Mamahood.org » christmas

So that was Christmas.

Jenn — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:03:20 +0000

Another Christmas has come and gone. Alyssa and Ryan had a fabulous holiday, as always. They both loved their presents, and Dan and I really loved what we gave each other. ♥ And we had a great time visiting with family.

And now, holy crap, it’s January 1st, 2012, and another year has gone by in the blink of an eye. My mom and grandmother were right – as you get older, and especially after having children, life really does go by faster. And now all sorts of things are on my to-do list — article writing on cpa raleigh, housework, planning some giveaways for Valentine’s Day, etc.

As far as New Year’s resolutions go, I want to lose ten pounds, I want to read one book per week, and I want to be more productive and efficient in terms of work.

How about you? Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?

Christmas traditions

Jenn — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:38:45 +0000

Now that both of our children are old enough to truly enjoy Christmas and understand all of the excitement and preparation that comes before it, Dan and I are trying to set a few traditions for us as a family. Last year we decided to have a special dinner on Christmas Eve, followed by hot chocolate, freshly-popped popcorn, and a movie. Dan was kind enough to take care of dinner, and I’m pretty sure I did the clean up afterward.

This year I brought up the idea of giving the kids — and each other — stockings on Christmas Eve, rather than wait until Christmas Day. We usually put a few trinkets and a bit of candy in the stockings, but the trinkets are chosen with care, so it’s a little (just a little) disappointing when the kids are so busy with their presents on Christmas Day that they pay next to no attention to their stockings. I really like the idea of giving the kids their stockings on Christmas Eve. This way they not only get the opportunity to enjoy them prior to the Big Day, but they’re also held over until Christmas morning.

Does your family do anything special for Christmas Eve, or for the days leading up to Christmas?

Hershey Park Happy

Jenn — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 21:43:55 +0000

On Friday Jason and I took Alyssa, Ryan, and my brother to Hershey Park. The park opens every year during the holiday season for their “Candy Lane” event. The coasters and major rides like the ferris wheel and log flume are all closed, but the majority of the kiddie rides and many other rides are open for the kids to ride. The entire park is decked out in holiday lights, and hot chocolate and other seasonal goodies are available for purchase at different areas throughout the park.

Last year my mother and I took all four kids (Alyssa, Ryan, and my two brothers), but we went during the daytime a few days after Christmas, so obviously we didn’t get to see the lights lit up, and the excitement of Christmas was pretty much over. This year, since we went at night a good five weeks before Christmas, the lights were on and the Christmas music was more than enough to get me excited for the holiday.

Just like last year, Alyssa and Ryan had a fabulous time, and I really enjoyed seeing their excitement and enjoyment. ♥

Pictures (slideshow):

How I’m managing my Christmas shopping this year

Jenn — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 23:41:43 +0000

I am using two very awesome tools for my Christmas shopping this year: Google Docs and Pinterest. Dan and I are using Google Docs to keep track of who we need to buy for and what we have bought and are thinking of buying for them (we’re using a spreadsheet format), and I’m using Pinterest to put together a wishlist for me, and gift ideas for the kids (since Dan stalks me online I can’t put down my ideas for him, heh).

Some of the items on our spreadsheet and my Pinterest account include:

Feather headbands from The Lamp Stand (these are for my sisters-in-law)
Barbie Malibu Vacation House for Alyssa (she’s finally into Barbies, whoo!)
Train track sets for Ryan
Mario and Luigi K’nex set for my 13 year old brother
Several girly items for yours truly…

How are you managing your Christmas shopping?

109 days left until…

Jenn — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:11:16 +0000

Christmas! My most favorite holiday of the year. ♥ While it may “only” be September, now is a great time to begin thinking about Christmas. More importantly, now’s a great time to put together that Christmas shopping list and begin crossing off the items that you want to purchase for family members and friends. Since we have Alyssa, Ryan and now my brother, obviously kids toys are high up on the list. Second to kids toys are electronics – in fact, just this morning I got inspired by a random dream, so I now know what I’m getting both Daniel and my thirteen year old brother for Christmas. Whoo hoo!

So tell me – am I crazy for preparing for Christmas so early? I think not. Fall and winter are super busy for me, so by starting early I’m making sure I won’t be stressed as the holidays loom closer.

P.S. I ordered our Christmas cards and matching return address labels last week.

