Farewell, Christmas

We've been slowly packing away Christmas all week, and today Donald took down the exterior lights, thus making it official: Christmas is over at the Winn house.

Overall, it was a good season. We decided to make this Christmas our lowest budget yet, and ya know what? That decision only made the Holidays more enjoyable. Christmas isn't about spending money, and we've decided that starting next year, our Little Winn(s) will be getting three presents each. Jesus only received three gifts, and there's no reason it should take more than that to satisfy our family's wants.

If anyone's wondering (and I'm sure you're not) I got Pixelmator (photo editing software... which I have yet to use, whoops) and Donald received SmartWool slippers.

Because of our commitment to downsize our Christmas budget, I decided to make a few wreaths instead of buying. For LESS than the price of buying one, I made four. This is common knowledge for most, but we lived in Germany for my first three Decembers as an "adult", so it's only now that I realize how cheap it is to do it all myself! I'm kicking myself for all the money I spent on dinky wreaths the last few years... but being abroad, our options seemed limited.

For the rest of my "decorating on the cheap" I went around the house and frantically put bows and snowflakes on everything I saw. It may not be glamorous, but within minutes my house screamed of Christmas.

I also made a cheap little banner for our entry way to remind everyone of what the season is about.

The dogs were particularly adorable this year. Because our living room is relatively small, I decided to put the tree up in the dinning room (which is comparatively large) and sees less traffic. The dining room is also the dogs' favorite spot to lounge, and they seemed to appreciate the extra coziness that the tree provided.

CUTE, RIGHT?!?!

We had a few friends over mid-month for a Christmas BBQ, and I was able to use some leftover gift tag supplies to make invitations for the neighbors.

It was a small turnout of maybe 10 people, but it was fun.

One of our neighbors is from Russia, and I'm somewhat excited to start learning the language and testing it out on her. ;-)

And no, we didn't have a white Christmas, but we did have a white late December. When I woke up for work and realized the what was going on, I literally RAN outside (in my robe and Donald's snow boots) to take pictures. Snow around here is infrequent, so a frosty house decorated for Christmas could be a once-in-a-decade opportunity.

Christmas 2010 was great, but 2011 is sure to be our best yet. I can hardly wait to have our Little Winn home so (s)he can help me make cookies to leave out for Santa. :-)