Oh Christmas Tree Ornaments, Oh Christmas Tree Ornaments

If you've visited my blog before, you know that I love Christmas!  My mom was always really good about special ornaments, and things like that, and I've tried to keep up with that tradition.  I would've loved to have had all of you over, but since I couldn't do that, I thought I'd give you a little tour!

Every year, I make/get us a family ornament.  I've made a felt cupcake ornaments, I made clay ornaments in the shape of Hungary, I got these really cute metal ornaments from Shutterfly, and this year, with Aidan's help, we made "Aidan's First Christmas" handprint ornaments.  This year, we also got palm tree ornaments, for our "Christmas in Florida".

I think commemorative ornaments can be a hit or miss.  They're not all cute, but the ones that are, are REALLY cute! :)

I love this Lenox "First Married Christmas" ornament.  It was a gift from our pastors in Ohio.  So pretty!!!

I got this ornament for us from Etsy.  It's one of our wedding pictures printed onto a clay tile.

Awww, I love our new little family ornament from our best friends!

Aidan got his "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament from his grandma.  I love how sweet it is!

My mom got us a few new ornaments, that I love.

 The "pastor" Hungarian figure (In Hungarian pastor and shepherd are the same word) for Dan

 Little Hungarian boy for Aidan

 And the Hungarian maiden for me

This GORGEOUS ornament made from a sea urchin and spindle.

Here are a couple other pictures from our Christmas...

My mother-in-law got me my very own Willow Tree Nativity set.  I have been wishing for one FOREVER, and was so excited she got it for me!

I really love our Christmas cards every year, and have wanted to display them.  This year, I strung some baker's twine, got some little mini clothes pins, and hung our cards above the TV.  

                                    

My mom had a Precious Moment Nativity set, which was very dear to her.  It was always my job as a kid to put baby Jesus into the scene.  I just loved his little face!  When I moved out, she gave me her Precious Moments.  I put them up every year, and get very nostalgic!

This year, instead of a tree skirt, we used a galvanized tub, and I LOVE how it turned out!!!  I'm never going back!

Last, but not least, here is this year's White House ornament.  Every year, the White House comes out with an ornament, centered around one of our presidents, and comes with a little booklet about the history of it.  My Gramps has gotten them for my parents for years, and once Dan and I got married, he started sending them to us too.  They're really special, and if you're interested, you can check them out here.

Well, there's our apartment at Christmas in a nutshell.  Hope you enjoyed a quick tour of our apartment.  Happy New Year!

Cookies In A Jar How-To

I love making hand-made gifts, especially at Christmas time.  I just think they're heart-felt, and people seem to really like them.  From a budget perspective, they're usually more cost-effective too.

I also think mason jars are totally adorable.  They are starting get overused, but I still love them.  So, I decided to make our friends Cookies In A Jar.  I used this recipe as a starting off point: somethingturquoise.com.  They turned out really cute, so I thought I'd share them with you!

Here's what you'll need:

(This is for one mason jar.  Multiply by how many of these you're making.)

1 12 oz. mason jar (with lid)

3/4 cup packed flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips (you could use any kind of chocolate candy or nuts you'd like)

Directions:

(Tip: Even though it might be tempting to measure out all the ingredients for all the jars, you should do each jar individually.)

1. Measure out 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt into bowl. Gently mix together.  Pour into bottom of jar.  (Tip: You can make a funnel out of paper to make it easier, and not get on the sides.) Pack down.

2. Measure out the 1/3 cup brown sugar.  Pour into jar, and pack down.

3. Measure out 1/3 sugar.  Pour into jar and pack down.

4. Measure out 1/2 cup chocolate chips.  Pour into jar.

(Tip: you could use red and green M&Ms, or other colored ones, if you're making these for a baby shower, or party.  You could add nuts too.)

(Tip 2: If it doesn't fill the jar to the top, add a little more.)