All wrapped up

Jenn — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:15:54 +0000

If there’s one thing I’ve learned the hard way, it’s that it pays to wrap Christmas presents well before the night before Christmas! I have memories of my mom and I hauling out bags of gifts for my brothers, who were young kids at the time, around 8:00pm Christmas Eve… and by the time we’d finish putting in batteries, removing twist ties and other “restraints”, wrapping, labeling and affixing bows, it would be 2 or 3 or even 4 in the morning. Then one of us would sleep on the sofa to guard the sofa, so that come Christmas morning we’d be there to unwrap presents together and take pictures.

I don’t think Dan and I have ever waited until Christmas Eve to wrap everything, but for the past few years we didn’t bother to wrap stuff until in the days leading up to Christmas. Ergh. Besides the dozen or so presents we have for Alyssa and Ryan (that’s each, not total), there are also my brothers, my mom, Dan’s four siblings, several aunts and uncles, and a few other “miscellaneous” people. So this year we’ve been wrapping as we’ve gone along. Translation? Everything is wrapped and labeled. Come Christmas Eve, all we’ll have to do is pull out the presents (separately bagged even!), affix bows, put them under the tree, prepare a few last-minute things like WoodWick candles, then stuff the stockings and we’re good to go!

Fourteen days

Jenn — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 21:17:26 +0000

Man I am so antsy for Christmas! As I wrote on Jenn.nu last night, we’re done with shopping for the kids — minus three presents for Ryan and stocking stuffers for both of them — and their presents are wrapped, labeled and stored in two separate bags (for easy separating!) in Ryan’s bedroom closet. I need to pick up something for a friend of mine and his niece, and I want to get our mail lady a gift card (poor lady has to get out of her cozy warm car almost every day to put packages on our front steps), but we’ve got the “major” shopping done. YAY!

So, we’ve got fourteen days until Christmas. I don’t know about you, but I CAN’T WAIT!

Oh Christmas tree

Jenn — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 17:18:57 +0000

Normally Dan and Alyssa pick out a Christmas tree from a local lot and drag it home. This has had mixed results. One year Dan drug home what turned out to be a giant bush (seriously, that tree was as wide as it was tall!). Another year there was a small bare spot — easily remedied by rotating the tree, haha. This year we decided, or should I say I decided, to make it a family event by going to an actual Christmas tree farm! It was cold and slightly blustery and the sun was partially obscured by thin, grayish clouds, but all in all it was a beautiful afternoon for a hayride, tromping through rows of trees to find the perfect one, helping to hold the tree upright while Dan sawed through its trunk, and then strapping it to a sleigh and dragging it a half of a mile back to the farm (the plantation shutters on the windows of the back of the barn were a beacon, as the barren fields were otherwise a bit disorienting) for drilling, bagging and stuffing into the back of my hatchback.

Ta-da!

Our Christmas cards are on the way!

Jenn — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:41:22 +0000

I am loving how early I’ve decided to tackle Christmas this year. Of course, I meant to have some of the Christmas shopping done this weekend, but it’s okay that it’ll have to wait until next weekend, or possibly the weekend after Thanksgiving (Black Friday weekend? Ick!). In the meantime, my consolation prize is the fact that the adorable Christmas cards I ordered from Shutterfly are on their way! Here’s the design I picked out and ran by Dan for “approval” before ordering:

I originally had 1-2 other designs in mind, but this one worked out the best. See the photos? They were taken specifically for our cards!I already had some nicely-themed kids clothes on hand. (On a related note, I *love* the picture of Dan and I. I look so good in it! For once I looked at a photo of myself and didn’t think “what is the best diet pill for women?”!) And yes, I deliberately included a photo of Alyssa holding Hello Kitty dressed up as Santa Claus. I had some other great photos of her smiling, but she loves Hello Kitty so much that I thought it would be a cute touch for our cards. Besides, everyone who is getting a card from us knows of her obsession with all things Hello Kitty, so I’m sure they won’t be surprised!

What are you doing for Christmas cards?

Jenn — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 02:54:02 +0000

Usually I pick up cute cards from Target, though I think one year I actually used a snowman I made in Adobe Photoshop as part of an original card design. This year? I’m all about Shutterfly. I recently participate in a blog promotion with them, and was “compensated” with a coupon code good for 50 5×7 holiday photo cards. Sweet! Now to get all of our ducks in a row — excuse me, get all of our photos in a row. I’ve got the kids taken care of:

Now I need to get one of Dan and I! This is on my to-do list for this week, so that the cards can be ordered by the weekend and be delivered before Thanksgiving. My goal is to have cards mailed out on Black Friday!