Wrapping Up Christmas

I think I found all of Christmas and boxed it up.  No doubt I’ll find a towel in the laundry or a jingle bell hidden in a couch cushion next week. For now though, Christmas is put away.  It’s always bitter-sweet putting away the trappings of the holiday season.  I love decorating everything.

I won’t miss Meap, the Claw Kitten ransacking the Christmas tree or leaving scratch marks on my reindeer.

I won’t miss her derailing the Christmas train either.

But I will miss her sleeping in the manger.

And I’m already planning for next year.  I’ve pulled out my Christmas Planner only to discover the web hosting site where I stored all the pages went down.  I’ll try and find a way to post them again.  I love what Organized Christmas does.  They have a Rudolf Club that works on Christmas on the 25th of every month of the year.  I’d love to do that this year.  So every 25th I’m hoping to get one step closer to a more relaxing season next year.  I’ll probably follow my own schedule.  So far I’m planning on May being my Power Tool Present Fest.

This Christmas was probably my most relaxing so far.  Mainly because I turned it all over to Prince Erik and my Angel Mom.  I’ve been recovering from surgery.  Nothing tramatic, my plumbing just needed upgrading after 6 kids.  So why not have it in the busiest month of the year?  I like doing things that defy reason.  But, it needed to be done and I’m sure blessed to have such a Knight in Shining Armor Guy for my husband.  Double Bonus is that he cooks and he’s good at it too.  I’m a lucky girl.

And special thanks to my Mom who braved a winter blizzard to come stay with me for a week and chase all my wild herd from one Christmas activity to another.  I owe her big time.

So I’m planning away for next year with all the excitement of a child on Christmas Eve.  I’m sure it will be here before I know it.

Copy Cat Christmas

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

All the creative talent you’ve been kindly accusing me of – well it’s not really mine. I’m a great copy-cat crafter. It sure beats trying to come up with wonderful ideas on my own. I love taking other people’s fabulous finds and tweaking them to fit my style.

So I’m back to the Christmas Countdown again this week.

If you’re one of the lucky few American’s that isn’t worried about the financial impact of our messed-up economy then this post might be too much work. However if you really need to focus on keeping those two pennies safely in your pocket, so you have something to rub together then these ideas might prove amazingly within your new price-range.

I’ve started up again, one of my favorite fall traditions. And what could that be? Well it's taking a walk after a storm’s blown through. You’d be amazed at all the FREE and useful stuff you can find. Pine branches, twigs, nuts, cones, wood.

This last weekend I was able to start my forest foraging and collected some of this…

And this…

No, I’m not a squirrel saving up my nuts for the winter. I’m a copy cat artist getting ready to repeat someone else’s crafty ideas. Maybe I'll try something like this.

Normally I'd also advocate for using reuseable shopping totes. However the one exception might be to use Brown Paper bags when shopping close to the holidays. They can be used for anything from wrapping paper to cards to crafts.

So the Main thing on my list this week is to…

1. Collect your Christmas Craft Supplies. – The Cheaper the better. I will definitely be trying the frugal crafts this year.

2. Decide on your Christmas Card Design – Handmade or Store Bought. Once you’ve come up with a design check your Christmas Mailing list and divide it into four groups. Then make yourself complete at least one group of cards every week for the next four weeks.

3. Start looking this week for your family’s traditional presents. Do they get an ornament every year Hummm, I wonder…?

Or Is it Pajamas? Well if traditional presents are part of your family holiday festivities – focus on earnestly looking for or making those items.

That, and keep working on Halloween as well. Have Fun!

I've decided that with the extra material from the Halloween costumes that I made for my girls, well, maybe I'll try and make mini versions of the same thing for their Build-A-Bears. FREE! Except for my time that is. I like Free.

I Spoke Too Soon!

Due to the apparent collapse of anything financially sound in the world, among other things, I’m sad to announce that Christmas is going to be postponed this year. Sorry big red fellow.

KIDDING!

So here I was being a holiday pro-active little mom, checking off my Christmas To-Do List by hanging lights yesterday; When my words came back to haunt me. You know the one’s where I said last week, 'Because if I really am cursed then the repairs will pile up faster than the savings.'


Why? Why? Oh why do I tempt fate that way?

Maybe it’s because this was the first week in seven where I actually gained weight instead of lost it. There should be a warning on roofs that say. “If you’re a Gi-Gantor Mom – Stay Off.” I knew where the leaky part of our roof was. My husband put black plastic over it. The wind loosened it up a bit and so I was going to go and lay it flat again when lo and behold I decided to have a Twilight Bella moment and...

‘My Foot Fell Through the Roof’!!!

Luckily the drywall on the ceiling stopped the rest of me from following after. But I don’t think we can leave a hole a foot wide in the roof until we have enough money to repair it.

Good-bye Disneyland, Rose Bowl Half Marathon, Christmas! The Money Grinch came early this year. The last time we priced getting a new roof it was $14,000.

I won’t kiss Halloween good-bye because I’ve mostly purchased everything I need to make the costumes.