5. Screw on lid, and voila! :)  

Okay now for the baking instructions.  I made labels, that I cut out, and glued to the top of the lid.  Here's what they said:

Directions:

Empty contents of jar into mixing bowl. Add 4 tbsp of butter (room temperature), 1 egg and 1/4 tsp vanilla extract.  Beat until smooth. Put batter in freezer for 15 minutes before baking. Preheat oven to 350 F.  Roll dough into balls (makes 10 cookies), and place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 13-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Now for decorating.  You could cut out a piece of fabric, put it on the top, and wrap baker's twine around it.  Or, you could do what I did:

I made little labels out of Crayola air dry clay.  Once they dried, I stamped the word "joy" on it, and wrote our friends' name on the back with a Sharpie.

Creating Family Holiday Traditions

As Thanksgiving, Saint Nicholas Day, Christmas and New Year's Eve are slowly (or not so slowly) making their way towards us on the calendar, I have been thinking more and more about family traditions.  This is Aidan's first Christmas, so I honestly can't wait to get the season started!  Traditions evolve, and when you're just starting out as a "new" family, it's fun to think about each person's background, own unique traditions, and how you will incorporate them into your new family unit.

Here are some of ours:

1. Thanksgiving:  Growing up overseas, Thanksgiving was always that "American" holiday that we got to celebrate.  For me, personally, if I get to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I'm good to go!  Dan is a stickler on "no Christmas until after Thanksgiving", so we usually start decorating for Christmas after dinner, and listening to Christmas carols.  Love, love, love!

2. Black Friday:  This day baffles me.  I love a good deal as much as the next person, but weren't we just saying how thankful we are for all the things we have???  On top of that, stores are opening on Thanksgiving Day, at 6pm.  THAT'S DINNER TIME!!!!!  THANKSGIVING DINNER TIME!!!!  Seriously?!  I am very glad to see that many retailers are ditching this trend, and not opening until midnight.  I get the midnight shopping, and online stuff, it's just the mob mentality over material things that drives me crazy.  SO, what we have started doing, is we donate our gently used clothes at our local donation center. I love this "after-thanksgiving" tradition.

3. Pre-Christmas: Our church does and annual Operation Christmas Child drive.  The Children and Youth Departments usually have a competition, with the losing department's pastor having to do something embarrassing, as incentive.  This is so much fun!  In case you're not familiar with it, you fill a shoe box with items for a child living in a third world country.  We do some toys, school items, and hygiene items.  If your church doesn't take part in this, you can very easily do it on your own.  You can even track your box!

4. Saint Nicholas Day:  On December 6th, children across Europe get chocolate in their boots.  Now, that may seem weird, or gross.  However, the night before, the kids clean off their boots, put them outside their bedroom doors, and then Saint Nicholas (ehem - mom and dad), put chocolate in their boots.  You always get a gold switch too, to remind you to be good! :)

Last year's Saint Nicholas Day

5. Pre-Christmas/Advent: Growing up, my mom made us the prettiest Advent Calendars.  She would put chocolate, small gifts (nail polish, matchbox cars, barbie outfits, legos), and sometimes money in them.  I would love to make something like this for Aidan some day!

6. Christmas Eve:  Two years ago, we started going out for breakfast on Christmas Eve, and we LOVED it!  I'm already scoping out places for this year.  

In our family, we open our Christmas presents on Christmas Eve afternoon.  My parents always made us take Christmas cookies to the neighbors, while they finished wrapping our gifts.  As an adult, I bake/make things for our friends.  So, we open our gifts, watch It's A Wonderful Life.  One NEW tradition I'd like to start, is one I found on pinterest.  Every year, on Christmas Eve, kids open a box, with Christmas pajamas, a Christmas book, and hot chocolate mix. I love this tradition so much!  I can't wait to pick out Aidan's pjs and book.  Do you have any favorite Christmas books?

7.  Christmas Day: We all stand on the steps in our pajamas, and got a family picture.  

We get to open our stockings.  Some of my favorite things were always in my stockings.  I always got a magazine (like Vogue - one of the expensive ones :)), some jewelry, and some cloudberry jam.  Amazing stuff.  

