santa's not coming to our house!!

happy holidays and merry christmas to all! this was our photocard (below) we sent out this year. i made it with this template here. love that it was easy and let me put multiple pictures! the only thing i didn't remember to do (or if it was even possible) was to put a message on the front. i ended up writing the boys' names [after i got tired of writing all our names]. a thing i do is to take a pic of the boys on a ride with their age on the side...hopefully, people got that that is how old they are. we went to legoland on both their birthdays and it worked out great! :)made this wreath out of old vintage mercury bulbs.

this picture below is more of what the color is like. it took about 36 to make this. i was picky about the colors so i didn't use all the bulbs. BTW, hubby managed to knock over the pretty light blue bulb on the bottom right hand side :( it shattered to pieces.

it took me months & months of collecting these.

so, let me tell you a funny story. last friday, it was brandon's last day of school before they went on their 2 week break.

we were sitting around at home after school and the boys must have been bored. they both disappeared for a while and here comes brandon, running upstairs and says, "look at what i got mom!! a new toy! it's SO cool!" i was like, "WHERE did you get that toy???" busted. bryan was right behind him waving his toy around too!

my 2 boys opened up 2 out of the ONLY 4 presents that were under the tree at that time. mind you, the tree wasn't even decorated and there wasn't even a tree skirt down yet. they know exactly when christmas is too. we've been counting down the days with a chocolate advent calendar (trader joe's). i couldn't believe they opened up thier presents before christmas!!!!

i gave them a yellin' and a loooooong lecture. and i told them those 2 toys they opened will have to be donated to a toy drive of some sort. there were LOTS of tears but hey, you have to lay down the law. i'm sorry if the 2 peeps who gave these toys to the boys see this.....it's a hard lesson for them but it's one they have to remember.

the boys holding their toy they opened, ready to donate.

i read that sprinkles (cupcakes) was having a toy drive where if you donate an unwrapped toy, they'll give you a free cupcake. that's where i chose to have the boys donate to. when i told eddie this, he said, "wait......so they are donating toys they opened and in exchange, they get a cupcake?" well, if you put it that way....yes, it doesn't sound right rewarding them with a cupcake. the double whammy too was if you say their secret word of the day, you get a free cupcake so we got 2 free cupcakes each.

secret here----me & my sister used to always peek in our presents when we were little. we'd open them carefully and tape them back shut. bottom line, we did it subtly. the boys don't know what that means yet---obviously!!!

here are the other picutres we took with santa.

luckily, we visited santa BEFORE the incident! LOL

i made some altered calendars for school staff, the crossing guard and some co-workers.

thought this one looks so simple, it took the longest! lining up the owls just so was time consuming!

thanks for stopping by! i'm sick as a dog right now. been going to sleep early this week. on monday, i thought i had strep throat. luckily, the next morning, it wasn't as severe but now, it's full-blown. good thing all our shopping was done & i had wrapped mostly everything so there's not much left to do.

merry christmas and happy holidays to you all!!