Christmas 2017

Whew. I'm a little bit amazed. (sad? surprised?) that the holidays have already come and gone. Every year I say we are going to cut back and simplify and every year the gifts seem to multiply before my eyes. Without fail, there is always one gift that gets forgotten or misplaced and doesn't get opened until after New Years. It's been a pair of pajamas for Jacob the last two years. I guess you can't win them all. Jacob got quite a few educational toys this year to keep his busy mind active as well as books and board games which are my favorite gifts because he never gets tired of them. 

The weeks leading up to Christmas are always a blur, since I'm always teaching right up until the end. We appreciate the extra time off it gives us together after New Years, but my, it does make fitting in traditions and fun tough. Somehow we squeezed in there cookie making and decorating, gingerbread houses, and lights. 

On Christmas eve Jacob covered the lawn in the magical reindeer food he had made at school, and left out some of the cookies he had decorated for Santa. Once he was fast asleep we put out all the gifts we had wrapped (I was diligent about wrapping as we bought so that we wouldn't have to spend Christmas Eve wrapping) and then relaxed on the couch with some hot cocoa and a Christmas movie. 

On Christmas we enjoy a lazy morning at home. Daddy was up before everyone and started the oven for the cinnamon rolls I had made from scratch the night before. When Jacob woke he discovered his tool bench from Santa, opened his stocking and then ate breakfast. Once everyone had as many cinnamon rolls and mugs of hot chocolate as they could possibly hold we opened all the gifts. We try to make a point to not rush and enjoy the moment and this year we were forced to take things extra slow. It took twice as long with Jacob scanning every present looking for the letters J-a-c-o-b to see if it was for him or not. 

Once all the presents were opened we let the mess linger for a little while we soaked in each other and one by one explored new toys and books. After lunch it was off to the grandparents for even more gifts and dinner and then we were off to the airport and headed for snow! 

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."

- Andy Rooney

Maybe next year we'll actually get a family picture of Christmas! Hope you all had the most magical holiday friends and that you really stopped to enjoy the moment. They are only little for so long!! 

Decking our Halls

Our home is finally ready for Christmas! Better late than never right? It makes me so happy to sit by the glow of the tree in the evenings while we wrap presents and watch Hallmark movies. We completely re-did our living room this fall and have been slowly adding to it, finishing up just in time for the holidays! 

Back in August we painted and changed our walls from a dark brown to a bright white while Jacob was having a sleepover at his grandparents. A few weeks later we swapped our old olive couch for a new slate sectional and got a hand me down console that fit the new room much better. Just a few weeks before thanksgiving we finally got a rug and a coffee table and last week we finally got a shelf and some art up on the walls. Minted has the most amazing art selection (we hung their Pines print on our gallery wall) that it took me forever to choose. I finally picked the Lake View print to tie in the blush and navy tones in our gallery wall and rug. 

One of the first things I did once our shelf was hung was head out in search of fresh garland. It took a few stops but Tree Towne came through for me. Even better our garland is white pine from Michigan, which feels like a little piece of home hanging in our house for the holidays. I hung our stockings from the shelf as well, and then added some decorations on top - Jacobs nutcracker, a few bottle brush trees, a snow bird (it's our little Florida inside joke) and a chalkboard print. I wove twinkle lights throughout the garland which gives us a little extra sparkle for fun. 

This year is our first year having a flocked tree and we love it. Jacob loves rearranging the decorations on a daily basis so we made sure to only hang unbreakable ornaments. I used white lights, a jeweled garland, and added a Moravian star on top. 

Our couch has about 50 blankets folded on it, and just as many pillows. If you guessed we spend a lot of time here you'd be absolutely correct. We love curling up with each other to watch movies or even to take a nap! 

We do most of our wrapping down here so I filled a basket next to our console with all our wrapping paper to keep it at our fingertips. Jacob's Christmas truck and our peppermint woolie ball garland sit on top of the console and I even remembered to switch out the Thanksgiving art work on our gallery wall for a pretty print with lyrics from O Little Town of Bethlehem.

