Christmas beginnings

Last year Jon's mom sent us this great count down calendar. We had it strung across this door with just the icicle string but it kept falling and didn't look very cute. So, this year I got creative. I wanted to get a big board and make the stockings into the shape of a Christmas tree. I figured that I would need a 36" square board something and thought that might be a little spendy. On to plan B. I went to Home Depot and looked at their "remnant" bin (for lack of a better term). I got 3 decent sized boards for $.51 each. Sounded reasonable to me!

Unfortunately, these boards weren't quite big enough for all 24 stockings, but I got up half. I will just switch it as we get through them. Turns out, finding 24 little trinkets and candy for these babies is kind of a pain! I barely had stuff for these 12, so I have 2 weeks to find 12 more! I painted the boards, hot glued the icicles and clothes pins on and hung the boards on the door. I'm enjoying it so far! Hopefully the hooks hold out. They were hooks I bought to hang towels on and they couldn't stick to the door. Oh well. The kids are loving it!
The other thing I attempted today was a chandelier decoration. Sadly, it didn't turn out. Back when I worked at Archiver's a customer came in to buy ribbon and said she was hanging little tiny ornaments from her chandelier at different lengths. I thought it sounded so cute and I've been dying to try it! I found these babies at Target in the $1 section so I snapped them up! Picked up some ribbon and got to work. And, it looked awful! So, down they came. Oh well. I'll find somewhere to string them! They are too cute to pass up.
This was a failed attempt at a delicious cake my friend makes. It has pumpkin and cake mix and other cakey things. To get the pumpkin cooked, I left it in too long and burned the cake. We threw the whole thing out. I was sad but haven't made a second attempt, yet. I will, though. One of these days.

Yesterday wasn't so merry. It marked the 3-year anniversary of my mom's passing. I successfully avoided thinking about it all day and then it hit me as I went to bed. We miss her. We will always miss her. Someday I won't have to miss her anymore. At least I was lucky enough to have her for a few years. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Ugh.

More Holiday merriness to come! Happy Holidays!