Trees, projects and cupcakes, oh my! {My Life}

It can only mean one thing.....the Christmas season is here & in full swing!

Beyond getting photo orders in & cards designed for my wonderful clients, I've been busy at home as well.

We attended the Holiday Parade the Saturday after Thanksgiving to officially kick off our Christmas season. The following day we picked out our tree, although we didn't get to put it up for a couple of days because our stand was too small for the large crooked tree (which didn't look so crooked when we got it).

...our big beautiful, crooked, tree...

The girls helped decorate & Grace attempted to eat all the shiny or sparkley balls (shatterproof, bought on sale last year at 75% off, who could resisit). Anna, the girl who only wants a big horsey for Christmas, got to put the first ornament on, & she chose none-other than her green Lil' Pony.

...the little PeeWee enjoying getting into lots & lots of stuff, the Bug putting on her ornament...

...the trees first ornament, 1 of Anna's favorite things...

We started a family tradition last year to give homemade gifts. This year we've expanded on it & have several projects in order, complete with an organizational binder full with instructions & recipes that we will be using to help us on our "Homemade Famliy Christmas". Anna is very helpful when it comes to projects, also a bit bossy...but what 2 1/2 year old isn't!?!

...working on a project with Momma, of course, still must pose....

We've been watching Christmas movies & reading Christmas stories. The movie we must watch at least once per day, according to Anna, is Annabelle's Wish if you haven't seen it before, I highly reccommend it. It's a cartoon, full of the Christmas spirit & the gift of giving.

...all ready to head to the Chirstmas Parade, first time wearing barrettes...

We made some Gingerbread Cupcakes (in the recent Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine) , the recipe just calls for some low-fat whipped topping to frost them, but I had some extra cream cheese & ♥ cream cheese frosting, so I whipped up a small batch & topped them with that instead. They turned out really yummy, despite only having 2/3 the required amount of molasses. Of course Anna only wants to lick the frosting off & eat the cute little snowmen (which she either calls: snowwhites or frosty's).

...the yummy Gingerbread Cupcakes...