It's Christmas Time

Last week, Chris was sick with a flu-like virus. He was pretty much down for the count for 6 or 7 days. Last Saturday, we didn't think he was up for our usual Christmas tradition of going to Beckwith's Family Christmas tree farm to cut down our own tree, so we headed over to Chuck Hafner's instead to pick up a pre-cut one. Once we got it home, poor Chris had to rest every so often while we decorated the tree because he was so weak from the virus. Poor baby!

But we managed to get it together and now we have this beautiful scene in our living room.

You can see in the picture above that we used some tin can lights I made to decorate the tree, as well as some pretty colored patio lights, which you can see better in the picture below. These were a bridal shower gift from my maid of honor last year. They look so good that I might have to try to find a few more strands for next year.

This past weekend, Chris was feeling much better (thankfully!) and even went out Christmas shopping. He returned with a giant present that he wrapped before I got a chance to peak at it. The only problem ... the kitties thought it was a present for them. You can see Zoro in the picture below sitting on it.

Well, the next morning, Chris came down into the living room ahead of me and all I heard was "Ah! The kitties unwrapped your present! Don't come in here!" followed by the sound of paper rustling and scotch tape being generously unwound and applied. haha Then we decided it was best to move that present to the front porch where the kitties couldn't get to it before I got to unwrap it for Christmas.

With that crisis averted, Chris and I focused our attention on decorating the outside of the house. We used to always hang icicle lights from the eaves with little hooks that were screwed right into the wood. But if you recall, we recently had ventilated soffits installed over the original wood, so that meant no more hooks.

Instead, we picked up some little S-hooks to dangle over the aluminum flashing around the front windows, and hung the lights from them. Then I lined the bushes with blinking colored lights and we put our fake white tree on the porch. Chris set everything up with timers, so all the lights come on at the same time every evening and shut off at night.

We also wrapped our lamp post in green lights and added this cute little Santa to our mailbox for something new this year. The pole that was included with the metal sign (from Target) was pretty flimsy, so I used some leftover ribbon from all the gift wrapping to secure the sign to the mailbox for added stability.

Lucky for us, we have a Watch Cat to keep an eye on the house whenever we're out around the holidays. haha

Another fun Christmas activity for us this weekend was decorating gingerbread cookies. Chris and I decided to go the easy (and delicious) route this year with store-bought cookies. So then we just added icing to create these adorable little guys.

Chris decided to go the Leonardo da Vinci route and decorate some cookies using both hands at the same time. Such a Renaissance man, my husband.

The results, however, were more surreal than Renaissance. haha

So that's what we've been up to so far this holiday season. We're looking forward to celebrating with friends and family soon!