oversized rustic Christmas star

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we broke out our Christmas stuff.

Yay!! On Saturday I put up the Christmas lights. Silly me didn't test them before putting them up because hey, they worked last year when we took them down, so why wouldn't they work now, right? Well, most of them don't work. So now I get to drag the ladder out and test each bulb one by one.

On Sunday we put up our Christmas tree and our special "symbols of Christ" Christmas ornaments that Jason's mom gave us the first year we were married. I sure love these ornaments! 

Yesterday afternoon the girls helped me test a recipe for cooking class--a little Christmas tree snack and project in one--and then we put up the rest of our Christmas decorations (we have a lot). We finished decorating our tree for Family Home Evening, while listening to the Chipmunks, just like we did when I was a kid.

Today I was hanging out on Pinterest when I saw this awesome giant star. I really loved it. I really had to have it.  But I am the cheapest person alive and I didn't even want to spend $5 on yardsticks. Plus Juno was asleep so I couldn't go to the store for any supplies and I didn't want to wait. I needed instant craft gratification.

Luckily, my neighbor's old wooden fence saved the day!

Are you sick of me using my neighbor's old wooden fence for craft projects? I've used it as my headboard in our new master bedroom, a window shade, and in my garage mud room. I'm almost out of it, so this is probably my last old wood fence project.

 I cut the boards down to about 3 1/2 feet and arranged them in a simple star shape. I overlapped the ends so that each point has a rounded end on top (instead of the straight edge that I cut). Then I screwed each point together. DONE in about 15 minutes!

It's a very big star. I put it on the mantle and wrapped Christmas lights around it. I really love it. Next year I might hang it outside the house on the chimney, still wrapped in lights.

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas?