Playing Christmas Games

K has been on a creative streak lately.
She made this board game for her sister, similar to the game of Life but with a Christmas twist.
They played for so long I starting having thoughts of getting it made for real to share with friends as this years gift.

Nom Nom Nom

 Lollipops!!!

 And sprinkle and chocolate covered marshmallows on a flavoured candy cane.

 Great for stirring the hot chocolate!!

Making Cards

Snowflakes

Gingerbread Houses Galore

Meet Our Elf on the Shelf, Chuckles

 A few days ago we had an elf join our family.
Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf book?
He's quite the mischievous little elf I tell you.
But for any family with young kids, I think this is such a fabulous idea.

 Now I can't say I've been super original, most (actually all so far) of the ideas I have gotten online.
And it can be a bit daunting to try to do this late enough at night that the kids don't wake up and see, to when I wont fall asleep before I remember to do it.

 The rewards are priceless.
It's like a little Christmas everyday.

 From toilet papering the tree, making snow (sugar) angels to having a snow ball fight with some friends and building snowmen on the counter.
Chuckles provides a great morning laugh and sets the day off with just the perfect amount of festive cheer.

I can see why this becomes such a warm family tradition.
Maybe one day I can even pass him on the one of the girls for their kids.

Instagram

I love my iPhone.
I love using Instagram on my iPhone.
Haven't heard of it?
You gotta check it out if your an iphone user.
It's like twitter meeting your photo album.

Better yet!!!
You can get magnets made from your Instagrams at Stickygram.
I just received mine today and they are awesome!!!

I love technology

Tree Ornaments

 Some from painted salt dough,

 A package of plaster ornaments and glitter,

 And marbling with paint in glass balls.

 Or with paper.

The Girls

At a Christmas party all dressed up and looking beautiful.
Love my ladies!!!

Family

 Feeling the love and glow of abundance this season.
It has been a tough year full of crazy adventures and some real challenges.
The death of friends and loved one has been the most intense for me.
Maybe it my current age?, but I have a deep sense of urgency to live for the moment, be on the present, to be happy and healthy.

 Most of all I want to have the best life possible.
And my family and I have that.
We live it really well.
Sure we get caught in the day to day stuff like everyone elsa but I make it a priority to live life to the fullest.

Because we can and do life like this, I feel I have one the lottery.

Christmas Has Finally Found Us

With our house back in relative order, this was the first weekend in who knows how long that we actually had family time. 

We made it into Christmas time.

 Here is the worlds best, most real, the magical and the perfect Santa.

 Even K who said she didn't want to sit on a strange mans knee (know that she knows about the secret of Christmas) was mesmerized by him and stayed to chat for about 5 minutes.

 She even had him  in stitches.

 Woodland Gardens is my favourite festive place to be.

Then we headed to Doveside Tree Farm and searched for our tree.
This is the first in 5 years that we have a real tree.
 K found this one and we knew it was perfect.

 Dad cut it down in seconds flat, and I couldn't help but feel bad for t he poor little thing, so young and we just cut it down.
I kinda like my second hand tree for that reason.

 The farm has carolling tractor rides.

 We grabbed some hot chocolate on off we went singing around the farm.

 Then tonight we invited the family over for a tree trimming party.
Music, food and family.
Perfect start to our holiday season.

Christmas Quilts

I finished 2 quilts a couple of weeks back and sent them off as christmas gifts for my niece and nephew.

I cant wait to hear what they think of them.

 My little nephew man is almost a year and since I never had a boy myself, I was so excited to be able to make this space quilt that I have been wrestling with in my head for years.
                                               Absolutely lovely to see it come to fruition.
              The applique robots, planets and spaceship took the most time but well worth it.
         I actually had them done about a year ago, that show long it took me to get to this project.
                                          May it keep him cozy till I get to finally meet him.

My niece is 2 and I hope she'll love the fairies in this small blanket, I know I fell in love with them.

May it keep her warm until I can snuggle her one day soon.