Christmas Highlights

We were lucky to be able to visit all of our family again this year for Christmas. We even planned it in a way that we would have a few days at home to relax and enjoy some time to ourselves at the end. We feel like this was the best Christmas traveling we've done yet.

First, I have to say I came up with the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! It's chewy, but not too much so like many cookies can be. This is because I grind the oats into a powder first. Don't these look delicious?? If you want the recipe, let me know and I can email it to you :)

Back to our Christmas...

We had our own little Christmas again the Sunday before Christmas. Here are our gifts to each other beneath the tree:

Our family haha

Mom Bevan's tree:

And their new sofa/loveseat set and new tv:

We arrived in Hollidaysburg on Christmas Eve around 4:30 PM. The table was set for dinner, but no one was home! They were all at church and visiting others. We had a delicious meal and enjoyed a fun evening with family.

Apparently something was funny here in this one haha.

A beautifully wrapped present that I received :) The gift was just as fabulous, in my opinion.

Opening presents:

We ventured to NJ on Christmas morning as we've been doing for the past few years. Here's a group shot of us all at Mima's. Even Uncle Michael made an appearance!

Hanging out with family:

On Sunday we celebrated Christmas with Nana and Aunt Marian. Caleb was sick so unfortunately only Bella and Vasti made it out during dinner and opening presents. We did get to see Tim later which was good. The weather on Sunday was beautiful weather and we took some pictures outside.

Obviously this one's a little goofy...

...but this one's a bit nicer :)

Who are these two tough guys?

Father and son :)

Bella was very excited to open presents! It was the cutest thing :)

More present opening...

Traveling for Christmas can always be tiring, but we felt as though this year was our best planned week of Christmas and we hope to do something similar next year. We really enjoy seeing both sides of our family and are blessed to have such great families to visit. :)

New Kitchen Island :)

While waiting to pick up pizza one day during Christmas break at my parents' house, Peter and I stopped in VCF to look around. I'm still holding out for my matching end table! They have them for $250, but since I purchased my first one for $50 in the clearance section (with nothing wrong with it but a small scratch on the back that was barely visible), I can't justify $250 for the other! Even if it's just $300 for the set. One day I hope to see another clearance one to match :)

We didn't find it on this trip, but we did find this...

...a new kitchen island! On clearance for $96! :) They even had one in the warehouse so we didn't have to take the floor model :) It's a perfect size for our kitchen and matches the black in our current appliances, etc.

I thought it would look huge at first and that it would take a while to get used to it, but I'm already used to it and it's only the next morning! That must mean it was meant to be, right? :P

It provides great extra storage space. I was able to change some things around and get my extra funky dishes and new water goblets in our regular cupboard. I love that all of our dishes are now in one section in the kitchen :) It's the organization geek in me, what can I say?

Our new island also provides great additional counter area while cooking, etc. And the best part is that the top opens up to provide twice as much counter space!

It even has a marble insert for a cutting board.

Ahh, I love our new island! It was just what our little kitchen needed and just what we were looking for!

House Decorations

Peter and I decorated our house for Christmas during our days off after Thanksgiving. It was the earliest we've ever done it, but was nice to have them to enjoy. Since we're always gone for a week at Christmas, we don't get to enjoy them as much as we'd like to.

The potato sack bag by the TV is mine from when I was a child. My NeeNee had them for us and would fill them with lots of goodies. I was glad to get it after she died. It's a very special keepsake for me. I also really love the nativity my mom gave me that she has a matching set to.

Our newish loveseat has a Christmas throw on the back. The throw was also inherited from my grandma's house.

Our beautiful tree! (Please disregard our mess of a bookshelf and corner haha!) Last year I finally got a real star topper. I had been using a large star ornament because I couldn't find the right kind of topper. I scored this one at Kohl's on clearance and was more than pleased :) We used ribbon again instead of tinsel or garland because Cadi may eat it haha. I love the way the ribbon looks anyways though :) And our "skirt" is actually an old Christmas plaid tablecloth. I love the way it looks all bunched, but Cadi sometimes messes it up so it changes its shape during December haha. I have resorted to pinning it which seems to help.

