Christmas Traditions

Ok, I'm curious to see if anyone has any comments to leave regarding this topic. What are your Christmas traditions?

We don't have a ton of traditions (and probably nothing unheard of to you), but I can list a few.

1. Christmas advent mittens. I purchased 24 handmade mittens one year (via eBay and at about $2 apiece) and now we hang them in a row and the kids get to dig out their goodies each day in December. It used to hang up the bannister in the front foyer, but since we rearranged the living room, I found space on a wall. Since a mitten allows a little more room than standard pockets, I can put in candy-canes, bouncy balls, silly toys and sometimes a note (which leads them to another place to find bigger prizes). Always under $1 each, though... it adds up with 3 kids!

2. Opening one gift on Xmas eve... and they are ALWAYS pajamas. I try to get matching pajamas and different kinds each year... but that's not always possible. This year it's all red print from Children's Place. This photo is from 2005, right after the Christmas Eve service.

3. Picture at the top of the stairs. On Christmas Morning, no child is permitted downstairs until Mommy and Daddy are down there. We have the kids pose at the top of the stairs every year... then we also take pictures as they approach the gift room. This was last year's picture... Disney pajamas.

4. Buying gifts. The older two kids earn $3 a week allowance. One dollar goes to church or some other charity. One dollar goes in their wallet for spending as they wish. One dollar goes into the savings account we opened for each kid. So, potentially, at the end of the year, each kid has $50+ in his/her account. We pull some of that out and allow each to choose a gift for each person in the family and for grandparents.

5. Opening one book each day. I wrap up 24 books before December. Each day, the kids choose one book to open, and we read it to them before bed. All of the books are Christmasy... whether it's the story of Jesus or about Santa or about other countries' traditions. Each year I usually buy one or two new ones to add to the pile and just don't wrap the least-favorites. I have a whole plastic bin dedicated to Christmas books, coloring books, and kid toys.

6. Christmas Eve Service. We always attend the candlelight service at our church... usually at the earlier service... got to get to bed early for Santa's arrival.

7. Separate Gift Wrap. Each child's gifts are wrapped in a different wrapping paper. I'm not sure they've ever caught on... but Ben's are always wrapped in snowman paper; Reagan's are always in angel paper (which isn't easy to find!); and Tommy's are always wrapped in Santa paper.

8. Baking, seeing Christmas lights, visiting Santa at the mall, watching Christmas shows, decorating the trees (one for our favorite ornaments, one to look pretty and match the front room), decorating the outside, sending "homemade" or picture Christmas cards, and much, much more, I'm sure... but these are all standard Christmas traditions that most people do.

Do you have any cool traditions to pass on? The pickle in the tree? A treasure hunt? Breakfast with Santa? I'm always looking for neat ideas.

Now can you see why we start before Thanksgiving?

Decorating almost done... whoops!

Mike threatened to tell everyone this anyway, so I'll go ahead and admit it....

I went against my word. I did it. I decorated for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving. On Monday we pulled out the two trees (one new one in the backroom and the original in the front room). My reasoning... get it done with since we aren't going to be home till Sunday. This way I no longer have to worry about it, right?

I was good though. I did NOT decorate outdoors yet, and I kept the blinds closed near the trees (hiding the evidence). Of course, our huge picture window at the foyer showed the world our garland up the staircase... but I didn't light it yet!

Ok... I'm as bad as the kids when it comes to Christmas. I get just as excited and can't contain it all within just one month of the year. I've been listening to the local radio station who started playing non-stop Christmas last week.... I bought the kids a 7-show DVD pack of Christmas favorites which we've now watched twice... I'm about 75% done with shopping. But, now I get to sit back and enjoy the season. :-)

As for baking... nope! Haven't started that.

Dude!

Tommy hasn't quite gotten the hang of "nicknames" and such. Anytime I end my request to him with "Baby" or "Buddy" or some such silly name, he always corrects me. "I'm no Baby... I'm Tommy!"

