Gimme a break

Thanksgiving Break is 5 days in for us (yes, the kids have been off all weekend and all week!) 

Here is what we have been up to- 

We set up the Christmas tree- YES, I know its before Thanksgiving and Mark gave me the hardest time since we usually do it the day after Thanksgiving, but I was SO in the Christmas mood this week! 

This year, I got the kids these cute clay stockings and 

wrote their names on them- they were $1 at Big lots!! 

(our tradition is to get each of the kids an ornament every year and 

when they are grown, they can have all their ornaments for their tree)

Our tree is FILLED with ornaments that were mine when I was little- 

mom did one for us every year till we were about 6 or 7 (and she sewed them all!)

And as a highlight to my tree this year, she gave me all 

these old wooden ornaments that are SO vintage- from when I was a kid- I LOVE them! 

I remember playing with them when Justin and I were little- we would act out all these scenes on our Christmas tree with  the ornaments! It was fun!

The kids have also made a Christmas countdown paper chain and 

look forward to breaking one off every morning! 

32 days left! 

Grandma in PA also sent them the chocolate countdown calendars 

that my Grandma always used to get me when I was a kid:) 

They cant wait till Dec 1st to start opening the doors!

 (Elijah was still recovering from being sick, so he went to bed early that night- 

I will get a pic with him and his ornament soon:)

Another thing we have been doing is this cool Thanksgiving pack thing that I downloaded for free.

It was filled with the story of Thanksgiving and all these Bible verses, songs, crafts amd recipes to retell and remember why we have Thanksgiving! I have loved doing it with the kids.

We made homemade playdough below...

Notice the girls outfits- oh my! They wanted to wear their Christmas dresses- whatever:)

 We also made these cute little placecard Mayflower boats 

for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at Grandmas! 

They turned out SO cute!!

We have a whole fleet of about 20 of them!

Its gonna be a fun Thanksgiving!

I am making my moms recipe for mashed potatoes 

and a new recipe that I found for sweet potatoes!

YUMMM!!

 We have stayed home all week except to go to the park...

Its nice not having tons to do and just hanging at home.

The kids seem to like it too!

Although around 4 o clock, they are ready for Daddy to get home!

 And the last thing I have been very busy with is crafting:) 

I am working on making a LOT of Christmas gifts this year to save money and whats better than a gift that was handmade with love:) I have all the girls friends gifts almost made and the girls have helped me make them!! and they turned out AWESOME!! I cant wait to get pictures up of what I've made but it will have to be right around Christmas so I dont spoil the surprise! 

I also have been working on this CUTE garland for our tree- every year I do a gold  theme for our tree but this year I am doing a BRIGHT rainbowish color tree- its SO pretty- 

I found all these colorful balls last year for like $1after Christmas. 

I do not have garland so I found this idea below on a blog and have been sewing away.

IT TAKES FOREVER!

But I am very happy with the result!

It just might take me till next Christmas to get it all done- 

right now, I just have one strand done for the top of the tree- 

I want to make 3 more strands but they will have to be longer than the one before 

which means they will TAKE longer!

I also need to get white on the tree- 

any suggestions for what to add that I could make? or that is inexpensive?

I am thinking white fabric stars..

So that is what we have been up to this week of Thanksgiving Break!

Daddy is home today and we are going out to lunch with Grandpa so the kids are greatly looking forward to that! so am I!!