Christmas Morning 2013

Oliver's getting older, and so he had some specific requests for Santa this year. He wanted Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Thomas the Train, an umbrella, and M&Ms. He must have made it on the good list because Santa delivered! 

Santa must have known that Joanna likes to build things because she got Lincoln Logs!

Christmas morning was a big success.

Oliver was very happy to open his Minnie Mouse cash register! Santa got that for free at JC Penney last year when they did their button promotion.

Joanna decided to organize her Lincoln Logs.

The kids are so cute. What a fun morning! I think Jo was a little overwhelmed by it all. She had a ton of fun but spent most of the afternoon in tears.

The $3 Christmas Present Piles

Santa pulled it off again this year!

We managed to create a pile of gifts for each of our kids for less than $3 each.

Up first is Oliver's. He got a new child's snow shovel from Home Depot. This past fall, Home Depot had a Facebook game in which you mowed down zombies with a wood chip mulcher to get free certificates. We used a $5 off of $5 purchase to get Oliver a free snow shovel. On Small Business Saturday, we went to a toy store called Timbuk Toys. As I posted before, we got a "Honeybee Tree" board game for Oliver and some jingle bells for Jo. After the $25 Small Business Saturday discount, they came to $2.28. I took Jo's summer clothes into a consignment shop and got enough credit to pick out the baseball mitt for Oliver. On Black Friday, I scored two baseballs for less than 50 cents. A fellow mom in MOMS Club was cleaning out her daughters' bookshelf, and she gave me a pile of Clifford books. They were in great condition, so they went into Oliver's Christmas pile. Finally, I went to JCPenney every day between Black Friday and Christmas Eve to get free buttons that they were giving away. Each button came with a code I entered online. One in four buttons was a winner. I won a substantial quantity of free $5 and $10 vouchers. I worked hard to make purchases of their exact amount to get items for free. Below, you can see Oliver got a toy birthday cake because he loves candles. It was on sale for $10, so I got it for free with one of my $10 vouchers. The Melissa & Doug stamp set was on clearance for $8. I picked up a $2 pair of socks and got the stamp set for free!

Here is Jo's pile. The mailbox was actually once Oliver's. A few months ago, I cleaned it up and replaced the batteries. I stowed it away in the closet so it would be fresh and new for Jo. I got the basketball game from a gift exchange from MOMS Club. We brought in some toys we no longer used and got this in return. The wrapped gift was a bathtub coloring set that I got for free with my Pampers rewards points. I posted previously about good rewards programs, but I ended up saving the bumble bee flashlight and the Dumbo puzzle to give to the kids next year instead. The bathtub fishing net was also free. We ordered a Christmas present on Amazon that came to $20. We were going to have to pay $5 in shipping, or we would get free shipping if we spent $25. So, I searched the website for a $5-$6 toy, since I would pay that much for shipping anyway. Jo loves taking baths, so I chose that for her. The book was saved from Oliver. I paid for the box of Kleenex (which she loved). You can also see the jingle bells poking out from behind the wrapped gift, which, as I mentioned from Oliver's pile, came from Timbuk Toys on Small Business Saturday.

And, so, once again, Santa pulled off a good but affordable Christmas. All told, we spent about $7 in our piles of presents from Santa. In addition, we got a number of gifts using the JCPenney vouchers for next year. Santa plans ahead!

Christmas Eve 2012

Merry Christmas Eve!

We spend every Christmas Eve with my parents. From the time I was a small child, we spent Christmas Eve with my dad's family. We spent Christmas morning at home, and then we'd go over to my mom's sister's condo for Christmas dinner. We've continued that kind of tradition for our kids. Christmas Eve  dinner is spent with my family. Christmas morning is spent at home, and then we go over to my in-laws' home for Christmas dinner.  It works well!

Julie made chicken salad and vegetarian chicken salad for sandwiches. She cooked some Swedish meatballs in the Crock Pot, which Oliver enjoyed watching. She made fixings for grilled cheeses and just pulled off an amazing spread.

Oliver got really excited for presents this year. He enjoyed "reading" the tags to figure out which present went to whom, and then he put them in piles. 

He opened a book from Aunt Julie that he gets to fill out about himself. We'll work on reading and writing, and then he'll be ready to go! She also gave him new undies! Oliver gets the best undies every Christmas from Aunt Julie. Every time he opened a gift, he was immediately ready to move on to the next one.

Joanna was very deliberate in opening her gifts. She'd examine the packages and then tear off the paper in strips.

Oliver got a rolling pin and spatula baking set from Uncle Andy and Aunt Erin. They couldn't make it into town this year, but they sent packages with love! Oliver also got a bubble set that he's been begging to play with. It's hidden in the closet for warmer weather, but I think it'll make an appearance when we go on vacation!

Joanna got a new French bulldog sweater from Aunt Julie. She loved crinkling the package.