Lately, we've been teasing him with "Dude"... as in "Hey Dude", "What's up Dude?", etc. He always says, "I'm no dude." Now that we're visiting my parents, my dad has joined in. He calls him Dude a lot, too. Well, now Tommy is confused. (Aren't little kids fun to mess with?) Anyway, yesterday the switch began. After calling him Dude, Tommy promptly turned to my dad and said, "I'm a GREEN Dude" (he was wearing a green sweater.) Then later I asked him what his name was. He responded, "Dude". Poor kid... thinks we changed his name.

All invited!

Apparently my littlest son, who is speaking well 50% of the time, has learned to communicate just fine. Mike and I went to the preschool "Thanksgiving dinner" today. It was cute. Our class were indians and had names (Tommy was Chief Flying Eagle). The other class were the pilgrims. We were also pleasantly surprised to see that Tommy enjoyed much of a typical Thanksgiving meal. I think in another year or two, he will give us no problems regarding food (unlike the other two).

Tommy spied O-WI-BIA (Olivia) at the next table, and the two giggled while going to talk to each other. According to the teachers, they have their first crushes! Tommy will hold her hand all day... he'll even move his blanket just to lay next to her. How cute! Two little blondies!

Anyway, as we started talking to Olivia's mom and other surrounding people, we've come to learn that all of the kids have been invited to our house numerous times by Tommy. Even so much as telling their own parents that he/she is coming to Tommy's house. It's a normal occurrence in that room.

I guess we'll just have to have a big ol' party one day and get it all done at once. LOL 14 3-year olds!

Lost Tooth

Yesterday, I was driving Ben to taekwondo (and had all three kids with me). We weren't a mile from the house when I had to yell back to settle down and keep their voices down. A very short time later, I heard a few "whomp" sounds. Then crying. Reagan was crying hard. I said, "What's wrong?" She said Ben pulled her tooth out. By the sounds of it, I immediately thought a permanent tooth came out... what else could be that painful? I took a quick glance over my shoulder to see blood all over her mouth and chin. Since I couldn't pull over, I had her grab a tissue and bite down on it. I eventually got the story out of her that it was a front tooth (which was expected to come out soon). Then it dawned on me. Her brother Ben was BEHIND her in the minivan, which has captain's chairs. How on earth did he pull out her tooth???

Here's the story: I guess he took the squishy micro-bead neck-roll pillow, smacked it over the back of her chair and hit her head/face. She then bit it to keep him from getting it back. And wah-lah... tooth comes out!

Apparently the tooth went flying... we haven't found it. But, fortunately the tooth fairy is very understanding. A nicely written note sufficed for the tooth and brought money anyway.

Where do YOU shop?

My mind has been abuzz with Christmas lately. Yes, it's still 46 days away, but if I don't get most of the shopping and card-writing done before Thanksgiving, I'll feel rushed in the end. (Yes, I am definitely Type A.) No, I won't be decorating till after Thanksgiving.


Anyway, I thought I'd share a few of the neat places to get kids' gifts. I usually save a couple of gifts till last-minute buying, since we all know that the kids' lists will change by mid-December. In fact I'm going to try to take them to see Santa as soon as we can so that I don't have to have the guilty feeling when they tell Santa something later that I know I didn't get. Granted Target and ToysRUs and Amazon carry most of the popular items, so much of my shopping is done there. (I've already received about 4 boxes from Amazon so far... and gotten 2 subscriptions to Cookie magazine for spending so much on Toys... LOL)


But I receive a million catalogs in the mail at this time of year and love looking for those unusual toys and gifts. Y'know? In fact I tried freecycling my current stack of 50+ catalogs, but for some reason no one really wanted my junk mail! HA HA HA.


Anyway, I thought I'd share my favorite children's catalogs with you (all have online stores). My mom, mother-in-law and I all combined orders to save on shipping costs.

www.constplay.com Constructive Playthings... this is neat for the littler crowd especially. We picked up several toys for Tommy, including a Lift-off Rocket, EZ Build and Play drill set, Firefighters set, and Jumbo Jet set. All neat little playsets that a busy little imaginative boy would love.

www.highlights.com Highlights Toy Catalog... I didn't buy from them this year, but we particularly love their Hidden Pictures sets. It's the Hidden Pictures known from their magazines... all rolled into a few activity books. Great on-the-road activity.