Since we've been adults, with our own family units, I've made us a family ornament every year.  The first year I made ornaments in the shape of Hungary.

One of the family traditions we've adopted from Dan's family, is that on Christmas Day, we go to the movies.  New movies open on Christmas Day a lot, and the last couple years, we've gone to see the Hobbit movies together (because we're all J. R. R. Tolkien nerds).

We've also adopted Dan's family's Christmas dinner - prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, and yummy sides.  No complaints here! :)

So, these are our family traditions.  Do you have any, that you especially love?  Some you couldn't wait to move out of the house to quit?  Some you can't wait to do?  Please share them in the comments!

A Breastfeeding Story

Before I get into my story, I want to say that I firmly believe, that everyone does what is best for their family.  I don't think that breastfeeding is the only viable option for nourishing your child.  There are women whose milk never comes in, babies who don't latch right, crazy work schedules, and plenty of other factors that mothers have to take into consideration.
All I'm going to share, is my story.

For me, breastfeeding was very important.  I was willing to do just about anything to make sure that it happened.
After Aidan was born, the doctor gave him to me right away, we had wonderful skin-on-skin time (one of the sweetest moments I've ever experienced), and as soon as possible, I nursed him.

EXCRUTIATING.
Your body is so amazing, in that, as your baby nurses, that signals to your uterus to start shrinking back down to size.  (How cool is that!?)  However, it hurts.  So.  Very.  Much.  Pain meds are a great start, but after all you've just gone through, you really just want something to be pain-free.  Not happening yet.

Next, there's the lactation consultant.  I loved the one at our hospital!  She was very informational, supportive, and not at all pushy.  Best thing she said, "When in doubt, whip it out!". I lived by that, and I think it helped a lot.

So, then you get to go home.  This is when it gets interesting.  Mastitis affects 2 out of 10 breastfeeding women.  Say what!?  That's a pretty decent number!  And yet, when we went to the E.R., the nurse practitioner didn't know what it was.  Let me back-track.
A couple weeks after we've been home, I passed out in the shower, and had a pretty decent fever.  Of course, this all went down on a Saturday, just to make things more difficult.  My breast was getting harder and harder over the course of a few days.  Aidan literally yelled at my right breast every time it was time to nurse.  Pretty comical, but also heart-breaking.
I used a hot compress, tried massaging my breast (some yellow stuff came out, but nothing really impressive), and took some more pain meds.
We went to a Minute clinic- they couldn't do anything.  Then Care Plus- them either   Finally, we went to the E.R.  I thought I was ruining my precious new 2-week-old, by taking him to the E.R., around all those hacking people!  Yikes!!!  When the doctor saw me, she was like, "Wow!  That looks painful!"  And prescribed me some antibiotics.

They didn't work.

I went to my gynecologist.  They literally had a staff-meeting about me, and told the weekend people to prescribe me whatever I needed if I called- ha!  

They referred me to a breast center.  There, they ended up aspirating an inch and a half long lump.  They got out 40 CC-s of green-tinted gunk.  It finally didn't feel like my breast was going to explode!  Ladies, (and brave men), I can't tell you how painful this whole experience was.  I'm playing it down now, but it's nearly 9 months later, and I still have phantom pains.

Next comes pumping.  Oh dear, the pumping.
We got our Ameda pump free from out health insurance, which was great. However, at first, I was having a really hard time with it.  I borrowed one from a friend.  It worked great, except the tubes kept sucking up milk.  It started oozing black stuff.  So I thought I might be ruining her pump, rested it in rice, made sure it was in working order again, and gave it back.  Miracle of miracles, my original one worked.  Thank you, Jesus!
Then, there's the finding time and a place to pump at work.  You may know, I'm a teacher, so I don't exactly have a flexible schedule.  So, I have to rely on the grace of others covering for me, and our daily 1/2 hour resource period.
During my first months back, I pumped in my principal's back storage room while my kids ate lunch, and once in the afternoon.  
The next year, it got really interesting.  Now, I pump in our storage room/teacher's bathroom/dance room/occasional book fair.  One day, I looked around, and realized I was pumping between a carpet cleaner and floor waxer.  One of my friends told me, she used to pump in her car.  In winter.  In Minnesota.  Oh, the glamorous life of a breastfeeding mother!

