Our Handmade / Old-Fashioned DIY Christmas Tree

The last few years, we've been going to the same tree farm -- well, I don't even know that you can call it that -- just down the road from our house.

Think very rural Ma & Pop Shop -- except it's not a shop at all, it's literally their yard.  They stick a sign up at the end of their long, winding driveway and open up their property during Christmas time for you to come cut down your own tree.

We cut our tree down the Friday of deer hunting... can you tell? :)

Now, if you want a well-manicured, perfectly symmetrical tree -- this is not the place for you.

But if you love to "shop local", chit-chat with a sweet old lady who gives your kid candy, and you don't mind a "rustic" tree, then this IS the place for you!

Ellis spotted the blue-hued trees right away and insisted we get one... a blue spruce.
Ellis is on a real blue kick right now... every single piece of art he creates, is blue.  He requests to take a certain route to daycare, because of the blue tractor we *might* see parked outside on the way.  And when he sees blue Christmas lights on someone's house, he goes bonkers.

So, a blue spruce it was.  Picky as heck, but what the boy wants, the boy gets (kidding, of course).

In keeping with the "rustic" theme this year, I thought it would be fun to hand make most of the tree decor & do an Old-Fashioned themed Christmas tree.

Zac cut oranges & apples into thin slices, and we then dried them in the oven @ 200 degrees for 4 hours, flipping them every 30 minutes.  I love how these turned out!

We bought this bag of cinnamon sticks on Amazon, and then bundled them together with twine.

With the help of my niece Elena, nephew Kane, & Ellis, we went in the woods & gathered pine cones -- I dried them out in the oven, then hung them with twine.

We mixed equal parts applesauce & cinnamon together to form a dough, rolled it out & used a cookie cutter to make gingerbread men.  They baked for about 2.5 hours @ 200 degrees.  And, our house still smells like cinnamon -- these little cuties are potent!  

The topper is a stick Kane found, that made the perfect "star".

Lastly, I tied some red ribbon to a few branches to give the tree just a little pop of color.

All in all, the tree was a little extra work this year, but it was fun to do something different!  Plus, I love how it became a family affair... we each did a little bit to make it all come together.
 

 

Merry Christmas friends, it''ll be here soon!!

Previous Christmas Tree hunt posts:
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018

Christmas Time | 2018

What a month December was!

We spent all month getting ready for Christmas, starting with getting the tree (click here if you missed that post).
We kept our tree pretty Plain Jane this year, with shatterproof ornaments, because I didn't know how Ellis would be with it.
Overall, he was pretty good with leaving it alone, but a few times I would find a random ornament tucked away somewhere in the house, and I'm pretty sure it didn't walk off the tree by itself :)

My mom had a brilliant idea to give Ellis his own felt Christmas Tree, that he could decorate and re-decorate as much as his little heart desired.
Also, she HANDMADE this and all those little ornaments... isn't she awesome?!

We used Kelle Hampton's Holiday Bucket List this year to get in the Holiday spirit & we checked quite a few things off the list, including:

Making a red & green paper chain garland count down to Christmas, as well as homemade paper snowflakes that we hung in the kitchen window.

Ellis was a huge help, clearly.


We took a ride one evening to go look at Christmas lights.   Ellis would shout, "Ohhh, pwwwretty!" and "more, more, more!" It was so stinkin' cute.

We tried to visit Santa a couple times; neither time was well received by Ellis.  About as close as Ellis was willing to get to Santa, was Santa's mailbox.  Maybe next year he will actually sit on Santa's lap?

We decorated Christmas cookies.

We watched Christmas movies in the "big bed" (our bed).

We all wore matching Christmas jammies as a family, and Ellis had coordinating jammies with his cousins as well. <3

And then, Christmas morning... 

Ellis slept in until 6:00AM!  This is a major improvement from his usual 4:45 AM wake ups.  It was a Christmas miracle!

This first thing Ellis did was inspect Santa's cookie plate... Santa ate them all up and only left two sprinkles behind, which Ellis promptly ate.

He got busy unwrapping gifts right away...

That kitchen & this snow globe were the fan favorites (his crossed eyes, haha!!)

The day after Christmas, it was a balmy 40 degrees, so we even got outside to play.

^picking up left over corn to feed the deer

And then, to rejuvenate ourselves after the hustle & bustle of Christmas, we wrapped up the week with a mini-staycation.  We only traveled about 50 miles from home, but it might as well have been Disney World...

I mean, jumping on the bed & swimming in the pool.  Best gifts we could have ever given him.
I hope he's always this easy to please :)

***********

I'm so grateful for all the memories that we've made during this season, and all the wonderfully festive celebrations that we got to participate in this year.

I think we had 6 Christmas celebrations in 5 consecutive days... and all you parents out there know that the holidays with a young kid(s), is not for the faint of heart.  Still though, it's so fun to experience the joy of Christmas through the eyes of a child.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season & tucked away some new memories.

May 2019 bring you bountiful blessings, health, and happiness!

Getting the Christmas Tree

Welp, we waited for the yuckiest day in December (so far -- it's only the first week) and for Ellis to have a fever to get our tree this year.  Because we are stellar parents...

You see, last Saturday night we were at an ugly sweater party - adults only - when I got call from my mom at 7:30 pm... "Did you pack any Tylenol?  Ellis has a 103º fever."

FOR. THE. LOVE.

Zac and I had even packed an overnight bag & planned on getting a hotel room because the weather was turning bad, but we wanted needed a night out, and so we were going to *live it up* because neither of us could remember the last time we went out together.

But instead, we left the party, headed to the nearest Walgreens for Infant Ibuprofen and Tylenol and picked up Ellis from my mom & dad's.

Side note: almost two years into this parenting gig, and I should know by now to not have any expectations but that's a hard habit to break. 


By Sunday morning, the falling snow had turned to sleet and rain, but the good news was that Ellis's fever went down a bit, though he still wasn't quite himself.  However, we knew if we didn't get our tree that day, we might not end up with one because free weekends the rest of December are hard to come by.

So we bundled up the hot tot and went anyways.  Ellis is like his father, and would live outside if we let him, so he was actually really happy to get some fresh air, despite not feeling the greatest.
(And by fresh air, I mean wind, rain, and sleet.)

We went to the same Ma & Pop cut-your-own-tree place as last year; just a hop, skip & jump down the road from our house, but we reallllly had to hunt to find a decent tree this time around.

But alas, we found... the ONE!

And see, if you just looked at these pretty pictures, you would think we have it all together.
We don't......   (cue the cheesy tag line).... But together we have it all.

May your kids stay healthy throughout this holiday season, and Happy Decembering!


Previous Christmas Tree hunts, for your viewing pleasure:
2015 | 2016 | 2017

Easter Goodies 2018

Easter Sunday was 4 weeks ago, so before we close out April & welcome May, I wanted to get our "Easter Time" photos posted since I do use this space as a literal scrapbook of our days.  Did you know you can make blog posts into a book?!

Anyways, last year I wrote about how I thought I failed at making Ellis's first holiday special, so this year I upped my game....

We colored eggs, which by the way, he was very much into...

We hunted for eggs Easter morning.... 

The Easter Bunny filled his basket with lots of goodies...

And Ellis wore a brand new Easter outfit...

But I STILL forgot to get the fudge egg from Seroogy's.  Darn it!  I guess there's always next year. :)

And because I love flashback comparison photos... look at the difference a year makes!

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