Another holiday season has nearly come and gone. I couldn’t let the season pass completely without sharing our home tour from this year. I changed up our decor quite a lot but I wouldn’t say I simplified anything. Please allow me to share my favorite features with you.
Living room
When you walk in our front door, you’ll see this wreath that I made last year. Our living room. The plastic on the couch is to discourage cat scratching. Daisy wouldn’t get out of the picture. Our fireplace mantle is one of my favorite areas of our house to decorate, especially at Christmas time. These zinc houses were a Target dollar spot find and I love them! On our sofa table in the foyer. My grandfather built this manger for me some time ago.
Our family room
Perhaps my favorite room in the house, for lots of reasons.
Kitchen
My grandmother’s food scale, and my great grandmother’s butter churn are a part of this vignette. I love snowmen! You’ll see these everywhere.My grandma made this yo-yo quilt Christmas picture for us.
Dining room
The girls’ trees
Each of our girls have a small white tree with pink and purple ornaments
Our little bedroom tree
Bathrooms: hall
Master bath
Outdoors
Merry Christmas to you all. We hope you enjoyed our home tour.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and we are excited! We wanted to share some of our favorite traditions with you all, as we prepare for Christmas Day.
1. We read The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve night.
This has been a tradition since the oldest Lumber was a tiny tot. We make it a point to make popcorn or hot chocolate and read this classic story together. If you’d like to own a copy of this beautiful book, you can get one here.
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2. Ride around and look at Christmas decorations and lights
Get some hot chocolate and ride around your town looking at the Christmas decorations. This cute set up was spotted while we were headed to see The Nutcracker.
And you never know, you just might find a cute photo op (if your kids will cooperate, that is).
3. Get your elf on
We have a blast with our elves on the shelf. You could always read the Elf on the Shelf book or watch the movie. If you don’t have them, you can get them here.
4. Turn off all the lights and simply enjoy your Christmas tree
This is one of my favorite things to do, and it doesn’t have to be Christmas Eve. Just enjoy the peace and quiet and bask in the soft glow of the lights. This leads me to my next thing.
5. Read the Christmas story in Luke.
This is my favorite tradition. There is no Christmas without Jesus, and He is definitely the most important part of the Christmas season.
What are some of your family’s traditions?
We will resume regular schedule on December 26. Have a wonderful Christmas Day!
I don’t know about you, but I love a great handmade ornament. Someday I hope to have an entire tree filled with my children’s handmade creations. These ornaments are simple and cute, and you can definitely make them with your kids.
1. Snowman face ornament
Just take an ordinary Christmas ball and coat it in epsom salt. You may need more than one coat. Then, fashion a “carrot nose” from a pipe cleaner and glue the carrot and two buttons to create the snowman face. Use an infant sock to create the hat.
2. Pine cone ornaments
You can make these ornaments so easily: just get some jute twine, ribbon for bows and some pretty pine cones from your yard. Tie the ribbon into bows and tie the jute twine around the bow knot. Hot glue the bow and hanger to the pine cone. That’s really it!
3. Snow globeornament
We made these ornaments by gluing a tiny Christmas tree inside an empty clear ball. Then, we added some epsom salt “snow.”
4. Pipe cleaner candy cane
This is by far the easiest ornament on this list, and you can make it with small kids. All you need are red pipe cleaners and white- no glue and no cutting! Simply twist them together and curve them into a candy cane shape.
5. Picture frame initial ornament
Want a super cute gift for a friend or teacher? Go grab some inexpensive small picture frames and stick on letters (or cut them out with a Cricut or Silhouette). Attach a cute piece of ribbon and you are set!
Have fun creating!! What are some of your favorite handmade ornaments?
It’s that time again! We are gearing up for our busiest season here at Lumber in my Minivan: Christmas!
Each year, we decorate our home and we share 24 Christmas related posts during the month of December. It’s hard and it’s time consuming but it’s a lot of fun!!
Each day, from now through Christmas Eve, we will share something fun and Christmas related. Here is what we have in store for this month:
1. Planning the perfect Christmas dinner
2. Christmas planning binder
3. Recycled Christmas Wreath
4. Fun family traditions
5. Fun Christmas card photo ideas
6. Gifting alternatives
7. Christmas cookie recipe
8. Gingerbread houses the easy way
9. Handmade gift ideas
10. Why I put up six trees each year
11. Southern Christmas traditions
12. Christmas light balls
13. Fun front porch ideas
14. Christmas floral hacks
15. The cutest mantle ever
16. Dollar store crafts
17. Santa photo hacks
18. Christmas morning photo shoot ideas
19. Gifts for grandparents
20. Bible storybook roundup
21. Holiday safety ideas
22. unexpected Christmas cheer (mailman gifts)
23. Christmas candy recipes
24. Candlelight tour
We hope you enjoy our 24 days of Christmas series this year!! Merry Christmas!
Last year, we found ourselves scrambling to make Thanksgiving plans amidst a global pandemic. Unable to gather with local family and unable to travel to out of state family, we decided to host our very own Thanksgiving celebration at home for the four of us.
While I am a decent cook, I’m not a chef. I’m far from it. No one at my house is going to go hungry, but I’m not used to cooking large holiday feasts.
Dinner turned out well, and it tasted great, but there are still a few things I would like to share to make your life easier.
1. Plan ahead!
Do as much as you can ahead of time. Plan your meal in advance. Make your shopping list early and buy the ingredients a week in advance- that way, you have plenty of time to make changes or pick up additional ingredients. If there are any dishes you can make a day early, do it. Save yourself some time and last minute planning.
2. Not everything has to be made from scratch.
Not everything tastes good premade but you can get away with using some canned or premade goods. Why not save yourself some time by using frozen yeast rolls or canned yams? If it works for you, and your family is happy, why does it matter?
3. Make sure you have extra cookware on hand
Most of us don’t typically use three or four pots at once to cook dinner, so a lot of us don’t have that many pots. Try to calculate when you will be cooking what so you can ensure you have enough pots before you get started. This way, you can borrow or purchase extras in advance.
4. Research unfamiliarrecipes
Never cooked a turkey before? No problem! Just research the recipe that meets your needs! We are a busy family with small, picky children who won’t eat just anything. I searched for a few weeks before I found a turkey recipe I thought everyone in our family would enjoy!
5. And lastly, don’t stress over the small details
Your kids and your family aren’t going to remember whether everything is perfect- they are going to remember how much they enjoyed family dinners with their loved ones. Don’t stress on the small details- remember to relax and have a good time with your family.
