I'm getting there

I finally feel like I'm ready for Christmas! My house is clean....although the girls have done a good job at spreading toys everywhere already. My projects are slowly wrapping up which is taking a lot of stress off my shoulders, and I've gotten a few decorations out and am feeling more festive.

Dan and I brought the girls around to our neighbors houses and we sang jungle bells to them and gave them plates full of goodies and Christmas cards. I made some of the treats, and some of them the girls made with Grandma over the weekend. There was no way I wanted a ton of baked sugar in my house, so what better way to get rid of it than to re-gift it to my neighbors? We did keep enough cookies for the girls to enjoy! It was something I watched my mom do as I was growing up, and I always wanted to live in a neighborhood where I could hand out baked goods to the people who share my street. Mission accomplished.....and now they seriously think that I am a baking fool because this is now the third time I've baked something and brought it over. Better to be thought of as a crazy generous person than something worse I guess!


I don't think that I am going to go all out with the decorations this year. I would probably enjoy putting it all up, but since there are only 10 days left until Christmas it just seems like a lot of work for such a short time. This way, I have less clean up come December 31st!! So far I have the stockings up, a jar full or ornaments, a collection of glittery pine cones, (you didn't actually think I would skip pine cones did ya?) and we finally are up to date on our advent calendar! We did not get our Christmas tree on Sunday because it poured rain all day and what fun would that be? The plan is to get it tomorrow.....which I am actually looking forward to. Maddie has been seeing Christmas tree lots all over town for close to a month now and has been begging me to get a tree, so she should be pretty stoked tomorrow! Pretty soon it will actually look like Christmas at my house!

How do people keep their stockings from twisting all around? Should I stuff them or something? This is my first year with a mantle and those hook things.

I bought some clingy window snowflakes today. Maddie was really excited to put them up but I told her that I needed to clean the windows first. It's amazing what can motivate kids. She harassed me until I got out the window cleaner (natural products are better when kids are helping) and handed out rags to her and Charlotte. They cleaned my windows! Well, at least the lower half where they could reach. I did the upper windows and they were clean and ready for snowflakes in no time! Every window in our living room, kitchen and entry way is covered with snowflakes......and it looks lovely!

My little cleaning elves

I'll eventually get around to sharing some of my crafting and sewing projects but for now, just know that when dealing with food coloring you should always wear gloves. Unless you want to be like me and have yellow hands. Awesome. How long does it take for food coloring to come off skin???