Sweet Greens

Hello, Friends! Merry Christmas! I hope your day is jam packed full of fun, family and surprises. We are staying home, all day long – I see a couple of mimosas, snuggling with the mister, puppy dog kisses and Eben’s smiling face filling my entire day. I am excited to have an entire day to do nothing but enjoy my tiny family – I hope you have the same to look forward to. Cheers to a beautiful day!

xo,
Sweet Greens

We wanted our holiday vacation to start with a bang so we planned a Christmas camping trip. We picked Eben up early from school on Friday and headed to St. Augustine, Florida. We choose St. Augustine because the town is known for its holiday lights. So fun!

We spent Saturday night wandering the old town checking out all of the holiday lights. Our favorite part was when we veered off the beaten path and came upon all of the amazing older homes decked out in their best holiday decor!

Really, Eben is having a good time – I promise! Ha.

Did you do anything special to kick off the Christmas vacation?


4th photo credit

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is picking out the perfect gift for each special person on my list. Equally, I enjoy spending an evening sipping egg nog, listening to holiday music and wrapping those gifts – getting them ready for Christmas morning! I use to gather up my entire gift wrapping arsenal and head to the living room floor. However, I would run into challenges – where was the tape and scissors or did we have any ribbon, gift tags or tissue paper. I decided to find a space in our living room where I could house the gift wrap year round – that way when a birthday popped up or the holidays rolled around, I could find all of the supplies quickly. We had an extra shelf on our bookcase that was being underutilized and directly below is a set of drawers – I decided this would be the perfect place for my gift wrapping station.

I simply gathered up all of the wrapping paper and laid it side-by-side on the bottom shelf, then gathered my favorite gift wrapping pens and placed those in a jar. Another jar holds several rolls of tape and a couple of pairs of scissors. The drawers below house all of reusable gift bags, tissue paper, holiday and birthday cards, gift tags, twine, ribbons, and embellishments. You could even add a few packages of batteries or several gift cards in the drawers for that last minute gift or those that require batteries.

I can easily grab a roll of paper, tape and twine – then choose from a selection of gift tags and cards and the gift is wrapped and ready to go in the matter of a few minutes. This gift wrapping system has even encouraged my family to start wrapping their own gifts for each other. They know exactly where to find all of the supplies and really enjoy picking out their own wrapping for those special gifts.

I hope this simple gift wrapping station inspires you to create one on a shelf or in a drawer in your home, especially for the holidays. I was really excited when Cascadian Farm asked me to share it, I have found that it really cuts down on the stress of getting a gift wrapped and ready, and will make you smile every time you see all of those fun colors!