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November 30, 2015
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Until then, a few decorations from our California Christmas.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! John and I spent our week in Dallas with his family where I successfully made my first pumpkin pie and lattice cherry pie! There were some tears and a few batches of dough thrown in the trash, but alas after 6 tries or so, we had pie crust!
Upon our return we got right to work decorating for our small group Christmas party that’s this week. Since our move to California is only temporary until John finishes grad school, we didn’t bring out any of our décor, less a couple shoeboxes of ornaments and our stockings. With that said, and because we already have a big tree, lights, skirt, etc. back in CO and we’ll be in CO for the majority of December, we challenged ourselves to do all our décor for under $50 bucks. We got creative and kept things simple. Photos below of our cost savings ideas. :-)
We’re excited to host our small group this week with a fun, white elephant gift exchange, a Christmas version of the iPhone game Heads Up! (have you guys played this?? It’s our new favorite pastime.), a pork roast, lots of eggnog and cider, and new Christmas music from my favorite gal: LeAnn Rimes.
And because the Monday after a holiday weekend is tough to get into, we’re adding some spice to your day and giving away 3 copies of her new CD, Today is Christmas. Enter to win by leaving a comment below with your favorite Christmas song! Winners announced tomorrow!
Hope you making some great memories around your Christmas tree this year!
With love,
René
This tree and its trimmings was all done for $30 bucks!
John found a great deal on this tree for $14 at Target, and we got the lights for $3 at Ace Hardware. The ball ornaments are fillers to our personal ornaments and were purchased at Dollar Tree for $5. Tree skirt was 50% off burlap fabric from JoAnn’s for $5. And the bunting was $3 at Target. For those of you keeping count that’s a whole tree set up for $30! The twine around the tree was a last minute thought and something I had in my gift wrapping box. Kind of ties the whole burlap thing together!
Our last California apartment was SUPER TINY. Like when you walk in the front door you were in our office, kitchen, living room, and dining room all at the same time. So we have this itty bitty TV and stand. We decorated over it using photos from when John proposed around Christmas time in 2013. We already had that Merry Christmas sign and we used a few red and green books from our bookcase to add a little holiday flair.
Oh yeah, and we had some Christmas card photos taken this weekend too! More of these on the blog once we send out our cards. :)
WIN A CHRISTMAS CD!
Lastly, we are giving away my new favorite Christmas CD of the year to 3 lucky winners! It’s LeAnn Rimes’ Today is Christmas and it’s sooooo good!!
All you have to do is leave a comment with your favorite Christmas song below and we’ll choose 3 winners at random tomorrow!
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Joy to the World!!
Your tree is beautiful! And what a deal on all your decor!
I’m partial to “The Christmas Waltz” and “Baby it’s cold outside”.
ROCKIN’ AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE
Anything by Vince Guaraldi
Love all the little touches:) Burlap is my go to textile of choice this year! My absolute favorite Christmas song is Michael W Smith’s No Eye Had Seen with Amy Grant, gives me chills every time I hear it.
Silver Bells is my favorite!
The Christmas Song!
So fun to read this post! My favorite is the bell carol!
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Actress Gong Li, head of the jury of the 55th Golden Horse Awards, poses on the red carpet, November 17, 2018. /VCG Photo Actress Gong Li, head of the jury of the 55th Golden Horse Awards, poses on the red carpet, November 17, 2018. /VCG Photo
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