Mistletoe Hung Where You Can See...

 From one holiday to another, we're enjoying the ride. Some days it's harder than we imagined, sharing the holidays with both families and determining when we'll be where, but it goes without saying we have thoroughly enjoyed the time we do get to spend with family!

 Since Thanksgiving came and went too quickly, we decided to make Christmas last all month. Our first decoration we set up was the Nativity scene, since it is the reason for the season. And the second? Well, that was the mistletoe...because we'll take every excuse we can get to show affection. ;)

Last weekend we made a trip to Clayton to work on a few Christmas gifts and just do winter touristy things. After spending a rather large amount of the time discovering how much money one can spend in downtown Clayton, I decided to return home and see what I could find in the shop. Well, turns out, when boredom takes over you discover talents you never knew you had. In my case, it's carving. To be honest calling it a talent is rather exaggerated, but it did keep me occupied for quite sometime.

After Justin finished everything he needed his shop for, we headed out for some adventure. There were two items on my wish-list for the weekend...#1. Find a tree farm and cut down a tree! I guess it helps to have a husband who used to be a county agent in the mountains, because he knew just where to go.

  
    We only had to look at 3,000 trees in 23 degree weather before we found the perfect one.
 

   They had guys all over the tree farm with chainsaws and tractors with trailers, but we were determined to use a handsaw and manpower to bring it back to the truck. Justin's connections came in handy again when we paid for the tree. The owner happened to be at the farm and he was nice enough to give us a discount because Justin worked with him closely as a county agent for two years.  

   Second item on the to-do list: Goats on the Roof! No we are not turning our vacation home into a playpen for ungulates; it's a little tourist trap I have been dying to visit for the past couple years.

   After Goats on the Roof, we packed up and headed home in the Spirit of Christmas and ready to decorate our tree the following day. We decided to continue the tradition that we started last year and make finger foods and hot apple cider while we decorated the tree.
   

  The Pigs in a Blanket were my favorite, but we also had Summer Sausage with cheese and crackers and Justin's favorite, sausage balls.

In addition to our cheap, plastic balls from Wal-Mart, we decorated the tree with some ornaments with more sentimental value.

    The week before Justin and I got married, my mom gave me a box of beautiful glass ornaments. She had been saving these for a while and wanted us to have some nice ornaments to adorn our first tree.

   The next one is  a very special ornament to us. We bought this ornament in Niagara Falls, Canada. It was rather expensive for an ornament, so I was surprised when Justin didn't even bat an eye when I asked for it. Little did I know that we would be engaged later that night. :)

   The last one is our ornament from our honeymoon in Yosemite National Park. In the hustle and bustle of getting married, moving from one house to another and then into another...we thought we had lost it. Thankfully I found it few days ago hiding in our memory box.

   Our tree!

    As we were looking at Christmas trees I was also intrigued by the wreaths. All season long I have wanted one to hang on our door, but being the frugal couple that we are, we couldn't bring ourselves to spend $20-30 for one. After inspecting how some were made at the tree farm, we deemed it as a craft worth trying. We decided to make use of the lower branches of our tree to make one for ourselves. 

How to make a
 Homemade Wreath:

Materials Needed:
-Metal Coat Hanger
-Polyester String (cotton string will break when you pull it tight.)
-Fraser Fur boughs

 
1. Justin straightened a metal coat hanger and bent it into a circle and twisted each end around itself to hold it in place.

2. We took the branches we had taken from the bottom of the tree and cut them into ~12inch lengths.

3. Then we bundled about 4 of the twigs together and tied them onto the metal frame. Each one overlapping the last, like shingles on a roof.

  This was very simple and with two people it took about twenty minutes. However, I must warn you, if you pull too tight when tying the branches on, your pinkies may get blisters... or maybe that's just me. :)

As the Christmas decorations displace the Fall decorations, you may be left wondering what to do with the left over pumpkins? Since we were so busy around Halloween, we decided not to carve a pumpkin this year and still had a beautiful pumpkin sitting on our front porch. Justin about through it out before we came up with the idea of creating a...

   Pumpkin Santa:

Yes, we know it sounds kind of cheesy and his face does look a little like the Pringles man, but we are proud of the jolly old gourd that now adorns our front porch. :)

  Pumpkin Santa says, "Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas!"