Christmas Tour of Homes 2009

Casa de phillips is all a' sparkle these days as we sit and enjoy the twinkling lights of Christmas from the comfort of our couch. I am touring along this fine December day with The Nester as she hosts the annual blog Christmas Tour of Homes.

If you are new here...Welcome. Casa de phillips is made up of one husband, one wife, a four year old little boy and a 2.5 year old little girl.

The first stop on our tour today is the Christmas tree, which is mainly decorated in reds and golds (including the wrapped presents below its branches). Because we live by the philosophy that a tree can never have too many lights. we actually add two strands of lights to our pre-lit tree. We string them up through the middle, which makes the tree absolutely glow.

After many discussions and rearranging of furniture (some of which is now housed in the garage during the holiday season), we opted to place our tree by the piano this year. I was skeptical at first, but now love having it in that section of the room. If only one of us could actually play the piano decently, then the family could sit by the tree and sing carols.

Oh well. Maybe next year.

The best thing about our tree is the two little ones who are often found underneath it.

Our tree has many special ornaments. My favorites are our name ornaments, a tradition I begin the Christmas my husband and I were engaged (a tradition I also totally copied from "Days of Our Lives". Who can resist the yearly Christmas episode when the Horton Family ornaments are pulled out?)

Our family ornament

The husband and my ornaments





The children's ornaments

Our stockings are hung with care on the mantle. These beauties are from Pottery Barn, where I also purchased the adorable picture frame stocking holders to go with them. Then I realized that said ornament holders were made out of very solid iron. I also realized that casa de phillips is home to two very curious preschoolers. Hoping to avoid any and all trips the ER this holiday season, I opted to keep my beautiful stocking holders stashed away this year and am using clear plastic hooks instead.

The mantle also holds a portion of my Santa collection. Every year I purchase a Santa, being sure to mark the date on the bottom. This was the first year that I broke a Santa and was unable to fix him. The children were aghast at the thought of a missing Santa, but fortunately it was one purchased during my college years and was not that great.

A new section of Christmas decor this year is the holiday toy table. We own several pieces of the Little People Christmas village as well as a Nativity set made for little fingers. These toys have a home of their own where they can be enjoyed on a daily basis (they live in storage eleven months out of the year, which makes them terribly exciting during the month of December). I am in search of a cute, cheap red bucket to house some of the bigger train pieces which simply live on the floor next to this table.

Random groupings of Santas, twinkling lights and pictures can be found all over the living room.

The piano decor...which is home to more Santas, pictures, and twinkling lights. One can never have too many twinkling lights, in my opinion

Pre-children I used to set the table in festive holiday dinnerware as if we were expecting company at any moment. Such tabletop decor no longer works. I have made peace with plastic placemats and simple decorations in the kitchen, knowing once the children are off to college my elaborate table scape can return.

I always spruce up the light over our table

Collection of Christmas plates above the fridge

I *heart* Christmas trees and have a few scattered around the house.

Here is the tree in the master bedroom.

Each child also has a tree in their room, complete with theme.

We found out Miss E. was a girl the week before Christmas 2006. I rushed out and began her snowman collection that very day. Every year I add a snowman to her stash, being sure to mark the date on each one. This year was the first year that she helped choose her snowman (the glitter one to the left of the tree). Her tree's theme is pink and green.

As our four year old little boy starts to leave his baby years behind, we decided to change the theme of his tree this year. It has been safari animals in the past but now has a global theme. Isaac loves geography and maps. Every night the husband teaches him a new country's name and location on his globe (he is up to knowing about 100 different countries).

When I discovered tree garland with tiny globes affixed to it, I knew we had a new tree theme for Isaac.

Thanks for touring casa de phillips this holiday season. Be sure to leave a comment so I can tour your home as well.

In the midst of being a stay-at-home mom, I also dabble in freelance writing. Take a minute to tour a few Christmas articles.

Getting the perfect Christmas card photo

Our un-picture perfect experience trimming the tree

Sugar Cookies 101

Creating Family Traditions this holiday season

Preparing children to meet Santa

Top 5 ways to ruin the holiday season

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Letters to Santa

Although I already penned my letter to Santa for this year, the children had yet to do so. On Monday we pulled out the pens, paper and stickers and set to work writing letters to Santa. I love for the children to practice their writing skills any chance they can get and dropping the man in red a line is the perfect opportunity to tie in writing with the holidays.

