Christmas Home Tour

I have been enjoying the Nester's Christmas Tour of Homes each year since I began blogging back in 2007!  (although I believe BooMama was hosting it back then)  

I really enjoy "visiting" with others in blogland and the exchange of visits and comments that goes on as well as seeing everyone's different styles of decorating and also sharing/recording for myself to look back on how I decorate for Christmas around my house.  

This year though, Myquillyn wrote the most thoughtful and wonderful post about the tensions between our lives here in America and celebrating Christmas and what is happening in Aleppo, Syria.  I really encourage you to read it.  You can find it here.  

I enjoy sharing our home with you but even more than that if you haven't heard of the work Preemptive Love is doing, I would really like to encourage you to check them out on Instagram, the web, etc.  I have been following and learning about this organization for over a year and I think very highly of them and the ways they love and serve well.  

Here are six things they shared tonight on their instagram account:

preemptiveloveThe situation in and around Aleppo continues to develop rapidly. Here are six things we can share about the crisis and our ongoing response.
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1. Our emergency feeding program is continuing, thanks to you. Already, your support has allowed us to double our response as more displaced families pour into the Aleppo countryside.
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2. We’ve handed out thousands of sleeping bags, just as winter is setting in. It’s 34 degrees in Aleppo tonight, and snow is expected on Sunday. Each sleeping bag can accommodate a mother and two children. “No one has ever told us they were cold in one!” our response leader said today.
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3. We’re working with a coalition of partners inside Syria, to reach as many as possible with lifesaving aid. We are better when we serve across sectarian, religious, or national lines. Our response is more sustainable when we share capacity, knowledge, and resources locally. We’ve learned this through nearly a decade of serving in Iraq, and we are taking the same approach as we serve in Syria.
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4. We’re one of several organizations responding to the Aleppo crisis, but the needs are greater than all of us put together. More needs to be done. A lot more. But thanks to you, families are being fed. Lives are being saved.
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5. This is a volatile, rapidly changing situation. Reports from the ground are changing by the hour as evacuation deals and ceasefires are made and broken and made again.
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6. We serve everyone in need, period. If you want to know what side of the conflict we’re on, we’re on the side of families whose lives have unraveled in all the violence. We’re on the side of the bombed-out, driven-out, desperate children and mothers and fathers who lost everything. We’re on the side that says violence unmakes the world, and it’s our job to remake it. We will keep showing up with tangible acts of love for as long as it takes.

And finally, a little bit of our home . . . 

David was on top of things bringing in the logs that he has been playing with all summer just as it began to get cold because he wants fires this winter to roast smores, etc.!  

cut out piece of "door art" bought many years ago in Canton, TX and a fantastic book page wreath made by my talented mother-in-law

the hammock swing corner . . .

the hammock chair was a very special birthday gift from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, stars bought ages ago at the Samplehouse Warehouse sale . . . those were such fun days when they had that . . . 

and the color!

water color and oil pastel original art by yours truly :) 

made at our very own Fine Arts Center here in Colorado Springs

busy wall of Christmas cards and all the garlands 

"stockings"

colorful Christmas coffee table

Merry Christmas!  

Kelly

this time last year

something a little different

my friend Betty gave us this teapot at our wedding and we used it in the decorations

I think it looks pretty cute dressed up for Christmas with non-traditional colors.

Do you use colors other than red and green in your Christmas decorating?  I'd love to hear about it or better yet see pictures.  

Kelly

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

merry and bright

Christ is coming!

meaningful Christmas gift

I received some very thoughtful Christmas gifts this year.

One of the most meaningful to me was this one.

While we were visiting their house, unbeknownst to me, my mother-in-law took David into her closet to let him "shop" for me for Christmas.  Adrian has had him "give" me cards before and I love that but he is still so young that all of these types of expression are so new to me and it's really, really neat when your child picks out something for you.

My mil said that he really took his time and looked at lots of different things and said "no" to some and finally decided on this bracelet and this pin.