Ya know – There is no way I’d cancel Christmas. Even if I didn’t have two pennies to rub together I could make magic out of nothing given the chance. You’d be amazed at the Trash to treasure blings I could come up with on a nothing budget. In fact as soon as I conjure them into existence I’ll fill you in on my magic.

So I’m not fretting about putting my munchkins through anything similar to this here little potato and cabbage Depression Era Christmas dinner.

After this last week, I am however telling you that I am totally rethinking my gift lists and adding many more homemade items to them because I’m starting to get a little paranoid that we are going to totally fly over the recession and hit another Great Depression. See I’m a major worry wart and all. I know the retailer’s are just going to love me this year. But I’ve got to stick to my guns and try and make it through three major holidays and a birthday without seeing so much as a penny of red this year – Ah – other than the roof that is.

If you’re here for a Christmas Countdown – well my official Yule-tide To-Do List is mostly postponed this week so I can go about the crazy task of our Oz Costumes. I want them done by the blog Halloween party on the 18th. But here’s my own personal resolve for in the meantime…

1. Call the Roofing Guys so we have a roof over our heads for Christmas &…


2. Take newly hung lights off the roof so that we can get it replaced. (Sigh)


3. Rewrite the Christmas Gift List to include things that I can make to give away instead of buy. I was planning on simplifying anyway. Maybe instead of a Disney Christmas we can do our Pioneer Christmas again. It was my favorite one anyway.

The good news is the sewing machine and serger will be going full force this week and maybe I can squeeze in some Christmas and Birthday stuff as well, you know, when the herd isn’t paying attention.

Meanwhile I've got to stop looking and feeling like a deer caught in headlights, and get moving.

Hassel-Free - Yeah Right!

So I’m keeping up with my Christmas checklist. I’ve almost completed everything so far on my list, Sooooo I’m expanding it to include these three new areas.

Last week I sent poor T-rev to pull out the Halloween decorations from the spooky, rat – infested, spider-webbed cavern other-wise known as under-the-house. While he was at it I had him bring up my two heavy boxes of Holiday Lights. So on my list to do now is…

Sometime over the next two weeks – warm, dry weather permitting I’ll let Evo-man help me hang some sparkle lights on the roof. I always envision it looking something like this…

But usually get something along this line.

But with a little extra time it might turn out o.k. provided I can untangle them.

I’m also going to have my little Elf’s write their letters to Santa.








Now’s a good time because they haven’t been influenced by all the holiday commercials brainwashing them to want the latest and greatest toy. It kind of helps that we have no cable, dish or antenna right now.

Plus if they write their letters now there’s a good chance that Santa will send them something nice in return. You know reward them for not procrastinating until Christmas Eve.






That and I’ll have a better idea of what they want so I can expand my simple Christmas list.

And the last thing I’m working on is starting to tackle those Christmas lists.



I found this darling little pencil holder on clearance in an after-school shopping supply sale and I thought it would be perfect for My Holiday Planner as a Holiday Shopping Helper.




In it I keep a smaller version of my gift list, coupons, pens, and pencils. I always try to keep it in my purse this time of year so that I can pull it out when ever I’m in a store and looking for sales.
The first thing I’m going to try to accomplish on my list is gifts for family and friends that I have to mail. I’m also looking for shipping supplies and hope they go on sale.

Recap:

1. 
   Hang some Holiday Lights.
2. 
   Write Letters to Santa
3. 
   Organize my Gift List and Shopping Helper.

Only 79 more days to go...

Dream On - Updates!

Suffer through some updates and I'll give you a taste of my Halloween insanity near the end of this post.

So I finally tackled the Master Bedroom Closet. Remember how I threw out half of my clothes. That was just clothes and didn’t really involve any of the closet. But seeing as what a disastrous state the whole mini room was in I decided it was time to find the floor again.

It also worked to my advantage because it's where I hide Christmas stuff as well. (Shhhh, Don't tell the kids) You know, the place where you stash all the little things found on clearance in the after-holiday sales. Trouble is with the mess I wasn’t sure what I’d purchased and even which corner I’d hid it in.

So 3 tall kitchen bags full of clothes for charity, two full garbage ones as well, and lots of re-sorting and…

Ta-Da! Will you look at all that floor space?

Want more? Well even if you don't I'll still show it. From This...

To This...

Oh I'm not done yet. I'm still trying to talk Prince Erik into letting go of my fat scuba equipment. It's been 8 years since I last used it and I just am too small to fit in it anymore.

O.K. it's still there but someday. Meanwhile - Look at all the hang space I freed up.

O.K. that was the last one.

So while I was knee-deep in the closet clutter I found some nice surprises. Holiday shirts I purchased for the girls last year at less than $2 each in the holiday clearance aisle at Target. I’m excited because I bought them guessing at my girls shirt sizes this year. I think I’ll save them for our Dream Disneyland vacation. My closet was pretty empty in the gift category but I was able to knock a few things off my to-get list.

