unplugged

So I unplugged for a while. Completely enjoyed my time off with my family and soaked up every. single. minute. It was glorious. I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year as well!

Since I stayed away from the blog and posted very little on facebook/twitter during our break, I wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures with you from our Christmas. We kept things super simple this year. I didn't decorate the perfect Christmas tree, and I didn't even post a Christmas home tour. We DID, however, manage to get our rooftop lights from last year on the Today Show. Yup. THAT Today Show.

Crazy.

I'll be back this week with an update on Project Life and some goodies I've been working on for the shop, but in the meantime, here's a glimpse at Christmas 2012:

Hubs and I went to a Madrigal Dinner. No forks, head in stocks...that kinda thing.

Loved watching our girls play.

Also loved adding cards to our cabinets each day. Sweet faces.

Oliver's Christmas party at school.

 Got to hang out with Dylan Riley Snyder from Disney XD's Kickin' It! Such an awesome guy!

Pure silliness...

Dusted off my Battleship skillz.

Watched this amazing lights display that was set to music. If you're in T-town, add this to your list of places to visit next year.

Wrapped gifts. The paper is from the dollar spot at Target and the tulle is leftover from mah WEDDIN' Y'ALL.

Dressed like a modern-day Dorothy,

while my bro-in-law dressed like this.

#Legos

#Batmansnuggie

Sister was SO excited to open some Barbies. That's mah girl.

MM was just happy to play with the bags...

Outside toys!

that were NOT for him. #120lbweightlimit

He wastes no time. #done

Beautiful service.

A crazy last-minute search for one of these on Dec 22. (Long story short, we found ONE)

Thug Princess.

Angry birds abound.

This girl loves her some Walter. (and nope- still not living inside. Just came in for a quick visit)

MM was even kind enough to share her little people Cinderella. That's big.

Got an awesome shirt. Thanks Mum.

Little People Empire! At last, the Ark can visit the Circus, the Jungle, AND the Princess castle.

More Legos.

And a massive purge. Turns out I still had every.single. program/playbill to EVERY show I'd ever been to in my life. Every. Single. One.

Does anyone really need 28 playbills to Urinetown or Millie? Cause that's how many I had, y'all. (no worries. I totally kept the signed ones)

And probably the biggest news of all:
THIS ONE GOES IN THE POTTY NOW.
Hasn't mastered number two in the loo, but she's mighty close.

So that's pretty much all the news that is the news.

Feels good to be back.

Happy Monday!

2012 Christmas cards

Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Mathews fam. Here's a look at our Christmas cards which I purchased from Shutterfly for the 3rd year in a row, and my sincerest thanks to the coupon codes that saved me $82.75.

I love taking a look back over the past year and including some of the major points on our card. Gets me all nostalgic, ya know?

We have two more days of school left here and then we'll have a nice long break. Looking forward to seeing all of our family and of course celebrating Christmas with our kiddos.

Happy Thursday, friends.

up on the roof

Anyone else sing the blog title in their heads just now?

No?

Just me then?

Back to the subject at hand which happens to be the roof. If you've been hangin' round these parts for over a year, you know that hubs likes to decorate our roof in an unconventional sort of way.

With words.

Spelled with lights.

The first year, it was this:

which lead our neighbors to wonder if we were in some sort of cult.

We're not. This is pure shenaniganisms. Yes that's a word.

Last year, the roof attracted so much attention, our house appeared on two popular websites and friends of ours that frequent those websites called and texted to let us know our rooftop had reached celebrity status. Last year's roof looked like this:

Again, I assure you there is no hidden meaning behind this. We love Christmas. The halls are decked, the carols are blaring from the stereo, and there's peppermint creamer in the fridge. This is hubs at his finest. Well, he's pretty darn fine in a tux, but you know what I mean.

Moving on.

This year, hubs masterpiece is sportin' a hashtag.

Because he's modern and whatnot.

Oliver's first observation was this:

"That's not how you spell it."

Well no, it's not.

"Then why is it like that?"

Your daddy is being silly.

"Oh. Ok."

Do you have any idea how many times I've had to say, "Your daddy is just being silly"? If I had a nickel for each time, I could buy like a thousand pumpkin spice lattes, mmkay?

