I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and all the food your tummies could handle! The Thanksgiving Holiday weekend is coming to an end and Christmas is on its way here! So, just in time for sending out those Holiday cards I have a giveaway for you. Actually, not me, but I'm providing you with the link to a GREAT giveaway that is sure to be something you all could use! One of my long time friends that I grew up with from grade school (We were girl scouts together too! "On my Honor!" hehehe) has her very own blog and its filled with lots of fun pictures, stories, and other fun stuff almost all about DISNEY! You can check her out at Domestically Hip. Could it be any better really?! Her photos are great and I just love learning so much about Disney and all the fun things to see and do for our up and coming trip in the spring by all the fun stuff she posts! This giveaway is for a code to redeem for FREE Holiday picture cards from Shutterfly and a FREE Calender! Yes, FREE! All you have to do to win is this:
1. Follow my Blog and Twitter :) <----This is not part of the contest, but any help I can get the better :)
2. Go to HERE to find out the rules of the contest.
Its that simple! Good Luck to all!! Hope everyone is able to recover from their food comas just in time to get back to normal on Monday!! Happy Holidays everyone!!
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Organizing for the Holidays!
Hello Blogger World!! How have y'all been?! I have obviously been a lazy bum, and not just in blogging but also in everything I had planned for this Monday. I woke up this morning so refreshed and motivated to get so many things done today and I have yet to fully mark anything off the good old "to-do" list. Last week my great friend Nicki and I attended our very first Kick Boxing class. We loved it so much and were going to attend it again this morning. Her poor Grandfather has been very sick for quite sometime and recently had surgery so she has been helping a lot with her Grandmother to take care of him. I feel so sad for her family and all they are going through and know how their hearts must be breaking to watch someone they love be this ill. So, understandably so, she was unable to attend with me this morning in helping take care of him over the night last night. So, instead of just going to the class anyways....I decided a trip to the McDonald's drive through made much more perfect sense....right?! Ofcourse it does! Its Monday after all, which normally in our house don't start of to well.
Most of my morning was spent catching up on morning TV and enjoying the best tasting biscuit Ive had....well, at least since the last one I had just a few days ago. Hey, I'm a SAHM and a full time student and I work hard to keep things rollin in this house.....don't judge me! ;)
Anyways, I have been preparing our house most of the weekend for the up and coming holidays and thought I would share some of the things I do around our house to get our home, minds, budgets, and even bodies in order so that we aren't all running around the house like crazy when Thanksgiving and Christmas are here. Here are my MUST do's that seem to take a little stress off my back around the holidays and hopefully they can bring some sanity to your home as well :).
1. The VERY first thing I do, around the week or so before Thanksgiving, is to give my house a complete scrub down. We are talking every nook and cranny here people. Trust me, you will be glad you did this. With all the evens and festivities that go on around the holidays, many late nights out shopping, family and friends who visit, holiday parties, etc... there isn't much time (at least not time you want to spend) to spend cleaning your home inside and out. If you take this time to deep clean your home now, maybe even get rid of some clutter, then really the only type of cleaning you have to worry about until the New Year is just light cleaning and picking up.
2. Update your Household manual, if you have one. I usually only worry about "updating" my Christmas section since this is the main area of focus for this time of year. Here is a great website for Household Manual Printables and the ones you should really get for the holidays are here. There are a TON of Christmas stuff that you never would have thought that could help you so much, but they have me for the last couple of years! Plus, if your anything like me, then you start purchasing Christmas gifts around July/August and then start to forget what you have as they start piling up in the closet. This way, you can keep things organized, know who you purchased for and how much you've spent and so on.
3. Schedule your Christmas family portrait NOW! In our house, Daddy Holmes isnt to fond of having his picutre taken, so its a little easier for us to plan pretty much just around Gracie. She is usually the focus of our Christmas Card theme and usually I just set up a cute display/back drop and then snap some shots myself. But, if you like to feature your entire family in the photo, then NOW is the time to set those things up. Depending on who you want in the photograph and who you want to take the pictures will all be important factors in trying to decide when you need to have this done. Plus, if you have them done now you wont have a bunch of people outside in the freezing cold trying to smile for a photo.