I had a very eager participant who needed little guidance on his letter. He wrote about half the letter, filling in the blanks with his own ideas (I did help with spelling, obviously).

Isaac and his letter to Santa...which involves some sort of spider and web drawing at the top. I was never clear as to how such an image represented Santa but I let such matters go.

My other letter-writing participant was less than thrilled. I thought about reminding Santa in her letter that she is indeed two years old and might need a bit of grace this year, but refrained. The picture below sums up her attitude during such an event.

A few days after writing out letters, we mailed them at our town's adorable red mailbox.

Thank goodness for big brothers who can reach up high and open the mail box slot!

Our letters have been sent off to the North Pole. The Santa who works the area around casa de phillips is really good about writing children a response, so we expect a reply in the next week or so.

After mailing out our letters, we stopped to admire the city Christmas tree. I love to tell the children about the time when Isaac was a baby and pulled off a small section of this tree. Although it was actually a different tree (the city tree has grown considerably in the past few years), the children find such a tale hilarious. I am sure by the time Isaac is an adult this family story will have morphed into something grand and quite far from the truth. Isn't that what family stories do anyway?

Did your children write letters to Santa this year?

Creating family traditions for the holidays

Establishing traditions within the family unit is a excellent way for parents to instill particular values and ideals in their children while also binding the family together through ritual. Traditions give families something to rely on and look forward to, especially during the hectic holiday season. This year consider implementing a few new traditions into the family. Several moms from the Dallas/Fort Worth area were kind enough to share traditions that their families take part in each holiday season in hopes of inspiring others to do the same....(to read all of YOUR great ideas, go here!)

All Aboard! Experience holiday fun at the Trains at Northpark Center

This holiday season be sure to check out the trains at NorthPark Center in Dallas. Not simply a mere Christmas train display, this large exhibit is home to over 2,500 feet of train tracks and more than 40 vintage locomotives. All the trains are chugging along through a variety of scenes, traveling through such known cities as San Fransisco, Mount Rushmore, Washington D.C. and New York. There is even an elaborate Dallas setting with such well-known landmarks as Children's Hospital, Reunion tower and, of course, NorthPark Center itself...(to read more, go here)

The Best Gifts Under our Tree

All I want for Christmas is some rechargeable batteries

When we purchased our first digital camera many moons ago, the second thing we bought shortly after was rechargeable batteries for said camera. Those batteries have saved us a lot of dollars over the years and prevented late-night runs to the local store in search of some much need AAs.

The battery charger has been running non-stop this December as I am constantly taking pictures attempting to document our Christmas season of 2009.

For example, I cannot miss the first holiday dress of the season Nor can I miss one of E's many Christmas outfits

And who doesn't want a picture of their children wearing full winter apparel (complete with two layers) standing in the living room?

The camera is even getting a work-out outside of our home. Here are three of the four members of our family at the local Christmas parade (The husband is taking the picture). Fortunately we live close enough to all the hub of activity in our town that we could walk to the parade. Unfortunately, temperatures dropped to 30 degrees that night and the walk/jog/rapid-run-to keep-warm on the way home was a bit brutal (for the husband and I...the children were nice and toasty in their stroller cocoon, wrapped in three blankets.)

The camera did not capture the woman sitting next to us who asked repeatedly if Isaac and Evelyn were twins, going so far as to say "Are you sure?". Sigh.

The camera braved the cold once again over the weekend to capture our family enjoying the annual pancake breakfast with Santa at our local fire house. Santa arrives to this soiree via helicopter, which makes it terribly exciting. The 26 degree temperature at 8am that morning also made it very cold.

Surely this child's mom did not forgo a hat on her head to keep pigtails in place...

The camera captured yet another hug exchanged between Santa and Isaac

The camera has caught expressions of giddiness on the faces of two little kids who are loving this holiday season

Finally, the camera has even captured a few adults on film as they get ready to partake in holiday cheer as well.

The husband and I before we attended the Michael W. Smith Christmas concert at the Meyerson.

The husband and I getting ready to head out and review a play.

With all this picture taking going on here at casa de phillips, perhaps I better ask Santa for one more set of rechargeable batteries to make sure I do not miss a thing.

