10 days till Christmas: Christmas collections

Do you have any Christmas collections? Are there certain ornaments you look for or collect each year? Do you have specific themes with your decorations?

We have several different collections and themes with our Christmas decor.First there's ornaments. We have quite a few different Hallmark series that we get each year.

We have a a somewhat candy themed tree so my mom started this series:

When I first moved out my mom started this series, they all have pull strings that make the ornament move.

My parents have been collecting this series for over 20 years so for the past 3 years they have been giving my sister and I the series as well. It's one of my favorites.

We also have started collecting the annual Swarovski snowflake ornament. Michael gets it for me every year. This is our 4th year.

 We of course love Disney which is no surprise since we go almost every year so we have a bunch of disney ornaments from our past trips. Our stockings are also Disney and we have some other Disney themed decorations.

 

Our newest collection started with my parents' generous gift of some village houses of their Department56 North Pole series. We have added several houses this year due to Michael's newly found obsession.

 

Probably our biggest collection is of snowmen. Snowmen are my favorite at Christmas time. I even have a little 4 foot tree that is decorated entirely of snowmen ornaments. Here are some pictures of my snowmen all throughout the house.

 

 

 

 

11 days till Christmas: Christmas tree update

Well we didn't find a tree last night. We can only find 6 or 7 foot trees and we really want a 9 foot tree. The other problem is almost all of the trees are prelit with white lights. I personally like colored lights on my tree so we are going to have to wait until next year. Last night we took everything that was hanging off the tree off and tried to re-string some lights and whatever ornaments were still on, stayed on. Everything else got packed up for next year. So here's our sad and bland Christmas tree. I guess it's better than nothing! Things can always be worse; we have much to be lucky for so we probably shouldn't be complaining about a Christmas tree!

I didn't get a chance to post this week's menu yesterday due to the Christmas tree crash incident. So here's our menu for the week.

Monday: Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches and salad
Tuesday: Pesto parmesan pork tenderloin with hasselback potatoes
Wednsday: Honey chicken tenders and salad
Thursday: Turkey sausage sammies with penne pasta
Friday: Date Night!

12 days till Christmas: Crash goes the Christmas tree...

Today was definitely a Christmas first at the Dworianyn Love Nest. I was getting ready to leave for work and Michael was sitting on the couch with his laptop and suddenly the Christmas tree just fell to the ground. It was so scary! It was not the way I wanted to start my Monday morning at 5:30 am.

Our tree is huge, it's almost 10 feet tall and super heavy since its a fresh tree. Water went all over the place, all the ornaments, lights and garland flew off. Only a few of the ornaments got broken and all of them can be fixed with some super glue. I don't know how more didn't break, but I am so thankful they didn't. All our ornaments are really special to us. I'm really glad I didn't have any of the wrapped presents under the tree either because they all would have gotten soaked with the tree water.

Michael said that he wants to get a fake tree and no more fresh trees and I can't say I disagree. We are going to go out and try to find one this week so we can have a Christmas tree for Christmas.

Our beautiful tree before...

Our tree after the great crash...

Porkchop surveying the damage

13 days till Christmas: Christmas baking!

Today Michael and I did our annual Christmas baking. Each year we pick 4 or 5 recipes to try. We usually use different recipes every year. This year we did more candy type baking then cookies. We made pretzel hugs, rolo turtles, chocolate peanut clusters, and cake bites. I included links to all the recipes we made below. We will be bringing pretty much everything we baked to work and to Michael's parents' Christmas party this upcoming weekend. I need it out of the house!

Here's some pictures of us in action and of our finished products!

 

 

The finished cake bites!

Hug Pretzel Candies

Rolo Turtles

Chocolate Peanut Clusters

14 days till Christmas: mmmm...hot cocoa

I am not a coffee drinker. I have never had a cup of coffee in my life. I hate the smell, the taste, everything about it. So, I've never really gotten the whole Starbucks thing. Tall, soy, latte, blah, blah, blah...But let me tell you this, Starbucks makes the best hot chocolate ever. I even got Michael hooked on their hot chocolate. He had never had it before and now he can't get enough. We usually make a stop every weekend. It is delicious and the thing I like about it most is that it is always the perfect temperature! You can drink it as soon as its put in your hand. Most places you risk second degree burns on your tongue with their hot chocolate!

15 days till Christmas: Greeting cards have all been sent...

Today we mailed out our 2009 Dworianyn Christmas card. Below is a picture of what they look like. I made them on Shutterfly. Check your mailbox for your own copy!

16 days till Christmas: 25 Christmas questions

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year and when I got sent this email from one of my friends, I thought it would be fun to fill out. What are your Christmas favorites?

1. What are your Favorite Christmas Movies?
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, White Christmas & Love Actually

2. What is your Least favorite Christmas Movie?
The Christmas Story (I know this has a huge cult following, but I could care less about Ralphie and his BB gun)

3. What is your favorite Christmas song?
All I want for Christmas is you – Mariah Carey

4. What Christmas song(s) drives you crazy?
Any Christmas song that screws up the original medley of the song!

5. What is your favorite Christmas Drink? (ie. egg nog, hot chocolate)
Starbucks’ Hot Cocoa

6. What is your favorite Christmas Memory?
That is really impossible to pick, I can think of a favorite from every year...

7. What is the best toy/gift you've received on Christmas?
So many things to choose from...my husband and family always make each gift special

8. What is the worst toy/gift you've received on Christmas?
hmmm…maybe a light bulb…but I love everything I get

9. What do you LOVE about the holidays?
Almost Everything!!!

10. What annoys you about the holidays?
Shopping in stores with grumpy people…this is why I am always done shopping before Thanksgiving or I buy it online!

