After a wonderful extended stay with our families for the holidays, we are BACK!  Good to go, but nice to be home too.  As I tell the boys when we pull into the driveway, “Home again, home again, Jiggity Jig!”  Here are some snapshots of our Christmas.  (I pulled pictures from cameras, Facebook, Instagram, iPhones…aka…sorry about the lack of formatting!)

 

Espen says “cheese” during our little family celebration.

 

 

We did a lot of this!

 

It was so worth it though to see this.

 

And to eat this.  Elias says “COOOOOKIE!!” and then devours it like Cookie Monster.  Thanks Sesame Street.

 

 

Elias also loved cranking the radio and giving the girls a ride.  Oh boy.  I hope this is not a sign of my future!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did a little of this.  It was wonderful!  Something I’d like to do more of.

 

An eager learner and a proud papa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s to the new year!   I’ll show you some of my handmade Christmas tomorrow.

Trying to get it all done!!! Merry Christmas!

Going to a family Christmas party!  That means I have to finish up the gift I am bringing.  (Because I am required to finish gifts just hours before they need to be ready…I must like the rush…no I don’t.)

Here our some of the “World’s Best Potholder.”  Really they are.  I tried to think up some original motifs–other than the flower the pattern shows–and came up with a coffee cup/steam, and a pot/steam.  Tell me you can make out what they are!  :)

 

 

I also made another darling clutch.  I think I would keep this one if I could!  It is darling!!  Gray/bikes/smidge of pink.  yeah, I like it.

 

So here’s mystery gift #1 that we have to bring for the exchange.  Tony is in charge of mystery gift #2.  It’s good.  Just not as good.  :)

When I grew up, the annual cutting of the Christmas tree usually happened the first weekend after Thanksgiving.  Always a real tree even though my brother had allergy issues.  (Toughen up boy!  It’s Christmas!)    We are a couple weekends late, but we managed to finally get ours cut.  It was a wonderful excuse to try and find another “diamond in the rough” kind of tree farm.  That place was Riverview Christmas Tree Farm in Canton SD.  It was fabulous!  It was tucked on the edge of a riverbed, so there was some beautiful wooded land and a little bit of snow.  The owners were so sweet and helpful!   Here’s a quick little video.

Elias had a great time.  He kept tripping over tree stumps and saying “uh-oh.”  He also loved the snow!  (I can’t wait for a big snowstorm, so he can really see what snow is like.)

Elias is in the total mimic stage, so he had to crouch just like me and lay on the ground like dad to cut it.

So helpful!  (By the way, we have the greatest skill of being able to find bargain Christmas trees!  This one was like $20 cheaper than anything else we saw…and we didn’t even think it looked different from the rest!)

 

One of my favorite things to do each year–A wonderful family Christmas outing!

Did you figure out what my previous post was??  I realized that after I posted it that I really never said what it was.  Ha!  I made button magnets!  I think this is such a cute idea and it is sooooo easy!  Here’s a little tutorial so you can make your own.

Supplies:  fabric scraps, button making kit, magnets, wire cutter, glue gun (you don’t need the actual button maker kit–just the refill buttons.)

 

Cut a circle from your fabric scraps bigger than your button cover.  (the back of the package of buttons has a template that you can use or you can just eye-ball it.)

 

Remove the wire loop on the back of the button with your wire cutters.

 

Fold the edges of the fabric over the back of the button and press the button back into it.

 

Repeat these steps for all the buttons you want to make.

 

Grab your magnets and get your glue gun hot.

 

Put some glue on the back of the button and press your magnet into it.

 

That’s it!!  So easy, right!  Totally cute on the fridge.

Like I said before, I think a little bag of these would make a darling Christmas gift.   Stocking stuffer or some added fun on top of a present.  How about doing someone’s initial?  ohhhh, that would be cute.

 

I also made a little bookmark.  Kept the wire loop on the button and glued it to a big paperclip.  Might be even cuter on  a giant paperclip…but that would mean I’d have to go buy one of those…and I’m too lazy at the moment.  :)