Adding cheer around the house.

      So as you can tell from the blog I LOVE Christmas. But the main reason I decided to do the 25 days of Christmas was to try and establish some fun Christmas Traditions for our little family. My hubby is not a huge fan of Christmas it's just another holiday to him. So I am hoping that shoving tons of Christmas down his throat will make him start to enjoy it. And I couldn't think of any better way than to by the end of the 25 days have SO much Christmas stuff around the house he can't think of anything else.

     Today's blog isn't really anything that fun, but showing some fun ways to use extra ornaments to add the cheer in different places around the house.

Paper chains always look nice!!

I have our pretty little Nativity  scene and candy canes and ornaments here :)

Ornaments by the front door!

     If you love you some Christmas stayed tuned, cuz tomorrow is going to be another give away day!!! I will leave it up for anyone to use from 12am-12am MST. So see you all tomorrow!

What do you do to get in the Christmas spirit?

St Nicholas Day

  


        Living overseas has its ups and downs but if there is one thing I really love, its being surrounded by the customs and traditions of an entirely different country. Although many traditions have made their way over to the states with the descendants of this land some have stayed here and I love them.

       This being one of those said traditions. St Nickolas day. On the evening before St. Nicholas Day, children put letters to the good saint, these are left outside, under the bed, beside a radiator, or on a windowsill in hopes of finding goodies from St. Nicholas the next morning. During the night Sankt Nikolaus goes from house to house carrying a book in which all the children's deeds are written. If they have been good, he fills their plate, shoe or boot with delicious fruits, nuts and candies. If not, they may find potatoes, coal, or twigs.

          So since we live here I found it only fitting that we too should put out our boots to find out if we have been good this year?

Well I think we have been pretty good this year specially Kyra the girl can do no wrong!!!

 

Well since tomorrow is St Nickolas day we are hoping that we will find him downtown at the market so we can finally get a picture of Kyra with him when dad is with us. If not looks like we will be going to one of the ones on week days on post just Kyra and I. Wish us luck.

So since this post was all about old traditional Christmas customs, I would LOVE to hear what little traditions your family still does that you couldn't do with out!!

Bringing winter inside

    
   Well first off I am sorry that I didn't leave up the contest long enough stateside for people to have a chance to get home and read the blog yesterday, Next contest I will leave up for grabs from midnight to midnight MST. On that note there was one person who read and entered the contest yesterday. The Winner was Beth Winter. She has confirmed with me already and I am excited to start working on her Christmas Card holder.

      Today's craft should get those of you in warmer areas excited. If your not getting snow outside you can always bring the winter inside :) This is the one craft that truly has thousands of different ways to do it. You can make tons and never have one that looks exactly the same. Just like the real thing.

    That's right we're talking about SNOWFLAKES. We have all been making these paper snowflakes since we were young, but boy are there some really cool ones out there to try and make. Here is one that would be really fun to try and make but I didn't do myself because it didn't seem Christmas/winter enough for me. http://goodideasforyou.com/mix-a-match/2153-diy-snowflake-ballerinas.html

      The one that I found on my friends Facebook wall that caught my attention was Star Wars snowflakes. Because in our house we are major Star Wars Fans!!! Here is the link that has all the designs you can imagine for the Star Wars Characters: http://anthonyherreradesigns.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=60:star-wars-snowflakes-2012&catid=34

Yoda, I couldn't cut out his eyes they were too small

C3PO I think i folded him wrong lol the one head is all skinny and has 1 eye lol

What are the coolest snow flakes you have made? 

Baby snowflakes I made last year!

Christmas card holder

        This is gonna be just a quick blog about the awesome craft that I did for you all today!! With my fridge currently playing frosty, I was at a loss for what I was gonna do with all the super cute Christmas cards we receive every year from friends and family around the world. I wanted to have somewhere to put them, that they would still get the attention they deserve. So I started searching for a cute way to display them. And I came across many ideas but this was the one that caught my attention as it will be the most likely to be used. This being said it can also be personalized for anyone that wants one.... So you have finally made it to my FIRST 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS GIVE AWAY!!! One lucky blog reader will receive a homemade card holder free of charge from me!! And you will be able to pick what you want it to say, and look like.

I made ours say Merry Christmas in Hawaiian!!

You can use clothes pins, or paper clips to hang your pictures to the ribbon

 In order to win you must comment on either this blog, or if you are unable to do that you must comment on the link that I posted on Facebook that led you here with your answer to my question below. Than at 8pm my time I will write stop on both comment sections so you know if you have missed the cut off. And from the people who have commented I will put your names in alphabetical order by first name. Than go on Random.com and put in the amount of people and allow it to randomly pick the winner. I will take pictures of each step to prove that it was done fair also. And will announce the winner on the next blog!!!

If you are not the winner I will also be making these to sale for 5 dollars each with 3 dollars for shipping. Unless your local than that fee will be waived. But I will need to know about these orders by the 10th in order to have them done quickly and out to be used. Sooner the better!!

I am so excited about Christmas and can't wait for it to finally get here, but the countdown and all the snow sure make the season that much more fun!!!

What is your favorite Christmas Tradition?

Snow all around

   



        This couldn't have worked out any better. I made the list of what I was doing each day over a week ago. And the timing of our first snow storm came the day before my blog about our top 5 things to do in the snow!!! It got me even more inspired!! Plus this was Dustin and I's first snow in over 3 years since we lived in Hawaii. I think he saw some snow in Iraq but nothing too much to account for. And this was Kyra's first ever snow...So of course I woke him up early when it was still coming down and drug him out into it with her and I :)

       So as I stated above I am gonna talk about our 5 favorite things to do in the snow!!!!!

