This weekend was filled with fun, festivities, family, friends, and sports (of course!) Here’s the Top 5 from our weekend.
Friday, after school, the kids and I volunteered to ring the Salvation Army bell at Kroger for our church. We had a good time and witnessed, first hand, the generosity of our community. (Then, when our shift was over, we went into the store for a few things…where they spent two minutes arguing about wavy or original Lays chips. Rock, paper, scissors decides all…Hadley “won” and got the original Lays. #givingandfighting #balance haha)
Friday night, Hadley went to a sleepover and the rest of us went to Trav’s work Christmas party. Great food, great company, and a bonus visit with Ho Ho. (And, on our way out, we bumped into some friends we haven’t seen a while which was such a pleasant surprise!)
Hadley needs a social secretary to keep up with her calendar. In the meantime, Hayden got one on one time with Santa
Basketball season has started! Win or lose, these two are so excited to each be on the same team as their besties this year. So fun to watch them all play.
We are so blessed to have awesome neighbors who we also call great friends. Krista outdid herself hosting. The place settings were gorgeous and she served beef bourguignon while the rest of us brought sides, salad, and dessert. The adults and kids had a wonderful time.
My dream job would be to decorate cookies and be as talented as Maddie (of Maddie’s Cookie Co) is with her creativity and decorating skills. The closest I can get to that dream is by occasionally taking her cookie decorating classes. I’ve gone to a couple of the classes with friends and this is the third time I’ve taken Hadley to one of her classes. On Sunday, Hadley and I went to her Christmas cookie Mom and Me class, and our friends joined us as well.
Hadley and her sweet friendThe event space is always so pretty. Maddie always provides a cheat sheet of the final product and a practice sheet as well as snacks and water.Hadley with her finished products!House, gum drop, gingerbread boy and girl, Christmas tree, and peppermint We did all of this in the one and half hour class!Maddie’s example cookies. Exquisite!
Hadley has really gotten the hang of both outlining and flooding, so I don’t do much but help when she asks me to. The cookies are so pretty …almost too pretty to eat!! BUT…they are delicious and too hard to resist.
Two more weeks of school before break…I think I can. I think I can. I think I can!
I hope you had a great weekend, and, as always, thank you for reading!
Happy Friday! We are in full on Christmas mode around here. We’ve seen Santa, the tree is up, we’ve bought our Angel Tree gifts, the kids have been working on their 25 days of kindness, and the house is decorated. (Also, #realtalk some evenings we’ve been tired with a side of grumpy…but we are working on it!)
I thought for this Friday Favorites I’d focus on some of my favorite holiday decorations around the house.
Let the record show (Travis, are you reading this?)…I did not buy a single new Christmas decoration this year. #itsaChristmasmiracle
Decorating takes a bit of time, but I love the extra cozy feeling that holiday decorations bring in combination with the subtle sparkle of the lights on the tree.
Here’s a peek into our home and some of our Christmas spirit.
After decorating for fall, I basically just swapped out where I had fall decorations on and in the buffet for Christmas ones. Tree plates, ornaments in the clear glass server, a Nutcracker, and some trees!
We bought the Nutcracker a couple of years ago at Home Goods. The kids saw it and said, “Let’s get a Nutcracker like Gma has!” Gma, my grandma, has tons of Nutcrackers, so this guy is a fun nod to her.
I love the flocked tree and tall Santa from TJ Maxx.
I’ve had this chest, a family heirloom, for many years, but this is the first year it’s been in our living room. The Merry Christmas sign was bought from a local store here in Lexington, Two Chicks and Co., a few years ago, and I’ve had the light up gift with bow from Kirklands for years. A tealight in a lantern that used to sit on our porch helps this corner of the living room glow.
I’m pretty traditional with red and green decorations, including stockings. The tray of trees is out in our sunroom. I don’t decorate that room much, but I accessorize the tray that always sits there. Fun Fact: the green felt tree is already in pieces in my backyard. It’s been #Homered. I’ve had little greenery and pine cone chair decorations for three years, and I hope they don’t get #Homered as well!
The fireplace and mantle in our kitchen is one of my favorite spots. We even bought a stocking for Homer this year…right now he’s on Santa Paws’s naughty list.
I’ve always loved snow globes, but I only have one…and this year I put it out on our built in with one of my fave Santa pics with the kids. Every year, when I pull out the pic of the kids under the tree for their first Christmas (they were one month old!), I can’t believe how quickly time is flying.
Our entryway hallway has a few decorations. I’ve had the light up tree for awhile as well as the little snowman. I always love seeing everyone’s holiday cards, and the little bucket is a good spot for them after we check the mail. Lastly, the Merry and Bright plate is one of my faves and made by a small local Lexington business.
I swapped out my pumpkin pillows for the Merry and Peace ones as well as a soft red blanket.
One of my friends made the Joy, Love, Peace, Believe, Christmas sign , and I display it in my kitchen.
