It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

It's that time of year again. How do I know you ask? My Christmas Cactus is in bloom again. There's just something about new life in the middle of cold, snowy weather here in Ohio. I just love the beauty of flowers. There's something even more special in that I've kept this plant alive another year and it flowers anew! I want to call it a Thanksgiving Cactus since it usually flowers closer to Thanksgiving than Christmas, but it's beautiful just the same.

We decorated for Christmas yesterday which took 3 hours start to finish. By finish I mean containers back up into the attic. I love to take pictures so of course I took pictures of our home after the pretty lights went up. I think that's the kid in me because I love the lights aspect of it all. That's something that my DD acquired from me. She has lights all through her room. :-)
This is a picture of my DH's aquarium which looks like it too is decorated for the holidays. It however really is only the reflection of our tree in the glass.

One of our holiday traditions of course is mom videos, or takes pics. while kids and Dad decorate the tree.........Kids decided to start without him........they finished without him too once he saw they were willing to do this without him. Our ornaments are divided into bags according to who they belong to. You put your own ornaments up. I often ooh and ahhh and have a story or two to tell with the ornaments I hang. Most of my ornaments are from my DH or the kids.

This is one of my favorite parts of decorating;the garland down the railings. I used to have a Santa collection and now have it down to a dozen or so that I've kept over the years. I put them around the stairs so I see them often.

This is called a pull out shadow box which can be found here:http://www.stampingvideos.com/
You have to sign up for her newsletter to get to see her video on how to make this. Otherwise you have to wait until next month.
Anyway, I easily made this and can't wait to make more. Thanks Karen for this creative card in a box.

This is my card for today's challenge. I love this image and look forward to coloring it each Christmas. I used watercolor pencils then a blender pen. The white animals have sakura gel pen to make them sparkly. The sheep has liquid applique which was swirled then heated with the heat tool. Dimensionals are behind the image.

Do you have some favorite family traditions for Christmas? Won't you share some of yours? Have a blessed day and thanks for stopping by.