So, in conclusion, the writing is once again on the roof.

It's pure shenanigans.

There is no cult.

I like pumpkin spice lattes.

p.s. If you'd like to take a gander at the INSIDE decor from last year, click HERE. The decor from this year so far is laughable at best. I'm a bit behind, not to be confused with I HAVE a big behind.

on Santa and the elves and such

Sometimes I feel compelled to write about something.

Sometimes it's a funny story, sometimes it's serious, and sometimes it's just something I feel strongly about.

Sometimes I struggle with the right words, and then sometimes, I stumble upon someone else's words that communicate so perfectly what I want to say. Before you click on that link to a post written by someone else, here are a few of my thoughts on the subject.

I've been asked more than a few times recently if we've had 'Santa pictures' made, or if we have an 'elf'. Now hear me out before I respond, and before you start hatin' on me- if you take your child to the mall to sit in the big guy's lap or if you have a mischievous elf at home, then more power to ya. I think those things are fine and good, but when the holiday that we celebrate in December has become SO far removed from what it's really about, then something is wrong.

And friends, I feel that something is wrong.

I'm not anti-Santa picture, but I've never taken my kiddos to sit in the big guy's lap. Our school will have a santa here next week to take photos with the kids, and Oliver will have his picture taken. But it's not about that. Yes, he's asked before if he's real. We've talked about it and I will never look at my child and crush his spirit- I simply leave it up to him by saying, "what do you think?", and he's still at an age where he believes. And that's ok. He even asked about our chimney on the way to school and wondered if Santa could, in fact, get into the house that way. I love that he's still young enough to think about that, but I don't want him to modify his behaviour or strive to impress a man in a red suit. It's not about that.

I'm not anti-elf, but I will never make a mess in my house and lead my children to believe that a stuffed toy did it, nor will I ever tell them that a stuffed toy is watching them and they'd better be good if they want more stuff. I don't want them believing in a stuffed toy. I want them to be good and do the right thing because it's what God wants them to do. Christmas is not about a stuffed toy. And also- they don't need more stuff.

When Oliver was younger, and an only child, we subscribed to the 'overboard' method. Presents and toys were piled HIGH on Christmas morning, and why not? We had no other children to buy gifts for. He also received an enormous amount of goodies from our family and friends. So much stuff that there wasn't enough space to fit it in his room. Or our house. When the girls came along, we dialed it down a bit, but made no huge adjustments until last year. I had a few friends who subscribed to the idea of, "Jesus got three gifts, so each of our kids gets three gifts", and I thought it was brilliant. That's what we tried to do last year, and we stuck to it for the most part aside from a couple of last minute nerf guns that went into O's pile.

We'll be doing that again this year, and I'd really really like to keep it to just three. Tres. Trois. That's it. They'll still get plenty of goodies from their grandparents and again, they have plenty already. I don't want Christmas at our house to be about stuff, but about the greatest gift of all. That's what it's about. Jesus.

That's it.

Seriously- that's it.

Now, I'm not a tyrant. Don't think I ban all things santa at our casa- because I don't. We watched Island of the Misfit Toys a few night ago because it's a classic and I love it. We listen to Christmas music in the car because Christmas music rocks. We sing along to Santa Claus is Coming to Town at the top of our lungs because that's good stuff right there. My girls wear smocked santa's on their dresses to church because smocked santa's are cute. Eliza was even wearing a smocked santa underneath her Mary costume in the children's program at our church last Sunday night. MM refused to wear a costume altogether, but that's neither here nor there.

The post I mentioned earlier is HERE, and was written by Jen Hatmaker- yes the Jen Hatmaker of 7. Her words and thoughts are the same as mine, but she's a far better writer than me which is why I urge you to read HER post on the subject. I also love Britt's post about how she and her husband are celebrating Christmas with their two young kiddos, although I don't have plans to try and remove santa from our celebration altogether. I just want him to play a tiny role. Teeny-tiny.

So there ya have it. A few of my thoughts, along with those from a couple of like-minded gals. I know that many will not agree with me, and that's ok. Like I said- I felt compelled. And when I feel compelled, I have to speak my mind, or in this case, sit down and type.

Christmas Happenings and such

Wowza.

