My Week In Instagrams

Just a peek into my week through Instagram...

What a full + busy but good week.
I have admittedly struggled during this Holiday season but I am finished with everything
and not stressed out and
 there are so many little things that have filled me right up and brought me peace and happiness.
I am definitely counting my blessings this today.

Making my lists and checking them twice.

I did much better shopping ahead of time than I have in along time.... Maybe ever.

Less holiday stress is what I need and this year was much better for me in that way for sure.

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Surrounded.

Yes I copied this and I am totally okay with that.

The kids thought it was pretty funny.

It's so, so hard to drag myself out of bed on these super dreary no-sunshine days.

So hard. 

I am so very proud of this girl these last couple of weeks.

She took it upon herself to make presents for everyone and wrap them all herself, without any help.

Last count I think she had made and wrapped 16 presents.

THIS makes my heart so happy.

I found Boggle at the thrift store for a dollar last week and snatched it up fast.

I am all for playing games with the kids that do NOT take an hour. Yes, please.

We had a lot of fun with this.

The Christmas school program is my favorite.

See my girl?

{In the middle, next to the boy with the red tie}

I loved getting to see Wyatt play his violin on stage for the first time.

Wrapping and packaging presents with cute supplies makes it just a little bit more fun I think.

Last minute shopping with my boy.

I got to do this with each of them this week and it was fun.

One-on-one time with the kids is fun and is important to me, I try to make it a priority.

Busy week at work... but I have a few days off and couldn't be 

h  a  p  p  i  e  r.

Plus I got the best Christmas present from my boss... I will share that next week.

I'm so excited about it! 

Stuffed paper animals Charlotte made for my cousin's baby she is due to have in March.

How cute are these?

I tried to suggest sewing them instead of using staples but this girl wants to do everything herself...

 and...

Let's just say she doesn't always love my suggestions.

Oh I do love the lights and sitting in the dark with the tree all lit up.

It's one of my most favorite things about this time of year.

Making homemade snow globes.

They didn't turn out great but we are still working on them...

I don't think Martha Stewart's look like these.

I wish I could walk around with this lighting and my face/skin looked like it does through 

my phone lens... :)

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.
Thank you for stopping by here, for reading and sharing and for your encouragement.
It really means so much to me.
XO

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Last Minute Christmas Treats :: Toffee Crack

Hey there and Merry Christmas Eve, Eve.
Two more days, you guys!
It's pretty unbelievable to me that Christmas is really here already because it just doesn't look or feel like it outside
at all... Where is the snow?

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Just in case you are looking for a super easy last minute idea for Holiday candy/treats I thought I would share this today.
You totally have time for this, easiest thing ever.
I remember hearing about this recipe many different places several years ago and have actually had people tell me
they have made it themselves too and that I should try it.
Well Sunday was the day to finally try it.
Thank you Trisha Yearwood(that's the recipe I found first when I googled it).
It's good.
And addictive, hence the term "toffee crack" I have heard several people use.
Almost sickeningly addictive, I might add... you have been warned.

So, let's be honest here.
I needed a recipe for a simple holiday treat to deliver to a few family members and friends.
I didn't have the whole day to bake or cook and wanted something that would be relatively easy and stress-free because
we are down to the wire here, folks.
And this is super easy, just four ingredients.
I still have a little shopping to do and ain't nobody got time for multiple, complicated recipes.
Not to mention not a single present has been wrapped, the laundry is piled up, the house needs
a good scrubbing and I have to work the next couple of days.
Ugh.


Also.
I wanted something that wouldn't take forever so the kids could help without getting bored immediately and 
me getting annoyed with their boredom. 
We have been talking this week about thinking of others this time of year and what we could do for others this week to
maybe make the season a little brighter for those that may be having a difficult time during the Holidays.
The kids were a great help and did half of the work themselves... and enjoyed it.
Sunday night I packaged up all the treats and we went out to delivered them.

There you have it.
I am giving the rest away before I make myself sick... it's super richy, but yummy... the perfect treat to give away and not
have in my own house.
Next time I will sprinkle a little sea salt on top, I love sweet and salty together and  think just a tiny bit of
sea salt on top would be perfect.


Happy Baking!


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Ps- This post really makes me wish I could visit a big city around the holidays.
All the lights and decorations... the hustle and bustle.... Sigh.
Usually we at least get to Chicago once before Christmas... but not this year.
There's always next year....

