annual playgroup christmas party

December 16, 2013April 6, 20202 Comments

Can it really be only 9 sleeps until Christmas?!

This weekend we went to our annual playgroup Christmas party.

My friend Melissa hosts each year and it is always a fabulous success.

Her home is always beautifully decked for the holidays.

The past few years we have included the daddies which always makes it more fun!

As always, Santa makes a special stop at the party.

This year we took a group photo of Santa with the kids.

There were some tears…

a few escape artists…

but, we got *almost* all of the kids in the photo…without crying.

I think there are SEVEN kids missing from this photo…

and to think we started six years ago with one child each…

and they weren’t even crawling!

This last photo cracks me up beacuse the kids were told to raise their hand if they were good this year…notice the boy in the teal shirt (and his partner in playgroup crime) in the front row?! They are the ONLY kids NOT raising their hands!

She even had an adorable craft for the kids, but they were so busy playing that nobody did it…

Reece, however, knew there was a craft and wouldn’t leave until he had a chance to do it! So, we overstayed our welcome and did the craft. I love that my boy didn’t want to leave the party with out doing the craft!

We each bring something to eat and there is always plenty of food!

I neglected to get a good photo of my fruit plate garnish…a sprig of rosemary from our garden decorated with mini pom-poms and bakers twine! I was pretty happy with my last minute creativity!

I love this celebration every year.

home is…sharing traditions with friends.

4 sleeps ’til christmas {december blog giveaway}

December 21, 20117 Comments

If you think that’s exciting, how about a giveaway?!

I meant to get one on here earlier in the month, but got overwhelmed with my own holiday decorating, playing, crafting, and gifting.

So, here we go…

And, as I promised, a happy elf…

To enter, please answer the following question(s) with a comment below:

What is a favorite Christmas/holiday tradition that you grew up with?

And, if you have kids, how are you sharing that tradition with them?

For (4) additional entries you can:

like home is what you make it on facebook
like colton+cadence on facebook
tweet about the giveaway with my link
subscribe to my blog via e-mail (up at the top left of this page)

{to be official, please mention each additional entry in a separate comment to count}

Deadline is Friday, December 23rd at 9pm Pacific.

Winner will be announced on Saturday, December 24th!

And, while the winner will not receive the package until after Christmas, there are goodies you can use year round, and others you can look forward to using next year!

{there may even be a couple of extra goodies in the package}

home is…giving joy to others.

the happy elves

December 20, 20115 Comments

One of the traditions I have at Christmas is to give everybody in our immediate and extended family an ornament.

Some years I buy different ones for each person.

Some years I buy similar ornaments and personalize them with their name and the year.

Some years I make them.

Some years the kids make them.

Some years I forget to give them.

This year I was inspired to give handmade ornaments.

I just finished the last ones up today.

This was my inspiration…

Source: memoriesoncloverlane.blogspot.com via Stephany on Pinterest

Although we have a backyard full of pinecones I opted to go a bit of a different route with my “merry and bright” color scheme.

In general, I used these instructions from Martha Stewart,which make these elves…

Source: marthastewart.com via Stephany on Pinterest

Instead of using pinecones I used plastic ball ornaments and instead of using wooden beads for the heads I used model magic clay.

I also changed the shape of the shoes.

I drew the faces on with Sharpies, but would love to find a different way to paint the faces. And, I used white model magic clay…in the future I would use something with more of a skin color tint to it.

Other than that I am more than pleased with how they turned out!

My elves can’t stand up on their own, but they hang on a tree just fine.

Each ornament is unique for each person in our family…all 21 of them!

Four elves are hanging in our tree, 12 elves are on their way to New York, and 5 elves are still working on getting packaged up to get sent to Colorado!

I took some photos of the 9 that are still here at our house last night…

taking a joy ride in one of our Christmas decorations…

and on the kids toys…

and just hanging out in the playroom…

and helping with the Christmas decor finishing touches!

Tomorrow, I will be posting a giveaway including one of these elves and some other holiday goodies.

home is…having a little holiday fun.

*linking up with…

tatertots and jello

what do you do…

January 6, 201111 Comments

…with all of the holiday cards that you receive?

Over the years I have kept them in baskets during the holidays and then put the photo cards in a notebook/photo album after the 1st of the year. I hated the thought of throwing out (or even recycling) the cards that our friends and family put a big effort in to sending to us every year! My aunt had (and hopefully still has) photo albums filled with all of the cards they had received over the years and I used to love looking through them on Christmas day when we celebrated at their house with our family.

During the month of December I displayed our cards on the bulletin board in the playroom that normally holds the artwork from the kiddos. It was nice to look up at friends and family from near and far while we spent time in this room over the month of December. Our Christmas morning was shared with all of you as the tree was also in the playroom and this is where we spent our Christmas morning opening gifts.

I plan to get those photos into an album…eventually. I still have all of last years cards in a drawer waiting to be put in the 2009 album!

By the way, don’t we have some good looking friends and family?!

Do you display your holiday cards? If so, how? And, do you hold on to them after the holidays, or toss (recycle) them?

home is…having all of your friends and family with you for the holidays…even if it is just their photo!

stephany taddeo

home is what you make it

Tag: holiday

annual playgroup christmas party

4 sleeps ’til christmas {december blog giveaway}

the happy elves

what do you do…