Christmas House Tour

We got all of our decorating done and I LOVE the way the place looks.  It's our first Christmas in Mississippi and our first Christmas in our house.  I enjoyed finding places for everything and adding some cheer all over the house.  I have collected decorations for the last ten years and it was fun to pull out every item this year since we had room to go all out.  I went with a red & green, silver & gold theme and loved how it turned out.  I'm still hoping to hang our stockings, but have yet to find the perfect toddler proof way to hang them.

I'll give you the tour as if you were walking in my front door.

Let's get started with my front door & entryway

My mom helped me find this berry wreath and garland from Hobby Lobby this year.  I love both and think they're the perfect way to greet people as they enter my house.

 Our family room:

 Guest bathroom downstairs:

 The kitchen:
I love that you can see the tree from almost anywhere downstairs.

Nativity advent

 Christmas cards are trickling in so I'm hanging them high to keep them out of toddler hands :)  They are hanging on closet doors in the kitchen.  Can't wait to see how many we get this year.

 Our usual dinnerware is switched out for Christmas dishes this month.

 Dining Room:

 I collect Irish santas & nutcrackers

and my green tree collection has gotten to a great size.

 Master bedroom:

Olive's bedroom has a Christmasy twist on it.

Outside we have these sweet berry bushes & Olive learned how to say cheese just in time for Christmas.

 Hope you enjoyed the Christmas tour!
Check back in next week for a close up tour of the trees in our house.

Linking up with Come On In Christmas Edition
Blogmas14 and KellysKorner

Cream Puff Tree

Need to bring something festive to a holiday gathering??

This cream puff tree is so easy and delicious!!

 Everyone will want to eat these yummy treats!!

They are really easy and delicious.

You can find my recipe and directions on MSWB

Highs and Lows

It's been a bit of a rough week at our house.  

We definitely had lots of highs and lows 

with Thanksgiving, traveling and more

so I'll get started with my list:

HIGHS:

1. We got to travel to Indiana to see our families for Thanksgiving.  Our road trip to Indiana was our fastest one yet (in under 8 hours with stops both ways) and perfectly uneventful.  We got to see so many people we love.

  2. We got to eat LOTS of delicious food and I was happy to contribute a little by helping my mom make the pies.  Isn't that tiny squirrel cookie cutter adorable!?!?  I am planning to make a mini Thanksgiving for my family next week.

3. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was on the hunt for a berry wreath for my front door.  I searched high and low for an affordable one and my mom found the winner at Hobby Lobby.  They are expensive if you pay full price so be sure to buy on sale or use a coupon.  The wreath looks lovely on my front door!  I love the shades of red, the size of the wreath and the overall look of it!

4. We got to go on The Polar Express train ride in French Lick, Indiana.

My siblings, their kids and my parents all got to go and it was so much fun!

I felt like it really kicked off the Christmas season.

I'll post more on the whole experience next week.

Olive learned how to do the choo-choo sign so she was thrilled when we actually got to ride the choo-choo train!  She also learned how to say papaw so naturally he was thrilled.  She's been saying choo-choo and papaw every since.

5. I made our Christmas cards and am almost ready to put them in the mail.  My address list is updated and I ordered them from Sams during their great Black Friday sale.  I also started getting Christmas cards in the mail this week.  I love going to the mailbox every day around Christmas to see what cards came for us.

6. We got our Christmas tree!!  It smells like Christmas in my house and I can't wait to decorate it.  I'm going to keep our special breakable ornaments packed away this year and decorate the tree with nonbreakable, toddler friendly ornaments.  I don't want to have to guard the tree from my little toddler tornado all month long :)

The major LOW that dominated our week:

Olive pulled my hot curling wand off the bathroom counter last Friday and badly burned her hand.  We've spent the week in the ER, pediatrician's office and seen specialists at the burn center.  She had to have surgery on Wednesday to help her hand heal.  We were so sad to see her in so much pain and having to go through all of this at just 18 months old.  It's been exhausting and we are hopeful that she's on the road to a full recovery.  We are thankful for great doctors and are praying she'll heal perfectly without any further procedures.

#healfastlittleone

Hope you have a great weekend!!

We are planning a low key one so that Olive can just rest, relax and HEAL!