Isn't that sweet?

I am excited to wear the heart pin at a "queen of hearts" party I am hosting at my house for one of our women's groups at church in February.  I also received heart socks for Christmas so I am set!  

Kelly

projects du jour (so far, hoping for another one or two before the day is out)

Have you seen the ornaments that you make out of a cut of the tree trunk from your Christmas tree floating around on pinterest and the world wide web at large?  

I had seen them and thought they were fun but would never have remembered probably except that the guy who sold us our tree asked if I wanted the cutting to make into an ornament or something.  So thoughtful.  It's been wrapped in saran wrap in my craft drawer until today.  

This was a super simple craft and fun to do.  I just cut out the entries for "family" and "together" from my thesaurus that I think my Poppy may have given me once upon a time.  I always use it for crafting now as I use my computer/phone for looking up words. 

The only downside is David saw me ripping out the page and in his two year old way reminded me that we do *not* rip books.  "Um, ur, you're right"  I've told him that and I'm thankful he listened.

I put a little elmer's school glue on the backs of the papers and stuck them down and then made a pilot hole with a nail before sticking in this red star brad.  I printed out the 2012 on red cardstock and layered it over faux bois washi tape from in the clear on etsy.  (They are GREAT to work with if you need any washi tape or other fun supplies!) and nailed it down as well (I don't really have any high hopes of washi tape sticking to wood over time.

I added a little baker's twine bow and loop for hanging both held on with small nails as well and then typed out a little synopsis of our Christmas on red cardstock and nailed that down on the back.  

(While I was working on that part, David was doing "his craft" and nailing push pins into the tree trunk with a small hammer.  ha ha!  He had a blast but to his credit easily gave it back to me and let me take the pushpins out when I was ready to finish it.)

Another project on my list today was to make an iphone case using washi tape.  Adrian recently upgraded to the iphone 5 and right after that I dropped my iphone and broke the face.  :(  

So now I'm using his old phone and went ahead and switched to his silicone case too as opposed to my cute, clear, can change the scrapbook paper in it case that was fairly slicky.

His was blackish gray and not all that fun. :)

I have no real hopes of this holding up super well but it is fun and was easy and relatively quick and when I get a new phone this summer I'll buy a cute and not too slicky case.

I just cut a piece of white cardstock to fit the back and glued it on with a gluestick.  Now that didn't really stick all that much at all but I knew the washi tape was going over it I just wanted a white background for the tape since it's translucent.

Then I layered on different pieces of washi tape and then used an exacto knife to cut holes where they were in the case.

Last I spruced the whole thing up (and gave it a little more grip in the hand?) with a bit of elmer's glue and iridescent glitter.  :)  

I like it!  

Off to try to find photos and print them to scrapbook Christmas 2009!  ha!  

What have you been up to today?  

Kelly

la pinata

One of my very favorite things we did this Christmas was a pinata.  

My new sis-in-law is from Mexico so we wanted to incorporate some fun traditions to make her feel at home.  

It was a blast.

We had a song to sing and everything.  

Turns out the place where we bought the pinata online (a company based in San Antonio - I love going back to my Texas roots) had great looking pinatas but I guess they were just for decoration as there wasn't a hole for filling and it had sturdy wooden supports inside.  That's okay, though, we weren't going to let that stop us and figured between all of us we could bust it!  

And we did!  Candy for all and this little guy's first time to ever have gum.  :)  

Have you ever done a pinata at Christmas?  

Kelly

our tree is still up

So I can still post about getting it and putting it up, right?  

Is your tree still up?

I usually like to take ours down on the 26th but since we only got it on the 23rd and since David really likes it and since it is smelling sooo heavenly and I'd rather take down other Christmas decor and declutter/clean/organize (or in the case of today, have a case of "sitting at the computer" then the tree shall stay for a bit.

Anyway, remember the first post about going to get our tree this year?

The look on his face still makes me laugh.

At first he was much more interested in stomping in the ice in the parking lot than anything to do with the tree.

