oh designer Christmas tree

oh Christmas tree...
how I love your branches...
your branches filled with memories and fun...
branches filled with perfectly-imperfect creations and ornaments created and chosen by our children

Norman, our Christmas tree this year

Christmas is about family
about children
and memories
and warm fuzzy feelings
and joy, love, peace...
and a perfect babe born in a stable...

my biggest Christmas pet peeve is the need to have the perfect Christmas
the perfect house lights
     don't get me wrong...I LOVE house lights
the perfect door wreath
     I love me a pretty wreath...but it doesn't have to be $75
the perfect plate of goodies to deliver to the neighbor
     let the kids help with the goodies, 
the perfect family Christmas photo/card
     I love a great Christmas card, but does it represent YOUR family
and the worst of all...
the designer Christmas tree...
you know the one...
the house...
the family...
that has the designer tree...
the tree that is Perfect...
not an ornament out of place,
not a light or twinkle not where it's supposed to be...
and not one perfectly imperfect handmade kids ornament on it...

boy child's penguin-circa 2009

the families with these perfect trees talk about how 'special' the kids are because they get their own tree...
in their room...
with THEIR ornaments on it...

girl child's kindergarten present to us, 2006

I've never talked to any of these kids,
     not sure how they turn out as adults,
but I can't imagine growing up in a house where the macaroni wreath with my toothless 1st grade smile ornament wasn't 'allowed' to hang on my mom's perfect tree...where the special weird snowman ornament 'Uncle Randy' gave me had to hang on a different tree out of sight from the perfect tree in the living room....

How has the beauty of Christmas gone from the perfection of a babe born in a barn to a what-ever-the-color/theme-of-the-season-is-perfect-kid-free Christmas tree?

I find it ironic and sad that our Savior was also not good enough to be the main attraction on the first Christmas...that he wasn't born in the 5 star inn with the newest nursery theme decorating his nursery...

boy child's ornament 2010-so.very.random!

I think our Christmas trees should be filled with kids...
with their uniquely handcrafted works of art
their hand selected ornaments
their love
these all point to the perfectly imperfectness of the first Christmas.
Christmas was never meant to be 'perfect'
we can't be perfect...
perfect was born for us on the first Christmas morning,
born to free us from the burden of being perfect

lollipop-boy child 2008
 Popsicle nativity-girl child 2006

and that is my little Christmas soap box...let your kids hang their uniquely crafted artwork on your Christmas tree...show them that they are good enough for your tree, they don't need to be perfect to fit into your Christmas memories!

Seriously, what is more important, your designer Christmas tree or the heart of your child that feels loved year after year when they get to hang their hand crafted, uniquely picked out, cherished ornaments on the family tree!

boy child 2008

wasn't the meaning of that first Christmas so obvious?
that Christmas is for all children
for the imperfect of us all
for family
for love, peace, joy

both girl child's all pink heart painted at 7,
'Jesus loves me' given to us by a church that was
praying for her when she was in the NICU

I mourn the day when our grown children claim all their weird/unique/precious ornaments that they have created and collected over the years leaving our tree free from their memories, from their perfectly-imperfectness.

Merry Christmas

just because

let me introduce you to a new friend of mine

Marcel...he (maybe she, I'm not sure) cracks me up

tell me you're not laughing...or at least smiling
'I have shoes and a face and I like that about myself'...

and take 2

hope you enjoy your day...

if the shoe fits

...or sock...
and it's more like if the sock DOESN'T fit....

I made our (my Beau & mine) Christmas stockings 14 yeas ago...
and I guess the style back then was ugly...
or something close to that!

I've hated our stockings for about 10 years now...
not sure I ever really loved them...
but full on HATED for quite awhile!

this is how attached we were to our stockings...we couldn't even remember from year to year who's was who's...I think we settled on mine being the lighter one and his the darker...but I'm not sure it that was the original assignment!

anyways...off to the fabric store...
and I found some fabric that I LOVED...

oh, so pretty!...just a little Christmas decorating tip...don't get stuck in the Christmas fabric section...
rather than the ol' snowman/Christmas tree/Santa/candy canes/reindeer
decide what color scheme you want and look for fabric in those colors....
I wanted to stick with the green theme because of the tree skirt I made last year...
but also wanted it to not be too green....
I also like texture and corduroy is a favorite of mine...so I found our pattern fabric first and then off to the corduroy to match up colors...
I didn't end up using the polka-dots...might make a table runner with it...we'll see.