On top of all this, you have to pray to God, that your baby is a genius, and can switch from breast to bottle with ease.  At first, Aidan loved the bottle, and wouldn't nurse, unless I stood the entire time, and sang "You Are My Sunshine".  Then, in the summer, he only nursed, so he wouldn't take a bottle once August rolled around.  Now, he seems to do pretty well going back and forth.

And finally, there's nursing in public.  There are laws that protect nursing mothers, but you also hear awful stories about public shaming, and inappropriate comments.  Personally, I like using a cover, but I do understand that some babies can't eat under them.  Either way, it's definitely a juggling act.  For example, on the 4th of July, we took a little mesh tent with us, and I nursed him crouched in that.  I've nursed on a tourist trolley in Boston, lots of back seats of cars, the back cafe in our youth room, and the beach, with a storm on the way.  It's not fun, it's not pretty - but it feels so good.  Breastfeeding feels like such an accomplishment!  Especially after all the hurdles Baba and I have been through.  I love how he nuzzles me when he needs some comfort, I love the feeling that I am someone's favorite "lovey", I LOVE that I can sustain a human being, and I cherish the residual cuddles.

I didn't have post-baby blues, but I am foreseeing a couple teary days when my sweet boy decides he is done breastfeeding.

If you are able to, and decide to breastfeed, here are a couple things you can't do it without:

1. Support system: My mom was an AMAZING help!  Sh drove me, when I couldn't drive yet, stayed up with Aidan, so Dan and I could sleep, and did anything and everything she could think of to help.  Also, a sweet friend from our church came over with lunch, and watched Aidan for us while we napped.  Boy, oh boy, she will never know how good that nap felt!

2. Research: The internet can be scary, and all symptoms online seem to indicate cancer.  But, do make sure you look into things, ask your doctor questions, and don't feel bad about it!  It's your right to find out whatever you need!

3. Get in touch with a lactation consultant or your local la leche league.  I went back to see the lactation consultant, and she really helped.  When I told her all that was going on, she told me she was impressed I was out of bed, and had clothes on.  That already made me feel better!

4. Only push yourself as far as you feel comfortable.  Breastfeeding is not the end-all, be-all.  If you feel you can't do it, formulas nowadays are so researched, and so comparable!  They really know what they are doing!

5. Trust yourself, and your body.  Listen to your own body's cues.

If you're able to breastfeed, that's wonderful!  If you're not, don't beat yourself up about it, hold your head high, and know you're doing the best for your baby.  I'm just sharing my own experience, and hoping maybe somebody will feel like they're not alone in the world, if they're dealing with something similar.

If you've had any crazy breastfeeding experiences, please feel free to write me about them!  Have a great day!

Halloween Fishers Of Men Trunk Or Treat Idea

One of the things about growing up overseas, is that we never celebrated Halloween.  Even if we did live in the States, we probably would've been the family hosting the harvest party at church.

So, I get really excited about the fun, costume and candy aspect of Halloween.  Of course, I don't like the evil and scary aspect of Halloween (the scariest movie I've ever seen is Jumanji).  I do, however LOVE costumes, as I've mentioned in the past, and candy - well, I love candy too.  So, yeah, this is right up my alley.

Our church started an annual "Light Up The Night" Trunk or Treat event last year.  We love it!  Last year we did a David and Goliath trunk.  We painted a Goliath face on foam board, cut two holes in it, and had a bean bag toss game for the kids.

This year, I really wanted to make a sushi costume for Aidan.  I had seen it on pinterest, and thought it was adorable!  So, we went with Matthew 4:19.  "Jesus said to them: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Here's what I used for Aidan's sushi costume:

- white onesie

- felt (peach, salmon, pink, green, black)

- thread

- scissors

- fabric glue

Directions:

1. Draw out a basic pattern on paper.

2. Cut them out, pin them on felt, and cut them out as well.

3. Glue pieces on top of each other.

4. Finally, glue and/or sew pieces together.

Voila!

