Santa's Wonderland {2015}

We took a little visit to Santa's Wonderland this year since we left our old Santa hangout behind in Charlotte.  I was really sad to leave the Santa we had seen every year since Evan's first year and was afraid it would be difficult to explain the different Santa to Evan.  I think he is just smart enough to know that all of these Santas aren't the "real" ones although he may still believe that Charlotte Santa is the real deal.  He was just that good!  In all truthfulness, I am perfectly okay whenever Evan is ready to discuss the fact that Santa may not be "real."  He knows the real reason for Christmas so I don't think it will ruin anything for him.  Santa is just for fun! If he is like I was as a child, he will just continue to play along as long as possible because he enjoys it.  When the time comes, I have this pin on Pinterest to help me explain why we pretended to be Santa for him.



The Cary, NC Bass Pro Shop is actually quite the popular Santa destination around here, and I had actually seen several Facebook friends from different parts of the state post about going there.  I decided to try it on a weeknight hoping it would not be too busy.  We were in luck!  There was absolutely no line, and they got lots of one on one time with Santa and his Mrs.  Santa even joined us at the coloring table for a chat and to see the boys' work.  The decorations and fun activities were all excellent, and the price of the photos was reasonable too.  I think this may be our new Santa destination.  We have actually been lucky to see Santa a few times this year, but this was definitely a great experience.

I forgot our camera on this adventure so please excuse the poor quality cell phone pictures.  Sigh.

After Mattox threw a fit about sitting on Santa's lap, we all got in the picture.  Santa and Mrs. Clause even graciously gave us their seats. 



Yes, Mr. Mattox, you absolutely must sit on Santa's lap at least once your first Christmas.  It is a rite of passage so get over it.  He has a serious case of stranger anxiety!

The boys loved all the festive decorations at the big Bass Pro.

And Evan loved this new ATV and wondered if it was too late to add it to his Christmas list.  Haha! 

Mattox even found one his size. 

Oh man, he just looks so big sitting on this little four wheeler. 

Evan's favorite part was this shooting gallery.  He is a natural born sniper.

Shooting a crossbow at the duck targets.

Brody loved the fake snow scenes.

Coloring pictures for Santa and writing him letters.

A little trip to the North Pole.

Brody putting his letter in Santa's mailbox.

And driving the choo choo train.

Of course, it isn't a trip to Bass Pro without checking out the huge fish tank.

Mattox loved watching the big fish. 

Tap Tap Tap.  Hey, fishy!  {like the crazy girl from Finding Nemo}

I always love the beautiful nature scenes in these stores.

Our Cozy Christmas {2015}

I am definitely a very traditional Christmas decorator.  A beautifully lit evergreen tree filled with sentimental ornaments from years gone by, fresh green trimmings on the mantle, and personalized family stockings hung by the fireplace are my style.  In past years, I have always used white Christmas lights on our tree.  But truthfully, I am a colored light person.  I just think the warm glow of multicolored lights feels so warm and festive.  I have such fond memories of our brightly colored Christmas trees when I was growing up.  I think the colored lights do go best with a traditional tree filled with traditional ornaments.  I went simple this year with the colored lights and a simple burlap bow on top, and I love it.  It is definitely my favorite of all of our past trees.

I attempted some fancy shots of the tree this year, and this was my attempt at Christmas light bokeh.  I just love the blurred effect of the colored lights. 

I love our little tree with lights that look like multicolored glittering jewels.  I also love all our stockings with the addition of Baby Mattox's and his big sister Mattie's.  Mattox's stocking has an airplane on it.  

The boys did a great job helping decorate this year.  Mattox just loves sitting and looking at the tree. 

Putting on some of their special ornaments. 

I personalized our tree a little with a monogram ball ornament from Kirkland's and some little chalkboard wooden ornaments from Target with our names written on them with a paint pen.  I like the "rustic" and old fashioned feel of the burlap and wooden ornaments. 

Mattox's stocking and Mattie's Christmas tree are still some of my favorite decorations this year. 

The nativity is always a special part of our decor.  I just loved this saying that I wrote on a little chalkboard, but I want to paint it on a large canvas to display every year.  

The rest of our decorations were minimal.  I put up our Christmas countdown, a little Santa countdown where we added to his beard every day, my old star banner and a simple table centerpiece, and the little stair banner the boys and I made the last couple of Christmases. 

