It looks tree-mendous!

Christmas tree before:

Christmas tree after:

I am so excited for this Christmas!  

This is my first Christmas since I got married

and it's been so fun decorating and enjoying the 

spirit of the holidays with my handsome man.

I am one lucky lady.

Speaking of fun...I'm trying out a new cookie recipe

and if it's good I'll post it!

Another picture of some of our decorations:

That's right...only 26 days left!!!

Get on your heels and aprons...it's time to bake!!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this time of year!!!!!

Yesterday the whole family went out shopping for 

our first Christmas decorations together.  

It was seriously fun.  Seriously.  

I was so proud of my hunky man for being so excited to shop,

and to make me love him even more,

he offered to go get a Christmas tree on Friday 

while I'm shopping!  

What a man!!

I told my sister I was going to show up on Thanksgiving 

in my heels and apron.  

She thought I was kidding.

Well, we'll see.  

 

So I'm off to bake!!

Can't wait to enjoy a relaxing Thanksgiving with

my sister and her family. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Mom and Santa

I knew this day would come...I've even wanted to force this day to come for years...

Last night I got to take Ms. Sassy Pants out for a girls night of shopping and eating.  We had a blast!  She's was in heaven all night.  She got to decide where to have dinner and if you know her, you know she chose her favorite place that she's going to work at when she grows up...SUBWAY! 

So, on the way home she started talking about Santa.  She saw him at the Mall and he waved at her!  But she said she wasn't sure if he was real.  Because really, how could anyone go to every-single-house in the world all in one night.  And, besides, how do reindeer really fly?!  Magic?!  Yeah, right!  So I just told her I wasn't sure, but she had a good point.  Then outta nowhere she asks me, "Mom, you wouldn't write 'Love, Santa' on my Christmas presents would you?"

I am NOT a good liar, so I just started laughing.  Then she knew she had caught me.  She figured it out...there's no Santa, just Mom buying presents and saying they're from Santa. 

"So that means reindeer aren't real either!  I knew it cause there's no such thing as magic."

I wasn't a fan of the whole Santa myth anyway so I'm glad she's in on it now.  I just have to hope that she doesn't spill the beans to her brother!

Coaster Craftiness

 I was recently checking out some new blogs I found, and I ran into a really cool blog with lots of great crafting ideas.  I do love me some crafting, so I checked out her "freebies" link here:My Computer is my Canvas and decided that this craft was for me!  So I went and bought my supplies and here's what I did:

The tiles were a whopping 16 cents at Lowes and I got the felt tabs in an 84 pack for under $3.  I printed some of my paper from the freebie section here, and I used some scrapbooking paper also.  I slapped some Mod Podge on the tile, then placed the paper on top and I used my ruler to smooth out any bubbles.  Then I put 2 coats of Mod on top of the paper (letting it dry about 10 min between coats).  Then I sprayed the finish spray and let them dry overnight.  This morning I added the felt pads, et voila!!

These would be perfect as a gift!

No more water stains on our table!

I love the colors and patterns!

These are the "conversation coasters"

 These were quick, easy, and fun to make!  I'm so glad there are creative people out there who give me ideas so I can be crafty!

What kind of Mom...

This is me at 2:24 p.m.

right about when I needed to be at the preschool to get the young one.

One of our cars has a dead battery, the other decided it didn't want to start today after I had already dropped the young one off at preschool.  This was VERY bad.  Here's why: I have NO FRIENDS and I barely know my neighbors.  Therefore, I had NO ONE to call to bail me out!  I called hubby at work (knowing there's nothing he can do, but I didn't know who else to call), he tried to call someone from our church and they didn't answer.  So, one of the preschool teachers had to bring the young one home from school.  

I felt like such a loser like I had somehow let the young one down even though he was FINE and had fun riding in his teachers car.  

I just know that next time I drop the young one off at school I'll get the "what kind of Mom are you" look.  Just the thought makes me cringe.

"for REAL?!" finds

Don't you LOVE treasure hunts?!  That's what shopping at thrift stores feels like to me.  I started checking out thrift stores in my area, and I've been so excited by what I'm finding! 

First of all, thrift stores are a great place to find kids clothes.  Especially for little boys who seem to ruin anything in about a month.  I recently bought my little man a pair of black Nike sneakers (with velcro: hallelujah) at a thrift store for .75.  He's obsessed with them and I won't feel bad about pitching them in a month or two when he wears them out! 

Secondly, I've been so surprised to find some really nice (name brand) clothes for me.  So I want to share some of my recent favorites:

I LOVE this jacket!  It's 100% wool...I know...

that means dry clean only.  But I made an exception because

I only paid $2 for this!  It gets better.......It's from 

Banana Republic!

I splurged a bit on this one.  I paid $8 but I didn't mind because:

1) I love it, and 

2) It's Ralph Lauren

Thrifting has been a great way for me to find some sweet deals on cute clothes.  Deals that will have you looking at the price tag and thinking "for REAL?!"  If you haven't already, go for a treasure hunt at your local thrift store!  

Special thanks to my lovely model :)