Christmas Traditions and a Winter Sale

Hi, Teaching Friends!

I always enjoy getting an occasional peek into a fellow-blogger's outside-of-school life, so today I thought I'd take a few moments to share some of the Nelson Family Christmas with you.

 

Welcome to our home! This year, I put together a little pot of greens to sit on the table next to our front door, accented with a friendly snowman holding a birdhouse. It's a table that we use in the summer on the front porch, but I thought that with a plaid topper to disguise it, my poor husband wouldn't have to lug the heavy table into the basement this year!

 

 

 

I saw this idea in a local gift shop. They used a napkin holder to display Christmas cards. I substituted an upright desktop mail organizer that I already had. I like the way you can easily change out the "display card" in the front (although that one says it all, doesn't it?). We hang all of the photo cards on the fridge, but I think this makes a cute display for the front hall. See the wooden reindeer?  We've had that since our daughters were little, and now the grandkids play with him.

 

 

Like many families, we use an Advent calendar to mark the days until Christmas. I made the ornaments from acrylic clay (Sculpey)  many years ago. Way back when I was home with our daughters before they started school, I used to have a small business making them and lots of other ornaments.

 

Here's a close-up of our Christmas tree. Most of the ornaments are birds and nature... pinecones, tiny birdhouses, lots and lots of birds! Many are handmade, and some were even given to us when we got married 38 years ago! See that shiny pink bulb in the middle? That was from my parents' first Christmas together in 1949.

Here's one of the little birdhouses. Inspiration tends to strike me late, but once the idea is in my head I find it hard to let go of it. So one year about 3 days before Christmas, there were a dozen of these little guys lined up on our kitchen window sill,  still in the process of being "decorated". My mother calls me "Last Minute Linda", but I prefer to think of it as an Elves Working Late in the Workshop atmosphere! :)

This is new this year! This display is up on top of a glass-fronted cabinet next to the tree. My older daughter Andrea made the beautiful counted cross stitch bird pictures for my birthday, and my almost 5 year old granddaughter Milana picked out the fat little birdie, which I think accents it perfectly! Are you sensing a bird theme here? :)

Here's another lovely winter scene she made for us last year. I really like being able to change out wall art seasonally.

 

This one is not at our home, but I wanted to share what our other creative daughter is doing over at their house. Those are real cranberries poked into a styrofoam ball, perched on a pillar candle. Laura also cuts the letters (freehand!) for these little framed pieces she makes. That's a family Christmas tree at the left. She's got an eye for these vignettes, she's getting ready to begin homeschooling, she used to do editorial work for a magazine, she even cooks organically ... this girl has got Future Blogger written all over her!

End of tour!  I hope I didn't bore you, and hope even more that you might have found some inspiration for your own Christmas decorating!



Were you about to give up on hearing about a sale? Here it is!

In honor of the first day of winter, Casey at Second Grade Math Maniac has set up a linky party of TPT sellers who are having a Welcome Winter Sale this weekend.

 

 

All of my Christmas and winter items are 20% off throughout the weekend. You can click here or on the TPT widget in the left column to go to my TPT store. If you click in the picture above, you'll go straight to Casey's linky, where you'll find more than 40 other TPT authors who are also having sales.

Have a great time - I hope you'll find some goodies to make some winter fun for your classroom!

 

Happy Teaching!