Holiday ::. Just add greenery (repost)

Wow, it doesn't matter how prepared I think I am (ie... i pinned a LOT of stuff), the holidays just get away from me. I JUST ordered my Christmas cards... yes, there are 9 days left until Christmas and I just now ordered them. They're be New Years Eve cards!

I've been flying by the seat of my pants on meals too... I really need to figure out a meal plan one of these days. Anyway, I didn't want TOO long to go by without a post.. so I'm going to repost a tip from 2 years ago...

Just add Greenery! Go run by a place that sells trees - Home Depot, Lowes... actual tree lot if you are so lucky to live by one, and see if you can get some clippings/branches that they trim off of the trees they sell. They may charge you, but I usually get them for free.

So this was our mantle at our old house (yes, I'm strapped for time and am not going to be taking new pictures yet!). Pretty. Simple.

BUT, just add some live greenery and look what a difference it makes...

Here was our full mantle... there's not a lot of Christmas stuff up, but with the greenery it looks super festive. Plus, it smells awesome and then after the holidays you can burn the greenery in a fireplace or fire pit. Win-win. 

Holiday Fun ::. You've Been Snowed On

My girls had SO much fun Boo-ing our neighbors back at Halloween, so when this "You've Been Snowed On" neighbor thing from Tatertots and Jello came to my attention, I knew we had to start it on our street.

I ran to the dollar store and picked up a few things:
Red & green disco-like ball necklaces
Holiday erasers
Gummy Rudolph noses

Then I printed out the pdf from Tatertots and Jello to make it easier for the neighbors and threw in some yarn "snow balls" that I was making for my daughter's Kindergarten class, threw them in a lunch sack and we were ready to go.

The girls had an absolute ball sneaking over to our neighbors houses after it got dark and dropping off their goodies.

Christmas Book Advent Calendar

On top of our usual Advent Calendar, which by the way I had growing up and it was my FAVORITE thing to do every morning during Christmas, I have decided to add one more fun "calendar" to our holiday season. All it took was one quick walmart trip and a night of tv watching time to prepare. I had decided to do the "Christmas Book" Advent calendar that I saw all over pinterest. To make things even better... I already had 22 Christmas books (yes... crazy!), so I only had to go buy 2 new ones to make this work, thus the quick walmart trip. Score!

My favorite Advent Calendar growing up

So I wrapped all my books and then on Thanksgiving, after the big meal and naps, we set it up. I don't know about your family,  but with my 3 girls, I can foresee a nightly fight on which book gets chosen, so I decided on a different approach to figuring out which book is read on which night.

I wrote numbers 1-24 on labels and then divided the labels between each of my 3 girls. Then the girls taped their given numbers to whichever books they wanted (they obviously didn't have a number). That way each girl feels they got a say as to which book is read on which night and I avoided the nightly fight! Score 1 for mom!

Putting day numbers on the books

 By the way, Mr. Elf Elf (until the girls decide on a better name than last years decision), arrived this morning showing the girls which book was first on the list.