Christmas Round 2

Christmas has come and gone. I am in the slump of missing the holidays. It brings me such joy planning and organizing traditions for our family of 4. I love how magical the holiday is. We started some new traditions this year....hoping to bring the magic and celebration to our home annually during this wonderful season. 

Some traditions: 

- Read Christmas stories daily from post Thanksgiving-Christmas. We read a Advent book every night at bedtime with Zion/Kiyah this year. We will bring it out every year. 

- Go Christmas light looking/ do a Scavenger Hunt for Christmas lights. We went with our friends this year and had Christmas lights in the van and everything. We made popcorn "pop-pop" and got yummy holiday drinks and Hot Chocolate for the toddlers. It was Zi's first and she loved it. She said, "Dis so yummy Mommy. Tank You." We cruised around for almost 3 hours looking for blue icicle lights, manger scenes, Rudolph, Mickey Mouse, Santa etc. It was a blast. 

- Make Jesus a birthday cake- this year we made Cake Pops on Christmas Eve.

(watching the movie with my girls....)

- Buy the girls Christmas jammies and a new Christmas movie to watch. This year we bought Santa Paws, it has been playing too much in the Cass Casa. 

- Make cheesy potato soup on Christmas eve 

- go to Christmas Eve service at our church.

- For gifts we did a new thing...The girls got 5 gifts from us: something they need, want, wear, read, and homemade. I thought it was a fun way to keep the gifts thoughtful/simple. 

- For the last gift, we put a string on the tree that Zion had to follow through the rooms of our house to her big present. We hid a bike in the bathtub:) She loved it. 

- Decorate the girls room for the holidays. 

- pick out gifts (toys the girls have) and give them to a friend. "It is better to give than receive".

- and of course, there were lots of crafting and baking around here. What are your traditions?

Zi/Ki on Thanksgiving...so presh.

 our little buddy.

making Reindeer art with Kiyah's feet.

Zion making a Christmas tree with her hands.

the finished product.

 I caved and let the girls meet Santa. We have the best Santa in our mall. I used to do his hair back in the day. Zion told him, "I want Dora and Kiyah wants Barney." well, right. :)

Christmas eve pix of our family. I loved the girls dresses....I got Zion's last year at Gap-Clearance. Kiyah's is from TJ Maxx to match sister pie.

headbands are Etsy.

Jammies.... the girls playing in our bed on Christmas eve. love.

got them monogrammed plates on Zulily. the best.

Zi holding her grandma dolly.

 Zion and I got new hair pretties.

Christmas day we headed over to Red Wing for some celebrating with my family. We had a great time with good food and relaxing. The grandkids couldn't wait to open their gifts. Aunt Chels got Kiyah a matching bag from LL Bean like her sisters. I love these.

Andy and I got my parents "pop phones" for their IPhones. They are retro and great.

On the 28th, we headed over to Stevens Point to hit up some Cass time. We had Lasanga and celebrated Uncle Mike's bday. It was fun. Zion, once again, loved the presents.

Katie and Zi.

Grandpa Jim

Unky Ryan and Grandma with the girls.

Zion was pumped to get dvd player for our car rides. Halleju-. I am happy.

We are blessed. Blessed to have our Savior. So thankful for having Jesus in our lives.
Blessed to have a healthy family and amazing parents/sibs on both sides.
Blessed to be able to celebrate freely Jesus' birthday.

christmas love

I thought I would share some pix from our holiday. I love decorating for Christmas. Every year we add a little more decor. I didn't get to do as much as I originally wanted to but I was still happy with the warmth and love in our home. Christmas is crazy for us. Tala Hair Studio was crazy busy with all my lovely guests coming in for Holiday pampering. Our church had 5 performances of our play. On top of that, life was the usual busy. 

When we we went to Stevens Point earlier this month, Zion did crafts with her Aunt Katie and Grandma Loni. They made these bad boys. Love.

I ordered new stockings on Pottery Barn for our fan. I got free S&H and free monograming. They screwed up my text color so mine was FREE! I am happy with them.

Best investment ever....Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set. AMEN> hours of fun.....for the littles.
Zion loves her Baby Jesus.....

Love me some garland/lights.....

I hung some giant Christmas bulbs by the front Dining room window.

I got this awesome metal flower box at Junk Bonanza with my BFF Jody a couple of years ago. I put some pinecones/candles/and sparkles in there. It looked so cute on our table.

View of the living room. We live in the room. It is our most used room in our home. I love it.

I got these trees at Hobby Lobby a few years ago....fun and modern. I put them on a target twig runner.

The fireplace...The wreath is from Pier One.

I hung some twinkle lights mixed with ornaments and sparkles. My candles are gifts from our wedding. My brass heart votives and angel candle holder is from Grandma Cherie.

My folks built this Santa for us. Love.

We did some art with the girls. It is going to be a yearly tradition. The hand tree is Zion's hands. The Reindeer are Kiyah's feet. The foot tree is from Zion last year.

I put a mirror on our coffee table from Target (wedding gift) and put some berries and candle on it. cute. simple.

 Some of our pillows. fun....the snowflake ones are from Target clearance a few years back. The embroidered ones are from Pottery barn. The aqua one is from Amanda P. I love them.

We keep the Christmas books by the fireplace. They are much used during this fabulous season.

Hoping you had a great holiday with your loved ones. I will post more tomorrow on our Christmas....loves.