Christmas Cards are in the mail!

Just mailed our Christmas cards and realized I forgot to post pictures of the cards we made! I did take some pictures though during the process.

Here are some of the cards we made:


Here are my favorites:



Here are E's favorites:



And even Mr.C made some this year! His contribution:


This is the stamp for the back (and whoever made that cards signed their name under it):



This is what my craft table looked like when we were all trying to work on WAY to small of a space:



And here is what happened when we tried to keep L feeling like she was involved by giving her some markers and cards and letting her create in another room:

(Picture removed)

I think the cards are cute and E and I love crafting together. We make cards for close friends and family (about 30 cards) and we also use a local printing company for the many other cards. It was a lot of fun making them and I hope everyone who receives them likes them as well! BTW the markers that L drew on herself with were "silly scents" so she smelled of an odd combination of chocolate, licorice and lime. Came right off though!

What to wear?

We are attending a Baptism this Sunday and I do not think I have ever attended one in the fall/winter. Very odd I know but it seems like there are so many winter babies in our family so Baptisms always end up in the spring or even summer. I almost always wear a lightweight wool or tweed skirt suit in a soft shade to them in spring or linen in summer. But I have no idea what to wear this weekend.

It is very early (10 a.m.) and it will be very chilly. I am thinking a tweed skirt in a brown autumn shade with a sweater and of course under a good coat. That is usually what I wear to Mass anyway on Sundays. The brunch afterwards will be at a very elegant place and I am just not sure that will be dressy enough though. I just can't make up my mind on what to wear. Since the brunch will probably run past 1 p.m. I suppose I can go with a wool suit...? What color? Any suggestions?

Theater Night

On Wednesday, Mr.C and I had a really wonderful time at the Palace Theater where we saw Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Earlier in the day I got my mani-pedi as well as my hair and makeup at this place it was very nice to have some "me" time before our date. We had dinner at one of our favorite places, which is really close to the theater as well. This is what I wore:






First time wearing that dress (Ralph Lauren) and I loved it.



For jewelry Mr.C surprised me with this gorgeous necklace and earings:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

Whenever we go to the theater we take a town car or limo and I can't help but feeling a bit like a princess. There is just something so magical about it for me. Of course I love when we go into NYC to the theater even more, especially this time of year, but this theater is also really nice because it is so close and we do not have to stay the night. Not that I mind staying in the city but with little ones at home I don't want to do it that often. I do however want to see a show very often!

The Name Game

Oops! I forgot I got tagged! This looked fun so I wanted to get to it.


10. Witness Protection Name: (Mothers and Fathers middle names)
Marie Joseph.

9. Nascar Name: (first name of your Mothers Father, and first of Fathers Father)
Howard Anthony

8. Star Wars Name: (first three letters of your last name, first two letters of your first name)
Faiam

7. Detective Name: (Favorite color and favorite animal)
Pink Bunny

6. Soap Opera Name: (Middle name, city where you were born)
Elizabeth Greenwich

5. Superhero Name: (Second favorite color, fav drink and add "The" to the beginning)
The Green Tea (not too superhero-ish)

4. Fly Girl Name: (First two letters of first name, First two letters of Last name)
Amfa

3.Gangsta Name: Favorite ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Vanilla Butter

2. Rock Star Name: (Current pet name, last address street name)
Fishy (really) Sycamore

1. Stripper Name: (favorite perfume, fave candy)
Chanel Jelly Bean

I love physical therapy

I have started physical therapy for my lower back...I have had a lot of pain since the end of October. This is from a previous injury going back quite a few years and somehow I seemed to have reinjured. I had/have two herniated discs and sciatica. I am 31 and lately have felt like I am 75!
But I try not to focus on the negative so I don't really complain about it. The only reason I am posting about it now is because... well... my physical therapist is SO HOT! He is probably 25 and thinks I am an old lady but I don't mind. It makes going much more enjoyable!
Today Mr.Charming worked from home so he took me and he thinks it is so funny that I am crushing like a little schoolgirl. Afterward in car I was giggling the whole ride. Then I made him stop at the Gap to pick up some new workout clothes because...any excuse to shop right? And a cute PT is a reason to shop. I love that I can joke about this with Mr.C. In fact he's been calling my cell from the home phone all afternoon saying he's "Jake" and he needs me to come in tonight for some "extra" exercises. Yes I know we are both silly/dorky. But a housewife has to have her little crushes! I love when a repairman shows up and he is a cutie. Mr.C is by far the most handsome/hottie/cutie I have ever laid eyes on so he has no worries about this at all. He actually thinks its really cute. And by the way, can you believe his name is Jake...its just about the dreamiest name, remember 16 Candles?