I traced our old stockings

adding more curve to the heel because it felt too straight

cut them out...
measured for the cuff

sketched out the toe and heel

printed off initials for them (so we can remember which one belongs to who (or is it whom?)

the 'B' is Lucinda Calligraphy and the 'K' is Victorian LET 

cut them out

and then cut the heel, toe and initial out of the contrasting fabric

you will need 2 toe's and 2 heels,
(make sure to label them and draw an arrow for the top of them because they are both slightly football'esq shapes and look a lot alike once they're cut out!)
only one initial is needed unless you want one on both sides
and make sure to cut the initial out backwards (well, if you're cutting out on the wrong side of the fabric!)

the stripe fabric on mine is leftover from our tree skirt last year
the pattern fabric on Beau's is also on our tree skirt but I had to buy more

cut it all out...

sew them all together...

which I'm not quite done with yet...

I like our stockings to have a little more body to them 

so I wanted to line them and have them padded.

and I didn't have material for the lining...

so off to the store for more fabric 

and then I will finish them up today...

I'll update this post when I have them all done....

...to be continued!

AND
Done!

and because I'm not a real seamstress...
I just play one on my blog
I can in no way walk you through getting from

this 

 

to this

I can tell you there was some seam ripping/frustration/under the breath mutterings that all happened but I'm not sure that is needed to get to the final product...

are pigs flying?

I'm not sure...but it seems like they might be
or I might have gone crazy...

whatever happened...
the girl child was blissfully happy...
her love language is quality time
and when that quality time is spent doing something she has dreamed of...
well...she's then on cloud nine!

so we listened...
listened and shuddered a bit...
when she said she wanted to go to the mall for her birthday...

really...the mall...you're turning 11...
not 16 or even 13...
but 11...

after talking with a friend
(also a mother of one of girl child's best friends)
about how crazy someone would be to let a group of 11 year old girls celebrate a birthday at the mall...
she suggested maybe not having the party there...
and not letting them roam the mall...
but giving them a scavenger hunt to do at the mall...
thanks Kathy...brilliant idea!

so I asked all the parents of the girls she wanted to invite if they would be comfortable with me taking their girls to the mall...
assuring them that they would be 100% chaperoned by me the entire time
they were all fine with it...
so them I decided to take the plunge and do it...
...and NO...I haven't taken up drinking...

we also continued to let girl child believe that she was too young to have a party at the mall...
so she thought that the party was just going to be girls hanging out and do sleepover type stuff...
I had also asked all the parents to not let their daughters know the plan so it would be a surprise...

after all the girls arrived and the presents had been opened...
I had one more present...

it was the mall scavenger hunt list in a card...

I had made a list
I googled "mall scavenger hunt"
got a lot a different lists...
compiled some of what I liked
printed it off and met a friend at the mall
we went over the list to see what would work...
what wouldn't work
and what I could add to the list
I was able to add lots of Christmas themed stuff to the list because of her birthday being in December...
this would also be a fun activity to do with kids that you're trying to entertain over the long Christmas break...

some stuff they just had to find and check off the list
A video surveillance camera
5 business cards
A store catalog
A discarded receipt
A coupon
An unhappy baby or toddler
A pay phone (make sure your mall has one!)

other things they needed to DO (and I wrote some in code that they had to figure out)
Walk around the playground 3 times (no running)
Say Merry Christmas to 10 different groups of people
Keep your hands soft, get a some free lotion for your hands
Take a 3D peek (Old Navy had a 3D thing set up and handing out 3D glasses)
Get a small piece of wrapping paper for free
Eat for free at the Farm...

