Christmas Preparations and Decorations

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 

  The evolution of Christmas on Bonnie Brae. The yellow house below with the white Christmas lights. 

Above is our current reality. Grey house with LED multi-colored lights which are much more friendly to the bank account.

The Christmas tree hunt.

We drove out to the place I went growing up in Sherwood. 

 Here we have Steve humoring me for a photo.

 We found it! 

I think I have a picture like this next to a tree for 3 years in a row with the same jacket on.

Hmm.

 We were spoiled. All the saws were in use when we arrived so we didn't have our own to chop down our tree. Well as soon as we found our tree, one of the Sleighbell's guys just happened along and chopped it down for us!

Thanks Mr. Helper dude.

 Steve still had to do some of the work though.

Well each year I try to mix things up with decorations. I like making new things out of what I already have. Though, if I just could stick with the same old stuff every year, I could get the decorations up faster. 

But it's fun. 

So here they are. A couple of photos of what the place looks like this year.
I think the theme is berries and bells.
The lights were a last minute addition and I think I really enjoy them.

 I bought this bird cage thing in Sisters this summer and I keep moving it around and using it different ways. It was full of pumpkins in Oct. 

Now it is all topsy-turvy with giant jingle-bells pouring out. 

Weird or cute? Or both?

I'm keeping it anyhow.

 The tree. Looking pretty much like it does every year.

 So I have jumped on the band wagon of being in love with chalk boards. 

In October/November, it had a pumpkin.

Now it's bringing Christmas cheer. It's fun to have another creative outlet. 

(Some of the pictures seem weird. Still learning how to use the camera. But hopefully I'll be getting better soon. We signed up for photography classes together for Christmas!)

 Kind of an attempt at an arty-fartsy shot

 This is a result of Christine needing a CHEAP mindless activity one Saturday afternoon. 

I still LOVE the moment of truth unfolding snow-flakes to see what you've created.

 Playing with the camera.

 Playing more with the camera and playing peek-a-boo with the nativity in the background.

 And last but not least a shot of our little helper elf around here. 

Helping wrap the presents.

We hope your Christmas season has started out Merry and Bright!

Ok a little edit here to the post. More Christmas stuff has happened. So I thought I'd share.

 Here is a cute one of Hahhah from the day :)

My favorite of Brayden.

Cute of them in Santa's sleigh.

 

My Sunday craft projects. 

I thought these were going to be new stockings for Steve and I but they turned out a little small. 

And now I think I want matching ones. 

So I'll just keep these ones around to be cute.

And a Santa cookie I made for a Secret Santa exchange at work. 

This was a group effort. We all know I don't bake so I called Steve in to help. 

He made me the giant cookie, I decorated Santa.