Later I will get to posting about our evening at the theater last night. SO wonderful. I love the dress that I wore. First time wearing it and it is just one of those perfect LBDs.

Cute Idea

Just remembered I wanted to post this cute idea. Friends of ours got married over the summer so this is their "First" Christmas together. Well first Christmas as a married couple...anyway my friend was telling me that they went to get their tree last weekend on Saturday and they were telling the guy helping them at the tree farm they just got married, first tree, etc., so he cut off about a 1 inch round from the bottom of the tree for them to save. He said to dry it out and seal it to save it as a memento. Maybe this is a very popular tradition and I sound silly thinking it's so great but I had never heard of it. So when we went on Sunday we had the guy cut off a piece for us as well. It is drying out and I am going to carve the year in it and do it every year. I might even make a hole in it and use them as ornaments? Maybe have E do a handprint on one side and L do hers on the other? Not sure. Yes I can handcarve wood, one of my dad's hobbies was woodworking. I even have tools. Is this a popular tradition? If not isn't it the cutest idea?

Update: Its way to small for handprints but E suggested they paint their names on each side, so I think that is what we will do. Of course L can't do that yet but I'll have her just paint something on it.

Busy days

We have been very busy here at the Charming household lately! Friday night Mr.F and I went to his company's holiday dinner at Le Chateau - lots of fabulous food, people and dresses! I wore this



I love the holidays (have I mentioned that a million times yet?) and we try to go to a lot of the local holiday events. Our town has a Holiday Festival every year with several craft fairs as well as horse-drawn carriage rides and visits with Santa. The Town Green is decorated and the Boy Scouts sell wreaths there. In the evening they have carolers and light the tree. So that is what we did on Saturday. At one of the craft fairs a newspaper photographer took pictures of the girls and I and E is soo excited to be in the paper. She has been in the papers a few times but each time she gets as excited as the last!
This is what the girls wore on Saturday:
E wore this



L wore this:

And I wore this:




On Sunday we went to get our Christmas Tree. We go to a place called Stew Leonards because it is so easy, everyone is so helpful and we always get a perfect tree. We used to go to the "cut-your-own" tree farm but with the two girls at this age this is so much easier. Plus they have Santa there and they got to sit on his sleigh and tell him what they want and we got the picture. So we now have about 4 different pictures with different Santas!
Here is L picking out our perfect tree


And Mr.F putting it on the car


We spent the rest of Sunday decorating the tree. Along with all our treasured ornaments, I also do a color theme for the tree. For example, silver and gold, jewel-toned colors, red and green plaid, etc. This year I was doing red and white, but I still need some extra white decorations. Mr.F said "I thought you were going to finally do a pink and green tree like in the girls playroom." I just always thought that would be to girly for him but he said go for it. SO now I am trying to decide if I will do it. I would just need to get more pink since I have green already. The tree is decorated with the red and some white but I haven't made it to the store yet...maybe I'll decide then.

On Monday E had a half day of school and we had our conference Monday night. It went really well and I could've listened to the teacher talk about how great E is for about 3 extra hours...lol. She just loves school and does very well.

So now I guess I'm caught up with my blog and I'll be spending some time reading everyone else's!

Tomorrow night Mr.F and I are going to the theater to see A Christmas Carol. I'm having a pampering day tomorrow so I am really looking forward to that.

Oh and Mr.F thinks his name on my blog should be Mr.Charming which is a good idea so I think I will refer to him as Mr.C from now on.