Reindeer Games

Strolling through Pinterest the other day, I noticed a cute homemade ornament project. The current weather pattern yesterday (freezing rain, snow, more rain) caused us to not be able to go outside and play in the snow (the 6+" of snow to turn into slush) with the girls. Instead their dad got them to clean their room and go through lots of clothes and toys...joy for a child, huh? ha I thought they could probably use something "fun" to do after cleaning and managed to be able to pull together the items needed for this project here at home. Yay for cheap projects!

I found the original idea here.

And here are ours...

So now the girls have some special ornaments to put on the tree! :) Hopefully we can continue this tradition every year.

Saying Goodbye...

...is never easy.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we had been spending much of our time visiting Eric's mamaw and taking her pumpkin pies. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we spent countless hours at her home with the entire family...watching her struggle to hold on and being so thankful that on Sunday morning, Dec. 1st...she found her way home to the Lord.

Yesterday was a sad day as we laid sweet mamaw to rest. I am so blessed to have spent the last year and a half getting to know her. It seems such a short period of time for all the smiles, hugs and I Love Yous that she shared! It was a very sweet service and many tears were shed.

After having lived through 3 of my own grandparents passing away, it was different to be somewhat of a bystander to this experience. I know that doesn't adequately describe the feelings, but not really any words to put it into. I spent my time just trying to be there for everyone, especially Eric and the girls. This was Jordan's first memorable funeral, as she was extremely little when papaw died. Emma barely remembers papaw's funeral (9 years ago), but as a teenager she wanted to be stoic and not cry, usually easier said than done. It has been especially rough on Eric since he now has 1 grandparent remaining and she lives 2 hours away from us...we have vowed to make more trips to see her.

We now have a beautiful basket of greenery & a fern to nurture in mamaw's memory (one of the flowers sent to the funeral). Lots of great memories shared the past few weeks...such a wonderful lady to be thankful we've known and loved.

Decorating for Christmas & DIY Stockings

I love love love Christmas lights! My favorite thing to do is sit in the dark with only the Christmas tree lighting the room. :)

We decorated a little early this year because we wanted to take a family picture on Thanksgiving by the tree. Looking back on this past week's events (a post for another day this week...I hope), I am glad I had the decorating done early because there wasn't time to do it as we normally do on Black Friday.

Enjoy looking at some of our pretties :)

mom's tree (aka the living room)

the "s&m" deer as we have affectionately laughed about these for a few years (my mom has had them since I was little)

our stockings and fake mantel! ha (Thanks to Missy!)

our tree (and the girls being silly)

our fake mantel complete with puppy dog stockings

And a little DIY project for the crafty types! ;) We needed a stocking for our new baby, Sadie, and Lucky just had a hand-me-down last year...so I was on a mission to create cheap stockings for the both of them. I bought the stockings at Dollar General for $1 each. We already had a set of stencils at home, as well as a brush and the black paint.

And now all the dogs have stockings...and yes, they already have goodies in them! Hmmm...wonder if they've been good enough!?! Emma doesn't think so. haha