Life Lately
Rule #92: Necessity breeds invention.
I finally took the plunge, y’all. I was tired of crying in agony every time I cut into an onion, so my hero, Jon Boy, came to my rescue with the help of Amazon! You put these little puppies on and voila! No more tears! They get a little foggy after about 5 minutes, so you just have to walk away and clean them up a bit. I wore my eye makeup to chop an onion for stuffing on Thanksgiving morning (risky, I know… I walk on the wild side).
After wearing these fellers, I was tear free and my makeup was in tact! Miracles do happen.
Little bits here had her first experience in a bounce house. Her face says it all. She was made to move!
It feels so good to have the house all decorated for Christmas! I try to keep things the same every year, but somehow things end up changing because of new furniture or things break or I honestly forget where things went in the first place.
I love my happy little Santa plate from my bestie! She gave it to me years ago when I first hosted a Christmas party. I can’t tell you how long it’s been since we hosted a proper adult party, y’all. Something, something tiny humans, ‘m I right?
I’m still having fun/learning how to decorate a tiered tray. I went with a little buffalo plaid thing this year.
Pretty much everything is from Hobby Lobby. You just can’t beat their stuff when it’s on sale.
I also can’t tell you how many times I’ve refilled these two Santa bowls full of M&M’s in our Life Lately (original and peanut butter in case you’re wondering). Lots of sugar-loving hands around these parts!
I’m oddly obsessed with this little wreath for my candle. It’s those little things that get me in the Christmas Spirit.
Speaking of spirits… I found these cute little trees at Hobby Lobby that fit perfectly in our bar space. They added a nice pop of something this year!
I busted out the ribbon to display all of our Christmas cards again this year. I’ve talked about this before, but basically it’s just long ribbon cut to fit the cabinet doors taped on with mailing tape. We’ve done it at our two houses and never has it ripped off paint.
Another favorite Christmas tradition of mine is our bible verse advent calendar. I found it a couple of years ago, and it just breaks down the Christmas Story in a very kid-friendly way. One small summary of a verse per day up until Christmas! Click here for the Printable 25 Bible Verses. A big part of our Life Lately.
We had to get a new Elf on the Shelf this year (appropriately named George by Corey) because the ole Mama here misplaced our old one. Although to be fair, she had lived a rough life. Check this out if ya don’t believe me. George came with a sweet letter to Corey (Brooke is going Elf-less this year) and a small gift (Solar System Floor Puzzle – $10).
I don’t know about your Elf, but our old one had been known to forget to move each night. Something about the busy holiday season exhausted old Elmyra (yes, that was her name – Santa likes alliteration: “Elmyra the Elf” just rolled off the tongue). So far George is 2 for 2! We’ll see what tomorrow brings. One of my friends on Instagram said there should be a punch card: 5 nights of remembering the elf needs to move means a free bottle of wine! Sounds like my kind of rewards program.
I always love hearing how families plan/wrap/give gifts. In our family, gifts went under the tree if they weren’t from Santa beginning on Thanksgiving all the way up until the big day. Then, when we’d wake up, Santa would have brought even more wrapped presents for us to open! My sister-in-law’s family puts very few gifts under the tree up until the big day. Then, when they wake up, Santa gifts are unwrapped waiting to be seen! I love having different ideas and traditions to pull from to make our own. Our Santa started wrapping “Gifts from Santa” in one certain kind of paper. To be honest, I think this keeps ole Santa from accidentally putting the wrong gift out first (shhhh… that’s a secret between you and me).
Now for a total 180 in topics, my friends. Meet my Great Grandma Flossie. She was my daddy’s dad’s mom. This gorgeous picture was in my Great Aunt Joann’s house for years, and I recently received it after her passing. I had it reframed to fit the room, and I have to be honest it means the world to me. It’s so special because she’s wearing the very first dress she bought with her own money. There’s something about that statement that really makes me extremely proud to be a her great-granddaughter. I talk about her in my “About the House” portion of my blog. You can see why she was a true gem.
Another 180, folks. Let’s talk food now. I’m obsessed with these easy, peasy little Caprese Bites I posted about a while ago. They’re cheap, healthy, delicious, and the color of Christmas. Ain’t too shabby. Perfect for Life Lately!
I also got to make Pioneer Woman’s Stuffing for a sweet neighbor this Thanksgiving! It was hard to give it away, but I knew we had lots more yummy stuff waiting at my in-laws’ house.
I was super pumped to get to make another Charcuterie Board for Thanksgiving, too! If I could make a living off of these bad boys, I’d be one happy lady!
My in-laws were sweet enough to give me the unwanted turkey bits (bones, extra skin, meat, etc.) from our Tom the Turkey this year. I made an easy turkey stock by: placing the turkey bits in a large stock pot, cover with cold water by 1″, adding an onion that was quartered (skin on), a head of garlic halved at the equator (skin on), some celery sticks, 1 tbs. Kosher salt, and 5 black peppercorns. That’s it! Boiled it all for about an hour and a half, then strained it, and finally put it in these containers for the freezer. It made the house smell divine! Perfect for our Life Lately.
Kevin McAllister here has been cracking us up with this adorable robe and that hair. I honestly don’t want to get it cut because how many years can we make him say, “KEVIN!” with that sweet face?! We’ve tried getting him to remake the after-shaving scream face, but that’s still a work in progress.
Oh this little nugget of mine. Y’all she’s my fiery little angel baby. I’ll post a story about that later, but I wanted to share these cozy pj’s from Nordstrom! I just made Jon Boy order me another set for Christmas. I’m working on a great post about some good finds for Christmas gifts, so hopefully I’ll have that soon. These just couldn’t wait to be shared! They are so comfy and CAYOOT (translation: cute). I ordered the navy and black in a medium. They’d make a great Life Lately gift!
Okay, that’s all for now folks. May your gifts wrap themselves, your elves remember to move every night, and your waistline be forgiving this time of year! Happy Life Lately Tuesday!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Life Lately post!