I've taken a leave of absence from the blog lately. Well actually from the computer altogether and I must say, I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been off of work since December 14th and haven't really felt like I've had much of a vacation until yesterday. Deuce and I went to VA to visit my dad for a few days and when we came back, we hit the Christmas shopping hard. I was up past 2am every night through Christmas night and up and on the move by 9am each day. There was no time for blogging, I checked my email through my phone and only rarely checked in on my facebook. So I have a lot of catching up to do. I haven't even loaded my pictures to my computer yet. So we'll see how much posting I get done. I don't go back to work until January 3rd so hopefully I can utilize the rest of my time wisely.
We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition this year. I decided not to "adopt" the real $40 book & elf that I knew would be torn up in our house and opted instead for the $12.99 stuffed elf that would be safe if some littles happened to get their hands on him. {I knew TJ would figure out a way to get his hands on him even if he wasn't allowed to}. Although I wanted to give him some sort of quirky, holiday name like "Wink" or "Snowy", I left the naming up to TJ and he decided on Alfie. Deuce was the first to get a hand on Alfie before he was given his name and you can see how attached he became. I let him hold the Elf until he was named and became "magic" and he was stuck to him like glue, snuggling him, giving him hugs and dragging him around by his legs. You can see how well it went over when I took him away. So on December 1st he made his first official appearance on top of the entertainment system. The boys really enjoyed looking for Alfie everyday and were really sad to say goodbye on Christmas Eve. I have a picture of Deuce waving goodbye, but it's not on the computer yet, of course. Alfie made appearances in the bathrooms, the boy's bedrooms, the kitchen, the plants, in the Christmas tree and even in the freezer. TJ found him in the freezer holding a chocolate bar. :) They are already talking about Alfie making his appearance next year.
The wreath pictured above was actually made with the intentions of hanging on the front door. I made it with a wire hanger and cheap dollar tree ornaments. I was really excited with how it turned out, until I realized that it wouldn't fit between the glass door and the main door to the house. The glass door wouldn't close. So I decided to hang it over the mantle with an old frame and I taped all of the Christmas cards to it as they came in. I decided to stick with the frame idea for the front door by creating an alternative to the wreath, using supplies that I already had or from the Dollar Tree {except for the frame that was from goodwill}.
I got the frame for $5 from goodwill. I removed the print and the glass to leave the frame open. I used a gray primer and then a coat of silver spray paint. I attached four ornaments from the Dollar Tree with my staple gun to the back of the frame and then tied a bow, using a roll of ribbon also from the Dollar Tree. Then I hot glued the "Peace" sign on to the lower left corner. I love the way it came out and for a total of $10? Heck yes!
