The Tipping Box

Hummm what could the tipping box be? Is it about tipping people around the holidays? Not at our house. The tipping box is something we got on Christmas Eve on our long drive home from Aurora. This is how it goes...

We're driving down our street around 12:30am Christmas Eve night... early morning. As we pulled into the driveway I noticed I didn't see the mailbox. I turned around after waking from my 4 hour nap while Kolin drove home. What did I see.... the mailbox was flat on its side in the front lawn. I quickly jumped to conclusions... while we were away some kids must have had batting practise with our mailbox. I was totally irritated and just went into the house.

Kolin went outside to examine the damage while I went through the wet mail on the kitchen counter. He came inside to tell me that it was probably the way he installed the mailbox. See he didn't use any concrete. Maybe I should back-up even further... we moved to this house without a mailbox. The lack of a mailbox didn't even cross our mind until the Monday evening after moving day when neither of us got the mail. Anyway, the mailbox was a shotty installation and it needs to be reinstalled. That's not all the laughs that came with the tipping box.

The next day at Kolin's parents for Christmas we learned about their encounter with the mailbox. Kolin's dad had been bringing in the mail for us while we were away. One day as they were driving by then noticed that a man was pulled into our driveway. They drove to the house to see what he needed. The man was looking for the pastor that used to live in our home... this isn't the first time as another man woke us up on Thanksgiving morning with a pie for the pastor. My in-laws gave the gentleman directions to the preachers house and he was on his way. Then they proceeded to drive home. Just before the man turned onto the next street he made a U-turn back to our house. He stuck his head out the window and exclaimed that he did not run over our mailbox, but it was down when he arrived.

The day after Christmas Kolin went outside to try and get the mailbox up again. He jumped all over that dumb thing to get it standing in the ground again. I used my new iPod to take a video of him trying to get it standing again. I would share it, but it captures me laughing throughout most of it.

I hope you had a laugh at our tipping box- we sure did!

Christmas Stockings

Now the mantle is complete! My mom came down this weekend and inspired me to finish them. She helped me figure out how to sew the top of the stockings... just like you would a sleeve. I bought the supplies on Black Friday at JoAnn. The felt was $1.50/ yard. I had most of the ribbon.

The top of the green ones have an embossed red felt. I found the cutest RicRac on Black Friday... it's much larger than normal. Kolin seems to think the stockings are giant, but I think they are just right... more for him to fill up! ;)

These two are my favorites because of the toes. The ornaments on the red one were fun to make. I found my inspiration from a pampered chef flyer and a site on etsy. If you ever have a creative block - go to etsy and you will have more ideas than you ever imagine.

Merry Christmas!!

Our home is ready for Christmas!

The presents are wrapped... The tree is lit... The nativity is out... FaLaLaLa... isn't that cute? The door is ready for guests... The candles can't wait to be burned... The stockings just need to be hung... Coming soon - I'm making our Christmas Stockings! Santa can't come without them. Merry Christmas!!

A Christmas Mantel

I just added two trees to the hearth - more pictures coming soon!

Semi - Homemade Ornaments

The ornaments below were store bought... pack of 18 for $2.5o. I saw others in the aisle that had many different embellishments. Instead of paying more for them, I strolled over to the craft aisle and spotted a silver paint pen. I was tempted to get a glitter pen, but wasn't sure if it would stick. I also considered tacky glue and glitter, but a paint pen is much less mess. I tried to do stripes, but it's hard because they are round... I found that it was easiest to decorate them in the package instead of trying to hold them. I hope you enjoy the idea. You will see them in my next post!