ugly sweater party

my sister-in-law and brother-in-law hosted an ugly sweater christmas party.  the party was planned for december, but had to be rescheduled for this past saturday.  yes, january 7th- a christmas party.....how awesome is that? 
it started with these invitations from tiny prints:

let me walk you through the party:

it's hard to shop for "ugly sweater" decorations, so i made a few little things to add to the festivities.

i forgot to take pictures of the food tables....but just believe me when i say it was very pretty and very yummy :)  now to the best room of the party:

sadly, frosty is from my back porch.  my kids love him and after this party i have a feeling some other people might get a frosty for their own homes!

the party was so much fun.  too much fun really.  i think it's going to be an annual thing.....in january, because we all decided the date adds to the "tacky" theme so well. 

ok- here are just a few from the booth:

the hosts wore matching sweater vest sets and so did a guest!  how funny is that?

merry christmas to all and to all a good night!!

merry christmas

 you can feel the excitement in our house.  it's here.  merry christmas! 

this is one of our trees.  this holds the gifts that we are giving our family. 
 i'm a white lights kind of girl.

every morning this month i've enjoyed my coffee from the reindeer cup.  tomorrow morning we will have another cup of hot chocolate from the snowman mugs.  my mom made hot chocolate every christmas morning for my sisters and i.  we NEVER drank it....but she always made it.  she bought the snowman mugs for my kids a few years ago.  christmas morning i make them hot chocolate and they always drink it :)

here are my three favorite ornaments.  jordan's parents give them each year.  the most special are my babies very first christmas ornaments.  they have their names and dates on the back.  they are from the picture globe company.  awesome gift.  this one is jack.

here is baby will.

and here is my christmas baby, anna michael.

another favorite ornament- my sisters and i at jennifer's after christmas wedding.

jordan and the kids like colored lights.  this tree is for them :)  it's the one santa will visit tonight. 

this is the tree in annie's room.  she arranges the ornaments daily.

the boys have their own tree too.  it's decorated with ornaments they have made over the years. 
ty and addie have made them some as well!

i wish i could bottle the excitement we are feeling in these walls.  merry christmas to all.

last minute christmas craft

i've been trying to make this christmas season magical for my kids- with christmas music playing all day, endless cups of hot chocolate, candy canes ....you get the picture.  the problem is some days the "magic" is gone.  some afternoons the boys decide to argue or annie pulls the gifts from under the tree announcing it's her birthday (meaning the gift must be hers!)  the other day when the "magic" was fizzling- i decided to do a craft.  i've seen versions of this online.  i hadn't planned to do this so we used what was around the house. 

WARNING...........if you are my mother-in-law would you please stop reading now :)  the kids decided that grammy would be the perfect recipient to their craft.  SO- NO PEEKING PLEASE!!  but, before you go- happy 40th anniversary!  today jordan's parents will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary- how awesome is that?  ok- now grammy- i love you- click off of the site. 

on to our craft:

look at how eager those little hands are :)

i had jack do the bottom layer on our hand tree- since his are the biggest.

will did a layer right on top of jack's.  followed by anna michael's small hands on top.

we added a tree stump.

and a star on top.

once the tree was dry- i let each kid choose a color for the ornaments.  the ornaments are simply their fingerprints.
 jack choose blue.

will picked red for his.

anna michael used "pua-ple." and there is our tree.



i think i'll add a bow at the top to hang it.  i think it would look cute on a door handle. 

working together on a craft totally brought the magic back into our house!  if you're not feeling like crafting but want some christmas magic in your house make some hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles for the kids:

and invite some of your friends over for cranberry margaritas with sprinkles of course!



merry christmas!  i hope your home is full of christmas magic.

santa

yesterday we went to see santa.  it went ok, great,    awful.  it went  little something like this:

jack is 6.  he had questions like this:  are you an elf?  do you work for the real santa?  why do i have pictures with different looking santas?  is this a costume?  followed by PULLING SANTA'S BEARD.  yes, you read that correctly.  santa said he could pull it harder if he wanted to just to be sure!  jack concluded that he must be the real deal.

this is about the time we were all telling anna michael that it would be so much fun to sit by santa.

yes- look at all the fun you can have anna michael! 

santa finally gave her a sucker.

check out her antlers!

last night when the kids were telling daddy about santa he asked annie if she liked santa.  anna michael said, "no, i not like santa."