Gingerbread Houses

Hello! Are you enjoying December so far? I can't believe that we are almost one week down this month. Time is flying and I'm trying to slow down and enjoy each day.

Monday night we went over to my parents house for a take out dinner from one of our favorite restaurants (Oregano's) and gingerbread house decorating. It's become a great Christmastime tradition for us. We used to build the houses with kits and now my mom just buys the pre-assembled houses where all we need to do is add candy. Perfect!

Luckily the kids all still seem excited about decorating houses. They each get their own house and it's fun to see the different decorating styles.

Their houses are now proudly displayed in our kitchen window so we can enjoy the sweet scent of sugar all month long!

Layout Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle All is Bright Kit /// October Afternoon Make It Merry Collection Kit /// Metallic Gold Sharpie ///

We Love Our Elf on the Shelf

Do you have an Elf of the Shelf?  I bought one several years ago before all of the fun online elf ideas became so popular. I must admit that I love looking at Elf on the Shelf ideas on Pinterest and hope that our elf will be creative this December.   The first few years we had our elf, he would just move around the house each night, but he didn't really get into much mischief. That all changed last year and it was fun to document some of his adventures.

Our elf wasn't always super creative last year, but he did do some fun things like writing notes to the kids on their bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker, toilet papered our tree and painted the kids a picture.

Sometimes if seems like we have so many traditions to keep up with in December, but the elf is not one that we will be giving up anytime soon.

Here are a few of my recent favorite elf ideas that I've found on Pinterest:

Source: Uploaded by user via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: elfontheshelfideas.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Source: thatscountryliving.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Thinking about starting your own Elf on the Shelf Tradition?

Here's a link to the book + the elf gift set:

The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition

Plus, I just spotted the book, but with a girl elf. How fun is that?

The Elf on the Shelf - Girl Elf Edition

Only 5 more days until our elf will *hopefully* be making his appearance!

Layout Supplies /// Scrapbook Circle December Kit

Christmas is Coming!

I've seen a bunch of tutorials on Pinterest about how to capture great Christmas tree light photos. I played around with it a bit, but I wasn't happy with the photos. So I turned my camera to auto and asked my kids to stand in front of the tree.

The photo certainly isn't professional, but I still love it. A peaceful moment with my kids at Christmas time.

I used the Scrapbook Circle Jingle All the Way kit for all of the page supplies. Most of that kit has been used in my December Daily, but I still have enough left to make a couple of layouts.

I hope to spend a little more time with my camera figuring out how to get great twinkling lights captured, but for now, I'm happy with the photo I did get.

Fresh Jam

Last month I talked about making strawberry jam. I must say that we have been enjoying the jam this past month. My kids LOVE putting it on pancakes in the morning.

I just printed off a few of our jam making photos for a layout and this is what I came up with. Really loving the Jenni Bowlin banners and now they are in new colors! Cool.It was fun punching and folding bits of paper to make the flower embellishment. I really like how well this paper flows together even though the patterns are quite different.

All of the supplies used on the layout came from the Jenni Bowlin Play Date SC add-on.

Gingerbread House

Right now I am sitting near my kids' finished gingerbread houses and can smell the yummy gingerbread aroma. Mmmm....I think gingerbread needs to be made soon!

This afternoon, I put together this layout of the gingerbread house creation. The photos are all 2" X 3". I love this size of photo because it is easier to fit more photo on a page without narrowing it down to only a couple of favorite shots.These were printed at home on my Canon printer. I really only use my photo printer when I need a photo right away, but it really is so convenient, I should use it more.

Tonight is a date night with my cool husband! We are going to one of our all time favorite restaurants, Bario Cafe, and then to a Phoenix Sun game.

This is what I plan on having for dessert.
Photo Source
I very rarely get dessert while eating out, but this is one of my top 5 desserts ever. So it can't be passed up!

Should be a really fun night!