Thrift Store Christmas Decor

As you know, I really enjoy estate sales and thrift store shopping.  From Thanksgiving to Christmas might be my absolute favorite time to hit up the stores as they have their holiday decorations out.  This year I've collected a few new goodies.  

99% of the items cost me $.49- $.99 except for this creepy little cutie.  He set me back $1.99.  In case you can't see it, he is holding a banner that reads Merry Christmas.  He chills with the garden gnomes and greets people on our stoop.   

So I found this little guy two years ago but I still wanted to post about him as I found him in a CHKD thrift store in Virginia.  He is a 1999 Annalee.  He is our version of elf on a shelf.   Favorite.

Stained glass Santa!  He looked really beautiful yesterday as it was sunny for a few hours.

I like to call this decoration "inappropriate snowman" as he looks a little suggestive.  Perfect decoration.

So I apparently really love Annalee holiday dolls as I have two other little ones.  I found these guys at St. Vinnie's in Eugene last year.  One is a Santa mouse and the other mouse is in it's nightgown.  Cliff has the genius idea of putting them on top of the coo coo clock (like hickory dickory dock).  Awesome.  Love it.

You gotta believe.  Maybe I like this sign so much because of my time in Baltimore when the "Believe" campaign was going on but it doesn't matter... I really like this sign.  Believe in Santa!

Speaking of Baltimore I found this awesome ornament in Goodwill.  As a Maryland girl, how could I not buy it?

We even got a new stocking for Rudy (in case you can't see it, it is a dog with a Santa hat on hanging by his tail).  We have to wait to fill it until Christmas as otherwise he would be a pest.

For work I bought a mini Christmas tree, a Hallmark Rodney the reindeer (like the one we had when I was little), and a little alpaca.  We named him Horacio the Holiday Alpaca.  He instantly makes people happy.  Cliff kinda giggles when he sees him as he likes Horacio so much.  He is handmade and awesome.

I love Christmas decorations!

Coos Bay Adventure

This weekend Cliff and I did a few activities to get us into the holiday spirit.

On Friday, we had our Winter Wonderland event at work.  We had photos with Santa, two live reindeer, face painting, a ton of holiday crafts, hot chocolate and sugar cookies at Mrs. Claus' kitchen, snow, violinists playing holiday music, train rides, a gingerbread competition, and a festive sweater contest.  Cliff even volunteered and decorated the top of the bouldering wall to look like a penguin village (think snow, lights, inflatable penguins).  It was adorable and the event was a success.  

Yesterday, we went with my awesome co-worker, her husband, and two kiddos to Shore Acres State Park for holiday lights.  Shore Acres is south on the coast (that's right we got to see a part of the state we hadn't before!) and for the holidays they put up over 300,000 lights.  It was a long day in the car but it was totally worth it as we got to see a few pretty cool things:

1) Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area:  On the way down to Coos Bay there is an elk viewing area.   The area is a year around home to about 100 Roosevelt Elk.   We decided we needed to stop by to see if we could actually see any. Holy cow they were there!  There is a little pit stop area where folks can have a picnic, go to the bathroom, and watch the animals.  They were super close to the road.  I felt like we were back in Yellowstone.  I'm a big fan of elk. 

 

2)  Fun Food:  We ate at the Blue Heron Bistro in Coos Bay.  It is a German/seafood restaurant.  What could be more fun?  At our table we had fried oysters, cod fish and chips, steamed muscles, bratwurst, sauerkraut, stewed red cabbage, German potato salad, and cucumber and cabbage coleslaw.  It was tasty.  The whole restaurant was covered in old Norma Rockwell images.  

After dinner we went to Cranberry Sweets and More as we heard they had tons of free samples.  They literally have a sample for every item they sell.  Every. Item. They.  Sell.  No joke.  They even had free coffee and cider.  It was all decked our for Christmas.  We sampled cranberry and raspberry chocolates,  cookies, candy canes, fudge (Cliff was really brave and tried their neon cheddar cheese fudge) , jelly candies, spicy chocolate and a ton of other things.  It was nuts (but I didn't eat any...haha).  I asked to buy a chocolate covered cherry and they gave me two for free.  Awesome.  I highly recommend the stop for anyone who is going to Coos Bay. 

3) Shore Acres Holiday Lights: So apparently Shore Aces State Park has some of the most amazing scenic cliff and coastline views in Oregon.  With this said, we got to the park once it was dark.  But that is ok as  we could hear the ocean so we knew it was close.  We will need to go back in the summer when it is light, green, and the flowers are in bloom.

Every year for the last 26 years, Shore Acres State Park has decorated with lights.  Each year, more and more lights have been added and now there are over 300,000 lights in the park.  We all got bundled and walked around the gardens.  We enjoyed more cider and cookies and listened to girl scouts singing Christmas carols in the gazebo.  It was pretty great.  

