Sprucing it up!

O' Christmas Tree, O' Christmas Tree,

How lovely are your branches!

Oh what a wonderful Saturday it has been. A great start to our Christmas vacation! For starters, I actually did not set an alarm and I did not get up early. I actually let myself sleep until 7:30...it felt shamefully wonderful! Later in the morning, Chad's aunt who we call Sister, came over and helped me spruce up our tree in the living room. Other than new lights when they go out, I have never spent any money on this tree. It's always simple with white lights, clear glass balls, and silver ting-tangs. This tree is basically there so you can see a big tree from the street in that big window. Our tree that we really enjoy is the one in the den. This year I decided to put a little money in the tree after I saw Amy's tree with her lime green mesh material. It is so pretty and it made me want to come home and work on my plain tree. Last weekend we went to Design World and I bought the materials. The plan was for Sister to come over on Monday afternoon because we had Chad's office party planned for Tuesday night at our house. All the sickness changed that and we had to cancel. I could have probably done this by myself but I knew with Sister here it would be fast and divine. She is the floral decorating guru! She makes all my wreaths and they are all beautiful! Now my tree is gorgeous and I love what she did. I'm so happy we spruced it up. We also bought some pretty ribbon for the Princess' tree. Here's a little tour...
This is a clear ball off the big tree that I just tied some ribbon on. Later (after I took the picture) I put a "C" sticker on it to monogram it. Cute, easy, and cost me nothing! Don't you love the extension cord end at the top of the picture...

This is Claudia's newest ballerina ornament. She and I love this one so much.

Taaa Daaa, it was pretty before but now it s BEAUTIFUL. When we drove in tonight we saw that the tree glows pink from the road. It has all kinds of ornaments. The ones we have bought and a lot she has made.
Look closely and you can see the crown in the bow. A crown for our princess' tree so she can learn to truly celebrate the birth of our KING, Jesus!

Drum roll please... Um, yes, Claudia was super excited and don't you just love the pajamas she has on...as if she does not have half-a-dozen cute matching pairs! And yes, she has been told to NOT stand on the furniture.

Just LOVELY...

Once again, an excited princess!

Shenese sent the kids this plate for Santa cookies. We LOVE it! Thank you, Shenese!

On Friday we had Christmas parties at school. I volunteered to make the cupcakes for Claudia's class. I did red velvet with cream cheese icing. We bought cute paper cups with these little gingerbread men to stick in them. I'm not a baker and they may not look that great but they sure did taste yummy!

After we got out of school (EARLY) on Friday, Claudia and I went to have lunch. We picked up Gracie on our way home and she and Claudia decorated our Gingerbread House. They did a great job. I did the icing and they designed the display. They had so much fun doing this. For dinner, our friends Bo and Jean came over. Jean was Claudia's kindergarten teacher and my walking partner this summer. We have gotten really close to them but have not gotten to spend much time with them lately. We really enjoyed just sitting and chatting with them. I wish so badly that we could have one night like that with all our couple friends. There is just never enough time for all the people I want to spend time with over the holidays.

The pictures are out of order but here is Claudia holding up her stocking at school. Each student gets a huge stocking and they all bring presents for each other. We insist they spend only about $5 for all of the presents. Basically they do things like mini play dough, pencils, lip gloss, etc. For Kindergarten and first grade, we have bought foam picture frame kits for Claudia to make all her classmates a frame. I take my camera to school and take a picture of every one of them in front of the tree and we put their picture in their frame. It has a magnet so they can put it on their fridge. This group loved theirs as much as the ones last year.

Okay, back to our great Saturday. Chad and I left the kids with Juna around 2:30 and drove to LaGrange. We went to eat Japanese and then went to see The Blind Side. It was superb. I loved it! Every single person needs to see it. I am really thankful that Chad and I got a little time together. It is so fun to go to the movies and sit with my sweetheart for two hours holding hands!