Category: Holidays

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Family Fun With A Bubble Machine

Bubbles, bubbles, everywhere! My kids love to play with bubbles. They just can’t seem to get enough of them. I love seeing their faces as they chase bubbles around or try to blow some bubbles of their own. One of our neighbors got a bubble machine at Musician’s Friend. The kids had so much fun when they brought it over and filled it up with bubbles.

Bubble machines are great because you don’t have to do any of the work of trying to blow the bubbles yourself. I love that I don’t have to keep dipping the bubble stick into a jar and repeatedly blow bubble after bubble. It’s like instant gratification. Turn the bubble machine on and you have tons of bubbles to chase to your hearts delight.

I’m thinking it would be lots of fun to get one of these bubble machines of our own for the kids for Christmas. It’s pretty close but it might not be too late. I’ll have to see if I can get one delivered with rush delivery if it isn’t too expensive. Seeing the smile on the faces of the kids from playing with the bubbles is worth every penny in my opinion.

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After Christmas Shopping Sales

It’s the day after Christmas and that means one thing to me, after Christmas shopping! I love to go out the day after Christmas and pick up decorations and things like gift wrap for bargain prices because everything has been severely discounted. I also grab some gifts that I think will be great to give throughout the year for friends, family, and teachers.  Usually there are amazing deals on gift sets because stores want to clear them out and make room for new inventory.

I plan to go to my local CVS and Walgreens to pick up the left over gift wrap and then I’ll head on over to Target and then to Wal-Mart. I always find the best deals on coffee mug sets and “smell good” sets as I like to call them. You know the baskets with lotion, body wash, and maybe a perfume.  There are always tons of these and you can pick them up for just a few dollars after Christmas and they usually don’t’ have any marking on them to indicate that they are Christmas sets. They are prefect gifts for any time of year.

I think I’ll head to Macy’s as well.  I’m excited to use the fantastic coupon they have for $10 off any $25 purchase.  I love coupons like that, especially when you can use them on heavily marked down Christmas items.

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When Do You Put Away Your Holiday Decorations?

Christmas is over but I like to leave the decorations up until at least Three Kings Day in January. Some times I’ll leave them up a little bit longer. I remember one time I left them up longer than I really should have because I truly enjoy sitting by the Christmas tree and gazing at the warm lights.

I did  take the decorations from outside down I just left the tree up past Valentine’s Day that year. I loved every bit of it though. Then, I realized that I should put it away in order to keep it special. Because if I left it up all year long, it would loose it’s special value of being a Christmas tree and turn into an every day house hold item in our home and that was not something I wanted.

I have already begun to put away some of the things I got while out shopping yesterday.  That’s one of my rules; if I buy new decorations on sale I can’t set them out until the next year. I did get a bunch of  cute things to set out for next year and I can’t wait for Christmas to be here all over again. I look forward to decorating the house every year, it’s just the putting everything away afterward that I don’t’ really like.

When do you put away all of your holiday decorations?

 

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Household Holiday Clean Up

I have less than a week before everyone arrives for Christmas.  We’re hosting Christmas at our house this year so I need to do my household holiday clean up.  That’s where I go and scrub every surface that a mother-in-law could complain about seeing dust, and make sure everything is put away in it’s place.

I need to steam clean all of the carpets and drapes. The kids seem to bring dirt in no matter how many times I have them wipe their feet or take off their shoes.  I don’t know how it gets in, it’s like they are dirt magnets. I plan to do that this afternoon and then take the kids out afterward so the carpet has a chance to dry.  Hopefully once it’s clean it can stay that way for at least another week or two while everyone is here.

I have most of the normal everyday cleaning done it’s just the things I only do on more of a monthly basis that still need to be done.  I need to change the sheets on the bed in the guest room.  I don’t remember when they were used last but fresh sheets are always nice to have.  I should probably also cull the magazine collection I have in that room as well. I don’t need a two and a half foot stack of magazines int here to collect dust.

What is your routine for your household holiday clean up?  I’d love to hear how you get through it and any tips or tricks you might have.

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Family Photo Books for Christmas

I was thinking it might be fun to get all of our relatives long lasting photo books of our family.  We could send them out instead of Christmas cards this year.  Our family is always pestering us for more photos.  One nice thick book might appease their appetites for a little while.  I’m looking at getting wholesale catalogs at zooprinting.com.

A nice glossy catalog of page upon page of the children and all of their silly shenanigans from the year is just what everyone needs.  They are nice and sturdy and will last awhile.  I bet I’ll even find them used as coffee table books at a few of my in-laws homes.  They absolutely love to share off their grandchildren to everyone that steps foot into their home.