They had little light displays of marine life (whales, seals, crabs, frogs, herons, etc.).  A few of the light displays had actions.  The frogs jumped and croaked.  There were underwater glowing Koi.  They had lights in bushes to create glowing hydrangeas (I love hydrangeas!).  They sold these special 3D looking glasses at their gift shop.  When you looked through them at the lights every bulb turned into a gingerbread man, stocking, and candy cane.  I tried to take a photo of the effect.  See below for the first of my terrible photos.  The one to follow is actually of Cliff and I.  My photos rule.

It is crazy to think that we are just a week out from Christmas.  All of our gifts are in the mail, the tree is up, and we are all set to watch Christmas Vacation or Love Actually tonight.  It is finally starting to feel like Christmas. 

Personal Victory

I started my first fire in the stove yesterday.  I completed the project from start to finish: split kindling, selected logs, started it, and worked the dampers.  This might seem like a small feat for most of you but I didn't use a fireplace growing up.  Also, Cliff has taken on the task since we moved into the cottage.  No worries, as I did it and yesterday.  I told Cliff to stay way and let me do it all on my own.  Personal victory. 

Christmas Parade

This weekend I got to be in a Christmas parade. 

Every year my work helps to sponsor the event and they always enter a float.  When I was first hired I thought that maybe I could sneak my way into the parade.  Well, I lucked out as my coworker and I ended up being responsible for our whole thing.  We came up with the design, did the decorating, and then got to walk the 2.9 mile route yesterday.  How cool is that?

Our float's theme was "we've caught the holiday spirit!".  It involved a magical penguin ice fishing house that was filled with 20 little pre-schoolers with penguin hats on.  The pre-schoolers also made fun watercolored fish to which we glued "holiday spirit" words.  Our words included Joy, Peace, Love, Family, Friends, Hope, Wish, and we even added Rain since we do live in Oregon after all.  The little fishies went on the poles hence "we've caught the holiday spirit!".  I'm biased but I think it was stinkin' cute (that is a fish joke FYI).  Plus, I got to incorporate my super-cute thrift store penguins.  Yard decorates never looked so adorable.

We lucked out as it only rained a little yesterday.  It wasn't super cold and we didn't get soaked.  Plus I managed not to step in any horse poop.  We handed out thousands of pieces of candy and wished many people merry Christmas and happy holidays.  It was a lot of work to put together (heck Cliff even pitched in to staple tinsel icicles to the house) but it was really fun.  I can't wait for next year to do it all again!

November

What happened to November?  The whole month flew by.  Seriously.  Where did it go?  A lot happened in those 30 little days.  In addition to turning 29 years old (let the count down to 30 begin!) and the 2nd annual Eugene Friendsgiving,  Cliff and I also did a bunch of little things.  For example, we purchased quite a few end-of-season fall bulbs and planted them in end-of-season clearance bamboo pots.  Cliff really loves flowers. 

We retrained our dog where to go to the bathroom in the yard as apparently somehow he forgot after doing it several times a day for over a year. Cliff kicked his climbing into the next gear of awesomeness and I started swimming again.   I passed my six month mark at work and now have full health benefits!  This is a good thing as I'm pretty sure I need glasses.  I helped to organize a 5K and Cliff ran in it.  And I even got my first cold of the year.  We were productive.

We also received quite a few generous and awesome gifts in the mail.  Birthdays are fun.  First came the Virginia Ham.

Then, I received a super-cool Fascinator (one of those little hats that British people wear) from Mom and Pam for my birthday.  Awesome.  Mom, Pam, and I had a good time trying them on when I was in Maryland between wedding weekends.  Mom bought one as well and now for fun we wear them when we video chat.  Again, awesome.

Cliff received his birthday crock.  We can now make homemade sauerkraut and pickle anything we can get our hands on.  It is beautiful.  This week were are going to try our first batch after we buy two cabbages.  Let's be honest, the process will warrant a whole post so get excited.

We want to thank everyone for the birthday messages, cards, gifts, and love that have been sent our way over the last two months.  We are totally spoiled.

Oh, did I mention that Cliff also grew a mustache and soul patch for Movember?  Cause he did.  In case you have been wondering what is up with all of the mustaches running around town, men are coming together to show support and promote awareness for men's health issues such as prostate and testicular cancer.  They are doing it the best way they know how...by growing facial hair.  Many of the male teachers at Cliff's school decided to take the plunge and see what their faces looked like with a 'stash.  Cliff shaved after the official Men of Movember celebration on Thursday but I think we are both curious now to see what he would look like with a full beard.  Hummmm...do I sense a winter break project?

Lots of love to all and happy December!