Christmas Eve (and a tree skirt tutorial)

**if you're here just for the tree skirt tutorial feel free to zoom down to the end of this post. **

here's what happened this year for Christmas Eve!

^^ we spent the afternoon wrapping presents, and coloring on them.^^

^^before bed, Santa came to visit! at first she was not so sure of him, eventually, after being given a candy cane, she at least looked at him. we are definitely teaching this girl the rules about taking candy from strangers. :)^^

 ^^grandma and Santa, i can still say "i saw mommy kissing Santa Clause!"^^

 ^^waving goodbye after putting out all the presents^^

 ^^that scene that parents dream about come Christmas time, all the presents are out, the kids are asleep, and the house is silent, just in anticipation for the morning. sooo dreamy"^^

that tree skirt has a funny story behind it, a few months ago some girlfriends and i got together to make tee-pee's for our kids, well, after cutting them out, painting them, and letting the paint dry, we came to realize that we had cut them out too small, and just wrong altogether. soo... i kept this material waiting in the bottom of Bayli's dress-up clothes, hoping for a magical idea to pop into my head to figure out what to do with it. well... when the time came to set up the tree, we were thinking about using the same ribbon "faux tree skirt" as we did last year, and the year before that. but, knowing that we have hardwood floors this year, and with Bayli and Baxter playing with the ribbon all day, everyday, it just seemed like a hassle because the ribbon would move around so much.
that's when the idea was born to turn our almost tee-pee into a tree skirt. i LOVE that the two triangles sorta look like a modern twist on a Christmas tree (even though they were intended to be Indian symbols), and i also love how over-sized it is, it kept alllllll the pine needles trapped on the skirt as they fell, and clean-up was so easy. needless to say, this random piece of material has found it's home. we are so excited to use it year after year.

Instructions:
buy a burlap painting sheet at lowes/home depot/etc, i think ours was 12.00
find the middle of the sheet, mark it.
measure from the middle of the sheet to the closest edge,if you want it to be as big as mine, if you want it smaller, just measure 1/2 of the total width you'd like your circle.
cut a piece of string the exact measurement from above.
use that string to make a "makeshift compass" by having someone place their finger on top of the string in the middle of the sheet, holding it tight. then, on the other end of the string, use a pen to mark where you will be cutting as you walk and draw along the sheet holding tight to your end of the string.
cut out the circle, and cut a small hole in the middle around the center mark you did earlier so that the tree trunk will fit inside.
if you're worried about frayed edges, serge or  hem the outside edge. i just folded mine under every few inches which gave it that octagon shape.
cut a triangle stencil (or any other stencil you prefer) out of plastic/cardboard/etc.
paint inside the stencil with black paint and a stencil circle sponge.
let it dry.