4. Take some time for yourself. The craziness of the Holidays tend to leave a little less time for self improvement then what we would all like. We spend so much time worrying and helping others that we forget its important to thing about ourselves as well. Make a few extra trips to the gym. Force your self to go when you would otherwise be more likely to go through the McDonald's drive through instead of just going to that Kickboxing class.....take this example from myself lol. Not that it will make any difference whether you focus on losing any weight or what ever your normal fitness goals are, but it will really help you to keep your metabolism going and maybe help burn those calories from the extra cookie or ten you decide to eat during holiday festivities ;). Did I say ten....is that just me who eats like a cow during the holidays?! I digress....
On a side note, working out always gives us energy and I always feel happier when I am working out alot. That's something we all could use a little extra of during all the hustle and bustle of the holidays. In our family, I am the one who cooks the big turkey dinners, so I need all the energy and happiness I can get to stay awake to cook and keep from killing other family members. Did I just say that out loud?! ;)
5. Write your holiday dinner lists and budget now. There are TONS of couponing deals to be had and if you start now its not to late to snag some free or really cheap stuff for your holiday dinners! I think the lowest price so far I have seen for Turkey's was at Walmart for $.89/lb. That's a great deal, cheaper then I paid at $.99/lb just last week. If you are like me and you started stockpiling stuff for the holiday meals about a month ago then you should have some great baking items in your pantry. Remember they start putting out Holiday baking items and sales for these items with corresponding coupons start coming out in the beginning of October. You just gotta PLAN AHEAD! You will be happy you did!
6. Lights! If you put outside Christmas lights on your house now is a great time to do that as well. Since the whether is much warmer now then it will be in only a few weeks you will save your self alot of holiday turmoil. Its only a couple weeks early if you do it now so it wont look tacky and you don't have to worry about turning them on until Dec.1st or if your an early bird, Black Friday. You will be so happy you did it early in the warmer weather, trust me!
7. Start planning your Black Friday deals NOW! There are many sites that have listed the Black Friday adds and most stores, Target, Walmart, Best Buy etc. have listed them on their sites so you can start getting your game plan for your Black Friday shopping now instead of waiting for the paper to come out. My coupon friends and I are all teaming up to go shopping together and have been working hard to plan our shopping trip for the last couple of weeks now. We also attended a Black Friday workshop and learned many great tricks to the Black Friday shopping. Point is, you can start planning now and be way ahead of the game! It will pay off to be ahead of the game.
8. Go through your children's toys. This sort of goes along with getting your house deep cleaned, but honestly, its such a dreaded thing in my house that it deserves its own category. Every year, whether its Birthday or Holiday, our daughter Gracie gets WAAAAAAYYYY to many toys. I always tell everyone to get her anything but toys and yet she seems to get twice as much as she did the year before. We have a decent sized home, but if I kept everything she got each year we would be living out in the garage because her toys would have consumed our entire living area. I know you know what I'm talking about. I think its a rule that grandparents must buy out Toys-R-Us and Walmarts toy department every year, its crazy. So, in order to have an organized place for the new toys to have a home, you need to get rid of some old. Now, as much as I LOVE getting rid of things, I just cant bring myself to do this part behind Gracie's back. Yes, she is young enough that I could just toss her stuff and she would never know the difference, but there are a couple reasons why I think its important to have her involved. One reason being that she has so much stuff that she even forgets what she has. Its important to remind her about the toys she has and encourages her to want to play with them again when they have been up high on the shelf for so long, out of sight out of mind. Also, its important that she helps in deciding what to keep and what to toss/donate. It lets her know that its okay to get rid of toys and donate them to the less fortunate and it feels like its more her choice to get rid of them then it is of "mommy is taking them away" sort of thing. Plus, telling her that new ones will be coming sorta helps the process move a little quicker. I don't like to get rid of ALL the toys, however. Some of her toys, the ones she still likes but still doesn't play with as often, usually make it to her Nini's house or to her Aunt's house. That way she has "newer" updated toys to play with when she visits family for the night. It makes her happy to see toys she is familiar with and they don't just go completely waisted.
9. Take the time to google Holiday events going on in your area. There are all kinds of fun things to do starting on Nov.25th going through to New Years. Everything from ice skating, light displays, church events, snow tubing, Christmas plays and concerts, you name it. If you take the time to find out whats going on now, you can work those things into your budget and schedule now instead of learning last minute about the fun things you might not get to otherwise do because of funds or time. Some of these things also require you purchase tickets in advance so now is the time to start thinking about what things you want to do with your family in the month of December.
