME’ break at Barnes and Noble.

Sipping my Starbuck’s Black Iced Tea,

I thumbed through a Christmas {Family Time} magazine and this family crafty decoration caught my eye.

It was fun tickling the boys’ fingers while I traced their handprint on to the felt!

The one and only pink hand on the entire skirt

Sorting

I used Tulip fabric paint to do the initial and year

To make it even easier, I used simple fabric glue to adhere the hands to the skirt.

NO SEWING INVOLVED!

{that was a strange concept for me!}

Here it is!

It was just the kids’ hands in the magazine, but I thought it would be nice to have ours for the first year and then add the boys’ hands annually.

Fun, hey!  And super easy!  It’ll be a great Christmas tradition to have and to watch what year the boys’ hands will be bigger than mine!

xo Tara

Christmas Card Display

My Christmas card collection was getting pretty large and I couldn’t find a good place to put them … you know the story.

I’ve seen some great ideas using large picture frames (but I don’t have any hanging around) and some using twine, etc.

I’ve also seen the brilliant idea of using clothes pins … AH!  I have some of those!

I  just wanted something easy … so….

I had some scrapbooking paper in my studio.  I cut them to size and used Elmers glue to adhere the paper to the pin.  I also just used my finger to apply some glue over top of the paper to give it a bit of a glazed look.

Thumbtacks, red with white polka dot ribbon, and some clothespins and wah-la!

Fun, right!

Perfect for the Christmas photo cards!

 

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

Santa on an F16!

My girlfriend had invited us to go see Santa on base … fun, right!  Well, get a load of this!

How about seeing Santa come in on an F16!!!

What a trip!

The boys were so lucky to see this!!!!

Doesn’t Mrs. Claus look like she really should be Mrs Claus!!!

What a cool experience for kids!  This was totally new for our family.  Hopefully, we can see this again in future years!

What fun extra-ordinary events has your family experienced at Christmas this year or in the past?

 

Elf on the Shelf

(photo credit)

If you have kiddos, this Christmas tradition might be a great answer to well behaved children … ha!  Well, I bought it this year for our boys and I LOVE IT!

Whenever they want to tattle on the other, I just tell them to go tell the Elf on the Shelf … and guess what, they do!  They go right to the Elf, stand in front of him and tell him exactly what the other did.

Oh, and they always say ‘Thank you’  after and walk away.

But, I must clarify, the Elf is not really for tattling on eachother as he essentially can ‘see’ everything the kiddos are doing during the day.  However, it has been nice to not have to listen to them ‘ratting’ eachother out minute to minute and they get it out and feel ‘heard’.   hehe … Even the tattling has become lessened since Speedy has been in our home … him going to Santa to give a full report on their behavior has encouraged them to play well together.

I think I might have to bring Speedy back in April … hahaha!!!

It is hilarious to watch, but hard to catch on film.  If they see me sneaking up or trying to be sly with the video camera, they shy away and don`t do it as funny and thorough as they normally would.

(photo credit)

You can choose what color of skin, hair, and eyes.  You can also purchase a skirt for your elf to make it a her.  Very cool!

(photo credit)

The story is wonderful!  It tells the kids right away that they can’t touch him or he’ll lose his magic powers …. how clever!

It takes the pressure off you so you don’t have to be the one to tell them all the time not to touch him.

The story is so wonderful and mystical as it descibes the Elf’s job and provides great illustrations of Santa’s shop and the North Pole.

(photo credit)

You get to name your elf, we named ours Speedy.

The boys picked the name because he speeds to the North Pole while they are sleeping to report to Santa whether they have been good or bad that day.

Then you can go register his name at the Elf on the Shelf registry online.

It`s a wonderful tradition and a fun fun fun thing to do with your kiddos while the belief in Santa is still aflame.

 

Oh, one thing, you have to remember to move it to a different place every night!

The kids will wake in the morning and go searching for him to see where he landed, very sweet!

 

xo Tara