Free Christmas Printables

I love the creativity that is out there on the internet. This is the second year that I have found cute, free printables to put in my regular 8x10 picture frames to display during the Christmas season. Here are two I am using for sure:

The first is from Today's Creative Blog and it features a print by SissyPrint. I love that it displays that Christ was born as this is central to our Christmas celebration!



The second comes from Little Birdie Secrets created by Sister Secrets



Of course their frames are way cuter than mine but I am trying to just keep my regular frames I use all year and update them with new photos and free printables throughout the year.

Happy Printing!!

Christmas 2010

Well Christmas this year for the McGraw family was a month long celebration. We of course remembered the reason for the season all month long and are so grateful that God sent his son to be our savior. It started by celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas with Mike's side of the family and ended with Christmas with my side of the family. It was great having most of my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving and it was nice for the kids to have all their presents spread out so they could appreciate them more. Here are a few pictures from our Christmas celebrations.


Abby and her new lap desk



Our family after Christmas Eve Service as my parent's house



Will is a little excited about his new metal detector

What a great time of family fun we had. I got a huge surprise from Mike as he got me a new MacBook. I needed a new laptop badly but we decided, or so I thought, to hold off. I am so grateful that Mike wanted to do something special for me this Christmas.

We are looking forward to 2011 and all the God has in store for us. We have been so blessed.

Christmas 2009

Here are some long time coming Christmas pictures. I posted some on Facebook right after Christmas but haven't gotten to post them on the blog yet. Christmas this past year was with Mike's family but we got to host part of it. It was so nice because the three of us who live in Dublin each took one of the meals. I had brunch on Christmas morning and this worked out perfect for our kids to get to stay in their jammies and play with their Santa gifts. I had fun decorating this year, we decorated a little more than usual since we were hosting.


Here is the whole family on Christmas morning at our house opening tons of presents.

A picture of all four cousins together on Christmas Eve. This can be a hard task so I am glad that we got physical proof that all the cousins were together for Christmas for the first time.


Here is my dining room. I didn't have table cloths for my tables and I wasn't ready to commit to buying a nice tablecloth for the holidays yet. So I found this really cool wrapping paper at Target that coordinated with the plates I was using and I used it as a runner. I think it turned out pretty cute. I also hung ornaments from the chandelier as I had seen on other blogs.


My favorite new decoration was these candles from dayspring. I really wanted people to know that Christ was the reason for the season so I placed these candles with the nativity scene on my kitchen island.

It was a great Christmas. The kids were happy with all their toys. Abby and Will both got a Zhu Zhu pet, Abby got a Barbie hair salon and a new bike. Will got more trains/tracks for his imaginetex train and a cool dragon castle from his Uncle Bri Bri. I got a lovely Cole Haan purse from Mike and Mike got some shoes that he has been wanting. We feel so blessed to have family near us for the Holidays. The only thing better would have been if my family could have been there to celebrate as well. We did have Christmas with my family on new years day and it the best gift was a Buckeye Victory.

Happy Birthday JESUS!!!

I love this song. Abby sang it last year for her Christmas Program and Will got to sing it this year. Will is the shepard, second from your right, next to the angel. Remember to pause the music on my playlist so you can hear it. Both times I got teary eyed, it is so touching to hear your little ones singing happy birthday to Jesus. I am so glad my kids know the true meaning of CHRISTmas. Last night Will told me we should make cookies for Santa in the shapes of Jesus, Mary and Joseph so Santa will know that we celebrate Jesus's birthday, how adorable. Wishing Jesus a very happy birthday and am so thankful he came to save us.

Hide and Seek Safari

My son got this toy as an early Christmas gift from my husband's aunt and uncle. It is an amazing toy. Hide and seek is fun but after the 10th time I grow a little tired of the game while my kids do not. In this game you hide the tiger, then with the wand you go around looking for the tiger and when you get close the wand lights up and starts beeping. It is like the hot/cold game. My kids played this forever when they first got it and they still enjoy it. Even better after I get them started they can continue to play on their own with out my help. I have heard you can even order extra wands so each child can have one. If you are still looking for a great Christmas gift I would highly recommend this for kids age 3 and up. I've seen it recently on amazon.com for under 25 dollars. Hope you all have great luck in the search for the perfect Christmas gift. Luckily if you know and love my Savior Jesus Christ you have already recieved it.

MEET BUDDY!!!!!

With much thanks to Angie over at audreycaroline.blogspot.com we have a new Christmas tradition at our house. This is a scout elf that arrived with the book "The elf on the shelf". Every day Buddy watches the kids to see if they have good or bad behavior and then at night he returns to the North pole to report to Santa. Then he comes back each morning but in a different place then he was the night before. So each morning the kids get super excited to see where Buddy is next and I get to use a little creativity to find a new exciting spot. Then Christmas eve Buddy returns home to the North pole until the next year. It has been fun to have a tradition that just our little family can do. Mike and I have some great traditions passed down to us from our families but it is nice to think that maybe our kids will pass this tradition down to our grandkids.

I know alot of people have varying opinions on celebrating Santa during the Christmas season. We first and foremost have taught our children the true meaning and reason behind Christmas and will always continue to do so. Yet while they are little we find it not a problem to teach that we give and recieve gifts at this time in celebration of Christ's birth and this includes Santa. Both Mike and I grew up this way in strong Christian families and I am glad that we both had similar backgrounds. May everyone enjoy the birth of Jesus Christ this Christmas as well as any treasured family traditions you may have.