Linking up with HodgesPodges, FridayFavorites, Oh Hey Friday!
 MeetattheBarre, ThoughtsforThursday, FridayBlogHop
OnYourHeart, LittleFriday,
 TheLaurenElizabeth, LifeRearranged, FiveonFriday,

FridayFavorites, FridaysFabFavorites

Heal Quickly Little One

Thank you for all of your sweet comments and prayers yesterday.  They were such a comfort to me as we were doing a lot of sitting and waiting at the hospital.

I wanted to give you a little Olive update.

Her surgery went well.

Her doctor was really optimistic and her ability to heal, but wanted to keep a close eye on a spot by her thumb.  It was the deepest burn so they will have to monitor it to ensure it heals well.  We will head back to the burn center next week for a follow up.

We were at the hospital from 5am-11am and Olive was a trooper for about 90% of the time.  She was all chatty and friendly pre surgery.  She was curious, interactive and looked darling in her pint sized hospital gown.  It also had tiny tigers all over it which seemed to please her since she's currently loving Daniel Tiger.  I brought toys and we kept her occupied to distract her from the fact she wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything.

I was so thankful her ansthesia kicked in and she was loopy when we had to leave her.  I kept myself together in front of her and then cried as we headed back to her room to wait for her during surgery.  She did well with the whole sedation process and they said things went great.

The whole thing was kind of overwhelming for Kevin and I as new-ish parents.  I still feel guilty about the whole accident and I'll have to write about later on.  I had a whole range of emotions - scared, nervous, thankful, appreciative, doubtful, brave and protective.  It's the worst feeling in the world to see your child in pain and not be able to do anything to make it better.  We did a lot of praying, talking and ultimately knew God would protect her because he loves her even more than we do.

Thankfully, Kevin's boss let him work from home so he was able to go with us.  I honestly don't think I could have gone by myself.  It was a lot of paperwork, details to be attended to and care taking.  Olive wanted to play and explore pre surgery and then afterwards she was a hot mess.  She was so agitated from the anesthesia and so mad that her burned hand had a giant bandage on it, her right had had an IV in it and her ankle had a hospital bracelet.  We had to hold her down for the nurses, contain her, keep her from pulling off any bandages and we were both sweating trying to keep her safe.  She screamed for 30 minutes and it was heart breaking and we felt helpless.  The nurses kept saying it was normal, but that was not comforting.  She eventually settled down, drank some water and we were given the green light to go home.

The rest of the day we all napped, relaxed and played at home.

Thanks again for your prayers.  We'd love a few more for continued healing or super star healing so that she can heal on her own without having any more procedures.

Prayer Request

In all my years of blogging, I don't think I have ever asked y'all to pray for anything until today.  I have a BIG prayer request and I know the more prayers the better.

Olive is having a procedure done this morning around 5:00am for her burned hand.  She pulled my HOT curling wand down on top of her hand while we were out of town for Thanksgiving break.  We've been to the ER and seen various other doctors since Friday.  She's got some bad burns and we are doing everything we can to help her heal.

The specialists are planning to clean it and help fast track the healing process.  I know it's a good thing, but she's so tiny that it's scary for this mama.  She's only 18 months old and she's never been sedated before or ever had any kind of procedures done.  I wish she did not have to go through this and I'm still mad at myself for the whole thing.  She's been so resilient and I'm thankful for that.  I am hoping and praying she makes a full recovery.

Could you pray that:

the procedure goes smoothly

for her doctors and nurses

she does really well with the anesthesia 

that we can manage her pain well

that she leaves her bandages alone

she won't need any further procedures to fully heal

I'll be checking in on Instagram if you'd like an update

@ polkadottyplace

Thank you for thinking of us and sending prayers our way!!

Miss December

I was so excited to find out that I'd been chosen to be

Miss December

for Mississippi Women Bloggers!!

I'll be writing for them a few times a week all month long.

I am thrilled to have this fun opportunity

and hope to make a few new bloggy friends!

Go here to read about Miss December :)

December Goals

November went by so quickly this year.  It was full of sickness, birthday festivities, traveling, Thanksgiving, cold weather and just seemed to be over in the blink of an eye.  We enjoyed thanksgiving with our families and are fully ready to embrace the holidays.  I got lots done last month and I'm most excited to say that my Christmas shopping is DONE!!!!  I have NEVER been done shopping before December even started and I'm thinking I am going to have to keep this tradition up for years to come.