www.mindwareonline.com Mindware... I LOVE this catalog. They have some of the coolest thinking toys and books around. We've bought some of the activity books every year... this year it was a logic-puzzle book for Ben since he's quickly becoming my math-minded boy (yay... I was a math major...he got some of my genes). I think we own a dozen or more of the games they offer. Great for providing fun toys and games and books... while making your kids think!

www.hearthsong.com Hearthsong... another great feel-good catalog. Most of the toys encourage imaginative play or creating things (crafts and such). I don't think we bought anything this year, but I wish we could afford to! Love their domino race set... maybe next year.

www.learningresources.com Learning Resources... this is, I believe, geared toward teachers like preschool or daycare. However there are many things in here that I love! They have many hard-to-find items that are just adorable. They have a series of items called Smart Snacks that allow kids to play with food-items while also learning colors, numbers, shapes, etc. Another cool item is the Gears, Gears, Gears toy. Our youngest is getting some of these.

www.ttgo.com Toys to Grow On... another great resource for fun, educational toys. We've bought from them in the past.

www.magiccabin.com Magic Cabin... We haven't bought from here yet, but I wish we could. Had I seen it years ago, I would've gotten their Birthday Ring... what a neat idea to pull out for each birthday. Lots of puppets and pretend-play items.

www.chinaberry.com Chinaberry... a new find. (Can you tell what appealed to me at first... the name.) I love looking through this catalog. I've so far found some really neat ideas in here. Ever heard of mandalas? I hadn't. They are decorative patterned circles... you can find ones to color in and then use as a gift or hang them up. I found some great little mandala-designing kits. For my creative, coloring daughter, this is perfect. She can make her own decorative circles and then color them.

www.lillyskids.com Lilly's Kids (Lillian Vernon) Who can resist this catalog? Looking to find some adorable personalized toys/gear? This is the place. Personalization is free. We've gotten tote bags and suitcases before. Their battery-operated pencil sharpeners are fantastic. I wouldn't give to little kids since their safety-catch can easily be tampered with... but it's really powerful and can be used anywhere. (We have 2 of these in our house.) Their beanbag chairs are really nice too. Each of our kids owns one now. Much cheaper than what you'd find at Pottery Barn or similar stores.

I know there are tons more catalogs that arrive each day... Spillsbury, Bits and Pieces, Young Explorers, and more. But we can only purchase so many things. What I like to do is give these catalogs to the kids to circle their favorites. Then after Mike and I decide what to get, I look on Amazon or cheaper places first. Sometimes you'll find that these items are found in many other places... sometimes the items are exclusive to a particular catalog or are just very hard to find. If I can get them on Amazon for much cheaper (w/free shipping sometimes), I go there. But I also like to help out the smaller companies and keep them in business. They are, after all, the ones that show me what's out there... and they have some of the cutest catalogs!

If you have any other WONDERFUL catalogs that you find cool items in, please share! Let me know. If I can prevent myself from going out in the crowds at Christmastime, all the better.

Super-easy S'mores

I was just catching up on some Brownie stuff, when I remembered our first meeting. We made s'mores. Okay... not by the campfire, but via a S'mores maker. Good enough! Everyone loved it (except my daughter, who somehow caught her marshmallow on fire!)

At home I make s'mores all the time... s'mores ala microwave! You may not get the crusty, brown marshmallows, but you get them melted nonetheless.

Take graham crackers and break in half (2 sections per piece). Place one half on a plate, set some chocolate on that (half of a Hershey's snack-size bar works), then set a full-size marshmallow on top. Place in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds or so. Watch carefully. The marshmallow will begin to grow. It can get as wide as the cracker itself, and just as tall. Once it gets that large, stop the microwave. Grab the other half of the graham cracker, and squish the marshmallow down. It'll ooze around, but that's half the fun... a sticky and gooey mess!

If I get the marshmallow fairly large before squishing, I then wrap the excess around and around the cracker (while making my hands a sticky mess). The thin stringy parts of the marshmallow become a bit crispy after being expanded and stretched, once it cools a little. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Happy Halloween!

We had another great, exhausting Halloween this year. Before 7pm, we had our first trick-or-treaters. As I was pulling Reagan's hair into a ponytail, I watched the local high school approach my door. Ok... not the entire school, but it certainly seemed like the line of treaters wasn't going to end. After a few quick photos, we sent our kids on their way with Daddy. Here are some photos of our little characters.