Feeling A Little Christmasy

See... I'm not a total Grinch, I am writing a Christmasy post this morning.
I thought I would share a few of my favorite Christmasy things around the house today, and really just a few
because I didn't go all kinds of crazy with getting all of my decorations out this year...
There is a lot I didn't bother to unpack because we got our tree later than usual this year.
There's always next year though, right? And yeah, I do pretty much say that every year. Ha!

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That's Kringle the elf taking pictures out the front window.
Yes, we do the whole Elf on The Shelf(a pretty laid back version) and no, I am not losing sleep
over it and no, I don't think I am ruining my kids over it either.
There are many, many other ways I am quite sure I am ruining my kids though.  ;)
He's not the most creative Elf but he gets the job done for the most part-- we are not winning any awards for his adventures
though, that's for damn sure.

The holly/mistletoe mug was my grandma's and so was one of the Santa mugs, 

the rest were thrift store/antique store finds.

The green polka dot napkins that match an adorable vintagey flowered

 tablecloth and were all made by Eric's grandma.

I love using my vintage glass ornaments on the tree, in bowls and jars and they look 

extra pretty with the white twinkly lights around them I think. 

I have had some of these glass ornaments passed down to me and one year I scored about

 5 boxes for dirt cheap at a rummage sale. True story. 

I am talking like twenty-five cents and fifty cents per box.

We love our little light up churches and buildings that sit on top of the piano.

One year these were like 75% off at Target after Christmas and my mom bought

 them all for me and saved them as a birthday present for my birthday the next August.

I think they ended up being $5 each.

Handmade glittery pine cone ornament made by Wyatt.

All of the boxes I got from the rummage sale and are in their original boxes.

Love that! 

Ignore all the things the kids crammed under our tree, below. 

This is the thinnest tree we have ever had, ours are usually much more round and full,

but it's kinda pretty and it smells good I think. 

We really didn't take a whole lot of time choosing this year, if you wanna know the truth.

I have to say that even during the years when I am not super into Christmas I love

 seeing ornaments form years passed, favorite Christmas books from my own childhood and

 all of the handmade ornaments from my own kids.

That can't help but get ya a little bit more in the Christmas mood, huh?

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Happy Wednesday, friends. 

Good Lord. Christmas Eve is exactly ONE WEEK from today, you guys.
Eeeeek!

Hard Days

So... I am going to be honest and just put it all out there.
These days here lately have felt so hard.
Just hard... For a lot of different, little reasons and for no reason at all.
It's the Holiday season where things are supposed to be oh-so-happy, right?
All I feel is stress and anxiety and dread.
In the last week I have somehow became the person that fantasizes about being on a beach at Christmas time,
my kids waking up and opening their presents in a hotel, with no Christmas tree and all of their extended family across the country.
I used to think that would be the saddest, most pathetic thing ever.
Now it sounds like a relief.

I don't know what's wrong with me, or how I got here some days.
No one wants to be around a Debbie Downer who doesn't love Christmas, right?
The funny thing is, I don't even want to be around that person.
To me, regular stress and anxiety is magnified 1,000 times during this season.
And really, some days and weeks and seasons of our lives are hard enough when it's not the holiday season.

It sucks when you can't get out of your own head and you can't just flip a switch like you wish you could.
Sometimes it's harder than that.
These days will pass, and there will be new ones and they will be easier.
I know this.
Until then I will just keep plugging along, just like everyone else.
And you know what?
It's okay to admit that these days, that some days, are just hard.


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Trying To Make Myself Get There.

The calendar says that today is the 5th of December and to me that is total and complete craziness.
I'm still dreaming of leaves and campfires and pumpkin spice lattes... but that's over for this year I hear.
Really?
Because it's totally November 5th to me.
But it's not and I am in total denial that the Christmas season is really here.

Every year I have a super tough time getting into the Christmas spirit... I can't just turn it on automatically on December 1 like
I feel most everyone else can. I really, really wish I could though.
This is one time when I really wish I was like everyone else.
Not that this is my total excuse because like I said, this is just me, but this year especially with my dad's stroke and hospital stay
pretty much being the entire focus for the month of November it is just extra tough making myself get into the "spirit".

My goal for this weekend(for Sunday because Saturday is full) is to get a little Christmas tree and get out the decorations.
I'm doing it.
I have to do it because there's only 2 more weekends after this weekend until Christmas.
Ouch.
So this Sunday I will do it.
I will put on the holiday music and make hot cocoa and get out all some of our Christmas decorations and I will do it.
We will get a tree but it probably won't be a huge expensive tree because it won't be up too long anyway at this point-- BUT --
we will get one and I will force myself to feel as Christmasy as I can.

And then I will promise myself that next year will be different and I won't feel this way next year and next year I will be a
completely different person...
And I don't really believe that, but a girl can dream. Right?



///  Happy Weekend, friends.  ///

Holiday Home :: A Vintage + Eclectic Mix

Hello there.
Welcome to my little home,  all decorated up for the Holidays.
I don't go overboard with the Christmas decorations... I like a little but not so much that I have to do any major rearranging...

My approach to decorating for Christmas is using what I have, keeping it simple and of course adding little thrifty finds I pick up throughout the year.
And the one thing I won't compromise on is having a REAL, fresh Christmas tree every year.
I love the smell, I love the tradition and I just love how pretty they are.

Come on in....

One of my favorite more recent finds are these pastel light-up Churches(above) I got at Target a few years ago after Christmas for 75% off.
I think they ended up costing me $5 each.

Below is our little Christmas Countdown that hangs across the windows in the dining room.
I made it from a couple of falling apart vintage children's books a few years ago; I just cut the pages, folded and glued them to make little pockets
and then punched holes in them and hung them with red + white twine.
I cut the numbers from magazine pages.

At my house you WON'T find anything matchy-matchy... or even matching a little bit.
The only presents you'll find under the tree this early is the pictures and little things Charlotte has been making and wrapping herself for all of us.
Mine will be under the tree and wrapped on Christmas Eve.... very late on Christmas Eve, I might add.
Some years I do more and better with decorating and sometimes I just don't.
The older I get and the busier everything becomes the less pressure I put on myself....  the holidays are crazy enough and I'm not going to make it crazier if I can help it.

So there are some of my favorite little corners of our home right now.
Just think... this will all be down soon and it will all seem so empty again!
So I'm enjoying it for another week and a half or so.... and then in January I'm going to have to put up a bunch of twinkly lights because
I get so used to them in December.

Happy, happy Wednesday!

Christmas is ONE WEEK from today you guys.... YIKES!

When It's Okay To Half-Ass It :: Our Elf On The Shelf

Meet our Elf, Kringle.

He made his big debut at our house last year about 4 days before Christmas.
My kids were 6 and 8 last year.
I was just a little late to the whole Elf On The Shelf game.
And if you want to know the truth?
Last year(like most years) I was feeling a little guilty about my lack of Christmas spirit and stopped on a whim and bought us an Elf,
hoping maybe it would help me get more excited about the Holidays.
Our Elf On The Shelf didn't work any crazy miracles, but he did help I think.

I admit, I was a little overwhelmed by the prospect of having to do the whole Elf thing every night...
I can barley remember to be the Tooth Fairy when I need to, ya know?

Of course I pin all the cute ideas and ooh and ahhh(and sometimes roll my eyes) at all the cool and fun things all the other Elves out there are doing.
And here's the thing- I could feel bad about the fact that I am half-assing this whole Elf thing, and not measuring up to what all the
organized + creative moms are doing.... But I don't.
Because it would just be dumb to do that.

This Morning-- 
At about 7:30 this morning I heard the kids awake, whispering about the Elf, hurrying up to get downstairs to find him.
Uh. I forgot to do anything with the Elf.
S*%$.
I hurried down right ahead of them and hid the Elf under my shirt.
The kids looked all around and couldn't find him, they went to the basement and before I could hide him they were back upstairs again.
They decided to go to the top floor so I propped him up on the back of the couch with a camera, hidden by the curtains.
Kringle was taking pictures of the FIRST SNOW outside! DUH.

The kids thought it was funny plus they were pretty excited about the snow, too.
Maybe tonight I will do better, maybe I will remember before I go to bed.
Maybe tomorrow morning the kids will wake up to see the Elf doing the funniest thing yet... and maybe not.

Either way, the kids are excited and happy, they look forward to him every morning.
And that makes me smile.
That's the part of the Holiday Season that I love, the wonder and excitement of it all.
So I just let myself off the hook, knowing that it's okay to half-ass most things in this
whole parenting job, and the Elf on The Shelf is no exception.

::::::

Can I get an Amen?