all in good cheer!

December is finally upon us! Christmas is a week away and I wanted to show you some snaps I've taken throughout our days.

We busted our decorations the first days of the month to bring some cheer into our home. Many of the decorations are thrifted ones except the ones I bought as crafts for a little Christmas town at Michael's.

Several years ago when the boys were smaller, we made a little Christmas town out of cardboxes. It was fun making them but when I opened our Christmas storage bin this year, they were crushed! I must not have packed them correctly. So I decided it would be great for the boys & little girl to make some new ones! These were challenging at times for the boys and we had to use hot glue for them (longer lasting architecture) but the end result was worth it.

Of course, Elena had a lot of help hehe!

This little gingerbread house was one we had done a couple of years ago. The boys love playing and losing the gingerbread man.

I added some lights behind the town to brighten it up and hung the kids stockings up above.

Last year my mother made a felt Christmas tree. We pulled it out to decorate it! We now have 3 trees -- all fake! One in the living room, a little one in the boys room, and this felt one. We are so festive!

Watch a fast motion video of us decorating our tree!

I made sure to plan some Christmas crafts for Elena. I don't normally craft any more because headache and clean up but I enjoyed spending this concentrated time with her. She's so independent in any activity I usually just clean up after her. She's a great artist. She loved the cotton ball snowman & Santa Claus.

Our advent calendar changed a bit from previous years. I got major kudos from Gary for doing it this way and the kids enjoy busting through the paper each day.

Our little nativity scene is centered at our table. A shepherd is missing but it's ok. I want to invest in a really good wooden nativity scene soon. Meanwhile, these cute little ones will work. That's Jonah's handy barn in the foreground.

And of course, it was time to put my beautiful plants all indoors and let them be festive right alongside us.

I always love my Christmas Cactus blooming. It is taking a little longer this year but it seems that it'll get there...

Our mega church is ridiculous at Christmas time. They had a gigantic Christmas tree in the lobby and have 4 or 5 tracks of trains in the children's building that the kids absolutely love to watch. They also put a puppet play that we watch yearly.

Christmas Ranch in north Cleveland was a sweet quick treat. We met Santa and were dazzled at the lights these couple completely go overboard with Christmas lights. It's free and fun.