It's Beginning to Look a 'Little' Like Christmas

Inside our house at least...outside, it kind of looks like a reprise of Noah's flood. No, seriously, things are flooding. Our Lower City Park is now the Lower City Lake.

But hey, does that really matter when you have a bunch of fun Christmas projects to work on between all the Christmas presents you're making? On the present front, I thankfully only have three more that involve sewing...once those are done, I can go to town making little things for stocking stuffers and whatnot.

Anyway, the other day I spent ALL day making Christmas decorations. Here's some photos.

Our stockings hung...in the hallway...since we don't have a fire place or mantle.

A very small portion of our nativity, with a twine tree that took me HOURS to wrap.

My very first live garland, wrapped with fake wooden cranberries...LOVE!

Decor in the bank of windows in our living room...our Willow Tree family, Nathan's Charlie Brown Christmas book, a couple other things, and the vase with ornaments (more about that later).

The Advent Tree my mom got for the boys, to go with with the calendar below.

The Advent Calendar my mom made for the boys. Each pocket holds a mini ornament to put on the mini tree.

Bank of windows in our dining room.

A mini twine tree, with a star from Joann's and a fake cranberry wreath from Goodwill.

The stars from our Nativity Scene. I actually love these so much that they stay there year-round.

Dollar tree decor: hurricane vase hot glued to a short candle stick holder, and filled with two tubes of ornaments. Gotta love it!

Christmas-i-fied cupcake tower...I laid down small branches from the garland and then a bunch of glass ornaments from our stash of ornaments.

The grown-up version of the paper show flake. I've made 3 of these small ones and one big one while laying in bed sick. Still not sure where I'm putting them.

Felt rose wreath...grape vine wreath from Joann's, white roses made of rolled felt. Also VERY time consuming but I L.O.V.E it.

Ornament vases including ornaments: $6. Felt Rose Wreath: $4.40. Twine Trees: $7.90. Live garland: $6. Total: $24.30. You would pay that much for one of these things if you were to buy the finished product in the store. I'm very happy with how everything turned out, and how clean and simple our decorations are this year. No clutter, no cheesey stuff. Only thing missing is the tree...which we have agreed not to put up until the 22nd so Nathan doesn't have to fight to keep the boys from tearing it apart. I'm so excited to get it put up though!

In other news, I ran my very first 5k on December 5th! It was the Jingle Bell Run in Portland, and I accompanied a couple from our small group, Chris & Niki. We had an absolute blast! I ran with Niki for the first mile or so, until I was ready to set my own pace, and then took off on my own. I managed to run the entire thing, no breaks, in only 31:24.9...which beat my personal record by over 2 minutes! That's just barely over a 10 minute mile. Not bad, if I may say so myself!

Chris, myself, and Niki in our church parking lot...we forgot to take pictures before and after the race while in Portland, so we faked it!

My very first race number...I'm very proud!

I think I'll be signing up for two more races this spring: the Shamrock 8k in March (duh) and the Bridge to Brews 10k in April. (8k = 4.98 miles, 10k = 6.2 miles). The Bridge to Brews starts and ends at Widmer Brewery, with an after party complete with beer tasting at the finish line. Right up our alley, no? Chris and Niki are planning on running the Shamrock with me, and I may be able to convince them to do Bridge to Brews also.

I was going to sign up for the Oregon Wine Country Half Marathon (13 miles) that goes between Stoller Vineyard outside of Lafayette, through Lafayette, and all the way up to Carlton, where they have a wine and music party at the finish line. (In case you didn't know, Lafayette and Carlton are only a few miles outside of Mac). There's just one problem...registration costs $95!!!! For EARLY registration! Not exactly in our price range, but how cool would it be to say that I've done a half marathon? So I'm still debating...I have until September to decide. Anyone feel like donating to the cause? Ha ha ha!

As for the boys...they're two. Definitely two. Undoubtably two. They still have their moments that make you melt, but oh man...they've been a trial lately. It doesn't help that I've been sick for the past three days and poor Nathan has been a single parent. Due to their determination to get into anything and everything, Nathan rearranged our living room a bit and put the couch under the large window...which has become their new favorite perch.

Asher left, Levi right.

Ok, I think that's all for now. I'm going to go lay on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket, until the boys wake up from their nap. Blast these stupid colds!