Easy DIY Christmas Photo Shoot

So a couple of weeks ago on a friend's blog, I was inspired to try a photo shoot with the twins for Christmas. I had hoped to do it some morning while the older kids were in school, but somehow the time got away from me. It ended up happening on a saturday afternoon, just a few days before Christmas. I got my inspiration and instructions from here. Unfortunately all I had to work with was my iPhone so I was somewhat limited. But I still loved what I came out with.

Check it out:

A nice easy set-up which would have been nicer if all my lights were actually working. But we made do. Lucas helped me test it out, and my first subject, Leila, just wanted to get her hands on my phone/camera.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! 

Advent 2013

So, it's a little late to be writing about Advent now, considering Christmas is merely days away. Somehow December just caught me off guard (I'll blame my brother's visit from Nov 10 - 30). Last year I wrote about our Advent Calendar that we've used for the past four Christmases. While I had some ideas about doing a different kind of advent calendar using match boxes, I was already late so I didn't do anything drastically different.

I decorated our home with lots of red this year, so I wrapped match boxes (filled with two chocolate coins for the older kids) in red, blue and green snowman paper.

I did want a different way to attach the boxes so that after they were taken down there was still something on the calendar. I decided to make some cute numbered tags and attach it with a ribbon that would stay on after the boxes were taken down. I threaded each ribbon through the loop on the tree, then taped the number and the box to the ribbon. The box is easily removed from the bottom part of the ribbon.

We also found a better place to hang the tree this year - last year it kept falling down. I hung all the boxes with the numbers all mixed up; Lucas is enjoying the challenge of finding the numbers. With only five days before Christmas our tree looks emptier, but it's nice to see the ribbons and little number tags. Along with the lights we hung around it, I really like the set up this year!

How are you getting ready for Christmas?