11. Do you prefer star or angel on top of a Christmas tree? Or something else?
We have a unique tree topper that is a red and white polka dot metal bow, it is super cute!

12. What is your family favorite recipe at Christmas?
I would have to say my sugar cookies with icing

13. Are you a Grinch or a Who at Christmastime?
Who Baby!!!

14. Christmas light displays - Love them or Hate them?
Love Them!!! It's not Christmas without them.

15. Santa's at the mall - Fun times or Creepy?
Fun times but some of them do look a little disgruntled and creepy…

16. Christmas cards - do you send them, yes or no?
Yes – and they are on their way right now!

17. What is the best thing about Christmas, in your opinion?
Spending time with family & friends.

18. What is the worst thing about Christmas?
Trying to fit everything and everyone in a limited time

19. When do you put the tree up and take it down?
Put it up Thanksgiving weekend and take it down before New Year’s Eve. I like to start the new year with a clean and fresh house!

20. Out of the 12 days of Christmas, which day and item would you want your truelove to give to you?
Eight Maids A Milking but only if those maids can do laundry, dishes, vacuuming, cooking, dusting, ironing, etc.

21. Why do you think that Grandma got run over by a reindeer?
She was just moving too dang slow!

22. Who is your favorite reindeer?
Rudolph with his nose so bright

23. Do you believe in Santa Claus?
Um...of course!!!

24. What is your favorite smell at Christmas time?
Toss up between our fresh Christmas tree and Christmas cookies baking in the oven!

25. What would make you happy at Christmas this year?
For everyone to have a happy, healthy holiday and to be thankful for what they have this year.

17 Days till Christmas: Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Well it looks like we might get that White Christmas after all! It's been snowing here for the past 24 hours. Luckily we didn't get the 8-12 inches they were talking about, but we still got a good 5 or so inches. Its supposed to get a lot colder tonight so hopefully everything does not freeze over into a giant sheet of ice!

It's even snowing on our blog page! (Thanks to shabby blogs!)

Here's some pictures from outside our front door.

 

18 days till Christmas: It takes a village...

I mentioned last month that my parents gave my sister and I some pieces of their Department56 North Pole Christmas Village to start building our own village. Well build we did, or should I say, build Michael did! Michael has been on the hunt for unique houses to add to our village. He doubled the size of our village in a matter of a week! We finally put it all together on Saturday and I was really happy with how it came out! I can't wait to show my parents in person!

 

 

 

19 days till Christmas: The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

I finally got around to taking pictures of all of our Christmas decorations around the house. I am going to do a separate post on our new Christmas village...There's a lot of pictures, so keep scrolling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

20 days till Christmas: It's a wrap!

Today we started our Sunday with our usual breakfast and grocery shopping. We came home and did some cleaning, I worked out and then spent the rest of the day getting most of the presents wrapped and ready. I have just a few left that I am waiting to arrive in the mail. It was a nice relaxing day.

Here are all the presents ready to go and be opened on Christmas morning at our families' homes!

Also, here is our menu for the week:
Sunday: Ravioli and turkey Italian sausage with salad
Monday: 30 garlic clove crock pot chicken
Tuesday: Pesto Parmesan crusted pork tenderloin with hasselback potatoes
Wednesday: Homemade pizza night (we didn't end up having this last week)
Thursday: Pad Thai
Friday: Sesame Chicken and Fried rice

21 Days till Christmas: Zoo Lights!

Michael and I headed downtown tonight to Lincoln Park Zoo and it's annual Zoo Lights festival. It was a little chilly but it was really beautiful. We ducked in and out of buildings to keep warm and then headed out to dinner at Wilde. It was a great night and really got us in the Christmas spirit!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 Days till Christmas: Planning a holiday filled weekend

Well, we made it through another week! I am so happy to have just 2 more weeks of work and then more than 2 weeks off. It is going to be a much needed break. The next 2 weeks are going to be pretty rough workload wise, but it will all be worth it when I'm on break.

We have some fun plans for the weekend that I'm excited about. Tomorrow we are going to head to the city tomorrow back to my old neighborhood to go to Lincoln Park Zoo's Zoo Lights. After the zoo then we are going to go out to dinner and have a fun night out. On Sunday we are going to finish setting up our Christmas Village (pictures coming soon!) and I am going to try and get all the Christmas presents wrapped this weekend. I also have some homemade Christmas projects I'm working on too that I'd like to get finished.

I'll have lots of updates and pictures this weekend!

23 days till Christmas: First snowflakes

 Today we had our first snowflakes hit the ground. It didn't stick to the ground but it was blowing around all day. Last time this year we had already had over a foot of snow, so it's a nice break this year not being buried in snow. A small part of me does wish for a white Christmas though! I am so glad that this week is coming to a close, it's been a rough one. One week down and two to go before 2 weeks off of work. I can't wait!!!

24 days till Christmas: December goals

This is something I have seen featured on some of the other blogs I read so I thought I would give it a try. I'll lay out goals for the month and then report back the next month on how I did and set new goals for the new month.

December Goals:

1. Lose 15 pounds in the month of December (This will bring my total loss to 40lbs!)
2. Workout at least 3 times a week (I'm shooting for 4, but I want to be realistic as well)
3. Have all presents wrapped by December 12
4. Donate to Toys for Tots
4. Have all of my Christmas decorations down by New Years

25 Days till Christmas: O, Christmas Tree, O, Christmas Tree

Well, here she is! She's all decked out and ready for Christmas! Michael and I finished decorating the tree on Saturday. We are pretty much done with all the decorating except for our new Christmas village. I will have full pictures of all the decorations once everything is ready!

Here's a picture during the day

And one at night