1. Snow angels.

My roommate and I woke up middle of the night first snow in college and did snow angels!!!

        Who doesn't just get the sudden urge to roll around in the fluffy white stuff? It just looks like a big comfy bed. And of course this may only last a few mins as we find out it wasn't a great idea now that our cheeks are frozen solid.


2. Snowmen

Kyra seemed confused by this large white thing beside her!! They kinda match tho!

My snowman obsession continues to shine through!!! This is always so much fun to do, there were kids all around our neighborhood up early this morning making these great sculptures in front of their homes!!! Hey it makes the snow last longer too, Try to melt that silly high 30's weather gonna take you a while!!!

3. Snowball Fights

This is always fun and brings out the kid in even the oldest people...It is like the ultimate game of dodge ball, and no one ever feels guilty about hitting someone else with a snow ball. It is genuinely the most violent game you can get away with smashing something in someones face and laughing. And no one gets offended...It's just snow!!

4. Sledding

My mom pulling my nephew in Colorado!!

I can't wait til we find a sled and are able to take Kyra sledding even if it is on flat surface and we are just pulling her she will be super excited I am sure!! But I love the kind where you are flying down a hill hoping you aren't about to hit a tree kind of sledding lol. Its like a winter roller coaster ride!!

and finally 5. Snowboarding/skiing

I have no picture for this because the last time I was on ski's I was probably like 14 and I loved it but never have anyone to go with everyone else snowboards. So Dustin is going to teach me to snowboard sometime while we live here in Germany should be a very interesting experience!!!

Well that is my top 5 glad you are all sticking with me for my 25 days of Christmas fun stayed tuned for tomorrows blog about Christmas Cards it's gonna be worth it. There will be a give away included.

So what are your favorite things to do in the snow?

Advent Calender with a twist

       

        As is tradition specifically here in Germany I love to have advent calenders to count down the days til Christ was born. Or well at least until the day we celebrate his birth as I have been informed he was actually born in the summer or something who really knows...

       But at least this year as Kyra is really to young to understand counting down (she is still frankly a bit confused as to why there is a tree in her living room) I love the 25 days of Random acts of kindness advents also but think I will wait til she is about 4-5 to do that as she will find it more rewarding when she truly understands what it means to give. So I thought I would make the advent something special for my husband and a little bit for me :P

       This too was another Pinterest inspired craft as you will find a lot of the crafts I do on here are. And I am gonna just go ahead and site the source because frankly she put a lot more effort into hers than I did and it looks much prettier. http://www.thedatingdivas.com/tara/the-spouse-christmas-countdown/

      But mine really only needed to be a simple thing because to me it was the words written that mattered in the long run and this way he can simply tear out a page each day to expose the next days blessing.

      I simply started by folding 6 pieces of paper in half hamburger style lol. Than cut them. Than folded those in half also and cut there to make little squares of paper to make a little book out of. I than picked a Christmas Card to use as the cover of this little book :) I love snowmans as you will come to notice so He got a snowman card!!!!

  
         Now you simply punch a couple holes into the card and through all 25 pieces of paper!!  And use ribbon to hold them all together!! I trimmed the paper to better fit within the card so it looked more put together!

Little sloppy don't mind this I ended up going in and trimming the edges to look less rough.

    
        After the book is all together I started on the cover page by writing a simple little instructions of how to use the book. Even though its pretty self explanatory!

 

       On the pages I put 3 different types of things first was just little complements and sayings about either Christmas or about him :)

       The next type of page was a coupon page which is things he can keep and use when he would like to, of things that I know he likes to do and I will do with him or let him do with out any arguement.

       And the final types that I did were fun winter activities to do together or as a family at some point during the day!! 

This is bound to be a very rewarding way to celebrate the Christmas season and hopefully be a fun way to make new memories together!! How does your family count down the days to Christmas? Would love to hear your feedback in the comments below!!!

My Freezer is extra Icey!

          Welcome to the beginning of 25 days of Christmas. December is just an awesome month over all. Everyone is in a better mood, there is caring and giving and loving in the air. But now it will be even better as we spend 25 days of crafting and baking together and really ramp up the spirit at least in my house and on your computer!!!

           I decided to start with something that is really simple and really fun. This craft can be done to the very basic as I did, with simple construction paper, or could be done with a lot of detail also. As it's frozen counter part has been proven you can go just about in any direction with how you add your personality to yours.

          I have seen it done many times and well basically I have a hard time doing it before because if you have ever been in my house you would see that my fridge is normally COVERED in pictures and cards from my family I love to see them every time I go into the kitchen. So making the commitment to take them all down for the month was hard but, after I took them down and did this it was TOTALLY worth it because it makes me just as happy.

My Fridge Before.

             Not only did I have to take down all my pictures but having a clear fridge was a perfect opportunity to clean it, I didn't realize how dirty a fridge gets, But after a good scrub down we had a shiny white fridge ready to be turned into any thing my imagination could make!!!

Look at that Puppy shine

          For you fellow Pinterest fanatics, by just seeing this going as it is, you probably know where we are going as far as Christmas crafts. But we turned our fridge in to Frosty. As I said before I chose to stick with a basic coal eyes and buttons look. But I have seen a girl snowman, or ones making funny faces, or really anything you can imagine!! But here is our results:

Happy lil guy

        If you have the time to cut out basic shapes you should certainly try to do this some year as it really does make your whole kitchen feel more in the Christmas spirit. It is normally a part of the house that is left out in the decorating spirit aside from a few tossed in towels here and there.

          Would love to see your frosty's so if you have ever done this before or plan on doing it, post the results in the comments or email them to me as I would love to show them off on the blog sometime this month to share the spirit together.

        Stayed tuned for day two which is gonna be about a special gift of advent.