{12 Days of Christmas} Decorations

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I absolutely love decorating for Christmas. It's one of the best times of the year; the house has all of these trees, lights, shiny ornaments, stockings... There's so much to look at and decorate with! My living room is a light turquoise so I tend to go with a coastal Christmas theme in there, as pictured above. All of the ornaments are ocean-related or teal/blue/green. There's a starfish, jellyfish, whale, pufferfish, and dolphins!

Above that mini-tree, I hang my stockings on the wall (unfortunately, I lack a mantel) and my favorite Christmas sign! The stocking on the left was hand-made by my grandmother and the one on the right is my father's; he was born a week before Christmas and got to go home in a baby-sized stocking! These are two of my most-loved possessions. 

On top of my armoire is my father's toy car, which I paired with ornament-garland, tinsel garland, and two of my grandmother's vintage nutcrackers.

That's it for the living room!

 I'll have to share more of the house in another post soon!

Do you have any specific themes for your decorations?

Tell me in the comments!

xoxo

{12 Days of Christmas} Boat Parade 2014

Jellyfish!

This year, I attended the Santa Cruz Harbor's boat parade for the second year in a row. This time I went with a large group of friends (my Santa Cruz family!) and had a lot of fun. It was very chilly down at the harbor. There weren't as many boats this year, and many were the same as last year, so that was kind of disappointing, but going to a boat parade at Christmas has been a tradition for me my whole life. 

I really liked the jelly fish boat (pictured above) and my favorite from last year was back: Rudolph the Red-Nose Rein-boat! See this post for the picture. 

They even lit up the lighthouse! 

Overall, it was a lot of fun to enjoy the boat parade tradition with new and old friends, who have become my family.

Have you seen a boat parade this Christmas? If so, where was it? 

Merry Christmas!

xoxo

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to anyone reading this! And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then I wish you a happy day! And a happy year ahead!



My pup says "Bah Humbug!"



Today, I am enjoying the company of my family and feeling their love. I am incredibly happy today and although I miss many people, today I feel closer to them because today is filled with love.

How are you celebrating today?

Happy holidays!

xoxo

{Balboa Island} Christmas Boat Parade

 

Happy Christmas Eve!

Last weekend, my family and I went to Balboa Island in Newport Beach in order to watch the 105th annual boat parade. It was a blast, and I am so glad that we were able to make it.

 

We started our day with a long walk around the island our annual "trip" to Starbucks, and browsing the shops on the main road for fun and funny gifts. We had no such luck in the shopping department, but we all enjoyed our coffee and family time.

 

We also walked by many houses and piers (like the two pictured above) and while some houses were not so Christmas-y, they were still gorgeous. Other homes were completely decked out in lights! It was fun to just walk around and enjoy the lights.

 

This boat looked like a Christmas tree with a little vintage pink car following! 

 

I was in Christmas heaven!

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

 

Merry Christmas eve!

xoxo

Pre-K Wednesday: {Christmas}

Play-dough Snow

It's so sparkly and it smells like peppermint!

This year, we have had a variety of play-dough colors and scents, and for Christmas, we decided to make play-dough "Snow." 

Since we live in coastal California, snow just isn't something we come by too often, but this was a very fun (and much more warm!) alternative. We added glitter and some peppermint extract, and it really got the kids talking about Christmas! 

They even made snowmen:

Letter Recognition Tree

We have been working with letter recognition, writing practice, and spelling quite a bit, but the kids have been losing focus. I wanted to find a fun way to get them excited about spelling again, and this worked! I cut a ton (seriously, these kids have so many letters in their names!) of small circles in various colors for their 

"ornaments" and then added a letter to each one. I then cut out a tree for each child, spelling their name on the tree. They then had to match their letter ornaments to a letter on the tree and glue it down. 

We had so much fun!

Christmas Ornaments

We also made little circle glitter ornaments, and the kids love glue and glitter, so this was really fun for them! 

On top of our fun crafts, we've also been reading quite a few Christmas books, listening to Christmas music, and we are even having a mini-party!

xoxo

Christmas Boat Parade {Northern California}

Christmas Boat Parade

{Northern California}

Last weekend, I was able to make it to a Christmas Boat Parade on the harbor after rehearsal; the preschool I work for was part of a "Friendly Beasts" Christmas performance. It was so much fun! 

It's been an annual tradition for my family and I to go to a boat parade around Christmas time, I cannot wait to go to the one with them in Southern California soon! 

Sharing this tradition with my friends was a really great experience for me, one that I hope to be able to continue next year. 

It is always so much fun to see how each boat comes up with cute concepts for Christmas lights! My personal favorite is this one: 

It looks like Rudolph! So cute!

What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

xoxo