Here’s the tree all lit up—but, we quickly realized that having Homer is like having ten toddlers, so all the ornaments are now up high on the tree! haha. Last year, I took some Amazon boxes and wrapped them in my favorite wrapping paper. While I’m pretty good about purchasing most gifts in early December, I’m a last minute wrapper. So, these stay under the tree to make it look less empty until I get the real ones out. Again, with Homer, who knows if I should even put real gifts under the tree at this point?!
He looks so innocent, right?
I don’t decorate much outside mostly due to lack of time but also because I tend to like cute decorations, and I never know how they will hold up in the elements!
I bought this door hanger from a local Lexingtonian a few years ago and have a few other door hangers from her! I love this one….especially because I love polka dots.
Some years we put lights around the porch…and other years we don’t, but I always stick my pre-lit trees in my year round planter boxes (and add on the bows!), change my garden flag, swap my pumpkin pillows for reindeer ones, and put lanterns and poinsettias on the steps. Every year, I say I want to get wreaths for the windows, and always forget…and tend to be too busy after Christmas to get the great deals on them. Maybe one year I will make that a priority.
I hope you enjoyed this little home tour. While I love the decorations for fall and the holidays, I’m usually ready to get everything back to normal inside the house in January. For now, the decorations help us get in the holiday spirit. Tis the Season!
What are some of your favorite holiday decorations at your house?
The transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas happened quickly on Sunday. Actually, before we left for KC, I put up my Christmas decorations, so all that was really left was to get a tree.
On my “to do” list for Sunday was to get the tree and have the kids see Santa. We crossed both of these items off my list within an hour!
In Lexington, there’s the cutest shop that carries pumpkins and mums in the fall, Christmas trees, wreaths, garland in December, and then flowers in the spring and summer. The Santa they have is simply the best, so if we have the time to go to Hillenmeyer’s Christmas Shop, we do! The Santa wait time varies year to year…a few years ago, before he was soooo popular, we walked right in to see Santa. A couple of years ago, we stood in line for an hour and a half, and this year we were near the front of the line with very little wait time.
The shop has a fire place to roast marshmallows as well as hot apple cider and a few animals to look at, so the kids are entertained even if we do have to wait.
This is our fourth year getting a real tree, and I do like that it’s now a tradition.
The inside of the shop is magical with hanging wreaths and even a chandelier or two!
This Santa is always so patient and has the best facial expressions. The kids were able to talk to him for a couple of minutes and get in all of their requests!
This year on Hadley’s list is a Tyler Herro Miami Heat t-shirt and a bike. Hayden would like more video games for his Xbox and a PJ Washington Hornets t-shirt.
Santa with his signature wave!
Such a cozy atmosphere ❤️
We got the tree home, unwrapped and put the lights on…but ornaments had to wait until Monday evening. I joked that I hope the tree doesn’t get “Homered.” He’s good at destroying things, and the last thing I need to see is my tree knocked over!
5 seconds later he yanked an ornament off the tree.
It’s truly a magical time of the year. I’m not sure how many more Santa visits we have left, but I love seeing the innocence that Santa brings out in everyone….and I will always love the twinkle of the lights on a Christmas tree.
Well, the five day break certainly flew by…& now just three weeks of school until winter break!
We traveled to Kansas City to see my family for Thanksgiving.
We headed out after school on Tuesday, made a pit stop in St. Louis and finished the drive on Wednesday morning.
We decided to bring Homer with us. He was awesome in the car and in the hotel overnight. (I joked with the kids that Homer won “best behaved” between the three of them 😂)
The rest of the fam went to eat breakfast at the hotel. I turned my back for a minute and found Homer living his best life on the hotel bed #baddog
Wednesday, we just hung out with family and had pizza for dinner…followed by early bedtimes for all.
Thanksgiving morning, we slept in and lounged around until Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin’s house.
Snuggles with my mom’s dog, Gus.
I’ve always loved watching the parade on Thanksgiving morning & now my kids do too.
Ready to go — & of course, thankful for these two…
Thanksgiving on my dad’s side of the family is always fun. My cousin’s house is so pretty and the tablescape was beautiful. I loved the chocolate turkeys with our names on them for place settings.
After dinner, we always watch the Plaza Lighting ceremony on tv (& then we recreated it as we flipped my cousin’s outside lights on 😂)…Then, we usually play a game…This year, we played Empire, and had a great time.
Friday consisted of some online shopping , card playing, a nap…or two and turkey soup for dinner. My mom’s been making the turkey soup for years on the Friday after Thanksgiving. My grandma came over to have dinner with us.
I do not Black Friday shop…at ALL. I’m more of a Cyber Monday girl. Fighting the masses for things I can buy online has always sounded like 0 fun. I saw this on Instagram, & my 5w6 ring true!
Uno and coffee. Low key Friday Hadley and Gma worked on their selfie game! Both are so cute, right? 🙂
Saturday morning, we packed up, had breakfast at a local place, picked up Homer at my dad’s house and headed home.
Homer was our backseat driver!
I’m always sad to leave after a good visit, but it’s also always good to get home, get situated and ready for the week ahead…plus, we had a Christmas tree to buy and a Santa to see!
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I hope you have a great week.
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