Ugly Christmas Sweater and a "Praise Jesus"

Today at youth group the kids had an ugly sweater party and a white elephant exchange. I am sure Isaac thought he would get away with going in his "normal" clothes...but not when he has me as his mother! ;)

So I got a men's sweater from the thrift store and went to work!  I made the Christmas tree from another old sweater vest, used a saltine cracker for the trunk, added marshmallows as ornaments - topped with candy sprinkles, cotton balls for snow and made little presents! Gabriel even drew the star for me!!

Then I realized that it was missing just 1 thing....sound! :) So I went and got a bag of jingle bells and attached them so when he walked he jingled!!

And yes - he won first prize for ugliest sweater!! YAY!!

In other "news", Dominic has been making homemade crosses for each of the boys. They are all a little different and Elijah's is finished.

He calls it his "Praise Jesus"!!

Don't you love that?!

He was so excited that it was finished that he carried it around with him all night! I think he even took it to bed with him!

And it is perfect for this time of year because although we celebrate the birth of a Saviour - it inevitably points us to the cross, and the reason Jesus was sent here at Christmas in the first place. Hopefully as we all get busy these last few days we can stop and remember the sacrifice made for us so many years ago!

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Decorating

I am linking up with Gussy as a part of her {Inspiration Workshop - Holiday Decorating} today.  I shared here some of the decorating I had done, including our 2 big Christmas trees.

What I love about this time of year though is that my decorating doesn't have to end with the standard tree. In fact I have collected so many things over the years that I have little bits of Christmas cheer sprinkled throughout the house!

Since 1996 when Dominic and I were married I have been collecting these Biedermann Ornaments. They are very delicate and beautiful and handmade and I have them all hanging on an ornament tree. I may have to find a larger tree though because I have run out of room! Suggestions?!

I read about making an ornament wreath online - one example can be found here. One of the sites specifically recommended that before you start stringing the ornaments that you hot glue the tops on. DO THIS!! It was a mess when I tried to skip that step with the first few. Also find the skinniest wire hanger you can - Dominic had to twist it together for me because I didn't have the strength!

One of my favorite "fun" decorations is our purple fiber optic tree. Although it doesn't "match" our red and gold theme on our other trees - it is beautiful just the same and sits in the corner by my work desk adding some sparkle to my day!

These homemade items I got at a craft fair a few years ago that my friend Leigh from our old church made. "O Holy Night" is my favorite Christmas hymn so the picture frame was a must-have. And I love having little signs/sayings to put out throughout this time reminding me that this is a season of JOY.

Years ago I watched a decorating episode on Martha and she talked about "layering" your tree. This starts with putting something in the center of the tree and working your way out. So I have some poinsettia flowers that I put in all the holes deep in my trees and work my way out from there!

I made a pair of these little trees to sit on either side of our mantle. Nothing fancy but so fun!

And finally just another look at one of our trees at night. I LOVE the look of the trees at night and will miss that most when it is time to take them down! :)

Do you have some decorations you want to share? Jump over to Gussy's site and join the fun!

Our Christmas Letter

Well the cards have been mailed - for the most part...still working on a few - but I thought I would share some of our families Christmas letter with you here!

Merry Christmas from the new Smith home in Marshall, Minnesota! 2011 has been a year of many changes including our big move. If you are ever in the area we would love to have you come for a visit!! We are so blessed to be here in a wonderful neighborhood and community and really feel God has led us here.

Isaac, fifteen, is in the 9th grade! Marshall has a much bigger High School than Beresford, so it has been an adjustment for him. He is settling in and becoming more at home here. Isaac is involved with the Knowledge Bowl at MHS and they won their first competition last week! He will be traveling with his Grandpa Johnson to Haiti again after Christmas and is very excited to go back.

Gabriel, now eight, is in Mrs. Deutz’s 2nd grade class at Parkside Elementary. He loves math, reading and spelling the most and is doing well in school. He has made several friends in our new neighborhood and it has been fun having kids his age living so close. He loves learning new magic tricks and wants to be a magician!