I took the Holiday Inventory Page I told you about for my Hassel-Free Holiday Planner and listed the items on it that were located in my Master Gift Closet.

I can look at that list now and see who I haven’t located ornaments for, and start to now come up with a Gift List Idea sheet using my Gift List Planner Page.

So yep my Holiday plans are moving ahead, the house is a little less cluttered.

Good news on the Accountability to the Max area as well. After two weeks of the dial on the scale not moving I finally lost 2 lbs, all in the past 2 days. I think it’s a hormonal thing, but I’m tickled pink that it’s moving again in the right direction.

This week I’ve also logged 13 miles of mostly jogging and tomorrow I’m going to attempt 4. It so helps that there is a motivational reason for me to run in the rain. I really want to beat my abysmal time from Last Year’s Half Marathon.

Oh and look what I found while cleaning out the closet. Proof that I'm an insanely addicted to Family Theme Halloween costumes.

I took these pictures six years ago when I was overly obsessed with all things ‘Lord of the Rings’. This was the year I went all out with expense, and time trying to get every detail right. Each costume is handmade and although you can’t really see from these pictures, full of details. From Gimli's Helmet to Galadriels crown it's all made from scratch because I could find anything in the stores or online seeing as how the movies were still coming out.

A then much shorter Abner as Legolas.

Prince Erik as Gandalf, and Evo-man as the perfect sized hobbit Frodo. No that is not a wig it's his hair.

I have to say the T-rev's costume of Gimli was my most challenging but also probably my most rewarding. I loved how he walked around and announced himself as 'Gimli the DORF' (unintentionally, of course).

So have fun looking at them and thank your lucky stars that you’re not as obsessed about Halloween as I am.

I found some other pictures of Halloween past as well. Those I'll post some other time through-out the month.

As you can see from when I posted this I'm not doing to well with cutting back on computer time. So this weekend Prince Erik agreed to help me brainstorm and figure out how I can do better.

Hassel-Free Holiday Week 2!

It’s begun, Da, da, da, dum, toodle-lou da do... The Final Countdown.

Last week I focused on collecting information for my mailing list. I’m about done making sure it’s current and should definitely have it done this week.

I also made a go at a simple quick Christmas picture, but who was I fooling. There is no way on earth I can take a simple quick picture of all my kids at the same time. The odds are greater that I’d win the lottery than get that perfect family picture. So today I just tried for the normal goof picture. How’s this? We Double-Dog Dare you to have a Merry Christmas!

Don’t worry - I probably will make another go next weekend at a more suitable holiday portrait – providing the weather stays reasonable. And maybe I’ll luck out and not dress my boys in the exact same shirts that they wore in our Christmas picture last year.

I don’t think they have wore those fetching clothes since last year either – maybe that’s why they looked halfway decent and devoid of stains. I still want to get a really nice family picture (might need to recruit a friend who either looks funny or can entertain my picky rag-a-muffins, so the picture won’t look like a torture session. But if I do a newsletter I think this here little snapshot might be o.k.

Here are some more pages for the Holiday Planner. Just click on the page and through the wonder of my husband's computer genius you'll be taken to a PDF file that you can print for your own planner. Thanks Honey! Or you can go to my other work in progress to see all the holiday pages at once.

The first one is a little Holiday Countdown To-Do List that would be perfect to start in January or even the day after Christmas this year in order to have the Ta-Da Holiday you’ve always dreamed of. I put this behind my Calendar in the Calendar section of my book.

This next little page is where you can keep track of your gift orders, be they internet or catalog.

I’ve also included a little Holiday Tradition worksheet for you to write down some of your family’s favorite traditions. Once I’ve written those precious memories down then go out and start collecting them. In my planner I have copies of the poem ‘A Night Before Christmas,’ I also have copies of some strange ritual my husband brought to us from his home and that is the famous reading of the poem ‘The Cremation of Sam Mcgee’. Yes, there are strange things done in the Midnight Sun but the queerest you ever did see… our kids get this morbid little ditty spouted off to them every Christmas Eve.’ No wonder they need therapy.

Here’s yet another page for your Holiday Planner but I’m not really doing anything with it before Christmas. It’s for after when I pack everything up. That way at any time I can find any Christmas bauble I want and I’ll know just which numbered box it’s stored in.

So this week for Christmas - Here’s is what’s on the To-Do List for, yours and mine, Ta-Da Christmas.

1. Gather poems and favorite holiday recipes to copy for my Holiday Planner. I’ve already got my poems but I’m looking to replace some of my Holiday Recipes with similar but healthier options. Some things are too sacred to fiddle with so the Danish Rice Pudding Recipe will not change. But I’m hoping to find a reasonable Thanksgiving Dressing or Christmas punch substitute.

2. Then I’m going to really tackle my bedroom closet (THE GIFT CLOSET) I know I bought some stuff last year on clearance after the holiday’s, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. So I’m going to do a little digging to find out.

3. Then I’m going to start compiling a Christmas Wish List on my Christmas Gift page (in pencil of course)

4. Oh, and finish finding those mailing addresses.