Christmas, Christmas, and More About Christmas My Favorite Holiday

I hope that you and your family had a memorable time celebrating Christmas yesterday.  We spent most of the day at home hanging out, relaxing, and opening gifts.  Here is a picture of my hubby and in front of our tree.

In the evening we had a nice time at one of my cousin's house where there were 20+ family members gathered together there. It's always fun getting together with everyone and catching up on things.  Today my family and I went after Christmas shopping at two of our/my favorite stores- the Disney Store and Ann Taylor.  We all found some good deals.  If you went after Christmas shopping today I hope that you also found some good deals.  :)  Well today I wanted to share one of my favorite gifts that I received from my hubby and my kids (I can't wait to do some coloring with my new Zip Clean Color Real Brush Pens.)

 

and the handmade cards,

 

a calendar that I received,

along with gifts made from the card club that I belong to.  (Not only are the ladies talented card makers but also very talented in the kitchen.)

This is what I made for them.

I have one more week off before I go back to work.  I look forward to spending time with my family and just relaxing.  Thanks for stopping by!

Some More Tags and Time with Friends

I am officially off for 2 weeks from work.  I am so grateful for the time off to relax, have some quality time with family and friends, and hopefully get to do some crafting.  Today I am going to share the tags that I made for our Christmas gifts (I made the mangers with tooth picks.  I have had tooth picks flying away when I was cutting them.) and

some bows that I made using a punch to decoration some containers of chocolate.  I love my bow dies and punches.  I think they are always so much fun to use and adds the finishing touch to any project, box, etc.

Before I end I wanted to share some pictures with you of two get togethers that I had with good friends.  Last week I went out to dinner with my friend Carol.  We enjoyed some ono sushi.

Yesterday I went for high tea with my friend Esther.  We went to T-Neer.

It is always nice getting together with friends, having a sweet time of fellowship, and during this time of year celebrating Jesus's Birthday together.  Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Tags and Decorations

Slowly tasks for Christmas are getting done.  Our Christmas cards with our newsletter in it are finally getting mailed today.  I am in the process of making gift tags for our gifts.  Since my family and I usually use gift bags to put our gifts in to make the gift a little more personalized I make gift tags for them.  Stay tune for a picture of them soon.  After my kids get out of school today we will be decorating our Christmas tree.  Today I will be sharing with you the tags that I made for the tea swap that I participated in last month.  I was fortunate enough to get to be paired up with my good friend Fran.  I purposely decided to make the tags pictured below because each of them have a special religious meaning. 

Here's a brief description of what each of them mean.

wreath: The evergreen in making wreaths symbolizes growth and everlasting life. The holly branches used to make the wreaths often have thorns which represent the thorn on Jesus' crown when he was crucified. The bright red holly berries symbolize Jesus' blood that was shed for us.

candy cane: The white part of the candy symbolizes the Virgin Birth and sinless nature of Jesus.  The hardness of the candy was used to symbolize the Solid Rock, the Foundation of the Church and firmness of the promises of God.  It is shaped like the letter "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus and also represents the staff of the "Good Shepherd" that Jesus is to each of use who saves the lost sheep in this world. The red stripes represent the blood shed by Jesus on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Christmas tree: Jesus is the a Christian's tree of life. Through Him we have hope for everlasting life.  Even though our earthly season must come to an end, we will live through the grace of Jesus in Heaven.

I included a box of yummy macaroons with the tea bags that I sent to her.

This is the awesome creation that Fran made for me.  The tags are made out of acrylic.  She used rub ons to decorate each one.  What a great idea to put the tags in an accordion book.

These are the onolicious cookies and teas that she included.

Before I end I'd like to share a some of the decorations that I have up so far at my house.  This is my mini Disney themed tree.  It was my daughter's fabulous idea to put Tsum Tsums under the tree.

Here is our fireplace

and our front porch.

I started collecting nutcrackers a few years ago.  This is the most recent one that I purchased.  I couldn't resist getting it.

Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to look at what I have to share today. 

My First Christmas Card(s) For This Year

I can't believe that Christmas is going to be in three weeks.  Are you done with all your Christmas shopping?  Are all your Christmas cards done?  All my Christmas shopping is done and our Christmas cards have been ordered and have arrived.  I just finished our annual Christmas newsletter yesterday.  Now it's time to address envelopes, make tags, and get the presents ready.  Today I am going to share with you the first Christmas card that I made for this year.  For the Secret Sister swap we were asked to make 4 of the same Christmas cards to mail to the person that is charge of the swap.  In turn she will send 4 Christmas cards back to us.  I was having a hard time deciding what to make.  I knew for sure that I wanted to make a card that has a religious meaning to it.  This is what I decided to make.

I made the angel using the new poisenttia punch from Stampin Up.  These are the awesome cards that I received from the swap.

I am glad that I decided to participate in the swap.  Making the card helped get my MOJO into gear to make more things for Christmas.  I hope that you will each have a fun time preparing for the season.  I am going to try my best to not get stressed with all that needs to be done so that I am able to focus on the true reason of why I celebrate Christmas. 

Have a great weekend everyone and have a fun time prepping for CHRISTmas.