After Christmas-ness

Toss, Toss, Rachel's the boss! When in doubt- throw it out! Those are my two new mottos for the new 2012 year.  And that's what I'm doing right now. Organization.  We brought home a lot of wonderful Christmas presents and unfortunately it made our house "heavier".  That's the word I use when I bring home my loads of garage sale purchases, or purchases at stores.  My poor house just gets heavier and heavier.  So- to take care of this problem, I'm tossing (meaning donating) a LOT of our stuff.  Gunman does not need the equivalent of two twin boys clothes.  I'm taking the less stained of the two and donating the rest.  I've attacked my closet and Kes even attacked his clothes.  I tend to think I could have done a better job tossing his clothes, but that's neither here nor there...

I also figured this was a great time to pause for a moment and do some blogging.  I came to this conclusion when I got frustrated at my "horder" piles of $#*t and started eating cinnamon bears 2 at a time.  After I downed about 12 of them and blacked out for a sec, I decided I would blog away!!

I also started thinking of my poor, neglected blog that was still playing Christmas music.  Isn't Christmas music after Cristmas depressing? I think so. Sorry, I do.  It's like "Oh, we had all this fun and then the 26th came and DOWN goes the Christmas decorations, OFF goes the Christmas music and you feel like a loser if you still have your Christmas lights on.  It's kind of a weird transition from Christmas to non-Christmas.  I tend to do it differently every year.  My mother's approach? DOWN goes the Christmas tree (on Christmas DAY in most years.....) and AWAY goes all the Christmas decorations.  She would say that this was because I went hunting with my dad ever Christmas afternoon and she had nothing to do except for put away Christmas by herself.  Sorry Mom....should have helped ya.  Last year's approach to Christmas lights? Not so good.  I think they got down by January 30th and I had to pay two junior high kids to do it.  This year I was not "loser-ish" and I got them all down and put away.  It feels good in and out.  My house right now looks a little bit like I'm moving because all the walls are bare.  But I will get my normal decorations back up soon. 

Here's some pictures of my Christmas craziness as far as decorating.  I really do take almost everything down and put up Christmas.  I started this the last few years when I started throwing big holiday parties.

Love the growth chart above.  We did this for a Relief Society Fabulous Friday activity.  Then if I ever move I can take it with me.  This was my "snowman" area by my laundry room. 

Love this.  My family got this idea off Pinterest.  It turned out great and was a lot of fun to make!

Thought of this idea myself:) You take a large picture frame from one of  your "everyday" decorations and frame it around Christmas vinyl.  You can reuse the vinyl next year by peeling it off and putting it on parchment paper and rolling it up. 

Haha, my Griswald Party tree.  I love that it hit my ceiling and bent over. 

I used some of the live branches that fell off the tree when we moved it to make this garland.  I have a tupperware dish in the middle of the pinecones and I added water everyday. 

Thought of this idea myself too :) I printed out SUPER large font off Word on my computer of the letters J O Y.  I cut out the letters and made them into stencils so I could trace them onto Christmas paper.  Then I cut them out and glued them on more Christmas paper.  Super cute framed.  I picked up the frames at a garage sale. 

I went with the theme this year of JOY as well as Christmas trees.  So I made this display in the shape of a tree.

Easy wall art that looked great

I hung a wreath over my mirror, idea courtesy of Pinterest. Then I added a few Christmas decor to the rod- mittens, snow shoes and snow flakes.  I love the Reindeer hanging above.  I got that at Tai Pan.

Made the cute white Christmas tree myself:)

I took down a lot of our pictures and put up Chrismtas printables that I got off the internet.  It blended in great and looked good with the rest of our family pictures.

Display out front. 

Love the sign. I got it at Tai Pan a few years ago. 

Love, love, love my stockings.  My mother is so awesome.  The stocking holder my Sister in Law Brittany made for me a couple years ago.  This year I put candles in my fireplace. 

Over the TV Cabinet

I bought the plates above at a garage sale and spray painted them black.  I put Christmas stickers on them and put them on a plate rack I got at a Garage sale.  Total $3 The Chrismtas ornaments in the vase was similar.  I got the vase at a garage sale and put ornaments and moss in it from the dollar store.