Once the tree was on top of the car, he still wasn't too sure about the whole thing.  I think it was actually less about the tree in any way and more about being a little off kilter and grumpy in general to be honest.

BUT . . . once he was back in his seat and he could see the tree on top of the car through the moon roof, he thought it was *pretty* cool!  

He'll still talk about it at different times when we're in the car.

"Remember the tree on top of our car, Mama?"

On the way home he kept saying things like "hang on tree!"  "good job tree!"  It was adorable.

Then when we got home, his contribution to helping with the lights was to put the box on top of our robot vacuum.  We all cracked up when we saw that.  Having a two year old around is a lot of fun!

Adrian actually did all the lights for me which I really appreciated!    When he was done with the regular lights I decided it might be fun to try these big globe lights on part of it too but in the end we decided against it.  Made for a fun belly pic opportunity though since I am taking much fewer of those on purpose with this pregnancy than I did with my first.

I will say that there were certainly those in the room that did not approve of the pregnant woman being on top of a step stool for decorating the tree but what are you going to do?  I was careful.

the pink sheet was just to catch any falling sap so it didn't get on the carpet and was later covered with a fun vintage poinsettia tablecloth from my mother-in-law

Never have so many ornaments been put on AND taken off the tree but that's okay.  

Kelly

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having a happy, healthy day!

Thank you for stopping by here and sharing in our lives!

Merry Christmas!

Kelly

Union Station

On our way to and from Pittsburgh last week we got to spend a little time in Chicago.

Boy do I love that city.  

It was my first time to be there in the Christmas season.  Lots of beautiful lights and lots of holiday decorations that reminded me of things we'd seen in Montreal.  

I will admit that by our fourth night sleeping on the train out of nine, with half of us running fever, the romantic notions of train travel conjured up by this photo were a bit lacking for us in reality.  

Ah the adventures!  Wouldn't really live without them but I am so glad to be home!

I woke up at five this morning and while trying to fall back to sleep "There's no place like home for the holidays" kept singing itself in my head.  

Are you spending your Christmas holidays at home or traveling?  Boat, train, car or plane?

Blessings on you wherever you go!

Kelly

ten on ten - ten days late! December 2012

So here's the scoop, I took pics on the 10th, left town on the 11th and never got a post done.  

BUT, now we're home and here's my ten:

all dressed in his snow bibs and flannel shirt for going outside but distracted by trains 

I love seeing the things he puts together in play these days!

new mittens!

(I was going to save them for the Christmas stocking but to be perfectly honest, I didn't feel like going out to the cold car and hunting down other mittens that might or might not end up being there - it was easier to dig in the gift drawer)  

playing in the snow!  

a special Christmas mug from my Grandmother, my dad's mom

making eggnog coffee cake I'd seen on pinterest

a very good little kitchen helper - he's going to be baking *for* me before I know it!

another case of laziness in one day - so see that back beater?  It wouldn't snap in all the way, I fiddled a while then gave up deciding it would work fine.  Well, then my little helper and I got a spatula jammed in between the bowl and beater and before I knew it this beater had completely "mangled and tangled" itself (as David said over and over) beyond use.  Bummer!

The space program is alive and well in our house!

(and no it wasn't cold inside but someone enjoyed wearing his winter gear all the way until naptime)

an afternoon treat of a video - I don't remember which one but probably Boz or Chugginton

I was really enjoying this book I got via interlibrary loan but I  had to return it before our trip without finishing it.  Bummer!

Ready to go into the oven!  (It had to chill for 8 hours)  I took it to the second annual sock exchange party with women from my church and it was yummy if I do say so myself.  I have another one and a dairy free one for David in the freezer waiting to be pulled out for breakfast one day this week with our company here.  First I have to get past my glucose test tomorrow.  Uggh!

Daddy's off work, let's drive trains over his head!

Hope you are having a lovely December.  I'd love to hear your comments and what you're up to.

Kelly