I always love the boys' little tree that they carefully decorate themselves.  This year, they decided to use most of their handmade ornaments from over the years.  Their colored lights went out so they had a white light tree this year.  

Our most treasured decorations are our yearly Christmas ornaments.  I love the memories that these ornaments invoke.

2002

My parents bought us this ornament the year we were engaged. 

2003

Our first Christmas after we were married.  We decided on a classic Lenox China ornament. 

2004

Our second Christmas together depicted just the two of us dancing inside a little snow globe. 

2005

The year we purchased our first house. 

2006

The year we were expecting our first little chick, Evan. 

2007

Evan's first Christmas. 

2008

Evan's second Christmas symbolized by a fun little jack-in-the-box gingerbread house. 

2009

Santa for Evan's 3rd Christmas. 

2010

In 2010, we were expecting our little Brody.  We all wrote our letters to Santa to put in this mailbox, and they all include our wishes for a healthy baby. 

2011

Brody's first Christmas. 

2012

A special Mickey ornament for our first trip to Disney World with the kids. 

2013

Mattie's first Christmas. 

2014

Mattie's second Christmas and expecting our little rainbow baby, Mattox. 

2015

Our new family ornament depicting our little family of 6. 

Mattox's first Christmas

We also got some special ornaments like this one from Biltmore Estate from our travels this year. 

And from the Cradle of Forestry. 

My husband did a great job decorating the outside of the house.  Our new neighborhood is pleasantly festive this time of year.  Since we live on a corner lot, my husband put colored lights on our backyard fence.  

Eddie is most proud of his candy cane tree.  Last year, we turned an old basketball goal post into a candy cane so this year, we used this little tree.   Can you tell I edited out Eddie's car in the picture with the garage?  I just hated having a car ruining my picture.  Ha!  

I tried the bokeh blurred effect on the outdoor lights too.  We used all white lights except the candy cane tree and the bushes.   I think it was just the right amount of color. 

Christmas Beginnings

I know, I know, I am way behind as usual.  We have been enjoying the Christmas season for about a month now, and I have not posted about any of it.  I will get caught up.  My OCD will just not allow me to not finish my posts about 2015 before it is over.  Ha!  This year, we started the festivities pretty early in November with a little tree lighting celebration in our new town.  This one was a special "tree" of lights set up in one of the main shopping centers in town.  We don't have an indoor mall in our town so this is the next best thing.  It was a nice night to be outdoors.  We missed the actual lighting, but we got some pictures of the tree and other festivities.

Our family with the Holly Springs Towne Center tree of lights.  I think Baby Mattox enjoyed seeing his first Christmas tree. 

The big boys enjoyed playing some games.  They both did a good job throwing the football to the football player.  Future quarterbacks perhaps?  Throwing the rubber chickens at the Chicken Wing Fling was the best though.  Haha! 

Instead of spending our day after Thanksgiving doing the Black Friday shopping madness, we usually go and pick out our tree and decorate that day.  Well, the decorating usually takes most of the weekend.  We really didn't decorate too much this year, but I love our simple and festive little Christmas home.  We did find a nice little tree farm that I think we will use in the future.  We have one across the road from our neighborhood, but they got their trees over a week before Thanksgiving and did not put them in water so we knew they would not last as long.  We went to a fun little farm between Cary and Morrisville with decent prices.  Although it didn't have all the extras that our old Charlotte tree farm had, it did have some nice photo worthy spots.  We also think we will visit this farm next Fall for their corn maze.

We loved this huge rocking chair at Phillips Farms.  I see a new traditional annual picture here.  The sun was just very very bright that day.  

We found our perfect tree.   I think it is the one behind Eddie and the boys.  

I didn't take nearly as many pictures this year sadly.  I don't know what was wrong with me.  I can blame the too bright sun since the boys didn't want to cooperate for many.  Brody did let me take his picture with the trees, and he loved watching them net our tree. 

And of course, they found a tractor.  Whew, thank goodness for that.  I don't know what I would do without our annual tractor pictures at the tree farm.  Ha! 

Evan's last day of school before winter break was Friday, December 4th.  He will be out of school until January 4th so we have been enjoying having him home.  Since he would not be in school for most of the Christmas season, I had to get his teacher gifts ready very early this year.  We went with the sugar scrub idea we had used in the past.  It smelled so good!

Cinnamon & vanilla...yum!  I made the little labels myself and used these little red jars from Target.  They were three for $3 in the cheap bins.  

Stay tuned for more Christmas festivities...