Recap of my November Goals:

1. Put the finishing details on my family's Cousin Christmas gift exchange letters and mail them out this week.

2. Take down Halloween and decorate for Thanksgiving.  I do not decorate for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving.  Let's just enjoy one holiday at a time please :)

3. Keep my DSLR handy and snap a few, great pictures every day.

4. Make an apple pie and do a blog post about pie crust tips

5. Have a lunch date with my neighbor one Saturday

6. Continue my Christmas shopping - I start shopping months in advance so that I don't have to spend all of December shopping.  I just bought my wrapping paper this past weekend so I'm hoping to start wrapping as I buy the gifts.

7. Buy plastic holiday plates for Olive to use

8. Plan a play date with a friend

9. Spend my birthday money :)

10. Volunteer to bring treats to one of my mom's groups at church

11. Renew my Sams membership

12. I'd love to get a fire pit for our backyard, eat s'mores and get more pine straw for our landscaping.

December 2014 Goals

1. Do a North Pole breakfast for Olive

2. Buy & decorate a real Christmas tree

3. Have some backyard bonfire date nights

4. Wrap all Christmas gifts by mid-month

5. Make a homemade gingerbread house

6. Make and deliver plates of sugar cookies to my neighbors

7. Drive around to look at Christmas lights

8. Watch Christmas movies on TV together

9. Make Christmas goodies for Kevin's co-workers

10. Go to a Christmas parade

11. Take Olive to see Santa

12. Make a few new ornaments for Olive's tree

13. Give my hubby candy for St. Nick's Day

14. Go to the live nativity at our church & the Christmas program

15. Make and send out Christmas cards to our family& friends

16. Update my Christmas card address list

17. Listen to Christmas music

18. Work on 10 guest blog posts for Mississippi Women Bloggers all month
19. Drink several mugs of hot chocolate
20. Have a lunch date with Kevin

Hoping to squeeze in a lot of fun and family time this month!

What are you up to this month??

Julia's Bowtique

A bloggy friend recently recommended 

Julia's Bowtique

for sweet little girl hair bows.

They are so reasonably priced and the quality is amazing.

The bows are really well made and come in every color imaginable.

They can be clipped on headbands on clipped into your child's hair.

They come in all sizes and there are so many options.

I recently bought a big set of bows for Olive

and am thrilled that she has enough hair on top to clip a bow in!

Simplifying Your Christmas Shopping

I was determined to make Christmas shopping
FUN

STRESS FREE
ENJOYABLE

& SIMPLE this year.

I started much earlier than usual and did the majority of my shopping in November.

I wanted to really enjoy the month of December and not feel like I had to spend every day shopping for gifts or running errands.  I would much rather be making Christmas cookies, going to see Santa and doing many of our other Christmas traditions.

Tips for Simplifying Christmas Shopping:

1. Make a list of everyone you have to buy for and set a budget for them.

2. Write out some ideas for each person & ask your spouse to help.

3. Take advantage of on-line sales, free shipping and shopping at home in your pjs.  I found this especially true now that I have a little one and would love to avoid long lines, crowded stores and the holiday germs that are out and about this time of year.  Target, Old Navy & Amazon were my favorite hot spots to shop.

4. Document your shopping and keep a close tab on what you've purchased.

5. Delegate some shopping to your spouse.  I gave Kevin a handful of items to purchase.  He was happy to help and enjoyed doing a little shopping.

6. Highlight the items you've purchased for each person and then highlight their name when youa re done buying for them.

7. Buy early while the selection is still good.

8. I have a gift closet where I store presents until they are ready to be wrapped.  I've bagged them by person and kept them organized so wrapping should be really easy this month.

We also drew names this year so I'm only buying for one cousin instead of six, we opted to not give sibling gifts on my side and are just looking forward to watching the kids open gifts and we gave some couples gifts instead of buying for every person. 

Olive was really great to shop with.  We looked through magazines for ideas, shopped together on-line and had fun listening to the Christmas music in stores as we did our shopping.

I think Christmas is going to be really fun with her this year

so I'm thankful to have 95% of our shopping done.

How are you doing with Christmas shopping?

Do you shop early or shop late?

I've done both - some years I was shopping the day before Christmas to finish up my gift buying list.  This year I just happen to be a little more on the ball :)