Visiting Christmas Tree Lane

When we were staying at my parents' house I found out that Hallmark was filming a Christmas movie in the next town over, about ten minutes from their house. So, Maddie and I jumped in the car to go check it out. They were mostly done filming so some of the sets were coming down, but we were able to walk around freely looking at everything. 

We loved looking in the windows of this "shop". Then the owner came by and saw us. She said since there was no one else around she would let us in.

 It was so cute inside and so much fun to be able to do that. I was hoping to love the movie after hanging out on the set, but... alas, it wasn't a favorite. Still, we were glad we got to do this!

Christmas in July

 The girls and I decided that Christmas in June makes more sense because it is actually halfway there, but Christmas in July does sound better... so we decided to celebrate it with my parents this year. 

We have a tradition of Christmas Eve books, so I gave the girls each a new book the night before we were going to celebrate.

My mom and I had talked about just watching a Christmas movie and having some treats, but both of us got sneaky and bought some gifts-without knowing the other had done it!

I made this little tree and taped it up to the entertainment center with the gifts under it. 

That was when I saw that my mom had put out a little tree with gifts too. So funny!

Everyone was surprised the next morning!

I got the girls some Pokemon gifts. They were pretty excited.

Doug enjoys the show Murder she Wrote, and we joke about him having a crush on Angela Lansbury... so when I saw that they had made a Jessica Fletcher Funko pop, I had to get it for him!

For my dad, we got some of his favorite candy...

And I thought of my mom when I saw this notebook, so I picked it up for her.

My mom made waffles with apple pie filling on top for breakfast...

She also made my favorite Christmas treat- nut clusters

I saved one Cranberry Ginger ale from last Christmas season, so we enjoyed that with our hoagies for lunch. 

My mom also made some yummy festive popcorn, and we watched a Hallmark movie.

It was a really fun day!