Attempting to be a Super Mom

Ok, growing up, my parents always loved Thomas Kincaid.  I grew up admiring these paintings. While they are all gorgeous, my favorites are the winter and Christmas ones.  Absolutely amazing. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy, and make me think of my Dad. This, is my dream.  To live in a Thomas Kincaid painting.

Ok, so I'm so guilty of last minute gifts.  Yup, sorry, once again, I'm a procrastinator. I do have some good ideas though. First of all, cash.  At this day and age, who doesn't need a little cash. If that feels too impersonal, then gift cards.  You can buy them anywhere, even at the grocery store. Spa certificates!  Who doesn't need a little pampering?  Whether they spend it with a manicure, pedicure, facial, massage, those work for almost any adult male or female. Monthly subscriptions.  I personally subscribe to a couple of these and they are great gift ideas. Ipsy Birch Box Loot Crate Umba Box Love With Food For the Makers Papirmass Craft Coffee Bark Box For kids you have: Kiwi Crate Koala Crate Tinker Crate Doodle Crate Also, last night, I found this awesome link with some cool ideas.  Most of them seemed quick and easy. Cheap and easy last minute gift ideas that they'll actually want. A...

  Ok, so this one is rough.  I'm a procrastinator.  I can't help it, it's in my genes.  Honestly, we've just been so busy. Today we have to go out and try to find Ugly Christmas Sweaters, and if we can't find them, then we'll have to make them, because that's what our Christmas Eve party theme is.  Today, we also want to do some baking, because we literally have done NONE yet.  To be fair, I've been busy working on Ben's class snacks up until the party Friday afternoon. One thing we have been doing is wrapping Christmas presents.  We have a few more on their way here from Amazon, and I have to go out and get my mom's present still, but other than that, the shopping is done!  I was on that this year.

Ok, in the years past we've done tons and tons of candy and cheap little dollar tree items or things from the dollar aisle at Target.  This year, I was determined to do better.  My kids are playdoh obsessed so I bought a case of it to split between them. I also bought figurines from some of their favorite shows or little toys.  Ben got Scooby Doo, Sydney got Littlest Pet Shop, Rylie got Peppa Pig, and Scottie got Disney princess.  I do need to try and find chocolate coins.  That is their favorite and they always get them from Santa, but that might be pretty close to the only candy that they get.  They just don't really eat that much candy.  They love it but get side tracked, and lets be honest, they don't need the sugar, especially with all the other cookies and such around at Christmas.  I also got the big girls two plush Disney Princesses each, Ben a plush Olaf, and Scotland one plush Disney Princess. This year I was determined to not get a...

Ok, so I'm so excited for this post.  I can't express to you how much joy my Christmas tree gives me. We got a new Christmas tree this year and it's so lovely. We have Santa standing in front partially due to lack of space in our home and partially for the tree and presents protection from the kids.  Haha!   Here are the presents underneath the tree.  Ralphie even likes it. The angel at the top was given to me by my parents.  She was the angel for the family tree since before I was born.  My parents replaced her and gave her to me when I moved out.  She's been on our trees ever since. Here are a couple of my ornaments that we have collected over the years. I collect Willow Tree Angels and have one of the ornaments. This year, we started a new tradition.  At the beginning of the season, when we first put up our tree, we take the kids out to each pick a new ornament.  We may end up with a funky o...

Somewhere between being sick, making snacks for school parties, sick kids, Christmas shopping, and house hold chores, I've gotten way behind.  Don't worry, I'll get all caught up this weekend... I hope. Ok, so I've been looking into family heritage a lot lately.  I subscribed to ancestory.com and I've traced my heritage back to Scotland, Denmark, Germany, and England.  I'm thinking about subscribing to the level where I can see documents and things from other countries.   Anyway, I don't know that I really celebrate Christmas much different than most other people that were born and raised in the United States.  They day after Thanksgiving, up goes the Christmas tree.  That seems to be a pretty common day for Christmas trees to come out and get decorated, at least according to my Facebook feed.   Of course there is the endless debate about Christmas carols.  When is it appropriate to start rocking out to Jingle Bells and...

We are so cramped in our tiny home.  So cramped that we haven't been able to get out most of our decorations.  We've found room for some though, even rearranging the furniture in our living room just to fit the Christmas tree. I love the wreath on my front door. We always had one growing up and when I saw this at Costco, I knew I had to have it.  I'm so in love with the gold decorations. I love these hanging stuffy things but I never know where to put them.  I think I found their new home. Can you spot Ralphie, our elf, in the poinsettia?  That was his hiding spot this morning. We got this guy as a gift last year.  We are KU basketball fans, so he does fit in.  As he is breakable, he sits behind my sink. Above my cabinets.  You can make a few different words with these as they also have letters on the back, but this is my favorite. That is a placemat that my mom gave me from when were growing up. ...