10. For something fun, check out this website Elfyourself, its a fun way to get you in the spirit, make you laugh, and you can share it with family and friends. Just remember your free viewing of your videos that you make expire around Christmas day, if I remember correctly. Its so funny and will make you crack up time and time again!!
11. Now that your house is in order, your Christmas list is made and you wait for the time to decorate your home with your family, take this time to relax, pop on a Christmas classic movie, and enjoy some hot chocolate. I cant believe that the Holidays are here already but I'm so happy that Ive learned this things over the years to help me plan a little early so that I will be able to truly enjoy spending more time with my family and friends instead of worrying about what needs to be done.
I hope you find these tipshese tips bring you a little peace over the next couple of weeks. Only 40 days 9 hours until Christmas!! What ways do you prepare for the holidays??! Id love to hear any ideas that you find important to getting things ready for the busiest time of the year!
Most of my morning was spent catching up on morning TV and enjoying the best tasting biscuit Ive had....well, at least since the last one I had just a few days ago. Hey, I'm a SAHM and a full time student and I work hard to keep things rollin in this house.....don't judge me! ;)
Anyways, I have been preparing our house most of the weekend for the up and coming holidays and thought I would share some of the things I do around our house to get our home, minds, budgets, and even bodies in order so that we aren't all running around the house like crazy when Thanksgiving and Christmas are here. Here are my MUST do's that seem to take a little stress off my back around the holidays and hopefully they can bring some sanity to your home as well :).
1. The VERY first thing I do, around the week or so before Thanksgiving, is to give my house a complete scrub down. We are talking every nook and cranny here people. Trust me, you will be glad you did this. With all the evens and festivities that go on around the holidays, many late nights out shopping, family and friends who visit, holiday parties, etc... there isn't much time (at least not time you want to spend) to spend cleaning your home inside and out. If you take this time to deep clean your home now, maybe even get rid of some clutter, then really the only type of cleaning you have to worry about until the New Year is just light cleaning and picking up.
2. Update your Household manual, if you have one. I usually only worry about "updating" my Christmas section since this is the main area of focus for this time of year. Here is a great website for Household Manual Printables and the ones you should really get for the holidays are here. There are a TON of Christmas stuff that you never would have thought that could help you so much, but they have me for the last couple of years! Plus, if your anything like me, then you start purchasing Christmas gifts around July/August and then start to forget what you have as they start piling up in the closet. This way, you can keep things organized, know who you purchased for and how much you've spent and so on.
3. Schedule your Christmas family portrait NOW! In our house, Daddy Holmes isnt to fond of having his picutre taken, so its a little easier for us to plan pretty much just around Gracie. She is usually the focus of our Christmas Card theme and usually I just set up a cute display/back drop and then snap some shots myself. But, if you like to feature your entire family in the photo, then NOW is the time to set those things up. Depending on who you want in the photograph and who you want to take the pictures will all be important factors in trying to decide when you need to have this done. Plus, if you have them done now you wont have a bunch of people outside in the freezing cold trying to smile for a photo.
4. Take some time for yourself. The craziness of the Holidays tend to leave a little less time for self improvement then what we would all like. We spend so much time worrying and helping others that we forget its important to thing about ourselves as well. Make a few extra trips to the gym. Force your self to go when you would otherwise be more likely to go through the McDonald's drive through instead of just going to that Kickboxing class.....take this example from myself lol. Not that it will make any difference whether you focus on losing any weight or what ever your normal fitness goals are, but it will really help you to keep your metabolism going and maybe help burn those calories from the extra cookie or ten you decide to eat during holiday festivities ;). Did I say ten....is that just me who eats like a cow during the holidays?! I digress....
On a side note, working out always gives us energy and I always feel happier when I am working out alot. That's something we all could use a little extra of during all the hustle and bustle of the holidays. In our family, I am the one who cooks the big turkey dinners, so I need all the energy and happiness I can get to stay awake to cook and keep from killing other family members. Did I just say that out loud?! ;)
5. Write your holiday dinner lists and budget now. There are TONS of couponing deals to be had and if you start now its not to late to snag some free or really cheap stuff for your holiday dinners! I think the lowest price so far I have seen for Turkey's was at Walmart for $.89/lb. That's a great deal, cheaper then I paid at $.99/lb just last week. If you are like me and you started stockpiling stuff for the holiday meals about a month ago then you should have some great baking items in your pantry. Remember they start putting out Holiday baking items and sales for these items with corresponding coupons start coming out in the beginning of October. You just gotta PLAN AHEAD! You will be happy you did!