We’ve made photo calendars in the past but I think these catalog style books will really stand out.  Plus, there will be more than just twelve pages of pictures in these. Now, the fun part is to gather all of our family photos and start putting it in order.  I’m soo glad I have saved all of our photos digitally. I don’t have to go digging through a bunch of boxes to find our photos.  They are all organized nicely on my computer in a file tilted, “Family Photos.”

 

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Countdown to Christmas Begins

Countdown to Christmas
image credit: Jamie in Bytown

The countdown to Christmas has already begun in our house.  The kids ask daily how many more days are left until Christmas is here.  I haven’t quite figured out a fun and creative way to count down the days with the kids.  Right now we are just marking off the days on our wall calendar.  It’s not that exciting and definitely not pretty.

Occasionally, I’ll feel crafty so I’ve decided to take a look around Pinterest to see what might be fun and not that hard to make.  The standard paper chain is my back up and I know I can manage to glue or staple a few strips of construction paper together.  No matter what idea we decide to go with, I just want it to be something that is fun for everyone.

What kinds of things do you do in your family to count down the days until Christmas? I’m open to suggestion and would love to hear from all of those crafty people out there that have ingenious ideas that I could never come up with on my own.  I promise I’ll share your ideas with other families that are clueless about what to do too, honest.

27 days before Christmas, let the countdown begin.

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What to do with Thanksgiving Leftovers

Thanksgiving Leftovers Turkey Sandwich
image credit: kthread

I recently did a post about ways to make over mac & cheese to turn it into something new and delicious by adding a few ingredients.  I found another gal that posted how she is going to turn her Thanksgiving leftovers into something new.  She is going to make Shepard’s Pie and some very yummy looking Buffalo Turkey Taquitos.  I can’t wait to try some of those recipes out myself.  I think my husband will really love the spicy buffalo turkey taquitos.  He loves all things hot and spicy so they really should be a big hit in our house.

I love Thanksgiving but, I don’t like to eat the same thing over and over and over after a big holiday meal. That is exactly what happens every year if I don’t put in some effort and get creative.  I hate to see all of the extra food go to waste after we all get sick and tired of eating the same meal over and over. Hopefully these new ideas will inspire me to try something new every year instead of having the standard turkey sandwich.

What do you do with your Thanksgiving leftovers?  I’d love to hear how you turn boring leftovers into something delicious so that none of your food goes to waste.

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Weekend Clean Up For The Holidays

image credit: libertgrace0

This weekend I’m spending time cleaning up the house in preparation for the holiday.  I can’t believe Thanksgiving is only a few days away. Before any big family gathering I like to do a big deep cleaning if time permits.  I hate to think about someone coming over to my house and leaning against the mantle and being covered in dust.

It brings images of the white glove check to mind. If a white glove can’t pass over the area and remain white then it isn’t clean.  That’s the principle I was raised on. I remember my mother and grandmother walking into my room after I told them I cleaned it to do a thorough check.  It was  always a scary thing and I hoped that I didn’t miss a spot.

Today I plan to tackle the dusting of every room, vacuuming, and  steam cleaning of the carpets. It sounds like a lot but it really isn’t when you break it up in to chunks throughout the day.  The longest part is waiting  for the carpets to dry after they are cleaned.  Once they are cleaned I just have to make sure that the kids, or anybody else for that matter, do not track dirt in all over them again before Thursday. It drives me nuts when that happens and I have to do it all over again.

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Saluting Our Veterans

Today my family salutes all of the veteran’s we have across our country.  We have veterans in our family and we always make sure to take time to thank them for serving our people and our country.  If it wasn’t for our veteran’s we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the freedoms we have every day.  Thank you to all of our veteran’s and their families and friends.

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What Happened to All of the Trick-or-Treaters?

This year was a bit disappointing with the trick-or-treaters for Halloween. Our family went all out decorating our house for the big day. We had lots of inviting decor both on the inside of our house and out.  We had friendly decorations, nothing spooky.  I didn’t want to scare any of the little kinds, not to mention our own kids.

In preparation for the big night I bought countless bags of candy.  Last year because I had an injury I stayed home to pass out the candy and had lots of fun and was really looking forward to doing it again this year.  Over a 5 hour period we might have had 20-30 kids visit out home.  I was utterly devastated.  I was really excited to see all of the kids in their costumes and have them tell me what they were if I wasn’t quite sure.  I did get to see a few creative costumes.  One little girl came as a Lipton Tea bag, and her sister was a bubble gum machine.  They really had truly original costumes.

I have way too much candy left over.  I don’t want to keep in my home because I know the kids will want to devour it all, or maybe I might.  We already limit the candy intake the kids have and it will just be an added temptation for them.  I’m going to do some searching to find something to do with all of this left over sugar I have laying around.  Oh I just remembered, the program about sending the candy to our troops.  That will be a great way to get rid of it and do something nice.