New Christmas Books For Our Collection

Our son has started to embrace more of the characters of Christmas - Santa Claus, gingerbread men, and The Nutcracker! No longer terrified, these whimsical characters are making this holiday season extra fun for him and I. So I wanted to add a few new Christmas book to our collection. Our daughter also loves books so it was the perfect time to pick up these new ones. 

I wanted them to enjoy them before Christmas so I wrapped up two at a time for them to open throughout the season. I added little holiday themed wands (printables from Magic Playbook) to dress them up a bit. I thought they turned out so sweet!

New board books (because our daughter still tears everything!) include: 

12 Days of Christmas

Peek-a-Bright Christmas

Christmas ABC

BabyLit The Nutcracker

 

If our daughter didn't tear everything, I also really liked this lift the flap version of 12 Days of Christmas. I want these two Nutcracker books for myself! - Musical Nutcracker book and this other beautiful Nutcracker board book.

We probably are good for our board book collection now, but The Colors of Christmas was on my list but I didn't end up purchasing.

 

And one of our favorites is It Was Christmas Night, a sweet book about Jesus' birth with fun push and pull pages. The ABCs of Christmas also looks like a beautiful and simple faith based Christmas book.

We also have If You're Jolly and You Know It, Where's Santa Claus? (a favorite!), and The Night Before Christmas. Besides shopping on Amazon, I have also found many fun holiday books at TJ-Maxx.

 

I also recently added some new ribbon to my collection - this thin set and thicker set are both perfect for little projects I have been doing with the kids and for wrapping. The range of pastel and bold colors have been wonderful for all my ribbon needs!

 Happy holiday reading! I would love to know some of your favorite Christmas books!

Holiday Mode: Around The House + Activities We Have Been Doing

 

We are in full holiday mode over here! And it has been so fun. I was on the fence of how soon is too soon to start decorating for Christmas. So I decided whatever would bring me the most joy would be the appropriate time. So two days after Halloween the kids and I started decking the halls!

We still have a small nod to Thanksgiving, but with another year of being on our own during this holiday (four years now!), I figured nobody would care! Plus last Christmas we were still unpacking as we had just moved into this house. So this truly felt like our first real Christmas season here and I wanted to savor it and enjoy it. Plus being pregnant meant I could check it off my list and sit back and relax! 

I still cannot believe it has already been a year since we left Virginia. So many mixed emotions. But overall we are happy to be here. Just feeling kind of gipped that we haven't really been able to experience Washington as much as we would like. But all in all we are grateful. So many blessings can still be found in the midst of this hard year.

This fun feathery turkey is from our Magic Playbook subscription that comes full of cute ideas and adorable printables. We have been so happy with the easy and aesthetically pleasing activities!

We also did this fall tree activity. My son (4) used a glue stick and for my daughter (1.5) I put little double sided stickers on her leaves to place on her own.

They turned out so sweet and I just love the muted colors. We also have a little collection of jewel stickers that can add a sparkle to our projects.

We have a small display in our dining room where I hang the kid's art. It is a perfect little display for our Thanksgiving projects. The other printables are also all from the Magic Playbook.

We then did a similar project but with decorating a gingerbread house. Same concept, but still adorably different.

I also started to wrap the few gifts we have already. I am using paper grocery bags this year because we have SO many! I purchased some little white doilies and added more Christmas printables from our Magic Playbook. It truly is the little everyday things that are bringing so much joy right now!

And finally, a few photos of our in progress outdoor decor. I put up red bows on all our lamp posts in the yard and it is making it feel like our own little Christmas wonderland! Figuring out how to decorate our home for the season for the first time has been a lot of fun.

I hung up wreaths on all the windows of our first story and am waiting on my husband to help with the second story wreaths. I am still loving these $3 wreaths and $1 bows from Walmart! We purchased them for our Virginia home and they are still looking great. See our home in Virginia all decked out with wreaths here.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season. I know that things can still feel heavy. But it is in remembering what we are grateful for and spending our time doing fun and creative things has been a welcome distraction for me personally. We truly can still make the everyday beautiful!

Play Kitchen Turned Food Truck | Invite To Play

We recently started converting our toy play kitchen into a food truck and it has been a huge hit! We "roll" it over to the living room where we set everything up. I made some really simple signs and pretend wheels that get taped to the back side. And then we put out a cafe table and chairs.

My kids play with this significantly longer than they do simply at the kitchen. It is a fun way to mix things up getting both the kids and myself a little more involved.

Read below for pretend food toys that we love.

We have the Ikea play kitchen and love it. You can read my review on it here.

We love these wooden and felt pretend foods: basic food groups | slice and bake cookies | birthday cake | dairy and drink set (one of my favorites) | felt pizza | pasta set (they are getting this for Christmas) | cake and biscuits set (also a fave that is super cute)

I also really like the Hearth and Hand play food toys from Target. We have the pot and pan set. If I didn't have that set, this wooden white set would be my next choice.

We also have two tea sets because I am obsessed with them both. This gorgeous French themed tin set our daughter got for her first birthday. And this musical tea pot is one toy with sound that I have yet to get sick of! The songs are precious.