And that's it! Yup, this is pretty much the only room we've decorated besides a few touches in Jacob's room. (He loves his Santa sheets!) Next year, we'll have to work on a few other rooms now that this one is pretty much done. Next on our to-do list is our office/playroom area that is adjacent to the living room so I'm sure next year that room will get the holiday treatment too. Only three more sleeps friends! 

Barefoot & Cozy

This post is sponsored by Everywhere Agency on behalf of OshKosh B’gosh; however, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own

It's the most wonderful time of the year. And seeing it through Jacob's eyes makes it the most magical time of the year. Every time we see a bearded man he shouts "Santa Claus!" whether the recipient is happy about it or not. He's so into EVERYTHING. Lights, presents, reindeer, carols, you name it, he loves it. He demands Christmas songs every time we get in the car, and lucky for us that's not a hard request to fill this time of year. He wants to be right in the middle of the action of whatever we are doing, and we wouldn't have it any other way. 

We've steadily been checking things off our bucket list, a few at a time each weekend since our weekdays are go, go, go, right up until the days before Christmas. There's nothing we love more than a day full of festive fun. Here are just a few of our favorite traditions, we'd love to hear some of yours! 

1. Hanging lights outside. While we don't get that magical look of sparkling lights on fresh fallen snow here in Florida, we hang our lights just the same. There's something so welcoming to arriving home under the soft glow of the bulbs. Nothing puts us in a more festive mood. We get ours up lining the roof as soon as the Halloween lights come down. 

2. Putting up the Christmas Tree. We've always done a fake tree with the heat and humidity, but this year we got a new flocked tree. We had to set it up outside, since it shed quite a bit in the fluffing process. I don't think Jacob was expecting the fake snow! Once we got it inside Jacob was all about helping with the lights and ornaments, the latter of which he hung all clustered on one branch. And I think we might just leave them that way. 

3. Movie Nights. We try to sneak in one of these every weekend. We curl up on the couch with one of our big, cozy blankets and turn off all the lights. Then we watch a Christmas movie by the glow of the tree. We pop popcorn and snuggle up all together. We try to cycle through all the classics, plus catch any new originals on Hallmark or Freeform. The Grinch is Jacob's favorite, Home Alone is mine. 

4. Light Tour. We try at least once every year to get out and see everyone else's lights. We take a walk around the neighborhood, pulling Jacob in the wagon, or we make a trip out to our local gardens where they cover the grounds in twinkling lights. We take a mug of hot cocoa or coffee and let Jacob run around while we take in all the lights. I love that it's something special that you can really only do this time of year. 

5. Gingerbread Houses and Cookies. We always bake a few batches of cookies and decorate a house each year. These are two of Jacob's favorite things to help with. He'll sit up on the counter in his Santa apron and pour in all the ingredients, mix it up, and then help me get the dough onto the baking sheet. Decorating with him is almost always a mess with icing, candies, and sprinkles everywhere, but he has a blast. 

6. Christmas Jammies. Every year we pick out a new pair of Christmas Jammies, and we give them to him on Christmas eve along with a new Christmas movie to watch, a mug, popcorn and hot cocoa. We call it our Christmas Eve Box and it's so fun to let Jacob open that one present on Christmas eve, to get him excited for the following day. This year I found so many cute pairs at OshKosh B'Gosh that I bought several and have already given him one pair. The other we'll put in his box. 

I get all the nostalgic feels buying OshKosh for Jacob because it's what my mom used to always buy for me. She LOVES when I send her photos of Jacob in his overalls, those were always her favorite to buy for me and my siblings. 

If you love OshKosh as much as we do you can save 20% on a purchase of $40 or more at your local store or online using the following coupon:

In-Store: 037264
Online: OKBG3418

The best part is, I'm giving away a $50 gift card to Oshkosh! Just click any of the links above to visit their website and leave me a comment with what you would buy! For an extra entry head on over to Instagram!