Can you guess what Ben was? Uncle Pennybags! (Better known as Mr. Monopoly.) This was my thrifty, pulled-together costume: $1 hat, $3 cane, $4 thrift-store blazer, $2 fake-fur cut-out moustache, free "green house" box, and free red ribbon bowtie. Unfortunately he didn't own black pants before the costume, so I had to run out and buy him some. But at least I take comfort in the fact that he'll be able to use them for another year or so for church, etc.

Reagan was a 50's teeny-bopper, poodle-skirt girl. Her costume was fairly cheap too. I bought the scarf, and the skirt was an eBay find. I did blow some money on "poodle socks" from the costume store, but they were just too cute. The shoes were thrift store $2 finds, thanks to Nana.

Tommy's costume was a cheapie Target costume, but we couldn't resist. He's newest obsession (besides school buses and tractors) is fire engines. So, how could we pass up the fireman costume! Lucky guy that he was, he got to wear it three days in a row: skate night, preschool fall-festival, and Halloween! Somehow it hasn't ripped yet! So, it's ready for playtime!

The kids lasted one and a half hours and came home. Even after returning, Tommy went out for a few more homes. So they are well-stocked with candy! I went out the next day and bought three tall plastic containers, labeled them with kid's names, and let each kid keep 50 pieces each. The rest (of the chocolate) went into a plastic bag for the freezer for future use, and the rest of the junky stuff went in the garbage. I'm sure I could've found a more useful resting place, but Mommy really didn't need calories sitting around. So out they went. Now the kids are allowed one (or two) pieces a day. When it's gone, it's gone.

The Monday before Halloween, we all sat down to carve some pumpkins. Here are our creations. Reagan chose the bat design for Daddy to carve; Ben chose the ghost design for Mommy to carve; Tommy chose the silly parts to make a monster; and Mommy made the goofy one with ears and a nose (made from a little pumpkin). These were cute, but my favorites are still our pumpkins from a few years ago. Can you tell who they were?

Ernie and Bert!

Graphic Artist?

For those that know me, you know I love to be creative. Whether it's with silly crafts, entertaining, decorating, scrapbooking or graphic design. A couple of years ago, my friend Amy noticed the invitations I made for my kids' birthday party and encouraged me to try selling them. I dabbled in that for awhile, and then she hired me to do graphic design for the events company she worked for. I purchased the software I needed and went to work. Although I had a blast, I found it tough to work on such strict time schedules while still being available for my kids. I also didn't have quite the specific knowledge to do some of the things they wanted. It became frustrating, and I had to quit.

But that doesn't mean I don't love to do graphic design work! I used to handmake all of my Christmas cards until one year I went a little bonkers... I lost my mind. My Christmas card in 2005... I made over 110 of these cards. First, getting the kids to pose perfectly; then printing out photos and cutting; then piecing the paper together, folding perfectly; signing each card; making the Top Ten list and printing them out; then punching holes, tying ribbon, and stamping the front; then addressing 110 envelopes and mailing. And yes, my Type A/compulsive/anal-retentive/whatever personality came out... they were mailed the day before Thanksgiving and arrived on Black Friday. After being commended and teased simultaneously by a few friends, I realized I really didn't have to outdo myself every year.

So, last year I figured out a way to design our card (on the computer, not cutting and pasting) and had them professionally printed. Still cool, yet much easier and less time-consuming. I did the same thing this year (front and inside are to the right). I'm considering offering my services to design others' cards as well. (My old card business ended last year when my printer died, and I was too busy to worry about replacing it.) Technology has improved so much to allow us to create our own cards using kids' artwork, photos and more... why not? Rather than signing a hundred cards and printing out "Christmas letters" and kids' photos to stuff in the envelopes, I incorporate it all into my cards. My family-year-in-review, kids' photos, well wishes, and even a piece of artwork are all included in one printed card. I can also make invitations, thank-you cards and more. This year, I'm stuffing the kids' stockings with ready-to-go thank you cards (oh, I know... they'll be so thrilled). Here is an example of what I made. If you are interested in learning more about how I can design your card, email me...