Christmas Crafts

I decided to make my daughters teachers gift this year and the bus drivers too.

I bought this wooden tray at the thrift shop for $1 and I had my daughter paint it. I added the scrapbook paper to it. 

At first when I was trying to figure out how to do it I was going to add that red and white paper on the bottom with it but decided against it.

I had some lace I bought at a yard sale so I used it on the bottom. I love the picture of the angel child. 

She's so sweet.

Almost the finished product. I wound up switching around the pine cones so I could put the tea light there. I didn't glue it down because I wanted it to be easily replaced.  I also added the little silver balls but I think they would have been better off without them.

This picture is not to well of it but it showed it with the tea light. On the back we did a picture with Mary and Joseph and her riding on the donkey with the star in the sky. We used burlap, lace and buttons. It was simple but that was what it called for. I couldn't get a picture of that because the camera went dead of course. 

The candy cane one was made for the bus driver. Bought the wood piece at Michael's for $1. Jamie glued the red balls on the end. 

The teacher was very touched by what we made her. She said she got teary and it meant so much to her. I'm glad she liked it. I wound up staying up all night doing it. I can't believe how time flies when crafting. It took me long to do this, it was like doing 4 of them because each one was done on both sides. I have to start doing some things in advance. 

We had a wonderful time at my brother and sister in laws house yesterday for Christmas Eve. She hosts it every year and it's always a great time. Today we decided to stay home and relax. The kids have been busy with their things and hubby lit a fire and it's very cozy and relaxing. I haven't got out of my pajamas and I love it. 

The lasagna is upstairs cooling and we'll be eating dinner shortly. 

I'm so thankful to Jesus for everything He did for me, for all of us.

Happy Birthday Precious Jesus!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas holiday with your loved ones!

Goodnight friends!

It's been a while since I've blogged. There has been a lot that has gone on. We went through Superstorm Sandy and just day to day life. One day I'll talk more in depth about Sandy. I wasn't as much in the mood this year because even though Sandy is gone we are still left with what happened all around us. Praise God we did not have it so bad. We were without electric for almost 2 weeks because as soon as it came back on we got hit with a Noreaster and the electric went out again but honestly it was okay. We had one tree come down in the back but thank God it didn't cause a problem anywhere. I have been by the areas that have been severely affected and it's really eye opening. New Jersey has never been hit with a storm of this magnitude.  

The kids wanted to cut down the tree so we went to cut down our tree as we do each year. We went to a new place this year that we liked even better. I wanted to just do this tree which is upstairs and that was it but my daughter Maddie asked me if I'd do the rest of the house so I did. This is the kids tree. They decorate it. I had saw a pic on Pinterest of a tree that had the popcorn garland on it that I just love but I didn't want to spend the money on it and I'd have to order it through the mail because of course the year I want to buy it at Marshall's they no longer have it.  So I was in ACMoore and I saw these little glittered styrofoam balls and I gave the kids a project to string them together. We all actually like it. 

I love this figurine with John 3:16 on it. I leave it out all year, not just for Christmas.

Here is the garland the kids made. Easy and inexpensive. 

We decided to put on the big bulbed lights along with the smaller lights. Saw that on Pinterest too.

 My husband made this star for the churches live Nativity that they will be having soon. He put 1500 lights on it. He hung it outside out house after it was finished to see what it would look like. It's pretty cool. It's 3 ft high and 3ft wide. 

My oldest daughter Maddie bought this for me this year. She has a job now and she couldn't wait to buy this for me. She's very thoughtful. I think it's adorable. 

I bought the Nativity figurines at Hallmark a few years back. I love that it has scripture on it. 

My mom bought me this angel many years ago. I thought she'd go great above the Nativity. I broke the little angel that went with the Nativity originally so this worked well.

I love the picture that is behind this but it seemed to be messing up the scene so I put music paper on it and I love the way it looks. I was thinking of putting wrapping paper but then I thought of this. I saw on Sugarpiefarmhouse's blog that she put music paper on the back of her hutch and it looked great so I thought I'd give it a try on the picture. 

This is downstairs in the family room. 

Not crazy about the fireplace setup. I wanted to get new stockings but my daughter wanted to keep hers. She does not like change. So she got to keep her stocking.

My youngest Jamie decided to put doll glasses on the snowman. I thought it was adorable. I passed him by this afternoon and I stopped and took a step back and realized he had those glasses on. She cracks me up. She's always doing little things like this.

Well that's it for the decorating. 

Wishing you all a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!