some things they needed pictures of them doing
A team member posing with a mannequin – both posing the same
Your team all wearing sunglasses
Your team saluting people as they exit Old Navy
A picture of the entire team in front of 5 different Christmas trees
Entire team modeling a feather boas or scarves
Entire team in hats
1 team member modeling a pair of 5 inch heels
1 team member kissing a mannequin on the cheek
Every team member needs a picture with an animal, and the animal must start with one of their initials.

some trivia questions or things they needed to count or keep track of
How many stalls are in the food court ladies restroom?
What does it cost to add bacon to your 6” sub at Subway?
How many couches are there in front of Macy’s?
How much does it cost to ‘live in a fairy-tale’?
How many candy vending machines are there?
How many restaurants are in the food court?
How much does it cost to wrap present 5 presents?
How many Christmas trees have a star on top?

and then the things that would cost them money...(their favorite part!)
Using ONLY $1.25 purchase a dozen of something from the food court (1 dozen for the entire team...not a dozen for each team member); sit and eat your purchase.
All team members need to make a wish in the fountain-you can’t toss more than $0.50worth of coins, total for the entire team
All team members must purchase a different scented hand sanitizer none of them costing more than $1.50
I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore...take a trip in a Hurricane
Cheese...squeeze in for a photo booth shoot.
Buy 1 package for your entire team a set of 5 lip gloss or chap sticks with animals on them, spend no more than $9

Buy a card of earrings with at least 6 sets of earrings costing no more than $10

if they found something for less they could put that $ towards something else on their list...

the lip gloss they got for $7 so they were able to spend extra on the earrings and the hand sanitizer they found on sale ($1) so I let them buy the little carrier things for the sanitizers for $0.50...making them $1.50 total...

They all got to keep their hand sanitizers and carrier things...

and then the lip gloss and earrings we came home and drew numbers, #1 chose her favorite lip gloss...then #2...and so on...then #5 had first choice on the earrings...they ended up with a card of earrings with 9 sets...and 5 girls...so the birthday girl (she got 3 gift cards for jewelry for the birthday) only took one pair

the girls had a blast...

we only had 5 girls...

that was the girl child's choice, but it turned out great because then I could drive them all 

and also having a small group I just had them all stay together, no teams also meant the birthday girl got to be with all her friends and didn't have to choose...no drama!

and then bonus...the 'picture'part of the hunt has all the girls for great thank you cards latter!

the only thing I would change is NO photo booth...

it was WAY to small, 

it cost $5...

for shots of chins and foreheads...

and this is the only thing that caused any girl 'issues'...

a few came out of the booth crying...sheesh...it's just a photo booth...

and then we came home for some birthday cake...

the cake is a bag with presents falling out...

fun times...Happy Birthday Girl!

What a Joy!

our sweet precious baby girl is 11 years old today...
I'm thinking that might officially be a 'tween'...
eek....
and she doesn't know it but we are surprising her with 
yikes...
a.party.at.the.mall...
yes I know...I might be crazy...
but it will be 100% chaperoned by ME 
(yeah, I know, not cool mom!  I know)
and there is only be 5 tween girls
and they will have a 'plan'...
it's going to be a scavenger hunt at the mall...
so no free roaming tweens on my watch!

here is my prayer for our baby girl today....
adapted from Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched her and known her.You know when she sits down and when she wakes up; you discern her thoughts from far away.  You search out her path and her lying down, and You know all her ways. Even before a word is on her tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You protect her, You are  behind and before her, and your hand is upon her.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.  Where can she go from your spirit? Or where can she flee from your presence?  If she ascends to heaven, you are there; if she makes her bed, you are there.  If she takes the winds of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead her, and your right hand shall hold her fast.  If she says, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,"  even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. It was You who formed her inward parts; you knit her together in my  womb.  I praise you, for she is fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.  Her frame was not hidden from you, when she was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld her unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for her, when none of them as yet existed.... Search her, O God, and know her heart; test her and know her thoughts.  See if there is any wicked way in her, and lead her in the way everlasting.

Yes, the LORD has done amazing things for us! What joy!' 
Psalm 126:3...Madison's Miracle Verse...
What a Joy is right...you are a sweet treasure from God and he has wonderful plans for your life!