Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was SO needed and SO nice! And hey, just 3 more weeks and it's Christmas break! I will take it!

I just love my people! I know that sometimes the holidays are rough for some people, but I truly love hanging out with my family and spending time with them!

On Wednesday my children actually slept in! I made my assigned good old pumpkin pies, we went to the library to stock up on books for the next few weeks and then we had lunch date with my precious grandma!
It was a red letter day...

This boy has been so sweet this week! I am really missing summer break and spending all day with my loves!

On Thursday, Turkey day, Callie and Kellen actually watched the parade in their jammies. I think my feedback from last year was well received. There were far less interviews and watching marching bands take drum breaks. Good for you Macy's!

My family always has Thanksgiving for lunch which is nice, because A) Everyone is starving.

B) You can eat and still have the evening to decorate for Christmas. C) Thanksgiving dinner is dumb.

Family pictures went splendidly. Usually it is torture fest, but we got it done in one shot and everyone was happy!

Smiling happy children and hubby=smiling happy mama!

Then they agreed to even more pictures, say what?!? Who are these little people?

After we feasted, we had the most lovely stroll in the park and the kids played outside...It was the best!

After dessert, we hung out for a bit and then headed to my grandma's to help her get her decorations out and by that, I mean my kids went through every box and destroyed her house. She is sweet to put up with us! It was super fun to see all the decorations that have been around as long as I can remember. I have the BEST memories of Christmas as a child!

Then we went back home and got out all of our Christmas stuff! It's happening! Yay for Christmas. I can finally listen to Christmas music guilt free and enjoy my super tacky,white tree... I am ready!

It was such a lovely day and now we are all ready for Christmas! Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday Favorites

It's finally hereeeeeee! Christmas break! I am almost done with shopping. This year was much better than last. I made a list and had a game plan and kinda stuck to it, so I will call that a success!
Some Favorites this week...
                                                        
                                                         

I finished this book Legend on our snow day! Such a great read. One of my students let me borrow it and it is fantastical! Dystopian, future-y book, but I could not stop reading it. It's totally teeny bop geared, but this grown up lady teacher loved it!

                                           
                                            

Brien and I have been in a show hole for about 2 weeks now. We finished the show Prison Break awhile back and had been alternating between Fixer Upper and House Hunters. Whilst both are great shows, we needed something with a few seasons! This show fit the bill. We cannot get away from crime conspiracy shows. Give it a try!

Gettin' my craft on! Last week Brien had a "play date" to watch the Broncos with some of his work peeps, so while Kellen slept and Callie sang "Jingle Bell" rock over and over and over again to learn the words, I had to keep myself busy some how!

I was pretty proud of my free hand deer. Just some scrap wood, painters tape, gold, red and white craft paint and I have a new little Christmas decoration!

                                                   
Minions Fart Gun. Need I say more?? Kellen laughed hysterically at this the whole way through Target. I may have went back for it later that day for a Christmas present from my little man.


                                                   

This smile! He has been obsessed with playing with the ornaments on the tree. I have had to rearrange a little and put the plastic ones at the bottom. I can't even get mad when I hear one being ripped from the tree, because this is the face he makes! 

Christmas Decorations

I LOVE decorating for Christmas. Probably one of my favorite things, ever! When I was a kid we always had to wait until after my dad's birthday on the 7th. But, now as a grown up, I can do it whenever I want to and Thanksgiving night has become our tradition!
So here is the Wood Holiday house!

Our super tacky white tree! Callie and I picked this out before Brien and I were married, so it's our special little tree! Notice the bottom has no decorations due to crazy baby and hungry dog. I hope that next year they are both over attacking the tree!

Callie's tree! She has been dying for her own Christmas tree, so I finally broke down and got her one, she even has cute little purple cupcake ornaments on it! She was very proud of how it turned out.

The Armoire, the sign is a vintage find from Callie's grandparents! I love it! My mother in law found this super cute marquis light star. I might just leave this up for fun after Christmas!

Holly berry wreath. It's hard to find cute stuff to match your tacky white tree and green garland looks baaaddd, so red it is! I found this sweet deal at Target the day after Christmas last year for $6!

Mistletoe ball. Callie insisted on this! She calls it the "kissing ball". Another after christmas bargain for $2.

Also on the top of the fridge we have some of Callie's cute Christmas crafts from her pre-school years!

Christmas pillows to keep us cozy. I scored these at Hobby Lobby last year for $12 each. 

Even the dishwasher got a make over for Christmas. These giant magnets were a gift from Callie's grandparents last year.

I love this sign! I found it last week in the dollar section at Target. Plus our glass snowman, my mom got for Callie. She has the knack for finding tacky decor, I must get it from her!

Yay! I finally have the mantle decorated. After years of being naked at Christmas I finally found cute matching stockings and hangers that didn't cost a fortune. The stockings were $4 at Hobby Lobby and I put and iron on monogram on each of them. The hangers are cute little sleigh bells that came in a four pack for $20! The garland is green, I realize this, but it's in a totally different room, so it's fine right? 

I made this wreath last year for $2. I had an old grapevine wreath in the basement and I found some sparkly red ribbon from the dollar store and hot glued away. I think it came out pretty cute!

We still have a few crafty things to add to the mix later this year, sparkly candles and popsicle stick snow flakes are on the list for this weekend, but I like how everything came together this year, even with the crazy baby!

Thanksgiving!

It has been a week! Oh my... I was worried we would just be lying around the house in turkey coma for days, but hence, we managed to fill the WHOLE weekend!
After a lousy start to our loonngg weekend, I was so sick, Thanksgiving went off without a hitch!

Kellen allowed us to sleep in until 8, I know right?! We watched the Macy's parade. it was not great this year. I am disappointed that every time I stopped to watch it was Broadway people, just dancing. Even Callie who is an avid parade groupie, gave up on it and went to roller skate in the basement. Try harder next year Macy's, you are losing the Wood family viewership.

We headed over to my parents house and started the festivities early!
We had such a blast hanging out with the family and gorging ourselves with delicious treats and it was like 60 degrees, it doesn't get much better than that!

I like to start off the day by torturing my family with a barrage of pictures! They actually came out pretty well! If only we could get that boy to smile.

My pies were a hit! I was pleasantly surprised that they came out. I even got compliments from my grandpa, who is the spouse of the pie queen!

After food fest 2015, we went home to put up the Christmas tree and decorations. Well, that was another adventure with a 1 year old. I forgot how they like to destroy things...So on Friday we had a special Pinterest craft just for Kellen, more on that later.

We spent the rest of the night getting out all of our Christmas treasures, including our tacky white tree, more on all the decorating shenanigans later as well.

"Helping" with the tree

Kellen loved the lights on the tree, but was blinded by the flash, another crazy face picture.

This girl loves hanging up the ornaments, she did a wonderful job!

aannndd, we were finished and it was time to wrestle with daddy!

So the decorating is pretty much done, but now I just have to get started on my shopping, oy!