Free Printable! {Christmas Story Advent Calendar}

I can't believe that December is just a few days away!

A few weeks ago, I started thinking about what we were going to do for an Advent calendar this year.  (In addition to our Lego Advent calendar of course!)  I knew I wanted it to have something to do with the Christmas story, & found this one from OneDogWoof that I thought would be fun to put my own little "modern" spin on.  I didn't really intend to share it, but after several requests from family & friends, I thought, why not?!

I hung ours with washi tape, baker's twine, & mini clothes pins in our kitchen window.  It's the perfect way to remind us throughout holidays what the true meaning of the Christmas season is.

They're set up to print as 3x5 cards with 4 per page.  I used a round corner punch for a little added flair.  My friend Angie plans to put hers on a key ring for her kids to flip through & also printed a few extra sets for gifts!

Just click here to download & print!

Download here!

Have a safe & happy Thanksgiving!!!

Christmas Morning Fun

I was so excited for this Christmas for a few reasons.  First, it was Grady's first time waking up on Christmas morning at our house.  I couldn't wait to have him wake up to discover that Santa had been to our house, had eaten the cookies & milk we had set out for him, & had left a few gifts in our stockings!  Second, Grady is 3.5 now, & TOTALLY gets the whole Christmas thing.  He was old enough this year to feel the magic & really enjoy everything about it.  Lastly, we got to have our extended family Christmas at my parents' house right here in town!  Not everyone made it, but the crew that came was super fun.

A couple of quick pictures of Christmas morning at the Starzl house...

We really try to limit the amount of gifts we get him as he really doesn't need anything at all.  We don't ever really have a budget either...instead we just try to find a few things that we know he'll really love.  There's nothing super unique as he's a pretty easy kid to please!  Here's a breakdown of what we bought this year:

1. Michaelangelo Ninja Turtle action figure (Did you know that we couldn't find Leo at any of our local stores, or anywhere in the whole city of Omaha...crazy!)
2. Cars 2 Diecast Cars (he's got quite the collection going!)
3. Mini Marshmallow Shooter (Doesn't work real well - kind of a disappointment.  We'll have to try stale or frozen mallows as the "chute" gets too sticky!)
4. Art Lab book (I've heard great things...can't wait to try some projects!)
5. Ninja Turtles movie 4-pack (so funny that these guys are back.)
6. Lego Batcave (he'd been asking for this since September.)

All of my links are from Amazon, but we found a lot of the stuff at Target, Walmart, & Toys 'R Us.

Christmas Cookies!

Only a couple more Christmas posts left...I promise!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is making cutout sugar cookies.  I remember making them every year growing up...& how fun it was decorating each shape.  The candlesticks were my favorite!  Now my favorites are the Christmas lights & the doves as well as making mini cookies for Santa's elves.  :)

Grady really got into it this year.  He poured all of the ingredients into the mixer himself (except for the egg), & mixed up the powdered sugar frosting too!  He went for more of the abstract/tie-dyed look on his cookies which turned out pretty awesome.  I tried to keep things simple by only doing 4 basic colors of frosting with a few sprinkles, although if it were just me frosting them I'd probably have had every color in the rainbow!  :)

Grady's special request was that I make him a "cock robin" cookie...from one of his favorite obscure nursery rhymes.  See his tie-dyed candy cane back there?!  He's such an artist!  ;)

There was just enough dough left over to make a special cookie just for Grady.  His new favorite Christmas book this year was "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", so I frosted a little Grinch head for him.  Loved it!

Maybe I should have made more than one...

Christmas Tree Farm Photo Shoot

A couple of weeks ago we had family pictures taken by one of my very talented high school friends.  I'm embarrassed to say that Grady is 3.5 years old & this is the first time we've done formal family pictures.  Yikes!

I came up with the idea to do a shoot at a local tree farm while we chose & cut down our tree.  I had made a quilt, bought an awesome vintage thermos & some old mugs, stayed up late the night before making homemade marshmallows, & made 2 strings of garland to hang from the trees.  We ended up using none of it - wopwop.  The morning was cold, we weren't dressed that warm, & Grady was WILD.  (Most likely due to the fact that he was freezing.)

That being said, I was worried that the whole session would be a giant flop.  I really was just hoping for one useable picture for our Christmas cards.  I should have given more credit to Lindsey.  She was able to work her magic & got several beautiful shots of Mr. Crabbypants.  It might not have turned out exactly as I had envisioned, but I'm in love with the shots we got!

I'll share my Christmas card design next week after they've all arrived at their destinations!

Trimming the Tree

This past weekend we finally put up our (big) Christmas tree.  I'm typically a day after Thanksgiving decorator, but this year we were getting a real tree & had to wait until after our family pictures on the 3rd to do it!  (I'll share those tomorrow!)

Grady was all aboard helping decorate this year.  He helped with everything from stringing up the Christmas lights to perfectly placing each little ornament.

In years past I've gone with kind of a rustic "theme"...plaid/flannel ribbon, lots of flowers and cattails, woodsy animals, & rustic wooden stars.  This year I wanted to change it up some without having to go out & buy all new ornaments.  I told Grady we could only use ornaments & flowers that were green, white, or brown.  I'm really loving how it's a little more simplistic this year!  Although my tree skirt doesn't match...maybe I'll have to make a new one this weekend....hmmm...

I made the flower pom-pom garland after reading this tutorial...it was super easy, but kind of time consuming.  I'll for sure do it again in the future though!

He's so focused!  Gotta get it in there perfectly - wonder where he gets that from?  :)

And just for reference...here's what our tree has looked like the past few years.  And yes, that is our elf on the shelf zip-lining to the tree!  (Excuse the photo quality...the photos below were taken on my iphone.)

I do still like the old tree...but I'm really loving the simple color scheme of the new one.  There's also something fun about having a real tree!  Even though I get a little sad every time I see a tree get cut down.  I also have a hard time cutting flowers out of the garden myself...I just feel like I'm hurting the plant...I know, it's silly & I'm weird.  :)

Letters from Santa & Other Christmas Cheer

I know it still feels a little early to think about Christmas, it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but it'll be here before we know it.

I just finished up the 2012 edition of my "Letter from Santa" last night & as of this afternoon it's officially available on my Etsy store!  Woohoo!  Last year Grady was SO thrilled to get his in the mail...he ended up sleeping with it the first few nights & kept it safe in his nightstand the rest of the year.  Crazy kid!

(This year's edition even has a short note from Rudolph!)

I've also got a handful of other holiday prints in stock with more coming soon!

12 Days of Christmas Print

Fa La La Print

Tis the Season Print

Happy Holidays!