Dear Santa

I am three years old.  Do you remember coming to my birthday party?  That was fun.  I would really like to have a Rose Petal Cottage to play in with my friend, Kate.  If it won’t fit in your bag,  I also like Groovy Girls.  The Christmas one or the rockstar would be nice.

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Merry Christmas Santa.

Dear Lydia Claire:

Hi, my name is Pepper Minstix and I am the special elf who helps Santa with all of the email he receives during this busy time of year.

No matter how busy Santa gets at the North Pole, I know he takes time to read all of his letters! You can expect to get an answer from Santa within the next few days.

Thank you for writing to Santa and please write to him again next year!

Happy Holidays
Elf Minstix

Do you ever want to get off the merry-go-round of life?

I only wish that weekends were nice and calm and boring.  Nope.   I’ve got so much to do between now and Monday that I feel ill just thinking about it.    Tonight we have Kid’s Club and Youth Group.  Thursday is judo.   Friday is my birthday but I’ll spend it geting ready for Parker’s party on Saturday.  I need to find a gift for him.  His birthday is Dec 28 but I agreed to have his party a month early.    There’s a craft fair this weekend but I know I won’t have time to go to it just like I missed the last one. Saturday will be dh getting groceries while I do laundry, judo, party and then Lydia is going with a friend to see Franklin’s Christmas.  Sunday is church with a meeting afterwards, getting homework done and fitting in a family movie night?  Oy.  My head hurts.  When to start the Christmas baking or find a couple of hours to do some shopping?  Do I make myself a cake or not?

Off to tackle Mt Washmore so it’s done by Saturday and I just have to put the 20 million loads away.

That’s 48 hours worth of laundry.

 

No matter what your personal or religious beliefs, you’ve got to admit that Christmas has become over commercialized.  Christmas is no longer what it started out as and it’s so easy to forget the true meaning of the season.  I’ve come across this video lately and thought it was good food for thought.  As I am part way through my Christmas list, it reminds me not to overinduldge.  I’m going to make every effort to refocus on our family this season and not the external forces around us that are saying spend, spend, spend.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

Need some help on quality gifts from the heart?  Check this out.

http://www.rethinkingchristmas.com/

Growing up my cousins collected the Little Miss and Mr. Men books.  We had a few as well but not nearly as extensive as theirs.  I’m wondering if there is a Little Miss Independant.  I have one that lives at my house.  Last week a friend was coming over in the evening.  I came upstairs from doing laundry.  Lydia was in the kitchen washing dishes.

 

I asked her what she was doing.  “Cara’s coming, Mommy, I doin dishes.”   When she was done she grabbed a towel from the laundry and finshed drying the floor she had “washed”.

Another day, I found her downstairs putting together a doll playpen that I had packed away.  So much for downsizing the toys.

Then there was potty training her baby.

Last night she  finished eating and when I thought she was putting her dishes in the dishwasher, I found her helping herself to more Kraft Dinner.

She still uses water bottles on a daily basis, just to avoid cups getting knocked over because she can fill them and get the cover on herself.

Yesterday the kids had the day off school for parent teacher conferences.
The kids and I stopped at Value Village. We were looking for a bag of plain Lego. Ds is having a Lego birthday and we wanted to put lego in the treat bags. We found a box of Lego with over 25 people in it and accessories. We also found a large box of K’nex AND an American Girl Doll 2008. The American Girl Dolls retail for $100. I got her for $2.99. She’s in mint condition with gorgeous brushable hair.   Lydia is in love with her new “girl” Claire.

Might not look like a lot of Lego but the pieces in it were awesome.

A few days ago I picked up a pair of Ugg boots for Lydia.  $4.  We’d looked everywhere for black boots and had settled on a pair of boys boots.  Well now she has a stylish pair too.

If someone could tell me how ot get the mothball smell out, I’d be more than greatful.

That’s what they say in the movie business right?

I just came up with a new holiday tradition for our house.  I’m going to gather up the Christmas movies and wrap them.  We’ll celebrate the Sundays of Avent by watching a family movie together.  But when I suggest movies, there’s always some bickering over who wants to watch what.  Now we’ll just pick one without knowing what it is.  It’ll be a great way of winding down a busy weekend .  Kids in their jammies, an easy supper and some popcorn.

Here’s some of my favourites.

   

The Polar Express

I’ll take suggestions if you have a favourite holiday movie.

My right shoulder has been messed up for a couple of weeks causing pinched nerves and lots of throbbing.  Today at playgroup I turned to reach something and I feel liek I have a kink under my left shoulder blade.  Tonight is my yoga class and I need to figure out if yoga will help it or agravate it.  Honestly, I don’t think I have the energy for it.  I stayed up way too late last night watching City (comedy) council on our local cable station.

Maybe Lydia and I can do some yoga today.

I’m back on the Meal Plan Wagon now that I have ground beef in the house again.   Every Wednesday it’s on sale at On The Vine for $1.99/lb.  I just never seem to be able to get there.  I stocked up last week and cooked and froze enough for 13 meals.  that is if, dh keeps his paws off of it.

 I also have a new to me deep freeze.  Woohoo.    Our deep freeze always seems full so there’s no room for freezer meals or baking.  Mil was getting rid of her deep freeze and I was more than happy to take it.  I cleaned it and plugged it in last night.    I’m planning on using one for meats and meals and the other for baking and frozen fruits, jam…

Need help with meal planning?  You can check out my google calendar  http://www.google.com/calendar/render?tab=mc&gsessionid=J9J4lOkmRXb8dMubKyBEcQ  Click on a meal and the recipe should be there.  Although if you need a recipe for tacos or chili, you need more help than I can give.  I also came across this blog if you need more ideas.   http://orgjunkie.com/

Today we’re having crockpot ribs.  MMMMMM  can you smell them?

I love you.

So if you know me, you know I love a good deal.  I previously worked at a Frenchies store and I accustomed to paying dirt cheap prices for clothing.  It causes me great pain to pay full price for clothes when it’s really just a waiting game.  I live 2 minutes from the mall and within 15 minutes of about 6 second hand stores and those are not consignment prices.  Being so close to the mall, I can  stop into The Children’s Place on a regular basis to watch for their Monster sale.  I have an Old Navy connection who likes to share Friends and Family discounts or sends out an alert on a good sale.

This summer a new used clothing store opened and it’s owned by a guy from dh’s hometown.  The Clothesline is much neater and I would say has better quality than most Frenchies stores.  Hannah needed new black pants and so we went tonight on a mission to find some.  It was our plan to go to The Clothesline, Superstore, Super Frenchies and then Old Navy.  I like to pay the cheapest price possible but I’m  not opposed to paying for a specific item.  We struck gold tonight at the Clothesline.  I found her mint condition black cords form the Children’s Place.  They fit perfectly and the embellishments on the pockets are stitched on and can easily be removed.  As soon as we walked in the door, I saw a white blouse for her.  A plain white blouse in her size is hard to find so we grabbed it.  I also found black dress pants for Parker, a red Children’s Place top for Lydia, A sweater for me, a great quality sheet from IKEA and a sleep sack for a friend.  The grad total was $20 and change.  Sweet.

Next stop was Old Navy.  I used my Friends and Family discount and got 30% off the jeans and dress I found for Hannah on clearance.  I paid $15 and change.  Woohoo.  Although nothing beats the year I hit a .97 sale just before her bithday.  She got 10 pairs of jeans, tops, pajamas….  She’s just now hit the end of that pile.

I think that’s just about it for holiday clothing for the kids.  Parker could probably use a sweater but it won’t be the  end of the world if I don’t find one.