Domestic Pride

When packing up my Christmas decorations, I had a "I'm as good at packing boxes as my mom is!" moment. It's similar to the feeling I get when Philip says, "Where are my sunglasses (that you've never touched)/screwdriver/extra deodorant?" and I know where it is somehow. I'm definitely growing up! Although not in every way, I'm still not the best cleaner.

Anyway, time to wrap up the Christmas posts, in talking about the packing up of Christmas decor around here. 

In preparation for take-down, Philip and I went to Superstore and purchased two Rubbermaid bins. I had hoped for red or green bins for easy identification, but they cost more and I figured I could just as easily make cute labels so I went for blue. Also we don't have as many decorations as we might some day - we only needed to buy two bins for now - and this makes it easier to buy more bins that match later on. I figure, if we want we can always buy green bins in the future if we see them on sale or something and use the blue bins for something else. You can never have too many Rubbermaid bins (that's what I tell myself anyways). 

So I got to work taking down decorations. I started with ornaments, putting them into some old ornament boxes that I had inherited, since the ornaments in them weren't as fragile and special to me, and then I put those ornaments just carefully in a box. Luckily there's nothing too heavy in my Christmas decor collection, so I feel like everything should be safe till next year (unless I get my hands on it - I definitely broke 2 ornaments in about 10 minutes while taking down my tree). I was pretty tempted to introduce the red solo cup/cardboard ornament holding contraption into my box, but I wasn't sure if all my ornaments would even fit in cups and then I'd have some odd men out, plus I just didn't get around to it - did anyone else do that? Would you recommend it? Anyone want to try it with me next year?

So genius. Okay, putting this picture into the post sold me on this idea for next year, definitely going to give it a go. (someone remind me next year?)

I put my recent 1 am purchase star in its original box, as well as the white Ikea trees. Some other things like homemade pine cones just got put in a big freezer sized ziploc. I also put my homemade-from-old-Christmas-cards gift tags in a ziplock and tucked them safely inside. Some other odds and ends got added too: Christmas lights, Philip's new pancake pan, some cookie tins, and our stocking hangers (except we don't have stockings at our house...so they just hang nothing). 

Once it was all packed in - and like I mentioned above - I did a better job packing these boxes than I ever have in my history (is anyone else a bad packer?) - you can see my history here if you don't believe me - I stowed it all in the basement in a place I thought was safe. Until we gutted our bathroom...it is now covered in bathroom plaster dust, but that's a story for another day.

All of our Christmas gear hanging out under the stairs. It says "do not stack" because I'm nervous about if another heavy box was put on top some ornaments might squish. 

When Philip got home we took down the tree after some struggle of figuring out if we could get it downstairs and keep it together so we wouldn't have to put lights on it again next year. We failed at that attempt, so the lights came off and down it went in three pieces. 

Christmas Update

Merry Christmas everyone! Just wanted to stop in and leave a post so that no one thinks we've perished in some Christmas ice cream related accident - tears have been shed, but no blood so we're all good. I'm not sure if we will post every day this week as Philip is off work and it has been deemed family time, but we'll see what we can do! Definitely have a lot to share in relation to our homemade ice creams, some DIY Christmas gifts we made for each other, and some more bedroom updates! 

In case you missed it, you can also read the Christmas card that was shared in a belated Phriday Filip (still the best name for it) this Saturday.

Thanks again for taking the time to read our blog each day, we've been overwhelmed with how many reads we've been getting every day and are so thankful to you for making us a part of your day. God bless you as you remember the birth of his son, and take the time to enjoy your loved ones this holiday season, 

Merry Christmas! (I think I've said this a bunch of times in this post...but what can I say, it's festive).  

A sneak peek at our Christmas tree to keep you occupied:

Christmas Tree 2012

A Productive Weekend - Part Two

On Monday, I wrote Part One of the story of our last weekend, which was epic to say the least. You can read about our closet shelving installation here, so that you're all caught up for today.

Part Two: The Christmas Tree

While Philip and his dad solved the closet issues we were having, Philip's mom and I decided to set up the fake tree I inherited from someone in my family (it's still under debate - I think it might have been my aunt's and she gave it to my Oma who then gave it to me). I have never had a fake tree, and neither has my mother-in-law, so we were sort of in the dark as to how to best put it together. 

We got through it, despite initially  missing the middle portion...a pretty important segment. It looked ridiculous, just a top and base, and neither of us having seen the tree set up before were very confused at first. I ended up finding it in the garage, and we got it put together easy enough. 

Then came the lights.

My father-in-law is usually in charge of the lights, and so we were both pretty clueless. My parents had given me their old Christmas lights, and luckily they're clear which is definitely my favourite. I had already retrieved the ornaments from downstairs and set them aside a couple weeks before when we were moving things around, so that part was easy enough. The only problem is that there are only 3 or 4 ornaments of Philip's, and the rest of the tree is all me. I always got an ornament or two for Christmas growing up, and usually still do, so the tree is easily filled by my yearly ornaments.

The last thing was the tree topper, which we didn't have. I had thought I'd just go the next time I was out and get one, but my mother-in-law and I decided that we should just power through. We went to Superstore, which is open 24/7 and it was 1 AM at this point. I picked out a beautiful star tree topper (even though I've always had an angel and so a star feels somewhat pagan - but Philip keeps reminding me of the star in the Bible story), and this one even lights up. It has kind of a rustic vibe with the collection of children's ornaments, the glittery star at the top, and so as a tree skirt I wrapped a cream coloured afghan around that my Oma knit for me. It looks really cute! 

