Day After Christmas

The day after Christmas, my family packed up and headed to Tennessee to visit some family there on their way home. We were sad that their trip wasn't very long, but we were glad they got to see a lot of family in one big trip. They left before 7am and I was out the door not long afterwards to hit up some day after Christmas sales. I hardly ever pay full price for holiday decor. I also like to go to Target and browse the holiday toy isle in the holiday decorations sections the day after a holiday. I've got the boys Mr. Potato Heads in Easter Bunny and Halloween gear, some Little People holiday figures, etc. And I get it all at least 50% off. I didn't have any luck with the holiday toys this year, but I got a lot of Christmas decorations for next year. I wanted a second tree so I could have one in the basement and one on the main floor and was able to find one at Target 1/2 off. I went to Target and Kohl's and got some great deals.

I wanted to get the boys each a tree for their room that didn't have to be plugged in. I just wanted something small to sit on their dresser. I was able to get two mini trees, two mini blue tree skirts, some blue and silver ornaments and later found two mini silver tree toppers for them. I can't wait to put them in their rooms next year.

I also got these Frosty ornaments for their trees--they're perfect for kids and go great with the blue.

Our second tree for the basement. I debated on getting a 9 foot tree, but ended up going with the 7 foot tree.

I got these outdoor, pre-lit Christmas trees in urns to put on the front porch next year (I got one box of two). They're normally 119.00, and I got them for 35.00 plus I had a 20% off coupon.

I got the boys a 4 foot tree, I'm not sure if I'm going to have it upstairs, maybe in the hallway, or if I'll put it in the living room, but I wanted them to have their own tree to decorate. I found the perfect small tree skirt for it also.

I have all my decorations on one tree in blues and silvers, so I wanted the second tree to be traditional reds and golds.

I loved these ornaments, they can either go on the red and gold tree or the boys personal tree since it has their initials.

An ornament for the boys tree. The ornaments were really picked over.

I got these stockings at Kohl's for 3.50, they didn't have "S", so I'm hoping I'll be able to get it next year. I loved these stockings and really wanted ones with our initials on them.

Some kid-friendly wrapping paper for next year.

I also got some ribbon on clearance at Lowe's later that day. I can't wait to see how the trees look with ribbon on them. I've been seeing it a lot more lately and I really like it.

I'm already looking forward to Christmas next year. I'm excited about decorating the house. I'm also looking forward to the boys being older and understanding more. There's been some things that we've been thinking about over the past couple of years that we want to do for Christmas with the boys and we think next year they'll be old enough that we can start some of the traditions we've been wanting to start. Like, going to Parade of Lights, making gingerbread houses, advent, looking at Christmas lights, Elf on the Shelf, Angel Tree,cookies for Santa, handmade ornaments, etc. They'll only be 2.5 next year, but I think we'll be able to do almost everything we want to do (at least on some level) with them. I'm really looking forward to it. Also, since I know I'll look back at this next year when it gets close to Christmas (I think it's fun to look back a year ago and see what we were up to) I want to make a note to myself to take MORE pictures at Christmas. We didn't get very many this year and we didn't get a single one as a family, so that's something we need to do next year.

Besides shopping for Christmas decorations, we also managed to get all our Christmas decorations down. I love Christmas decorations but once Christmas has passed, I want them down asap. We went grocery shopping, went to Kohl's, did a ton of laundry, dishes, etc. All this with 3 sick boys. :( I don't know what happened, Greg started complaining that he wasn't feeling that great and was getting body aches and had to lay down for a little bit. Both boys were acting fine, but we think they have a stomach virus (we'll leave it at that). So, we took it easy in the afternoon and put the boys down for bed a little early. Greg and I watched Hangover 2 and then went to bed a little early also.

All 3 of them are doing about the same today. I'm feeling fine, but I'm definitely drinking my

 Emergen-C, just in case.