Weekend festivities

This weekend was all about the holiday preparation. Friday night we started out with the search for the perfect tree . I think we found it. (Craig adds - as perfect as you can get for under 30 bucks). It's perfect because it is our first tree, Craig, don't be a butt.

Anyways... we did get to spend the night setting it up and decorating it while listening to my new Michael W. Smith Christmas cd (more about that in a later post). But it didn't take very long since we didn't have that much to put on it. That is the hard part of your first Christmas tree. Unlike our families, we don't have 30 years worth of ornaments to cover the tree. I want to slowly build up a nice collection over time but I still want to have enough stuff this year that the tree doesn't look empty. So I got a little creative and crafty.

I started with these. They are the classic applesauce and cinnamon ornaments beloved by so many elementary school teachers. But they smell soooo good. And you can't really beat them for a cute cheap homemade ornament.


Then I got a little braver and pulled out this Martha Stewart idea. I thought it would be tricky, but it wasn't and I think they turned out real cute.

And they were cheap too! In fact, I bought a set of 40 cookie cutters for $10, used them to make the cinnammon ornaments then cleaned them up and used them for the paper ornaments. That, plus a pack of paper, some ribbon, and some glue brought the total up to about $25. And that was enough for our tree with enough supplies left over for our church's college group to make ornaments for their tree too.
Because I saved so much, I was able to not feel completely guilty when yesterday, Craig and I did a lot of shopping, mostly holiday related. We bought some present-y stuff for others but mostly bought more decorating stuff that we needed (Craig might disagree but too bad, it's my post), like a tree star and the next addition to our willow tree nativity set. I'm still working on the tree skirt but its coming along and I am pretty sure it will be done by January.

Even after such an exciting day, there was more weekend holiday fun. We just got back from the big holiday benefit concert that Loralee and I have been rehearsing for these last 5-6 weeks. We both looked quite festive and it went well but between today's two hours of rehearsal and an hour and a half of concert, me and my voice are all tuckered out.