Kickin off the season

I finally got the house decorated for Christmas and the boxes put away.  It’s a nice feeling to have this done so we can enjoy holiday crafting, baking and activities. 

Lauren is SO excited this year and anxiously awaiting Santa Claus.  I decided to start the Elf on the Shelf tradition this year and here’s our elf, Jingle.  Lauren has been having a lot of fun already finding Jingle each morning.  So far, he’s just been hanging out around the Christmas tree, but I’m sure he’ll be making his way into other rooms in the house soon.  ;)

Last night a couple of friends and I made these countdown calendars with vinyl from Pick your Plum, which I’m totally addicted too.  If you like to craft, get on their daily email list!  We spray painted dollar store pizza pans, placed the vinyl on them and attached ribbon for hanging.  Oh, and we hot glued a magnet onto a little star ornament to count the days down.  Simple and cute.

 

Here’s our tree this year.  We left the skinny tree in the box and used our nice, fluffy tree.  Unfortunately, we had to do the lights ourselves on this one which is always a test in patience.  We all get spoiled with the pre-lit trees.  You can definitely tell that Lauren preferred to hang the ornaments along the bottom, as that area is well covered!

Our old front door wreath was a little tired looking, so I put this together for the front door.  Hobby Lobby had all their Christmas ribbon on sale for 50% off and I thought this pattern was bright and cheery. 

For my fellow Tarjay shoppers, check out the cute throw pillows they have on sale right now.  Two of these Santa pillows jumped into my cart yesterday.