My aunt Paula gave me this cute curio when she got her mom's. I love it and love that it lights inside. You can see my growing collection of Willow Tree figurines in it as well as some handmade knick knacks from my great-aunt Pat. She made the two on the top shelf (Bob Cratchit with Tiny Tim and Scrooge) from clay. Such talent!

I love this little nook in our living room beside the door, but never know what to do with it. There used to be wires hanging out from the non-working door bell, but we've fixed that. I got the nativity wall hanging for free last year from Kohl's. I saw it for $20 and loved it, but didn't want to pay full price. So I was waiting til closer to Christmas and they sold out online and in stores around us. I was so bummed! While driving home from Brandywine, on a complete whim, I asked Peter to stop at the Kohl's we passed on the way up. And they had one left! And it was on clearance for $5! And I had a $5 coupon so it was free. It was one of my favorite finds. I love the rustic wood and the nativity. I found the star this year at JoAnn's, but it was silver. I used the spray paint I used on our switch plates and it turned out perfect. I love the nook like this! :) Now I just need to figure out what to do with it the other 11 months of the year...haha.

This is our living room from the stairs. :)

Random knick knacks on our end table:

And this is our living room from the front door. I love it! It's so cozy, especially during Christmas time! :) The coffee table is also a new addition. My aunt Paula got a new coffee table and gave us hers. It's a perfect size for our space and matches our dark wood. We've only had it for a few weeks, but love it! 95% of our furniture is second hand from relatives or Craigslist. Our house isn't new and fancy and neither is the stuff in it, but we love it that way. Also, please don't mind the leg massager with the stack of blankets haha. That was just by the stairs to be taken up to our 3rd room.

This is the advent candle display I made last year. I wasn't a fan of anything I saw in stores and wanted something with just candles and greenery so I resorted to making it. Less than $15 later and this is the result. I love it. I also like that it's not a typical wreath shape.

This is probably my favorite find of this year. Originally $24.99 at Family Christian Bookstore, I paid $4.69! It must have been last year's product or something because it was 75% off and then I had a coupon for 25% off my entire purchase. I was originally looking for Christmas cards and found this on the bottom shelf in a plain white box with a yellow 75% off tag on it. Out of curiosity, I opened the box and was tickled when I saw what was inside. It's also a music box which is an added bonus since Peter and I both love those! They had 2 so I picked up one for my mom for a Christmas present as well :) I love Christmas and the decorations with snowmen, etc, but I really love nativity items which are hard to come by sometimes. At least ones that I don't think are cheesy looking, etc.

Here's one of the hutches in our dining room:

And here's the other one. The Christmas dishes are new from last year. I found the set on Craigslist for $35 for service for 12 + a serving set. They are the exact dishes my mom and NeeNee had and so it was such an awesome find for me! Peter didn't think we needed more dishes since we already had snowman dishes that we were given as a gift, but I just loved that they were the same I had seen/used growing up. I also like that they are red and green since our snowman dishes are blue. After Christmas we can use the snowman dishes during winter. :) I also bought that snowman cookie jar at JCP last year on super sale. I was excited because I was looking for a snowman cookie jar that matched those dishes. Peter thinks it's silly looking, but I like it :)

Here's our Christmas village that my aunt Paula and I bought a few years ago. It was in January and everything was 90% off so we got the entire village for around $15. We added some trees (2 that were plain for super cheap that my aunt painted) along with some people that I bought at Kohl's after Christmas as well for 80% off. Since it's so spread out, I also added two small houses that my aunt Pat made. They were also out of clay. The details on the small houses are amazing! Peter set up the village this year with some snow drifts and I love how it turned out!

Our porch got changed around some this year from the previous two years. On the porch is just the sled with greenery from the tree farm (picked up off the ground for free!). I thought it needed something else so I took some ribbon I already had and made a bow for it. I'm quite pleased with the results :)

The snowman, which used to be on the porch behind the sled, was put in the ground on the side of the walkway. It works much better there.

This is our front door. We used to have this on the inside, but since our door is dark this year after stripping and staining it, we needed something light and this worked wonderfully.

I'm still bummed that the screen doesn't come out in the dining room to put the 3rd swag in that window, but oh well. We also wrapped lights around just the top of the railing on the porch and then down the railing of the walkway and on our large bush out front. We used to just put lights on the porch up and down on the vertical railings, but I like how this looks much better.

Here's another picture with the lights on outside: