Blogmas and Birthday

Hey, it’s my birthday today! Figured I might as well take a few minutes for a fun Blogmas catch up this afternoon. I’m just a few topics behind. Work tomorrow and Wednesday so hoping for a blog visiting catch up on Thursday or Friday.

First though, good news! I found the missing bin. Husband said he looked through all of them. However, I went back to go through them one by one and……why are men blind? Why? Oh well, it’s found. Stockings are across the back of the couch and the wreath is on the front door.

I’m just going to do a brief (well, you all know me, I’ll try to be brief) section on each topic.

Party Food Ideas

We actually have a Christmas party to attend this year but I’m not sure if we’re supposed to take food. Haven’t made it that far in the planning as it’s later like the 21st or something. Our go to party food/appetizers to share are:

1. little smokies wrapped in either crescent rolls OR wrapped in bacon (better option)
2. Cheese ball (So easy: 1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix to 2 eight oz cream cheese blocks, blend well, form into ball, and roll in chopped pecans) and crackers
3. Pick up a vegetable platter from store on the way

Christmas Markets/Fairs

We have these but unless I go it alone, I usually don’t make it. Right now there’s a big Hallmark themed one happening because of the movie. Maybe I’ll get there, not sure.

Favorite Family Traditions

Newer ones:

• Going to the candlelight service at the church on Christmas Eve. Usually because J is playing, haven’t heard anything for this year but even if he doesn’t play, I’m still going to insist we go.
• Brother making spaghetti for Christmas dinner (so much easier for him, he gets to visit and since I love Italian food, I’m all in favor!)

Older one:  The boys always get Christmas pajamas and book on Christmas Eve. This year I’m at a loss with the books and they may be getting gift cards to Half Price Books with their pajamas. We’ll see.

Decorations/Ornaments

I love all our Christmas ornaments and decorations as most have special meanings. We’d be here all day talking about them. We have ornaments that were on our parents’ trees, ornaments the kids made, ornaments that reflect special events, gifted ornaments, and of course, those special Hallmark ones. So no real theme to our living room tree.

However, this year I did splurge a bit (with many Menards rebates) and buy myself a tree for our bedroom. I plan to give it a theme of blue/green and natural to try and tie in our green Christmas bedding and blue bedroom. A not so great shot of it as I had to edit out a lot of mess:

It’s a 4 1/2 foot prelit tree with a timer and a remote with many functions. Of course, I prefer the warm white lights. (I’ll try to share a better shot of the tree in an upcoming post)

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Lots of topics here but let’s end with a decorations question. How many trees do you have in your house? I’d have one in every room if I could get away with it.