Christmas Fabrics

My mother-in-law and I have started an annual tradition of going to the fabric store a few days after Christmas to stock up on holiday fabrics while it is all on clearance. This year I decided that I am going to make Christmas table runners for the female relatives for next Christmas. I have a whole year to work on them and I would like to plan to complete them while I’m still in the Christmas spirit and while there is snow on the ground. My first purchase was for eight Christmas gifts (see picture on left, below). Then my mother-in-law reminded

Eating Through Christmas

We have been so blessed. Our little family enjoyed such a wonderful Christmas with extended family. We have been eating and visiting and eating. It’s been wonderful! Let me get back to the “eating” part. Again, very blessed to have people to visit with and food to eat. There does come a point, however, where the eating catches up and the pants get tight. After a week of basically sitting and talking and, yep, eating. I decided to find a quick workout that I did tonight (ahem, to make room for scalloped potatoes for dinner, ahem). It was 15 minutes total

Come A Little Closer, My Ultralock!

One week today and it’s Christmas Eve!!! I’m getting excited. The tree is up and we keep finding decorations to place around. I’m sure that there is a bin of decorations missing as we can’t find the Christmas hats and tomorrow is wear a Christmas hat day for the kids at their school. Thank goodness for 24 hour shops to quick up an inexpensive one (or two). Likely would have needed to buy new ones anyway as little heads have gotten bigger. Shopping is 95% done and wrapped. We’ll need to review the Christmas list tomorrow and go get those

Meet our elf, Carol Jingle

After much debate and price comparison I found and purchased an Elf on the Shelf. If you are unfamiliar with such a beast, this little elf works on the power of Christmas magic. Ours is a girl and she was just named Carol Jingle (Christmas Carol and Jingle Bells) that we also can shorten to C.J. (but I prefer Carol myself). At night she reports to Santa the nice and naughty parts of our day and then returns in the morning in a new place for the children to find her. The fun part is that they cannot touch her

Organizing Christmas Decorations

I have been very focused on my mission to declutter. I have cleared a whole lot of clutter from my home. I have been spending each week on a zone and have made significant progress on the house. Today I can even see a clear space in the play room where I was storing the Christmas bins. The bins have been purged, organized, and have found a home under the stairs with the other holiday bins. I think it could be shrunk from three to two bins but each Christmas will let me go through things further when we see

What to do with Christmas Cards After Christmas?

Jenae at I Can Teach My Child re-posted a great idea on what to do with your Christmas cards after the holiday season has passed. For each family that sent a card, keep them in a basket by the kitchen table and choose one family to pray for each day. Up until now we have been using the fronts of the cards as gift tags on gifts at the next year’s holiday but using them throughout the year is a great way to think of loved ones regularly. What do you do with old Christmas cards?

Getting Organized 2012

My post on organizing for the new year touched on two areas: finances and household management. On Friday I worked on organizing my tax information for last year. Last year I made the effort to note income and expenses at the end of each month. This gave me a more accurate picture of what we were actually spending and minimized the dreaded tax organizing I generally experience at the end of the year. I also had an ongoing estimate of what my taxes owing would be so I could put a savings plan into place and not be surprised at

Do You Use Santa and His Elves?

The kids were so hyper for a few weeks leading up to Christmas. We did threaten to call Santa a few times and then I came up with the brilliant idea that Santa and his elves do “spot checks” randomly throughout the day and we can’t see when they are peeking. But not toilet times, of course. Then we got caught up in all the “how do they check” questions and it got tiresome and questionable in answering them. Ha ha. Do you use Santa and his elves when your children are too excited to remember how to behave? Surely

Helping Others Have a Merry Christmas

Finally a feel-good story that echoes the pay-it-forward example. Any person could do this and make such a difference in someone else’s life any time either at Christmas or otherwise. Anonymous Donors Pay Off Kmart Layaway Accounts(click to get linked to the full story – I’ve checked it out. It’s a true link and a beautiful idea).

Black Friday

It’s Black Friday. The Canadian Thanksgiving was in October (which I am grateful for!) but with our American friends we do have some Black Friday sales. The frenzy really gets you excited about it – even if we don’t need anything and most of our holiday shopping is under control. Do you shop with Black Friday sales? What is the best deal you ever got?

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Christmas

Christmas Fabrics

Eating Through Christmas

Come A Little Closer, My Ultralock!

Meet our elf, Carol Jingle

Organizing Christmas Decorations

What to do with Christmas Cards After Christmas?

Getting Organized 2012

Do You Use Santa and His Elves?

Helping Others Have a Merry Christmas

Black Friday

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