After that, I took to the actual trunk.

You'll need:

- Large piece of cardboard, cover with blue bulletin board paper

- Blue plastic table cloths

- Different shades of blue balloons

- Chinese lanterns

- Googley eyes

- Colored paper

- Duct tape

- Rod

- Yarn

- Large magnet

- Clasp-type paper clip

- Swedish Fish Halloween candy

- Hot glue gun

Chinese lantern fish:

1. Cut out fins and such, out of colored paper, and glue them to the Chinese lanterns, to make fish or other sea creatures. 

2. Then, using hot glue, glue them on, along with the google eyes.

How to put it together:

1. First, we took the lid off the part of the trunk that has our spare tire.  And then, the spare tire.  We then laid the blue plastic tablecloths down, and the large piece of cardboard in the back.

2. Using the duct tape, attach balloons to the piece of cardboard.

3. Turn rod and yarn into a fishing pole.  Add magnet to the end.

4. Hang fish, and other sea animals from trunk.

5. Put large clasp-type paper clips on the bags of Swedish Fish.

6. As the kids walk up, let them use the magnet to "fish" for Swedish Fish!  Just make sure you remember to take the paper clip off before handing it to the kid.  Can you imagine how much a mom might freak out, to find a paper clip in their kid's Halloween bag!?  Yikes!

7. Also, Dan and I bought Sriracha shirts from Target.  Have I mentioned yet?  I love Target!

Our Sushi Baby

"Fishers Of Men"

I'm already thinking of ideas for next year... it may involve spandex.  Or lava lamps...  Shag carpet?  Or capes...?  

So, have you or your family ever done anything for a trunk or treat?  What ideas do you have?  What are your thoughts on celebrating Halloween?

I'm so glad you stopped by!  Please leave me your thoughts!

Fall Family Pictures - 5 Tips On What To Wear, What To Do

One of the reasons I love the Fall, is because it means it's time for family pictures.  It's one of those things that Dan lets me indulge in.  I love thinking about the colors, the location, and the feel.  I thought I'd share my top suggestions for achieving the pictures you dream about.  

Again, full disclosure; I am not a photographer, and have not taken photography lessons.  I just love colors, and think I have a pretty good eye for things.  We loved our photographer, Hilary from Southern Sisters Photography and will be using her again.

1.  Colors 

Think about where you're going to display your pictures.  If you have a very dominant color in the room you will be displaying it in - say red - don't go for clashing colors - like purple and orange.  Neutrals are usually a pretty safe bet.  Also, think about colors already in your wardrobe.  For example, we bought Aidan's outfit, and loved it.  We coordinated our colors around it.

2. Black and White

Some pictures look better in black and white, some don't - it's worth a try, either way.  Different textures make for more interesting black and white pictures.

3. Lighting 

After sunrise, and before sunset are the prettiest times of day.  We opted for morning light.  We met with our photographer at 8:30 at a beautiful park here in Jacksonville.  I love what the light did in the pictures!

   

4. Work with what you've got / be patient

For the first little bit, Aidan was really into the whole process, and smiling at the camera, and being a ham.

After a while though, he needed a break, so we did some more candid shots.

5. Know the shots you want

I really wanted a sweet picture of Aidan with each of us.

I wanted a cozy snuggly one.  Now here, we ran into a little trouble.  The blanket wasn't big enough to wrap around all of us (hence the slightly awkward arm in one of the pictures), but I love how we all look!

And lastly, our photographer brought a "Merry Christmas" banner for us to hold.  I really love how this picture turned out, however the picture we used last year was very similar, and we wanted to do something different.  So, what I'm going to do, is have it printed, and bring it out as a Christmas decoration.

I hope these tips and suggestions helped you with planning your pictures!  Please let me know if you have any extra ideas you would add!  Thank you for stopping by!