Make a Sibling Christmas Gift Date

Good Thursday morning!

The Gallery Pic today is of something I feel necessary to warn you to avoid! I love Activia Light Vanilla Yogurt. It is sweet, creamy and it tastes good. Well, imagine my delight when I saw Activia Light Vanilla Yogurt with FIBER. A "twofer." A healthy "twofer." Yes!

Well, not so much. They took my sweet, creamy and tasty yogurt and added a tablespoon of sawdust. It is not good... not good at all. Thankfully, they still make the yogurt WITHOUT the sawdust, so I am not totally unhappy. But I did want to do this little Public Service Announcement for the dozen or so people who might stumble across A Simple Life today. Save your money and STEP AWAY FROM THE FIBER!

Today was a very good day. I hadn't realized how long it had been since we had a day off from school. It was Labor Day! And for today to be such a beautiful day after yesterday's monsoon made it even better still. Roxie enjoyed a day with friends. Josh went to a movie with friends. Mikie came home from Chicago around 2:00, and he took Roxie on a date to see A Christmas Carol. If Austin had been off today, it would have been a rare perfect day for the Faulkner Five. Unfortunately, not only did he still have classes, but he also had tests. Oh, well. Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

Holiday Organization Tips - Day 3

Today, we're talking about Christmas Cards. The single most stress-inducing Christmas activity known to man. The clothes, the hair, the perfect smiles, the setting... it's enough to give you a migraine!

I remember a time when Josh had just turned two, Austin was almost five and Roxie hadn't even arrived yet. I was just working with two little guys. I had used at least 20 rolls of film (NO exaggeration) and the Wal-Mart Christmas Card deadline was coming up at midnight. (There is no deadline now. You can pick up your cards one hour after you pick them out on the "machine." But 13 years ago, believe me... there was a deadline.)

We had just finished eating spaghetti, and the boys were in a good mood. Spaghetti will do that for little fellows. They were giggly and hugging. Josh had a Christmas turtleneck on with red pants, but he had a big spaghetti stain on the front. Austin was wearing a red turtleneck with black jeans. This was my chance.

I whispered to Mike, "Run get Austin's Christmas vest out of his closet. Don't let him see you. Don't make any sudden movements. Go. Go. Go!"

I lured the boys into the living room to play in front of the Christmas tree. Mike came quietly down the stairs and was standing behind the door. I motioned for him to move in. Before Austin knew it, he was wearing a vest, his hair was combed and Mike had expertly positioned him in front of the tree. In the three seconds it took to accomplish this feat, I had whipped Josh's turtleneck off and put it back on backwards to hide the stain, and set his little bottom in a wooden rocking chair sitting nearby.

For a moment, both boys looked stunned, and then they started laughing. I had my camera hidden under my shirt (where it lived most days) and started clicking away. I had four exposures left on that roll. There wasn't time to change the film. The moment had passed. I weakly handed the film to Mikie and asked him to run it to Wal-Mart for one-hour developing to see what we had. We had four hours until the deadline. I put the boys in the tub.

When Mike came home, I heard him running up the stairs. Either he was being chased, or he had something good he wanted to show me. It was the latter. A really good Christmas Card picture... with Josh's shirt on backwards. Laughing boys, eyes open, fingers not in their noses, hair combed... beautiful Christmas Card pictures. What a relief!

Because of digital cameras, those days are gone. Yes, it can still be difficult to take the perfect Christmas Card picture depending on the age of the kids, but you can see immediately if you have something to work with.

Last year, as a gift to my family, we did a collage picture Christmas Card. We used four pictures we took at our Thanksgiving dinner and put them on one card... digitally. It turned out great. A week or so before Christmas, one of the kids asked when we were going to take the dreaded Christmas Card picture, and I was able to pull it out and show it to them. It was my little gift to them.

If you have trouble in this department, I highly recommend the collage card to get the best shots of everyone in your family.

As far as other tips go to make Christmas Cards an easier task, I address five or six a day. Just like wrapping gifts, I very seldom have several hours to sit down and address all of them at once, but I always have 10 or 15 minutes a day to address a few. Within a week to ten days, you are finished and you can mail them.

I also have a friend who loved sending picture Christmas Cards, but it was just too much for her to do during the Christmas season. Sometimes she even had the perfect picture, but no time to send them out. She solved her problem by sending the cards the week after Christmas and calling them New Year's Day cards. They were still festive. They were still seasonal. They were still well-received.

I also know people who were in the habit of sending a Christmas letter with their cards. If they had a year where it was hard to not only take a Christmas Card picture, address and mail all the cards, BUT also write a letter, they just put it off until it was too late. If you want to write a letter, write a brief, but descriptive note which will fit on the back of the Christmas Card. Having the size of the note diminished will make it easier to write than a one- or two-page letter.

Teacher's Gifts

5. The Movie Gallery has a deal for $11.99. You get a bag of popcorn, a bottled soda, a candy bar and two movie rentals. That's a great deal and a nice gift, too.

6. Ask your child's teacher if she would like a new Christmas book of DVD for her classroom collection. There are usually several new ones published each year. This would be something useful for her AND her classroom.

Blog Linkage

1. Turn your attention to Jody's post today on Nitty.Gritty on my sidebar. Short, but sweet. And so, so true. It will help put the mundane into perspective.

2. This website came from a friend of a friend on Facebook. It is a very nice website and has great tips on organizing for the holidays week per week. I enjoyed reading her tips, and I'm planning on utilizing some of them. Go to http://simplemom.net.

3. As always, check out http://blog.al.com/bargain-mom each and every week. She keeps a very up-to-date website... everything from bargains to fun places to take the kids, etc. If it is a bargain, she has it!

4. If you haven't become a fan of The Pioneer Woman, now is the time. Click on Confessions of a Pioneer Woman on my sidebar and enjoy looking at life through the eyes of this woman. The pictures and stories are wonderful. You almost feel as though you are living on a ranch in Oklahoma. Almost!

5. Click on Big Mama under my sidebar. She has written a post about Veteran's Day and the American Flag, and it is excellent. Pay special attention to the meaning of the last fold in the "folding of the flag" ceremony. Wonderful!

Make a Sibling Christmas Gift Date

This is a date Roxie and I are going to be taking the next week or so. Since Austin is attending JSU and Josh is an Auburn fan, Roxie and I are going to The Painted Bisquet in Cullman, and she is going to spend a couple of hours painting mugs with their favorite school colors.

I like the Painted Bisquet because you can paint the mug a solid color, and then add the second color with a polka dot sponge they use in the shop. It makes a perfect circle. She's going to fill them with hot chocolate packets. Both of the guys love hot chocolate, and I imagine Austin will be a coffee drinker before his college days are over, so these will be useful and practical gifts, too.

We'll spend time talking on the drive to Cullman, as well as the time in the store and the drive back.

When it is time to pick up the mugs a week or so later, I'll plan the time so we can have lunch together. That makes this date a "twofer."

It's a great shop, and they have a lot of wonderful gift ideas. This can be a date with any of your kids and they can make something for Dad or a grandparent. Make the date your own.

Their address is 111-A 1st Street, N.E. (Warehouse District) in Cullman, and their phone number is 256-775-2477. They are open Wednesday through Friday 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Have a fantastic Thursday. I wish we were out of school another day! Friday we'll discuss Weekend Happenings, a few more random holiday organization tips, I'll have a couple more Teacher's Gifts, and who knows what else!

Take care, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

The Enchanting Belinda