Pin(s) of the Week: Thanksgiving & Christmas Projects

What a nice Thanksgiving break we had! I won't say that it was totally relaxing though - because I sure had enough projects to do on top of making 20 lbs. of mashed potatoes, Christmas shopping for sales, and decorating for Christmas.
Thanksgiving day was nice - we ate baked oatmeal I'd made the night before and watched the parade before going over to Pat & Izzy's. Carolina had had it by the time the meal was just starting - so I walked her back over Grandma & Papa's for a nap and Todd brought me a place of food. It wasn't so bad sitting in a quiet house for a couple of hours listening to Christmas music, working on my projects, and online shopping. That afternoon we all went to see "Frozen" - it was Carolina's first theatre movie - she did pretty well considering she's a barely-2-year-old and it was a great movie!
Here are the projects I was working on this weekend...

1. Christmas blankets - I decided a fun tradition would be to give the kids their first Christmas gift on Thanksgiving night - well this didn't happen until the next day, but still. The gift will be something to do with Christmas, a decoration for their room, pajamas, or in this case a Christmas blanket. I had the fabric from a couple of years ago - so I just got some fleece to back it.

Lina's blanket has the cutest matryoshka
nativity characters on it.

Liam's has vintage Santas and trees on it...
I had some trouble with the corners.

The finished projects - they loved them :)

2. Advent Calendar - I've loved these little advent calendars with the doors for so long - this year I had a coupon and we finally bought one. Thanks to Pinterest I found a great list of bible verses for each day/door - and some ideas for activities to put inside as well, some will just have candy too.

3. Christmas card holder - I wanted some easy/cute way to display all the great Christmas cards we get - so I used this cute hook I already had - tied some ribbon I already had - and used some mini clothespins I already had - perfect!

 4. Christmas Cards - I was on the ball this year with pictures and card ordering and got a great deal on them because I was ready in time for the sales! I even got free Christmas return address labels from Shutterfly and ordered my Christmas stamps from USPS ahead of time. They are done and in the mail people - so be on the lookout!

5. Vintage Ornament Display - This was wasn't planned - but as I was unpacking my decorations I found this box of vintage ornaments that Steve had given me earlier this year, from his childhood. Some of them will go on our tree, but the more delicate ones I wasn't sure what to do with - so in a jar they go, wrapped with baker's twine and labeled on top. I'm really happy with how this came out :)

Getting back on a routine isn't the most fun - but hey, only 3 weeks (or 13 days) of work until Christmas break! Other than that we don't have a tree because we put it off and now it's rainy/snowy/hail-y out, I'm ready for Christmas!!!