Neighbor Gifts and Homemade Bows

I am officially done with gifts … other than frosting my yummy chocolate cake for my family for Christmas day! But I wanted to share my neighbor gifts with you …

I saw this idea on Pinterest. I ♥ Pinterest! I knew I wanted to do this, so I found some HoHos and Ding Dongs and went to work. I made my own bows from magazine pages (again, I found the idea here on Pinterest … did I mention that I ♥ Pinterest??).

My homemade bows - aren't they great?

These make me smile … I love how they turned out :) … and the bows … well, I just ADORE them … I think there will be more of those to come!

HO HO HO from this Ding Dong!! I hope that your Christmas is filled with the JOY that only Jesus can bring!

merry chhristmas

from Lydia's vintage typewriter …

4 more days … 

mErrY CHrIsTMas

mErrY CHrIsTMas bunting complete:

♥

Okay … no

I think I was a little too ambitious about this Christmas season. Remember this advent calendar I made? Can I tell you that we have yet to do one thing in it? Well, we did one - we made paper snowflakes. But we were also supposed to decorate the house with them. They're still sitting on my shelves waiting ever-so-patiently to be displayed in all their handmade glory. I feel bad about it. But honestly there is just no way to do something like this every.single.day. We have too much going on between swimming and shopping and birthdays (we have several in December ♥ ) and traveling. So I'm taking it down.

Yep. Bye bye cute little handmade advent calendar. I had good intentions, but it just is too much. Maybe next year? Nah. I'm learning how to do less so that I can be more!

{Holly Jolly} Wreath

I'm not really a fan of candy canes. I don't particularly enjoy the peppermint flavor. Unless it's those yummy ones that melt in your mouth, then I could eat 70 of them! I do, however, like the looks of candy canes, the red contrasted against the white. So when I saw this, I thought I would copy it and make my own {Holly Jolly} wreath for Christmas:

I wanted something different, something whimsical, something fun. And something cheap. And this was all those things. Although making it was somewhat tedious, wrapping all that yarn over and over again. But I ♥ it :)

Here's what I used:

• a 17 ¾ inch wreath form (I wanted one of the smooth round foam kind, but they were no whereto be found and I wanted to make this yesterday)
• One skein each of red and white yarn
• Large red beads
• Green felt
• Light green embroidery floss
• Hot glue
• Green ribbon

I think you can figure out what I did, right?  I love the way it pops against my green door. More Christmas crafts coming from me to you ♥

Christmas Customs - Advent Calendar

Advent. I just like the word. Advent. It means important arrival and it's a time when I attempt to build eagerness and anticipation into my family for the coming of Christmas. Christmas. Christ's Mass.  Christ's celebration.

I read this quote yesterday:

The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.

~Samuel Johnson

This resonates with me. A day set aside. A time to focus our attention. May I never forget that Jesus, though in the very nature God, He did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross!

Why? For the joy set before Him to justify many, to bear our iniquities.

To kick off our advent we begin the 25 days of Christmas today. I have been working on an advent calendar and I finally completed late last night:

Each envelope is decorated with the lyrics to a Christmas song and a number.

It's quite long, as you can see. It would only fit on my {bare} bookshelves. I'm saving the mantles for other things, as well as the staircase, so I couldn't use those. It does, however, keep the calendar down at their level.

This one has one of Grace's favorite Christmas/Winter songs:

The day's envelope is filled with an activity. Some are simple (like draw & color a Christmas picture or dance & sing to Christmas music) and some are more involved (like make gingerbread house or go ride the Pink Pig). And still others are seriously about giving to others (like delivering gift to neighbors or buying gifts for villages from Samaritan's Purse).

Along with each activity are notes from Ann Voskamp's A Jesus Advent Celebration Devotional. They have the verses for the day, a prayer and something to think about related, called "Unwrapping More of His Love in the World."

I'm looking forward to looking forward with my family. Do you celebrate Advent? If so, how do you do it?