6. Lights! If you put outside Christmas lights on your house now is a great time to do that as well. Since the whether is much warmer now then it will be in only a few weeks you will save your self alot of holiday turmoil. Its only a couple weeks early if you do it now so it wont look tacky and you don't have to worry about turning them on until Dec.1st or if your an early bird, Black Friday. You will be so happy you did it early in the warmer weather, trust me!
7. Start planning your Black Friday deals NOW! There are many sites that have listed the Black Friday adds and most stores, Target, Walmart, Best Buy etc. have listed them on their sites so you can start getting your game plan for your Black Friday shopping now instead of waiting for the paper to come out. My coupon friends and I are all teaming up to go shopping together and have been working hard to plan our shopping trip for the last couple of weeks now. We also attended a Black Friday workshop and learned many great tricks to the Black Friday shopping. Point is, you can start planning now and be way ahead of the game! It will pay off to be ahead of the game.
8. Go through your children's toys. This sort of goes along with getting your house deep cleaned, but honestly, its such a dreaded thing in my house that it deserves its own category. Every year, whether its Birthday or Holiday, our daughter Gracie gets WAAAAAAYYYY to many toys. I always tell everyone to get her anything but toys and yet she seems to get twice as much as she did the year before. We have a decent sized home, but if I kept everything she got each year we would be living out in the garage because her toys would have consumed our entire living area. I know you know what I'm talking about. I think its a rule that grandparents must buy out Toys-R-Us and Walmarts toy department every year, its crazy. So, in order to have an organized place for the new toys to have a home, you need to get rid of some old. Now, as much as I LOVE getting rid of things, I just cant bring myself to do this part behind Gracie's back. Yes, she is young enough that I could just toss her stuff and she would never know the difference, but there are a couple reasons why I think its important to have her involved. One reason being that she has so much stuff that she even forgets what she has. Its important to remind her about the toys she has and encourages her to want to play with them again when they have been up high on the shelf for so long, out of sight out of mind. Also, its important that she helps in deciding what to keep and what to toss/donate. It lets her know that its okay to get rid of toys and donate them to the less fortunate and it feels like its more her choice to get rid of them then it is of "mommy is taking them away" sort of thing. Plus, telling her that new ones will be coming sorta helps the process move a little quicker. I don't like to get rid of ALL the toys, however. Some of her toys, the ones she still likes but still doesn't play with as often, usually make it to her Nini's house or to her Aunt's house. That way she has "newer" updated toys to play with when she visits family for the night. It makes her happy to see toys she is familiar with and they don't just go completely waisted.
9. Take the time to google Holiday events going on in your area. There are all kinds of fun things to do starting on Nov.25th going through to New Years. Everything from ice skating, light displays, church events, snow tubing, Christmas plays and concerts, you name it. If you take the time to find out whats going on now, you can work those things into your budget and schedule now instead of learning last minute about the fun things you might not get to otherwise do because of funds or time. Some of these things also require you purchase tickets in advance so now is the time to start thinking about what things you want to do with your family in the month of December.
10. For something fun, check out this website Elfyourself, its a fun way to get you in the spirit, make you laugh, and you can share it with family and friends. Just remember your free viewing of your videos that you make expire around Christmas day, if I remember correctly. Its so funny and will make you crack up time and time again!!
11. Now that your house is in order, your Christmas list is made and you wait for the time to decorate your home with your family, take this time to relax, pop on a Christmas classic movie, and enjoy some hot chocolate. I cant believe that the Holidays are here already but I'm so happy that Ive learned this things over the years to help me plan a little early so that I will be able to truly enjoy spending more time with my family and friends instead of worrying about what needs to be done.
I hope you find these tipshese tips bring you a little peace over the next couple of weeks. Only 40 days 9 hours until Christmas!! What ways do you prepare for the holidays??! Id love to hear any ideas that you find important to getting things ready for the busiest time of the year!
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