Christmas Sock Advent Garland

When I saw these adorable socks at the Target $1 Spot last year, they inspired this Christmas Stocking Garland idea!  It's a combination of a garland, a stocking, and an advent activity!  My daughter is in her first apartment, and doesn't have any Christmas decorations yet, so I wanted to send her something that would brighten up her apartment, PLUS remind her that I was thinking about her each and every day.  Thus the invention of the sock-advent-garland!


It starts with 25 socks in various colors and sizes.  I hope you can find them after Christmas on sale! The socks were strung together with ribbon and a darning needle.

The daily numbers (1 - 25) were made with my Stampin'Up Stamps and ink pads, then punched with Stampin' Up punches (some ovals, some circles). A hole was punched at the top of each number, and a piece of Baker's Twine (from Taylored Expressions) was tied to the number tag.  The tags were GLUED to the socks with Inkssentials "Glossy Accents."



 Then the filling begins!  The secret is to either not have too many heavy items, or to have several hooks on your mantel to distribute the weight.  I did not number the socks sequentially because as each item is removed from the socks, I didn't want the garland to sag from being uneven.  The numbers are scattered haphazardly.  For my young adult daughter, the socks contain makeup, gum, earrings, small candles and Scripture verses to create her own advent candle wreath, lotion, disposable razors, candy, etc. A few socks contain family recipes on little note cards for her to add to her growing recipe collection.  Depending on your budget, you could add gift cards for gas, music, and much more! 

If you have more than one child or person opening up the socks, then you can either label the back of each number tag with a different person's name and distribute the gifts that way, or make each sock a piece of paper containing a family activity  (Day 1: Decorate the Christmas tree; Day 2:  Bake Christmas Cookies, Day 3:  Shop for Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts, etc.)  Here is a link to my favorite "Christmas to-do list" that helps your family focus on the less fortunate while at the same time preparing your home and your heart for Christmas.   Christmas Planning List

ENJOY!  If you create an advent sock garland, I'd love to see it!  Post a link here and share it with us!  Merry Christmas!

When did these kids become grownups?

Here is the picture I took of Stephen and Emily
right before we left for church last Sunday (Easter/ April 12). What is amazing is that less than a year ago, Emily was about 6 inches taller than Stephen. For those of you who have known Stephen his whole life, or at least most of it, can attest to the fact that he has drastically changed in appearance! Stephen had to leave to go back to Indiana right after church on Sunday, so we didn't have a very traditional day (didn't do a lunch or anything... in fact, Stephen and I ate California Pizza Kitchen at the airport and Emily at Pick Up Stix with her girlfriend Sharday!)

Church was amazing and glorious, our choir and orchestra was phenominal, Brent presented the gospel so powerfully, and it was so great to be in church with my kids and my mom. I hated to see Stephen leave again, but summer will be here before we know it and he'll be back again! :)

My Mom's Birthday

Last week my wonderful mom had a birthday, and as it happened, Stephen was here visiting as well, so of course, what a great opportunity for a family get together. Have I said it lately that I love my family? Taco Salad, birthday presents, kids playing, yummy dessert, and lots of laughter!

Here's my sister Debbie, and the love of her life Rod (who also happens to be her husband.) They are ALWAYS smiling and laughing together! I love that about them! Deb has a unique ability to encourage and speak love and healing into my life.

Sweet little Grace, who is 4 years old now, loves her cousin Emily!

Here are the boys having fun and being silly! They both love their Grandma! (And not just because she spoils them!)

Hope you had a wonderful birthday mom... Many happy and healthy more!

For my Fantastic Mom

Here is the mother's day card I made for my mom... I made it a few weeks ago when I first got this new set from the Occassions Mini, but thought I'd better wait to post it til after she opened it. Don't you just LOVE this Berry Bliss Paper? I know I sure do. And I'm so glad I bought this pomagranate ribbon at Christmas time. The set is "Time for You" and the baskets of flowers are from the bicycle in the set and are popped up with dimentionals. Happy Mother's Day Mom... I'm so lucky to have you as a mom... I don't know what we would do without you.

Easter Fun with the Family

Finally figured some things out on my camera... my problem is I am very forgetful, so I have to keep learning the same thing over and over again. Anyway, here are some family Easter pictures. I think there were 35 of us at my sister Dyan's house in Thousand Oaks. So many kids that we had to have TWO Egg Hunts... one for the Little Kids (here's Ellie, Josh, and Grace) .....

And one for the BIG kids (from left to right, staring into the bright sun, are Sammy, Maddie, Jakob, Luis, and Giovani.)
A few more sweet pictures of our "babies" ( I love this picture of Josh with his bag on his head... that was the only one where he was looking into the camera "sort of".... tee hee! )

We also celebrated SEVEN family birthdays while we were all together... here are the "big people"... nephew Giovani, Dawn (who was my flower girl in my wedding in 1986 and now she's 22!!) my sister in law Carolyn, her little boy Josh (the big THREE!), Audrey, my nephew's wife, her little boy Derrik, and.............

Little Katie... my niece Nicole's baby girl, who turned ONE!

Wow, what a wondeful DAY we all had together!

Family Christmas Photos

For those of you who know my family, and know how huge it is, I thought this would be a good place to post some family photos from Christmas. It's always such a blessing for all of us to be together. The Lord has truly knit our hearts together, and in His Sovereignty, has called each of us to be His child. That is the best feeling, to know that we will be together throughout eternity.

My neice Grace, Susie's 3 1/2 year old, on Christmas day. The next picture is Susie's husband Rick, who had just returned from Kuwait 2 days before Christmas, and their son Andrew. Andrew is 16, the same age as Stephen, and he and Stephen are pretty much inseparable. Their dog Bubba is an important part of their family too.

Here you can see my mom, who's still running circles around the rest of us as she travels, takescare of her house and huge yard, sees movies, broadway shows, and concerts several times a week, plus helps Susie, Dennis, and I with anything we need from her. Also you see Lindsey, Susie's oldest daughter, who is busy working full time these days, and next to her is Susie, still juggling four kids on her own while Rick is overseas, age 22 down to age 3 and still works part time. I have no idea how she does it.

I love this cute picturefrom Thanksgiving Day of my sister Dyan holding Gracie and Ellie. Ellie is Dennis and Carolyn's 5 year old, and she loves taking "care" of Josh her little brother, and Grace, when the 3 of them are together. It's cool how the neices and nephews came in spurts, so each group of them have others their own age to hang out with and grow up with. Dyan is the oldest of my siblings, and she loves spoiling all her nieces and nephews.

And here's another one from Thanksgiving.... Grace, Ellie and Josh wearing their turkey hats they made with Aunt Carolyn (Dennis' wife, the school teacher). As you can tell, I've pretty much quit taking pictures of GROWN UPS at our family gatherings, opting for the much cuter little ones. I'll have to try to take some pictures of us grown ups at our next get together.