I'm always a little down the day after Christmas. The magic is over and we have to wait a whole other year to experience it again. But I guess that is what makes it so special! We had a lot of special moments over Christmas and I'm sharing one of my favorites below... decorating sugar cookies with the kiddos! Mostly Blair was decorating and the babies were eating but that's good teamwork!

If you're looking for some new shoes for the new year check out Pediped for tiny feet! Their shoes are so stylish and comfortable and will ensure that your kids start out the new year on the right foot! I love the classic mary jane style on Everly and know these shoes will go with everything without conceding comfort.

If you want to try out a pair of Pediped shoes head over to my Instagram (@natyouraveragegirl ) to enter a giveaway to win a free pair of your choice!

I'm not too late for a Christmas home tour, am I?! Let's be honest... one of the main reasons I'm posting this is so I can remember where I put all my Christmas decorations next year haha. Oh, and to inspire all of you to get festive! ;)

nevermind that chewed leaf in the front haha

I couldn't find loose tinsel anywhere!! Sad. Next year. :(

little stinkers forced me to hang the stockings out of reach this year

Just in case after scrolling through my holiday home tour you think my house is immaculate I'm here to tell you don't worry... it's not. I've perfected the art of hiding toys/laundry/dirty diapers from my shots. Shoot, half the time it's just out of the frame or sitting at my feet. 

With only one week left till Christmas I thought I better get on the Advent Calendar post I promised! Insert the monkey covering his eyes emoji here. This year I got THIS Advent Calendar and it adds the perfect amount of farmhouse charm to our home. Blair loves hearing what Christmas activity we are going to do that day and I love sharing the Christmas story with her.

Coming up with Christmas activities and breaking up the Christmas story into sections takes time so I've done the work for you below! Feel free to copy what I've done or use as much of it as you would like. Before the month of December hits I sit down and figure out what days would be best for which activities and inevitably I end up switching a few out for "hot cocoa night." ;) I try to keep things super basic during the week and we save the big stuff for the weekends like picking out a Christmas tree etc.

The activities and verses are written on small cards that slide in and out of the envelopes on the calendar.

Day 1 Luke 1:26-27 Hang Christmas lights
Day 2 Luke 1:28 Set up nativity
Day 3 Luke 1:29 Decorate kids' rooms
Day 4 Luke 1:30-31 Pick out Christmas tree
Day 5 Luke 1:32-33 Buy a stranger coffee
Day 6 Luke 1:34-35 Mail Christmas cards
Day 7 Luke 1:36 Bless someone unexpectedly
Day 8 Luke 1:37 Drink hot cocoa
Day 9 Luke 1:38 Decorate a gingerbread house
Day 10 Luke 1:39 Visit Santa
Day 11 Luke 1:40-41 Share the gospel with someone
Day 12 Luke 1:42 Go to a Christmas party
Day 13 Luke 1:43 Help wrap presents
Day 14 Luke 1:44 Drive to see Christmas lights
Day 15 Luke 1:45 Decorate the tree
Day16 Luke 1:46-47 Watch a Christmas movie
Day 17 Luke 1:48-49 Snuggle by the fire
Day 18 Luke 1:50-51 Wear Christmas jammies
Day 19 Luke 1:52-53 Give a gift to a child in need
Day 20 Luke 2:1-4 Read a Christmas story
Day 21 Luke 2: 5-6 See the Christmas production at church
Day 22 Luke 2:7-20 See festival of lights
Day 23 Luke 2:21-22 Make peanut butter balls
Day 24 Luke 2:23-26 Bake Cookies for Santa
Day 25 Luke 2:27-33 Open presents

Today I'm here to help you with gift ideas for all the MEN in your life! I'm not going to lie..this one really stumps me. Usually I know what my husband wants but throw in uncles, brothers, and DADS and I'm often stumped! Dads are typically old enough to buy what they want, when they want which makes gift giving impossible!

So here we go! I asked some pretty awesome men (and women!) what they get the dudes in their life and this is what they said...

Amazon Echo

Portable Phone Charger

Home Cold Brew Kit

Skinny Jeans

Mid Lace Boots

Chukka Boots 

Unlimited Movie Pass

Sunglasses

Five Panel Hat

Coffee Grinder

Travel Bag

I hope that was maybe a tad bit helpful! If you have any great gift ideas let me know below! Happy Shopping. :)

It's usually pretty easy to pick out gifts for your own kids but I tend to struggle with gifts for my friends' kids... especially if they have a sex/age that I haven't raised myself yet ;). I pulled together some gifts that I grabbed for Cal and Evie this year (some from extended family). If you are shopping for a 1 to 2 year old boy or girl check out my ideas below!

Cal is totally into trucks, cars, diggers, etc. He loves playing outside and enjoys having books read to him. Here are some picks for him

1. trucks

2.construction book

3. truck book

4. tool box

5. ball popper

6. duplo set

7. play center

Evie is also obsessed with playing outside and climbing everything. She loves sitting on my lap when I blog and trying to type (hence her own mini lap top). She also digs coloring with Blair and pushing the stroller around.

1. laptop

2. slide

3. picnic set

4. crayons

5. stroller

6. baby

7. castle

I'm a little late to the toy game but I thought I would give you a little peek to as what Blair is asking for for Christmas! Let's hope she doesn't have a repeat of last year's behavior (insert eye roll). As long as she stays on the nice list these are some of the things she's been talking about...

