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Do Christmas Advent Calendars sound overwhelming to you? Don’t let that keep you from trying this great family activity during the holidays because I have created and found some fun easy ideas for you.
Let me ease your mind concerning Advent Calendars by telling you that you can start (more…)
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This year, I got asked a few times, ‘Do your kids still believe in Santa?’ and received quite a few shocked looks to my answer. ‘They never believed.’ What? Why are you stealing the magic of Christmas? What about the wonder and joy of the season? What do you have against Santa?
I’m quite fond of Santa. Here’s how I explained it to my kids: he’s a fun figure who has evolved in our cultural and literary history. He embodies generosity toward children and encourages good behavior. He’s like Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder.
Believe in fairies and dragons and magic. I do with my heart and enjoy suspending reality for a time. Hear the silent bell ring on the polar express and believe. Enjoy the thought of elves making toys and the stories and lessons you can glean from them like we do from Mother Goose rhymes and other fables.
Then, mindful of the phone calls I’d get from parents if they spilled the beans in pre-school, I strongly encouraged them to go along with it. They were in on the secret, but they shouldn’t tell the other children or it would hurt their feelings.
Rob and I are far too logical, and chances were (and have since proven) our kids would be too. So I had a hard time justifying a ‘bait and switch’ for the season. Here’s how the coming out conversation would have gone. (more…)
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| Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
If you know me, you know I love a deal. I try to rarely purchase items unless they are on sale. When can you find some of the biggest sales of the year? Well, if you are shopping for Christmas merchandise, then the best time to do it is after Christmas.
Stores are anxious to unload this year’s Christmas decor, and this is where you can benefit greatly. But you don’t even have to wait until after Christmas to get the bargains. Saturday (1 week before Christmas Eve), we went to a home improvement store and saw all their Christmas decor was 50% off. There was still plenty of time to enjoy the items. We bought another strand of Christmas lights that we needed, some ornaments, and some decorations for our balcony. Even the live Christmas trees were 50% off, so if you hadn’t bought a tree yet, you could get quite the deal.
I usually find great deals on gift wrap at post-Christmas sales. I have never actually purchased gift wrap the same year we have used it. We always use gift wrap from last year’s clearance sales. Luckily no one notices that our gift wrap is so 2010! (more…)
We made our first batch of salt dough ornaments this week. It was a real trial and error event, but it was fun nonetheless. The kids had a blast, and they never noticed mommy’s gritted teeth or silent cursing.
The dough was easy to make:
The consistency was fine, I thought. However, as I tried to work with it, I realized it needed WAY MORE flour, so I added it as we went along. I put flour on the wax paper, and The Older was able to work pretty well with that. (more…)
We already have our family stockings hung up in our living room, but our family room mantle was looking rather bare. When I was roaming through the dollar store a few weeks ago, I came upon the perfect solution. Stockings! Yup, the dollar store sells these great cream colored stockings that are just begging to be jazzed up. And that is just what we did.
Supplies You Will Need:
“Hey, Mom! You know what I want for Christmas?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I do.”
“No, you know what I want for Christmas?”
“Yes, Bob. I’ve seen your list many times.”
“Mom, really. You know what I want for Christmas?”
“What, Bob?”
“All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth! Gotcha! I heard that on the radio, Mom.”
This week, I was perusing the internet in search of some new and fun fine motor activities to do with my daughter when I found this cool clothespin activity at Preschool Printables..and another one at Story Time Standouts and then I found these ADORABLE clothespin reindeer on 2 Teaching Mommies…so I decided to combine the three and make my own clothespin wheel activities with a Christmas theme!
These fine motor clothespin wheels can target the following:
Christmas Letter Match Up
Reindeer Food Counting & Reindeer Color Matching
Directions:
We had a great time with these. I hope to do them often leading up to Christmas. I could tell it was a good fine motor activity when my daughter told me her fingers were “too small to do it” (her way of saying tired/hurting) after a while!
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| Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Christmas is such a joyful time of year, but many people end up in debt because they spend more than they can afford on gifts. I have been trying to focus more on the meaning of Christmas and less on the aspects that don’t really matter. I still struggle with this, but have been striving over the past few weeks to have a more simple Christmas season.
Spend Less Money, Spend More Time
If money is tight, or if you are just a saver like me, you need to make some tweaks to how you celebrate. I completed most of the Christmas shopping for my kids in September. My local twins club had a used clothing and equipment sale, and I took advantage of that to pick up toys and books to give to the kids for Christmas. I spent less than $70 and was able to get all the presents for my three girls. They are still young and will have no idea that the toys are used. I bought items that were in great condition and some still in the original packaging. I know they are going to love getting their “new” toys. (more…)
The noose of the holidays squeezed ever more tightly around me last night when, exhausted on the couch, I realized that today was Kellan’s last day of preschool before winter break AND the day of his holiday party. Their party included a visit from Santa, so it was suggested that parents arrive and park by 8:45, which for me is the equivalent of saying I have to be on a space shuttle at 4:00 a.m. Mornings are not my strong suit.
Even though I should have put together the teacher presents, packed Kellan’s school bag, and basically gotten us ready for an early morning, LAST night, I opted to heavy-eye-blink my way through “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” instead. Somehow, watching other people’s breakdowns prevents me from having my own.
Needless to say, this morning was the disastrous rush I’d predicted, but I managed to screech into the parking lot with time to spare and Larissa in tow. In the parking lot was this baby:
Materials:
