My kids have been reminding me that it’s “Christmas Adam” all day today! They are so excited we are down to the final two days before Christmas! Yippee!
I’ve actually really enjoyed the Holiday season this year. There are some years when we’re going a million miles an hour, the never ending to-do list never gets shorter and I feel stressed to the maxed….those years I don’t love Christmas as much AND it makes me sad. I truly love Christmas and every single thing about it! I’m always frustrated when the hustle and bustle and craziness of the season kills the Christmas spirit for me.
However, for some reason this year hasn’t seemed as hectic and I’ve really enjoyed it. I LOVE Christmas lights, carols, treats, stories, programs and just everything about it! It really is magical and there’s almost a tangible feeling in the air of excitement, giving, love, service and unity.
It’s also so much fun to have kids at Christmastime! I love seeing the excitement and innocence in my children’s eyes and I LOVE creating Christmas memories with them. It makes me feel just like a kid again and all of those same feelings from my own childhood come right back. LOVE IT!
I thought I’d share with you guys some of my favorite Christmas things that are around our house right now.
First and Foremost….
Oh how I love Christmas trees! I love the calming glow of the lights and all the ornaments and decorations. Kev loves real Christmas trees and for YEARS we got a real Christmas tree. I finally talked him into a fake pre-lit tree a few years ago and I LOVE it. Yes, I miss the smell of the real tree (that smell is the epitome of Christmas and childhood, IMO), but you can’t beat the simplicity and ease of a fake tree. I also love that I don’t have to worry about my dead tree being a fire hazard, lol.
We also have a cute small tree that I love…
It’s a little haggard and probably needs to be replaced with something a little bigger, BUT I love to hang all of the kid’s homemade ornaments on it. Each year, my heart bursts as I see all of their old pictures and creations. I LOVE THEM.
I also love my Willow Tree Nativity set that Kev bought me many years ago.
I love the simplicity and beauty of it. I look forward to setting it up each year.
For some reason I also love that little Christmas tree you see in the right side of that picture. It was given to us as part of a wedding gift. It is extremely simple…it’s just a small tree with the trunk wrapped in burlap and a string of red wooden beads wrapped around it, BUT I love it.
I also love the lights and garlands we have wrapped around our railing and above our kitchen cabinets.
The subtle glow of the lights at nighttime always brings the Christmas spirit into our home. Oh, and BTW this year we finally got a clue and purchased a remote control plug thing from Amazon so I can turn the lights off and on with just the click of a button. Yay! I’m so glad I don’t have to climb up on that counter to turn the lights on and off anymore!
I also love all of the cute Christmas art projects the kids bring home from school each year.
My darling kindergartner made these…
Too cute. My daughter made this beautiful snowflake a couple years ago and I love it!
Isn’t that cool? I want to figure out how to make one!
I also love the stockings that are hung by the chimney with care…
This is the first house we’ve lived in that’s had a fireplace. I’ve loved having a fireplace AND a mantel, especially at Christmastime.
I also must say that I made the mistake of making those fancy (i.e. time consuming) stockings way back when. I love them and I’m glad I made them, but there is a reason why only THREE of my kids have legit stockings!!! I’m almost done with my #4 child’s stocking and I’ll see if I can get ‘er done before Christmas!
I also must mention that the Santa on the mantel was one of the few things we owned when we first got married. Someone had given it to Kevin and he contributed it to our marriage! Ha. I actually thought it was pretty cool that we had a “real” Christmas decoration though. He’s a really cute Santa.
I guess I also need to find a longer word for our stocking holders, huh? Dang.
I also love, love, love, love, love receiving Christmas cards from our friends and family each year!
I hang them on the door of my pantry each year and love that it makes me think of all the people I love and am grateful for in my life. Sadly, our family Christmas card is sitting at Costco right now waiting for me to pick it up!!!
Each year, I say “I’m going to get the cards out early this year!” and each year I get them out on Christmas Eve. Super lame. All of you out there who get your Christmas cards out early are heroes in my book. Take a sec and pat yourselves on the back. Seriously, seriously. Huge props.
I also LOVE our Christmas book tradition!
I’m a sucker for Christmas books, so several years ago I decided I wanted to get a new Christmas book every year! We made the tradition even better by putting our Christmas card in the front of each book and having all the kids sign it. I reveal the new book each year on Christmas Eve and we read it as a family.
Each year, the kids love pulling out all the books, reading them and seeing how our family has changed over the years! It’s really starting to freak me out how quickly time is flyin’.
Well that sums up most of the Christmas stuff we have ’round here. I also thought I’d mention some of my favorite healthy-ish stuff I’ve been enjoying lately too!
First and Foremost….
I’ve told you guys many times before that I love to drink warm lemon water in the mornings. However, I discovered a new version that I’m loving even more! I’ve been mixing 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda into the mix too! I feel like I’m doing a science experiment every morning because the lemon and baking soda react and create lots of bubbles. It’s pretty cool.
I actually learned about the lemon/baking soda mix by accident. Several months ago I was researching the benefits and correlation of grapefruit and weight loss. I’m sure you guys have all heard about how having 1/2 of a grapefruit each day can help you lose weight!
Well, I’m not particularly a fan of grapefruit. 🙁 I like it okay, but it’s kind of a pain to eat and I just don’t love it. Soooo, in my research about grapefruit, I found that warm water mixed with lemon juice and baking soda can be substituted for grapefruit and have the same affect. Weird? I also learned that there are a lot of health benefits from this mixture….even cancer fighting ones?!??! I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds cool nonetheless.
Just Google Lemon Juice and Baking Soda and you’ll see a plethora of information about the health benefits! FYI, I just fill a glass with water, heat it in the microwave for one minute and then add the juice from 1/4 to 1/2 of a lemon and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.
