O Christmas Tree.

 We love our huge, great smelling tree.  It looks beautiful from the inside and from the road.  We all had a fun time decorating and welcoming it into our new home.  The star we used is just an ornament from the dollar store.

 Every year I have some sort of theme for the presents.  I think next year I'm going to do vintage wrapping and tags.  This year I went black and white with some red ribbon.  It looks amazing under our silver, white, and glass decorated tree.

 

 

 

Dollar store ornaments!!  I could not believe the incredibly beautiful ornaments at the 99 Cents Only store.  We got some huge, beautiful ornaments that make for an expensive looking tree.  I liked them better than what Martha Stewart has this year...I actually think they're the prettiest I've seen.  I just had to share this great find.

Christmas Ideas.

We have been enjoying Christmas cheer since just after Halloween.  I want to share some of what we've been up to so hopefully you can use some of these ideas for decorating or crafting.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' cabin.  Beautiful trees and snow-gets you in the Christmas mood.  We all went shopping for my parents' and sister's tree...in the outdoors-we cut them down ourselves.  The kids decorated them.  Look at how beautiful these yarn balls turned out.  Yarn wrapped around Styrofoam balls. 

 

 

 Stained Glass.  these are a buck each at Michael's.  The kids put the beads in and they melt in the oven.  They come with little red ties to hang.

 

 

 

Etched Ornaments.  These also come from Michael's.  They sell a bunch in a pack for a dollar.  They come with little tool and words like "Ho Ho Ho" and "Peace" and the kids scratch in glittery, metallic designs.

 

 

 

 Decorated mini stockings.  They have these felt little stockings at Michael's too for yes...you guessed it...a dollar.  Annie used confetti, Christmas puff balls, stickers, and eyeballs to decorate hers.  Apollo and Annie's mini stockings are now hung on the tree.

 

"Stained Glass" projects.  This is one of my favorite Christmas projects from Michael's ($1).  They look so pretty with the light shining through.

Here are my little elves.  To make the kits, the kids glued the foam shapes to the front of the clear plastic and glued colored tissue to the backs.  Afterwards, they went back to the front to decorate.

Here are the projects out to dry.

 Oh Christmas Tree.  This tree was made with an ice cream cone covered in frosting and m&m's.  Cute idea, Shannon!

 

Kid-Made Ornaments.

The kids have their own little fake tree where they got to go to the 99 cents only story and pick out beaded strings and tinsel. They picked out balls to take home to decorate. With all the different colors (they even chose the lights), it looks like Christmas threw up on the tree (yes, we've already decorated for Christmas). They loooooove it! Carleton and I also found some gorgeous ornaments for our real tree we're going to flock-can't wait to put it up but we don't want it to die before Christmas. We had red and silver and decided this year to have only white and silver. We found the most beautiful ornaments at the Dollar store-crazy huh. But seriously, they're better than the ones Martha Stewart is selling this year.

Looking for ornaments kids can make? Here are some using Christmas balls:

1. Paint. We used the kids paint that look like markers. I put washcloths in the kids' tins so they wouldn't roll around.

2. Glitter. Make a design or dots (easy for kids) and pour glitter over. I love these turkey roaster pans (I think that's what their called-never made a turkey) that catch all the messes-got it from the dollar store.

3. Glue. Apollo said this guy ran into a snowflake and it stuck to his mouth. How cute.

Here's one of Annie's ornaments.

4. Puff Paint.

Apollo said this is Santa. He said Santa will like this ornament the best because it's of himself.

This was probably Annie's (age 2) favorite to make. She beaded pipe cleaners. I fastened the ends for her to hang up.

Another idea. Clay. We just used some playdough the kids had. We left them out for a few days to dry. The kids molded a lot by hand and then we brought out cookie cutters. We put holes in the top while the clay was still moist so we could put ribbon through them and hang up when they dried.