Christmas Tree Christmas Card Holder

I was browsing the internet the other night for ideas to hold Christmas cards.  I saw a triangle with elastic and thought it looked cute.  Given that I don't have any sewing abilities and could not find my hot glue gun, I decided to create something similar using good old fashion duct tape.

I took a box from Amazon.

Cut it into a Christmas tree shape

Used duct tape to reinforce my tree design.  Noticed I almost used the whole box.  I only had two pieces leftover.

I found some green fabric from years ago that I bought when I was taking a sewing class at JoAnn's.

Laid the fabric over the box and cut and taped it into place.  Here's the front.

Here's the back.  Don't worry, nobody will see this but us. :)

I got some elastic.

I used every bit of it to make "holders" on the tree to hold all the wonderful Christmas cards we'll receive this year.  I wish I had a little more but I think it turned out fine.

Here's my Christmas Tree Christmas Card Holder.  I'm not sure how long it will last but I think it turned out pretty good for a non-crafty person.  The best part about it, it was practically free since I already had everything I needed.  If you were to make this you could probably make it for less than $5!  That's a deal!  It took me a little over an hour with help from my 3-year old.

Prayer Request

Matthew 19:26: Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

I am pregnant.  I am now 9 weeks along.  As you can see from the picture above, taken this past week, my baby is continuing to grow next to the placenta.  The placenta is the circle and the bean is my baby.  For those of you that know me, I am high risk.  This is my 5th pregnancy since Blue Rock was born.  Blue Rock is a true gift from God as I had no problems with him and only took a prenatal vitamin.  Since then I have discovered I have lots of different things going on not in my favor.  The only thing in my favor is that I can get pregnant, which being low on progesterone is apparently pretty amazing.  Thankfully during pregnancy I can take supplements for that, also meds for the blood clotting disorder I have, and folic acid supplements.  The biggest challenge my body faces is that I have a lovely genetic disorder called a Balanced Translocation.  Only about 1% of the population have this.  My chromosome 6 and 10 are switched.  This only causes problems when trying to having a baby.  The specialist told me last spring that every pregnancy I have I have a 50/50 chance of having a successful pregnancy.  A few weeks ago she said I have less than a 50/50 chance of having a successful pregnancy.  But I know with God all things are possible.

I have had 4 sonograms so far.  I have gone to the doctor once a week since I was 4 weeks pregnant.  It gets tiring.  On the positive, the baby is growing and we see this every week.  He/she has been measuring a little over a week behind since the beginning, so this isn't new.  The positive is that every week he/she is continuing to grow.  The concern is that they still have been unable to detect a heartbeat.  After my perinatologist appointment two weeks ago, that doctor told me if my Hgc levels were not rising then we should schedule a D&C since there was no heartbeat.  Well, guess what Doctor?  My Hgc levels are still rising.  They rose over 20,000 in those two days and the baby is still growing.  When I saw my doctor last week, she said we should talk about my options if there was still no heartbeat.  I went to get a sonogram and sadly there still is no heartbeat, however, the baby is still growing.  How is this possible?  I don't know but I will say, God has a plan.  The sonographer told me on Wednesday that this is when she really hates her job.  She doesn't have much hope.  I'm honestly sometimes struggling with hope.  However, the other night when I was getting ready for bed Matthew 19:26 came to mind, "with God all things are possible."  We have a lot of people praying for us and I ask for prayers from you too.  God can perform a miracle.  My baby's heart could be beating right now.  The only thing I know is that God is the Master Physician.  Please pray that God breathes life into my child.  That next week the medical community is amazed.  To give hope to others that may be too quick to make a decision to end a pregnancy.  This is a great website with lots of wonderful stories about babies born to women who were told that their baby would not make it. http://www.misdiagnosedmiscarriage.com/

Please pray what you feel your heart leads you to pray.  My family would love to welcome this baby into our arms next July.  I know God can give us this child.  I also know God's will is sometimes different than ours.  Please pray for this child and peace for my family.  I go back to get another sonogram next Thursday.  I would LOVE to hear a heartbeat and to see the faces of the sonographer and doctors.  I know this is possible.  We know the baby is there and is still growing!  Not all babies grow by the book.  I told the nurse Thursday when she asked me what I wanted to do, I said, "I have a lot of people praying for this baby and I want to have another sonogram next week.  How can God work a miracle if I end the opportunity for Him to do so."  She said, "that sounds like a good choice.  Let's schedule you for another sonogram next week."  With God ALL things are possible!  Thank you for your prayers.

Christmas Book Tradition

We are starting a new tradition this year.  As part of Advent we are going to read Christmas books everyday as we count down to Christmas.  I think I first saw this idea on Pinterest.  Since we are Christians, we want to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas, Christ's birth.  As far as Santa Claus goes, I think knowing about St. Nick is great and carrying on his legacy for secretly leaving gifts is a fun idea, but I don't want Santa to get in the way of focusing on what is most important, Christ.  Therefore, most the books are more about Christ than Santa and some are just about the Christmas holiday in general and fun.

With Blue Rock's help, we wrapped 25 books.  Starting today, Dec. 1st., everyday Blue Rock will choose one package to unwrap and read.  Then we can read that book and any other books that he has already unwrapped.  Christmas morning we will read Luke 2 from the Bible.  I always seem to go overboard with books.  So finding just 24 books was difficult, especially since we have a few Christmas books from previous years and I found lots of new ones that looked so neat.  So I wrapped a few books together, especially if they seem to go together.  After this year I'm hoping to comb through the books and only have ones that Blue Rock and any future siblings would enjoy year after year.  One friend recommended Elf on the Shelf.  That seems like a cute idea and I know a lot of people have fun with it but after spending so much on all these books, we're going to wait until maybe next year to purchase it.  Here are our books in no particular order:

1. The Parable Series: The Pine Tree Parable by Liz Higgs



2. Mary's First Christmas by Walter Wangerin Jr.



3. A Fruitcake Christmas by Max Lucado

 

4. Story of Baby Jesus by Alice J. Davidson



5. The Christmas Candle by Richard Paul Evans



6. Santa, Are You For Real? by Harold Myra, Jane Kurisu












7. Jacob's Gift by Max Lucado



8. The Legend of the Three Trees by Catherine McCafferty



9. The Twelve Bugs of Christmas by Max Lucado and The 12 Bugs of Christmas by David A. Carter

         

10. The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado



11. If You're Missing Baby Jesus by Jean Gietzen



12. Merry Christmas Mom and Dad by Mercer Mayer and Christmas Stocking by Dawn Sirett

   

13. The Twelve Days of Christmas Illustrated by Caroline Pedler



14. A Letter to Santa by Barnes and Noble

 

15. A Night in Santa's Great Big Bag by Kristin Kladstrup



16. This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotton



17. The Night Before Christmas two books by Jan Brett and Moore

  

18. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg



19. God Gave us Christmas by Lisa Bergren



20. Cobweb Christmas by Shirley Climo



21. Who is Coming to Our House? By Joseph Slate and Ashley Wolff and Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell and Jason Cockcroft

   

22. The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg



23. Llama Llam Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney



24. The Usborne Advent Nativity Book



25. Good News of Great Joy by C. Michael Dudash - will probably be read on Christmas Day because it's taken directly from Luke 2