1. jewelry kit
2. princess activity kit
3. glitter glue
4. princess necklace kit
5.glitter paint
6. girly crayons
7. canvas painting set
8. ceramic painting set
9. my little pony set
10. plush unicorn set
11. operation game
12. crystal growing kit
13. Moana lego kit

Clearly Blair has a love of all things crafty. Those are the toys that entertain her the longest (aside from her ipad of course). Hope you got some good ideas here! Next up will be gifts for one year olds... obviously!

Recently I spied some super chic gingerbread houses in The Magnolia Journal and I told Matt, "I reallly want to make these!" I originally thought making them from scratch would be fun and he was like, "Are you nuts? Just buy the houses and then add your own decorations." Done!

I thought that maybe some of my friends would enjoy it too so I planned for a "Girls Night In!" I detailed what I did below so you can throw your own Gingerbread House Party this holiday season.

What you need
-gingerbread kit (I got mine at Target on sale for $9 each)
-outlining frosting (comes in kit)
-flooding frosting (recipe below)
- vanilla wafers
- mini marshmallows
-skinny pretzel sticks
-fresh rosemary sprigs (got mine from my running trail LOL)
-white sugar sprinkles (HERE)
-white pearl sprinkles (HERE)
- icing bottles (HERE)
- meringue powder (HERE)
-butcher or kraft paper (to protect your work surface)


Royal Icing Frosting Recipe
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2.5 tablespoons warm water
-1.5 tablespoons meringue powder (Michaels)
* mix it all together. If you need your icing more runny (I usually do) then keep adding more warm water till the consistency easily spreads out when you fill in the cookie.

Tips for Your Gingerbread House Party
You can choose to get your guests either one large gingerbread house or 4 mini ones. The larger ones are definitely easier to decorate but the mini ones are easier to put together. Unbox the houses before your guests arrive. Otherwise there is too much trash everywhere and it makes for a big mess.

Make sure you do all your decorating BEFORE you put your house together...otherwise the royal icing will slide down the walls and roof. Make sure your icing is completely dry before you assemble your house...otherwise the icing will slide. It is best to have two people assembling the houses. It can be very frustrating trying to glue walls and holding them together with only one set of hands.

It would be best if you had one bottle of royal icing per guest. It is too hard to share since all the steps have to be done at the same time. Guests should "outline" their houses first which requires them to all use the firm icing first followed by the flooding icing second.

I put white butcher paper down on my table to protect it because once the frosting hardens it's like cement. It also made clean up easier because I just folded it all up and threw it away.

I hope this inspires you to have your own girls night in! Just add some hot cocoa (in a crock pot!) and a dessert and you're set! Oh, and wine never hurt anyone either. ;)

* This post is sponsored by Minted This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links

Our Christmas card photos were *almost* an EPIC FAIL this year. I had this grand idea of an uber beautiful and dreamy bohemian look complete with yucca trees and hazy sun filtering through our hair. As soon as we rounded the bend in the road I panicked...our location was freaking TORCHED from a previous fire...that happened TWO years ago! My photographer, and best friend, was like, "Ummmmm?"

We continued to drive and things weren't getting any greener. Matt suggested turning off the main highway and once we did that things started looking less singed. Phew! Crises #1 averted. Because let's be real... there was no way I was getting all five of us ready again and making the hour long drive out to Victorville. As fun as car rides can be with two babies and a five year old I wasn't looking forward to doing round two.

We pulled off on the side of a deserted road and then had the pleasure of realizing the sun was going to set in about five minutes behind the tall mountains. My dreamy photo was slipping away! We were in an absolute stage 5 panic as we threw shoes on babies, hair sprayed cowlicks, and slapped headbands on. We trampled through some brush, smiled for about 2.5 minutes and this is what we got...

PERFECTION! That's a Christmas miracle right there, folks! ;) So... now you know the story behind the magic. There is beauty in the chaos! And doesn't it make you appreciate the photo more?!

One of my absolute favorite things about the holidays is Christmas cards! I just love seeing my mailbox stacked high with festive envelopes and then opening the cards and seeing my friends' smiling faces. I tape mine up on our wall with some plaid washi tape and everyone enjoys looking at them when they come over.

behind the scenes ;)

This year I partnered with Minted to create the most beautiful Christmas cards. I'm absolutely in love with the cards and how they accentuate the photo we used. We went with a "boho" themed photo (yucca trees and all!) and I wanted to keep the card very simple so the picture could really shine.

I like how Minted gives you the option to personalize everything down to matching stamps! I chose to personalize the back of our card with a picture of the kiddos along with a verse that I've had up all year in our home, Psalm 126:3 "The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with JOY." I also added our return address (in the font and color of my choice) to the back of our envelope...less writing for me!

The quality of the printing at Minted is what really impressed me. When I opened the box I immediately noticed the thick paper and how clear our photo looked. Nothing is more frustrating than knowing your photo is high quality and having it come back fuzzy.

If you guys haven't ordered your holiday cards yet now is the time! Minted's Black Friday deal ends TODAY so hurry over there! Use code BF2017 for up to 20% off your order.

When Christmas is over I hole punch them and tie a ribbon around them and keep them under the coffee table. People flip through them throughout the year which is fun. I used to cut them down and tape each photo to the side of our fridge which is always a nice way to see our friends' faces throughout the year. What do you guys do with your Christmas cards?

all family photos by Carrie Johnson Photography