Elijah has matured so much this past year and we see it most in his vocabulary. He talks all the time and enjoys exploring the world around him. He loves playing with tools and helping his daddy with projects. He has adjusted well in his new daycare and Markel has become like a member of our family. We feel so blessed to have someone so wonderful to love on our kids while we work.

Karlena joined our family on December 20th, 2010, and has been such a wonderful addition to our home. She is happy, calm and content and every bit adorable. She is in a race to keep up with her brothers and has recently started walking. She has an irresistible smile and brings that much needed “pink” into our “blue” home!

We are very thankful this year for all of God’s blessings in our family even when the changes are scary and things haven’t gone as we hoped or expected. We continue to look for ways to be examples of His grace and love to others. We pray that you will also find comfort in His presence and draw to Him in all things.

God Bless and Merry Christmas!
Dominic, Kristin, Isaac, Gabriel, Elijah and Karlena

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas.....

Just a view of some of my favorite Christmas decorations...This is the artificial tree we have in our front room. I have always wanted a house where we could have a tree in the front window - so I am loving this!

I love my Willow Tree nativity set

And this nativity is one that my dad made - isn't it awesome?!

I got these Hurricane Nativity candle holders from Dayspring last year after Christmas - they are beautiful when it is dark and the candles are glowing. And today only (Dec 1st) Dayspring is offering a 40% off coupon code on this item - just use the code  INDAY1.

This is our real tree. We love the way it smells so fresh and piney, but dang those needles are SHARP! Dominic had on long sleeves and gloves when he helped me by finishing the lights.

A better view of the decorations. It is missing its topper - I haven't quite gotten to that yet!

Dominic built this amazing stocking holder for above our mantle. It turned out very beautiful and although I didn't see his vision when he started I am eating my words because I couldn't ask for anything nicer!

And of course Tinker - this morning he found a place in this bowl full of ornaments.

What are some of your favorite Christmas decorations?

A Visit to the Farm...Christmas Tree Farm!

So I LOVE decorating for Christmas. It is a little over the top but when I was a little girl my mom and grandparents etc bought each of us kids an ornament for Christmas. I have carried this tradition onto my family and as a result we have a massive amount of ornaments.

One tree just won't cover it. We have an artificial tree in our front room but I have always loved real trees and heard about a cut-your-own tree farm about 30 miles from our home.

So right after church yesterday we headed out to Belview MN and Iverson's Tree Farm! Apparently they have some 40,000 trees. I think we saw 38,000 of them! :)

The kids enjoyed looking at all the trees while we tried to figure out what we wanted.

We came to a conclusion pretty early on that we liked the Blue Spruce tree. It just had that unique color.

Isn't it pretty?!

The problem was that we saw about 100 trees that we thought were "pretty good" and we just couldn't figure out which one was perfect for our space.

At about hour 2 (I am seriously not kidding -  we really had a hard time deciding) Elijah had to go potty. Because he is potty trained, and we had no toilet, we first tried the "natural" pee outside way which he was NOT having. So we put a diaper on him and pleaded with him that he use that. He wasn't about it...not our best parenting moment that is for sure!!

But we finally decided on the right tree and Dominic and Isaac went to the task of cutting it down.

I guess judging the height of Isaac and the height of the tree should have given us an indication that we maybe went a little large here.

Dominic hard at work trimming the branches off the bottom.

And somehow they were able to get it tied up on top of the van.  As we went back to pay for the tree the guy helping there says to Dominic... "I always wonder when I see a tree that size how the people are going to get it in the house"

Hmmm...good question!! :)

But of course my guys won't let a little thing like the size of an entryway stop them. And once they had it in and set up it we realized just how big this tree was....

It is enormous!! But we love it! And hopefully by tomorrow we will have all the lights on it so that we can decorate it. I started with the lights last night and got tired so I stopped. Dominic said he will finish it for me!  I will share pics when we are done!

Even though it was a lot harder to choose than we thought we had a good time. Next year (if we do this again) we will pack a lunch, a portable toilet and borrow a truck from someone to make the experience even better! :)

So do you do a real tree or an artificial tree or both?!