Our First Married Christmas Tree!

So that was the second task we completed last Friday night. It involved some serious tree branch fiddling, some reminiscing, and a 1 AM trip to Superstore for a light up star tree topper (which has now gone on sale for half price I noticed yesterday). 

Does anyone else feel weird changing their tree-topper-traditions (alliteration ftw)? Did your mom give you all your childhood ornaments so that she could start fresh with beautiful matching ones like she's always wanted?

Would You "Tues"?

As you know, the poll was extended after last Thursday's post. This is because I remembered a fun tradition my friend and I had, which was that every Tuesday we would ask each other a poll-type question and call it "Would you Tues" (pronounced to sound like choose - or in this case something like Tch-yooze). 

The results are in, and most of you are further than we are in holiday preparedness, but there are a few procrastinators out there.

Here's where we're at in our decking of the halls:

Tree: 
Last year we didn't have one, we'll see what happens this year! I'm a "real tree" person, but I do have a hand-me-down fake tree in the basement that we might use this year. As of right now every nook and cranny of our living room is filled with books/gift wrap/wall art/etc. that is meant for the two rooms that are being reno'd right now; as soon as those are gone I'm getting that tree up! Boxes of books everywhere doesn't exactly scream beautiful Christmas party decoration.

As for other decorations, they really add up so I've been trying to slowly accumulate them this year. Last year I got a few ornaments from relatives, this year I've made my pine cone craft, and I just purchased this cute light up white tree decoration from Ikea (I don't know the scientific name for it which is why it ended up with that long run-on name), hopefully I can keep building on that until I have a proper Christmas collection!

For this year, our tree will likely look something like the below, with a variety of homemade when we were in elementary school ornaments, and no general theme of any kind. Definitely homey and much like what I grew up with at home, although as soon as I moved out my mom was ready for a beautifully put-together tree with ornaments that all came in a set together. Stay tuned for a beautiful tree photo, hopefully it happens this week!

Probably still better than how our last-minute Christmas Tree will look.

Gifts:
We have 20 gifts to buy this year, and so far I am completely done 6 of them, with 2 others started and 12 with no progress whatsoever. Hopefully after we're done these bedrooms and have the bathroom underway I can focus on shopping. I do love Christmas shopping and thinking of things for each person, but 20 people is a doozy! Also no idea what to get for Philip this year (we greatly lowered our budgets since we've been buying a lot of new things lately) so if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate them!

Events: 
This past weekend was our last weekend of freedom before we commence 2 parties a weekend for the entire month of December...ay caramba. I'm really looking forward to the festivities and all the parties will be fun - but it also means 4 weekends of not a lot of house productivity. The other main event planned for Christmas (we have to reevaluate this plan as some things may need to be ordered and not come on time) is completely gutting and renovating our bathroom. My parents have work off over Christmas and offered their labour over the week, so we're really pushing to be ready for them while we have the help. This coming weekend we start with my mom's side of the family and our church young adults group (this is the one we're hosting), followed next weekend by my friends and my dad's side of the family, followed by the real deal Christmas Eve and Christmas immediate family celebrations. In amongst that we'll also have our church services for Christmas Eve, which Philip is pretty involved in on the drama side so there are a lot of practices and things like that added into the mix. 

General Christmas Cheer Levels/Emotional Preparedness: 
Cassondra: As far as being stoked for Christmas, I'd say that my level of Christmas cheer is moderate. I'm really excited to put up decorations and for all of the events that we have planned, but that is being slightly crushed by the lists and pressure to finish these two bedrooms and get the bathroom planning into high gear. I'm just hoping that we can get this all under control to some extent by the end of this week so that we can focus on family time and relaxing a little bit over the Christmas break. Luckily Philip gets a week off at Christmas so that will be really nice, as long as it doesn't get totally taken away by bathroom gutting. 

Philip: Philip is busy caulking in the bedroom right now so I'm taking the liberty to write this for him after walking over there and asking how excited he is for Christmas. He is primarily in denial, as house stuff and church drama production things are sort of stressing him out. I asked him what he's most excited for though and - Cass family shout out - he said my family gathering on Saturday. That shows you how great my family is, that a gathering at the in-laws is the thing he's most excited for at Christmas time so far. We'll have to tell you a bit about our gatherings sometime, they are definitely unorthodox - and as a sneak preview you should know that this Saturday at our family gathering we are to come dressed in '80s workout attire (add going to Value Village for neon coloured spandex to the Christmas to-do list). 


In case you're one of the procrastinators out there, just remember, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear." Try it out sometime, I imagine it's effective. 

This week, tell us what you'd like to receive for Christmas! I have to admit so selfishly that I am looking forward to getting gifts more than ever this year. I know this sounds terrible...but it's just the truth. We've been so busy with house stuff and constantly on a budget that being able to bask in some free treats that I may not have been able to buy for myself sounds glorious. Next Tuesday when we wrap this poll up we'll share a few of the things on our Christmas lists too, Philip is a very in-depth Christmas list maker so it should be pretty easy for him. Make your votes people - and as a reminder, we've learned that iPads don't allow comments or poll votes, so get your computer out!