I’m actually out of lemons right now. 🙁 I need to go to the store!
I’ve also been loving THIS lately…
Oh my word folks! This stuff is gooooooood! I actually love Jif Whips way more than regular peanut butter. It’s much lighter and airy-er. It also only has 140 calories per 2 tablespoons as opposed to the typical 200ish calories in regular peanut butter.
It’s not quite as “clean” as all-natural peanut butter, which just contains peanuts and salt. It contains FULLY hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is better than partially hydrogenated oils and doesn’t contain trans fats, but it’s still not good for you. Here are the ingredients in the Salty Caramel flavor;
PEANUT BUTTER (MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS [RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN], MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SALT), SUGAR, NATURAL FLAVOR.
Ya, it’s kinda “Meh,” but it is so darn tasty! I love to put a small dab on my oatmeal, top a rice cake with it (and cottage cheese!) or put it on top of my protein pudding. Yum. Oh, and they also have several other flavors. There’s a chocolaty one that I just have to try!
I’ve also been really enjoying this protein powder lately…
It’s made by Orgain and the ingredients and nutritional facts are stellar.
Love it! I usually only use one scoop at a time, so it’s only 75 calories. One scoop still has over 10 grams of protein, which is just fine by me!
This protein also tastes really good! I always mix my protein powder with other things, so I’m not sure how this would taste just mixed in water though. Personally, I think drinking protein powder just mixed in water is sick. Blah. There are so many other things you can mix with protein powder to make it soooo yummy!
First of all, protein pancakes and protein pudding…..yum, yum, yum.
I also like to mix a few extra things into my protein shakes to make them much more tasty. My fav protein shake is very simple. I just mix in unsweetened almond milk (or coconut milk), water, a scoop of chocolate protein, a big spoonful of cocoa, a pinch of all natural stevia, a drop or two of peppermint or almond extract, a bunch of spinach and/or other leafy greens and ice!
That’s it. I love that it’s full of so much goodness, but doesn’t include excess calories. It is so good! I’ve been especially enjoying the peppermint extract in there lately because it makes me feel so festive.
Orgain also makes a vanilla version of this protein powder, which I intend to order. I bought this chocolate kind at Costco for a steal. It was on a coupon and I was stoked. I don’t remember how much I paid for it though. 🙁
I mentioned that I use all natural stevia in my shake. Well, I’ve been using this Nature’s Candy brand for a while now and I love it! So much!
It’s just stevia and that is it. I only use a pinch in my protein shakes, protein pudding and oatmeal. I buy it on Amazon. I first bought a 10 gram bag for around $10. I loved it so much that I bought this 125 gram bag for ~$25. It will last me forever!
I’ve also been loving these lately…
I love avocados and guacamole so much, but too often I buy a bag of avocados and they go bad before I can eat them all! These GoodFoods single servings of guacamole are awesome. I usually only use 1/2 of one at at time. I love to add some to my tacos, taco salad, chicken, eggs and any other thing I think it would taste good on. The ingredients are so great too. It’s just like homemade….
Yay! I love companies and products that make healthy eating easier! Oh, I buy these guacamole singles at Costco too.
Well, I have a million other things I love that I could share, but I’ll end it here. I need to go get a few last minute Christmas presents. Oh, and pick up my cards from Costco! I hope you all enjoy and live up every second of the last two days of Christmas!
I love you all! xoxo
Your house looks so festive and I’m glad you’re enjoying the season. I have to try that baking soda trick with my lemon water. I’m going to share some of your smoothie ideas with my mom. She’s had no appetite of late so a power-packed protein smoothie should help.
Love your son’s crafts. Too cute!
Your poor mom. I hope she can enjoy some smoothies. 🙁 I love that you can mix so many good things in there! I hope your Christmas was wonderful Char!
I love the idea of the christmas card inside of a book! You are one step ahead of me, we spent way too much money on professional family pictures earlier this month and the CD is sitting on my desk. I didn’t do cards, never printed any of the pictures or anything.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!
Christmas cards are a lot of work! I’m hoping to get them out earlier next year so they don’t stress me out all month long! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Jen!
I finally FINALLY watched It’s A Wonderful Life last night – ha! Cross that off my bucket list. 😉
I’ve still never seen that movie all the way through! I need to do that next year!!!
I’ve been on a protein powder kick lately, I don’t know why. HA. Perhaps because I mix them with things that are hearty and give a sweetness without all the sugar so it satisfies any sugar beast I may have. I really enjoyed the days leading up to Christmas this year too. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
I seem to get on Protein Powder kicks too. I’ll have it every day and then I’ll go a while without it. I do love the sweetness and that I can mix so many good things in there too! I hope you have a wonderful 2016 Brittany!
Love your trees! Merry Christmas.
Thanks so much Beth! 🙂
Merry Christmas! We have a fake tree because I’m allergic to evergreens, but I do love the look of a real tree. Hope you all had a lovely holiday.
I do miss the look and smell of a real tree, but I don’t miss the clean up! We cleaned up Christmas yesterday and I was grateful to not have pine needles all over the house, lol. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I hope your New Year is great!
I LOVE your Christmas book tradition, and I love it even more that you put your family Christmas photo inside each one!
This year I made my two teenagers get their picture made with me… and Santa! It inspired me to bring out all the old Santa photos when my kids were little, and I made a “Santa photo” table. I’m sad and disappointed that I didn’t keep making them take a Christmas photo every year once they got too big to visit Santa, but I’m excited to start a new tradition of Christmas pics from now on with my “grown” kids.
Merry Christmas, Melanie, and Happy New Year!
Thanks so much Deborah! I love that you and your teenagers had your pictures taken with Santa. That is so sweet! I also love your new tradition!!! I hope you have a fabulous 2016!!
Beautiful post!