Thanksgiving

This year we got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice!  It was wonderful because we had two family get-togethers, one on Thanksgiving and one the Sunday before.  Usually we trade of every other year.  We spend many a year in our early days trying to get to multiple dinners in differing cities and it nearly always ended in argument and frustration.  Ever since we decided to trade off it has actually been a relaxing and enjoyable holiday.

This year was to be spent with Josh's parents, but due to the fact that Kelly has been working out of state and would not be home on Thanksgiving Day the opted to do their dinner on the Sunday prior.  It was nice to sit ans visit, enjoy great food and relish the last major holiday that Brooklyn would experience as a "first."

On Thanksgiving Day we headed to my grandma's house for an early dinner.  The food was great and of course there was way too much dessert!  We ended our festivities with the traditional gathering in the living room of my grandparents house for the review of the Black Friday Ads...  Lincoln had fun looking at the toys and Brooklyn even wen through a couple!

We decided to catch the 10:00 p.m. showing of Breaking Dawn Part 2 before joining the mentally insane for those shopping steals.  Hahaha!  We ended up pulling and all nighter and I didn't get to bed until 5:00 a.m. the next morning!  

Christmas Prep

For a plethora of reasons Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year.  This year I got more into the holiday spirit so to speak than last year because, well I was not pregnant for Christmas this year!  Nor was I irritable about still being pregnant.  Oh, and I was not taking care of a newborn baby.

We ended up not being able to go out and cut down a tree as we had originally planned due to the fact that we have a three year old that occasionally has meltdowns...  Family tree day was also a meltdown day, so instead Josh drove to the nearest store selling trees and picked out the Brannin family tree of 2012.  By the time he got home and we got it set up in the house Lincoln had calmed down and came to his senses.  He was very excited and eager to help me decorate the tree.  For those that know my, I am pretty anal when it comes to my decor and wanting things to look just so...  But for the tree this year I improvised and I am glad that I did.  I told Lincoln the story of each of our special ornaments as he helped me pick the right spot to place them on the tree.  I made sure all the fragile ones were high and out of both kids' reach and the rest I didn't care about.  Lincoln then helped me to put the "decor" onto the tree.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids had quite a jolly time rearranging the bottom third of the tree and from time to time I would find random things in the tree such as oranges, hair ties, and toys...

Decorating for Christmas was only the beginning, we also sang a lot of Christmas Carols and watched many a Christmas movie.  "Jingle Bells" was Lincoln's favorite carol followed by "Deck the Halls" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."  As for movies we watched nearly every one you could possibly think of from "The Polar Express" (which mind you we had been watching all year long...) to "Home Alone", to "It's a Wonderful Life."  Lincoln also had an advent calendar this year in which he was able to practice his counting as we counted down the days until Christmas.

About a week before Christmas Lincoln was convinced that he was on the "naughty list."  For whatever reason he was stuck on that and no matter what we tried to tell him he was not convinced that he would be getting presents from Santa.  He was not in any way distraught about being on the "naughty list either which was weird.  He finally a few nights before Christmas told us that he was indeed on the "nice list" and would be getting presents from Santa.  In fact he was sure he would be receiving a Chick Hicks car to be specific.  While he may have for reasons unbeknownst to us have landed on the "nice list" he was now convinced that Daddy was not.  Daddy was on the "naughty list" and would be getting cold rocks from Santa!

Christmas Eve we have a tradition of watching "It's a Wonderful Life" with my parents (pretty much only my dad and I enjoy the movie while the rest of the family suffers though the "long, boring" story.)  On our drive home Lincoln was telling us all about Santa and how he needed rescuing!  He was very animated and adamant that Santa had gotten stuck in the mud.  He continued to tell us that we were the "team" that would need to rescue Santa from the mud.  Specifically he pointed out that the "team" consisted of Brooklyn the Baby, Daddy Josh, himself, and Mama Victoria Jean (yes that is what he has been calling me?!  So weird my child :-) lol).  His imagination right now is amazing and I do not want to forget any of his stories!  When we got home we put out a cupcake and apple cider  with a straw (per Lincoln's specific request) for Santa and some broccoli for his reindeer before forcing the wound up child to head to bed.  That left a very tiered Mom and Dad to make sure all the preparations were ready for Christmas morning....

Halloween

Alright, this is a bit overdue...  Halloween this year I found myself asking the question, "why the heck do we do this?!"  It was stressful to say the least, between running all over the place, getting two kids in and out of the car, and my eldest child throwing a fit and refusing to wear a costume.  Good times!  Being that Lincoln is so reserved, shy and clings to routine I had a feeling Lincoln would not wear a costume, but when I asked him about it repeatedly in the weeks prior, he assured me he wasted to dress up.  We found a "Jake the Pirate" costume at Costco and upon arriving home I decided to see if he would even put it on.  Much to my surprise he did.  The only thing about the costume he refused to wear were the boots.  So that evening he ran all over the house playing pirates and I thought that my mommy radar was off on the whole costume thing.

Haha!  Then Halloween actually arrived...  He refused to wear his costume even after reminding him that he couldn't technically trick-or-treat without a costume.  It was no use.  Tears were flying as we flew out the driveway to our first stop, Great Grandma and Grandpa's house.  There the kids received WAY TOO MUCH CANDY!  Full size candy bars of course as my Grandpa sees little use for the mini's.  

Next stop Grandma Tammy and Grandpa Mark's house.  By this time he was in a much better mood although he did let me know in the car that, and I quote, "I am never wearing a costume ever again Mama."  He was also getting the idea of wishing everyone a Happy Halloween!  It was really cute :-)

Our last stop was at Grandma Danette's house.  We visited, had dinner and the kids played for a while before we finally headed home for the night.   

      

The Grinch Christmas Sign

I found a sign on Pinterest that I absolutely adored and decided that attempting to re create it was a must.  For whatever reason I had the notion in my head that I would whip out this sign quickly and that it would be a piece of cake.  however as most projects tend to, this one was not as easy as once naively thought.   The time could have seemed longer as I was working on this project in the middle of the night as well.  Those of you that are mothers understand how difficult it is to find time for crafts during the daylight hours!  In fact I am looking into how it would be possible to function daily with no sleep at all in order to accomplish my everyday mundane yet necessary tasks, be an astounding wife mother and teacher, and still have time for crafts and my long dusty book list.  When I figure it out I am sure I will have made millions off the idea and all my problems will be solved...  Haha!  Anyway, back to the sign...  As with all of my hand made projects there are imperfections that will jump out at me each tim I glance upon them and this sign is no different.  Overall I am thrilled at the end result being my first attempt. Now the million dollar question is whether to donate it to the staff auction at work or keep it?  I could always make another...

I started with a piece of old cedar board that was salvaged from the dark abyss of my grandpa's shop.  No cuts were needed, just a good old fashioned sanding.    

Paint was step two. I used a combination of spray paint and wood paint. 

Cutting and applying the letters was the most daunting part was . I used my Cricut to cut the letters onto contact paper. I then arranged and applied the contact paper where I wanted it.  

When everything was finally in place I painted over the contact paper template. 

 

Once it dried I peeled it back. At this point I became slightly discouraged because I had a lot of areas to touch up.  The picture is the result after the touch up job.  You can see that some of the paint is still wet.

 

After touching up the letters by hand I felt like it needed something more. Hence the snowflake was added :). This project was made from scrap wood and materials I had in my craft supplies, so the total cost $0!!   

**I will need to buy a metal fixture for the back so it can be hung on the wall, so there will be a slight cost.