Christmas with the Bumgarners

Earlier this month, I had the brilliant idea of going downtown OKC to a holiday photo booth to take fun Christmas pictures. I already had my Christmas cards printed, so this was just for kicks. But then I did some research and discovered that the pictures were going to cost $36 EACH.

The adventure part of me said, Who cares! Throw caution to the wind! You're only young once! The budget part of me said, "That is insane. You have a self-timer. Use it."

I'll let you guess which option I chose.

*My sweatshirt is from Target, in case you were wondering. (Bought it last year)

I love these pictures so much that I was *this* close to ordering completely new Christmas cards, but that would have definitely defeated the purpose of not paying $36 for a professional photo booth shot.

I'm pretty excited that I got Jordan to play along with me. That is, until I made him nauseous from forcing him to spin the light strand around himself, and then the fun was over.
 
Christmas is the only holiday I actually decorate for. It's also the only holiday I have decorations for so there's that. I thought you might like to see some of my favorite decorations I have right now around the apartment.

My friend Katie made this for me during a crafty secret Santa exchange. I hang it on the wall and tuck all of our Christmas cards into the red ribbon! It can get pretty full, but so far I haven't had an issue with anything falling out.

Every year in November, my church hosts a "Jingle Bell Jamboree," where all the women of the church are invited to come and make a Christmas craft. I always have fun and make sure to go every year. This chalkboard Christmas countdown was the craft I made the first year I went, back in 2009. I painted the words and the red around the outside, the green and red balls, and created the tree out of strips of different kinds of ribbon. It's a little ghetto, but I love it!

^^This was the Jingle Bell Jamboree craft this year. This isn't a great picture, but it's basically a wreath-type thing. The craft part included bending the green parts to make the shape and then gluing the pine cones, berries, and bells into it how we liked! There's a burlap bow at the top too.

^^^This is our Christmas tree. Yes, it's tiny. Someday when we have a house, we will get a normal-sized tree, but until then we'll pack our ornaments and lights onto this bad boy.

My grandpa gave this tree to me when I moved to Oklahoma in 2008, and I've put it up every year since. He even bought me the "snow" to put around the base. This tree is actually an antique! It's still in the original box from the 50s. The tree does not come with lights, so even though this tree is artificial, I still have to string lights around it every year. I appreciate my dad's light-stringing skills so much more now. Even with just a tiny tree, it's hard work!

So that's what Christmas with the Bumgarners looks like this year! I've never really done anything like this on the blog before, so I hope you enjoyed it.

-How much is too much for a Christmas photo booth picture?

-Do you have any favorite Christmas crafts?

p.s. My girls' weekend in San Diego was amazing! I have a lot of pictures to share, but I haven't had time to go through them yet, so stay tuned!