How to ruin the holiday season in five simple steps

The Christmas season is often described as being two things: merry and stressful. It seems odd that the season that is considered by many to be the happiest time of the year is also known as being the most stressful time of the year. Too often, the focus is placed on doing everything, buying everything and seeing everything, all within a frantic 25 days. This year, if the goal is to have a miserable, stressful holiday season follow the simple steps below...(to read more, please go here)

Photo with Santa 2009 (aka The Day Santa thought he dropped my daughter)

Isaac was four months old on his first Christmas. As soon as December settled on us that year, I bundled my baby up in his fancy Christmas overalls and went off in search of the perfect picture of him with Santa.

As I neared the mall Santa, who looked like a good version of the man in red and was surrounded by a festive backdrop, images of a photo of my little boy smiling up at Santa captured on film for an eternity filled my mind.

Then I read the placard with the prices of such a picture. Thinking such a price must be for some large collection of pictures with Santa, I asked the friendly elf/photographer/college student how much a simple photo with Santa would cost.

I had to pick my mommy jaw off the floor when I heard the price.

That year, I passed on a photo with Santa. At the time, I thought my $15 could be put to better use. Sometime before the next Christmas rolled around, I saw an episode of Paula Deen's show on Food Network. She talked about how every Christmas she puts out pictures of her boys with Santa that were taken during their childhood. She had pictures from every year they visited Santa. I was immediately inspired by her idea and decided that I too wanted to be able to display pictures of my children with Santa through the years.

I also decided I wanted these pictures to be similar, meaning I wanted them all to be of the expensive, mall Santa variety and not taken with my own camera. All though I think charging any more than $5 for a quick pic with Santa is ridiculous, I have put such thoughts aside and have taken the children to see Santa every year since.

This year was no exception. Friday I pulled out the red attire and drove the family station wagon to the local mall for pictures with Santa. During our drive, the children and I discussed what one does when one visits with Santa. We talked about how friendly Santa is and how we should be polite as well. The kids had colored pictures for Santa, which they were eager to give to him. We waved at Santa from afar before approaching him for our meet and greet session.

Isaac immediately ran up to Santa and hugged him, proceeding to tell him the only thing he wanted for Christmas this year was a transformer. This was news to me, so I am glad I overheard that portion of the conversation. Evelyn greeted Santa and I gave myself an imaginary pat-on-the-back, congratulating myself on a successful Santa encounter.

Then the friendly elf (who happened to be an actual grown-up with actual kid skills) gently placed Evelyn on Santa's lap.

That, dear reader, is when the loud screaming began and Evelyn flung herself out of Santa's lap. The elf rushed to pick her up, Santa turned a bit gray because he thought he had dropped E. (he had not...she goes "limp noodle" when angry), and I begged the photographer to simply take the picture so we could be done.

After a bit of a pep talk with Evelyn (in which I promised I would sit next to Santa and she could sit in my lap) and a bit of a pep talk with Santa (in which I promised that he did not drop his first customer of the day and there would be no law suit), our picture for Christmas 2009 was made.

(This is not the actual picture...this is one made with my camera. Both children are actually smiling in the actual picture and looking at the camera)

We survived another picture session with Santa. I am not sure he quite survived the experience with us, but hopefully he will return next year so we can greet him once again.

Are you taking your child to visit Santa? Go here and read some tips and tricks about how to make such a visit more enjoyable for the whole family.

Give-Away Winner

Despite the fact we live in the age of technology and despite the fact I live in a major metropolitan area, the phones and Internet have been down most of the afternoon here at casa de phillips. Fortunately this did not interfere with my nap. It did, however, interfere with telling you the winner of my giveaway.

Congratulations, to Holly O.! (Holly...email me your address and I will get your book to you ASAP!).

Want to know a fun story about how I know Holly? When I was in 9th grade my BFF and I attended a Christian youth conference in Tulsa, OK. We were paired with two other BFFs (who we did not know) from another youth group, all staying together in the same hotel room for the weekend.

One of those other girls was Holly O.

Fast-forward many years later to my freshman year of college when I happened to run into Holly at a freshman mixer. Small world, huh?

Thanks for enduring my story and congrats to Holly!

Also...many thanks for sharing your holiday traditions! I will be compiling some of these ideas into an article I am working on.

For those who did not win, stay tuned because I am going to be picking everyone's brain about preschool in the next few weeks and will host another give-away then as well.

Happy Weekend!