Oliver got a French bulldog hoodie from Grandma Judy and Grandpa Larry. He also got a drill set that he loves!

Here are Oliver, Julie, and Joanna all in their French bulldog tops. There's Arthur (Julie's French bulldog), posing handsomely for this Christmas photo.

Andrew got a new tall-person tie as part of his Secret Santa gift. He was thrilled to tie a double Windsor and still have it be long enough for him.

Joanna got an elephant ball popper from Grandma Judy & Grandpa Larry. Both she and Oliver love it!

Loved ones also gave a sticker set, some Smarty Pants flash cards, and a practice pad to learn how to write letters. Oliver had enough presents, so he opened those at home from Santa the next morning.

Thank you, Family! We had a lovely Christmas Eve. It even ended with some snow for a white Christmas.

Birthday Books

Every year, for Oliver's birthday, I make him a book. For his first birthday, I wanted to make him a book of expressions because babies enjoy looking at faces. I took photos of Andrew being happy and me being mad and Oliver being sleepy.

I thought about just gluing photos to construction paper and putting the pages in a binder. Then, it occurred to me: I can just make a photo book on Shutterfly and turn it into a children's book for Oliver! It was so much easier and looked great. Plus, if you sign up for their emails, you can sometimes get big discounts, like 40% off photo books.

A page from his first birthday book:

For his second birthday, I decided to create a book of all his favorite things, along with the name of each underneath its picture to (hopefully) get him to start recognizing some simple words. I took photos of his favorite stuffed animal, Monkey, along with a photo of a set of keys, a car, pasta, Dad, and me. It's still one of his favorite books! Admittedly, the pages of that one are getting torn now. I appreciate the fact that I can reorder the book to have a new copy, as Shutterfly saves each project you make to your account.

A page from his second birthday book:

This year, I made him a book about baking cookies! Baking is basically Oliver's favorite thing ever. I took pictures of him using the mixer in addition to pictures of Andrew and me using the oven and cracking eggs and such. There's even a photo of Jo  helping in the baking process! I know Oliver will love this. I kept the sentences super simple to (maybe) help him read.

I think these are such cute birthday gifts.  They're so personal, and they're something he can have forever.  I need to get busy making a birthday book for Jo!  I think I might make a face book of people she'd recognize.

Here's the Shutterfly preview of Oliver's 3rd birthday book.  I've noticed the preview takes a long time to load and sometimes times out.  You can just click the link below the image to get a preview on the Shutterfly website:

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love Shutterfly's award-winning photo books. Try it today.

The $7 Present Pile

Oliver has been tossing and turning all night. I wonder if it's the excitement in the air or the glow of the tree from downstairs. His last little wake up was at 3:45am. He went back to sleep; I didn't. My mind wandered, so I decided to get up and brew some coffee to wait for Christmas festivities to begin.

I got home from visiting my parents and sister very late last night. Andrew and Oliver had gone home hours earlier for Oliver's bed time. Once home, I was excited to set up gifts for Oliver, and I pulled his wrapped packages from the closet. A few fell with a bang and woke him. From upstairs, I heard, "Ma. Ma. Ma." That little guy melts my heart. I waited a few minutes, and he went back to sleep. I arranged his packages under the tree and felt so proud of myself for being able to prepare such a wonderful Christmas for our little man.

As most people know, we don't have much money. I was very fortunate this year to come across enough deals, contests, and giveaways to win a large pile of presents for almost no money. Black Friday, I stood in line at Sports Authority at 4am and got a free $10 gift card. With that, Oliver got a padded bat & ball set. They also gave me another $10 gift card, which I used later to get a kick ball and a gift for next year (I paid $2 for those items). With Jingle Cash at Walgreen's, I picked out a fireman toy that was on sale to stow away for next year. A website called GILT gave away $20 for a limited time for joining their site. Andrew joined and got a bead toy (like the kind you see in the waiting rooms at doctors' offices) for Oliver, completely free. I joined and got a soft, monster bowling set for Oliver, which cost me $3 after the $20 discount. From a blog giveaway, I won $15 to a website called Ecomom and got Oliver a dinosaur puzzle for free. From a giveaway on another blog, I won a gift card to a website called Slimy Bookworm, and so I got Oliver three books and paid just $2 in shipping. I won a gift card from Amazon and used it to get Oliver a few more free books. I'd also won a gift card to a website called Jasmere, which works (sort of) similarly to Groupon. One day, a natural toy vender (Natura Toys) was featured on Jasmere, and so I got Oliver a toy for this year and a toy for next year for absolutely no cost. In addition to the toys listed here, I had a few stowed away for today from earlier (just in case I couldn't afford anything), including a wooden train and an animal puzzle.

I'm anxious for him to wake up so we can open all these gifts! I can't wait for next year, too, when he'll be (almost) as excited as I am.