Here are some photos from Christmas!

Yes we did finally put up our Christmas tree! I love all the handmade ornaments from the boys and the photos that are on the tree!!
Legos and Bionicles were another big request this year. The boys got exactly what they wanted!! Look at all the cute crafts I got at the craft exchange my friend Sylvia organized. They all turned out so cute and we all had fun hanging out at MegaByte. I think we are all making Sylvia organize another one next year!!On Christmas day, we went to Matt's sister's for dinner and gift exchange. We always have fun hanging out! She decorated the table so nice and we had popper and favors to open. The poppers were filled with gold paper crowns that we wore proudly and a prize. The favor was a cute tea pot timer that I am already using! The boys cousins Luke and Michaela got to come home with us and spend the night. Michaela and I made a felt pillow. She designed and I sewed it. I also was inspired by her cute hat so I made a bunch out of fleece! Luke requested a black and red one!

Can you believe it?! We STILL do not have our Christmas tree up. With Matt being gone last week driving a 24 foot Uhaul full of my grandmother's and our furniture back from the East coast and then one of us being gone almost every night of the week, it still hasn't gotten done. Hopefully this weekend.

But I am still getting into the holiday spirit! I got together with my secret buddies on Monday to "reveal" ourselves. We had been sending gifts to our buddy every month for a whole year! It was so fun to see who our buddy was. I had no idea Camille was mine. She even had her husband hand deliver the gifts at night which threw me off completely.

Then on Thursday I got together with my tennis girls and welcomed back Linda, our coordinator who had been out for a long time with her father who had died. I made tennis ball ornaments for each of the ladies which just look like green balls because I could not find yellow shred anywhere! It is so funny to see us all dressed up and not sweaty and in tennis gear. I love them all and so glad I get to hang out with them.

Tyler got a ribbon this Friday at school! He is the cutest! We are so proud of him and his brother who are both loving their school.

Another craft! This garland was made from 3" square chipboard peices that I covered in red paper. I used my Crop-o-dile to punch holes in it (love that tool) and strung them together with green and red polka dot ribbon. I used the Cricut - All Mixed Up font for the letters. Simple! I am making some "retro" stockings that will be red and white so I think it will be cute when it is all together!

O button tree, O button tree....



Here is another craft for you - button trees! You take a styrofoam cone shape and a ton of buttons (really I think about 300) and use pearl straight pins to attach them. I added ribbon on top because I thought it made them look cuter!

Tank Tour!

Ok so most people cut down their Christmas trees this weekend. What did we do? Go on a tank tour! I had heard about it from a friend who found out about this guy who lives in the Palo Alto hills and has the largest tank collection (yeah the guy is RICH). Anyway he offers tours to people who contact him (he does no advertising). So we booked our tour and WOW were we amazed. This man seeks out tanks all over the world and restores them. He has an engineering shop with engineers who work on the whole process and then when the tank is restored it gets moved to these huge display rooms. Our guide Mike is a freelance writed and he gave a great 2 hour tour. He not only shared the history of each vehicle but the realities of war and what it was like to be a "tanker".

Back to crafts!

Here are the ruffled wrist warmers I finished a couple of weeks ago. I saw these displayed at my LYS and they had a free pattern! I used the koigu sock yarn and love all the different colors in it. Unfortunately it is a gift so I won't have them long. Eventually I will make some for myself! It is a great way to use up random skeins of collected sock yarn) it only takes one skein to make two gloves). I have the pattern if you would like to try - email me!!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone!! So with everyone back at school and work, I finally get to use the computer! We had a great Thanksgiving. Better than most. I think because this is the first time in forever I did not have to work the day before. It was just more relaxed and Matt and I just did our thing with cooking the food and getting the tables ready. I was proud of the table this year because I got almost all new stuff at bargain prices. Everyone lived the turkeys and all girls in our family (including the grown up ones) had fun making the paper beaded necklaces and bracelets.

On Friday I actually got to go cropping at Suzy's with Suzy herself, Erin and her friend Nicole. It was fun except for the fact I didn't really have the productive night I thought I was going to have. I sold out of all my pillow kits so Saturday and Sunday were spent getting those ready and the other crafts I want to sell at an upcoming boutique I am doing THIS Saturday.

On Sunday, the boys and I went to the Festival of Lights parade in Los Altos (Matt had a drumming gig to do). It was fun and so reminiscent of a small town parade. I brought hot chocolate (Timmy's request) and we enjoyed that before the parade started.

What a way to start off the Christmas season!