That's the longest blogging break I've taken in a while.

It's a crazy time-

we've sped right into Christmas gathering/concert/party/present swap hyper-drive. Yes, yes we have.

Have you?

I am this {   } close to finishing all of the Christmas shopping.

After today, I plan to be this close: {}

as in pretty much done.

I wanted to post some pics of a few of the gatherings/concerts/parties/present swaps that we've attended/hosted/swapped at thus far.

Enjoy.

***

12.3.11

Our annual ladies ornament swap.
I look forward to this every year-
good friends, mounds of yumminess, and dirty Santa.
What better way to spend a Saturday morning?
So glad our pastor's wife was able to come.
She's been out of church since April battling cancer and it was amazing to have her back with us.
Love you Brenda.

12.10.11

The children's choir at church does a precious musical program every year which tells the story of Jesus' birth. And really, is there anything cuter than seeing little ones acting out the nativity in full costume?

That lil' wiseman in the middle is mine.

12.16.11

We went to a live nativity at a church near our school with all 3 kiddos.

They loved the donkey and this little nativity that we were given by members of the church.

After meeting up with hubs parents to pass off MM, we took the older two kiddos to see A Christmas Story at the Bama Theatre. This is one of the quintessential Christmas movies and seeing it live (especially when you know most of the actors) was a treat. I snapped this on my phone and I know it's hard to see, but this is the scene when Ralphie comes down the stairs in the bunny pjs.

12.17.11

We had a 'Tacky Christmas' party at our house.

Have you been to one of these?

I went to the thrift store to pick out my attire and hubs went to Belk.

That's right.

He was in brankspankin new clothes and I was in something that's been around since 1983.

My sincerest apologies if you happen to own the sweater hubs is sporting.

It really is quite lovely,

just not on a man.

His brother came in the same thing.

Awesome.

Here's our youth minister and his wife and their 2 girlys.

Yes, Kathryn is freakishly skinny to have just birthed a babe.

She and Jonathan both raided their moms closets and came out with very similar vests.

Cute.

Our friends Brittany and John Paul and their cutie-patootie-non-tacky baby girl, Turner McCartney

My lil dude sported a moustache all night.

He was also armed for most of the night.

We ate lots of yummy goodness and played a rousing game of Scene it-

12.18.11

Our church choir combined with members of the church where we are currently having services for the Christmas cantata this year. Was that confusing enough? (For more info on my church and why we're having services in another building, go HERE.) It was beautiful. Gorgeous music followed by a fellowship with both congregations after the service.

12.19.11

"Comfortable Christmas" at my hubs parents house.

As in, dress comfortably, which hubs took to the extreme.

Knowing hubs would be dressed down,

his brother chose to do the opposite, and so-

they looked like this:

The rule for gifts this year was to wrap up items from your home that you wouldn't mind not having anymore and that's what we played dirty santa with this year.

Hubs opened a box of Poly-grip and several old pie pans.

Sorry he's half dressed here.

His uncle opened several framed pictures from our house that hubs brother had stolen a couple days prior while at our tacky party.

There was also a can of Resolve in there.

Can't forget about the Resolve.

Hubs grandmother opened a pair of Flash undies.

Hubs mom opened a VCR/DVD combo from our house that no longer works.

We also threw in a VHS tape and a DVD as a bonus gift.

After hubs gave his first gift to his grandfather, (no, we didn't exactly play by the rules) he was free to open another.

It was a doozy.

Before you see the whole thing, don't be alarmed.

It's just acrylic paint.

Because who wouldn't want to open a pair of poopy undies?

Kudos to hubs aunt who worked her magic and made it so, ummm,

realistic.

Here's just one of the many pics I had to steal back.

You know, since they were mine anyway.

The kids got real presents.

Barbies and costumes galore.

I'm so glad I have new Barbies to play with!

I mean 'they'.

I'm so glad they have new Barbies to play with...

and here's E in her new costume, complete with crown and wand.

And now I'm caught up on what's been a'happening around these parts lately.

I hope your Christmas season has been full and festive as well!

And FYI, the Witch was just liquidated for the 3rd time this week.

She's still on a Wizard of Oz kick and I love it.

Merry Christmas friends!