Toy Thursday: Christmas?

Christmas?

Yes. It is only October.

But as a saver, it's never too early to check your gift stockpile and research gifts. If you're a saver (like me), you know that EBates is a GREAT site to get paid to shop. But sometimes Ebates doesn't offer all of the sites you want to shop from. That's where MyPoints comes in. Click either of these links and get paid to shop.

Buy smart, save money. :)

Tip Tuesday: Keep The Kids Busy--Treat Them to a Movie!

If your kids attend school out of the home, they're on break this week. We're on day three of break and already we've had a discussion about not having to get up at 6:30 and to be nice to your brothers.

But I've got to find things for them to do...or I'm going to go bonkers.

Today, on KBG deals, they have 50% off of movie tickets through Fandango. 4 movie tickets for $24! Click here to view and purchase this deal!

You could use it as an incentive or just when you've "had enough" and want them to sit still for more than 10 seconds at a time.

I never understood the line in "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" that says, "And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again"....until now.

Toy Thursday: What My Kids WON'T Be Getting This Christmas

Is it just me or are toys getting stranger and stranger? What happened to the normal toys we had growing up?? That being said, here's a list of toys that my kids WON'T be getting at Christmas (or birthday, or ever).

1. Doggie Doo Game

Really? A game where you feed a dog and press its tail and it poops. And then you have to clean it up. And how is this fun? Ew.

2. Pop the Pig

You feed a pig burgers until his tummy bursts. Again, ew.

3. Squinkies

Here's a great idea...let's encourage our children to play with something that is super small and a choking hazard. What could go wrong?? Pass.

It reminds me of this SNL sketch.

My kids will not be getting "Mr. Skin Grafter", "Doggie Dentist", "Johnny Switchblade, Adventure Punk" or a "Bag of Glass".

Call me a mean mom. But I might just stick with Duplo toys and trucks.

Tip Tuesday: Leave the Bows

I learned this trick the hard way and have been waiting to share my wisdom with other mommies!

The bows on the presents...if you're like me and you have to travel "Over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers house" you know the problem. You've got your gifts all nice and pretty, with a bow.

By the time you get to Grandmas, the bows are crushed and your wrapping job looks like you did it blindfolded.

Rather than putting the bows on before hand, I just leave them off of the gifts. I bring a bag of bows and put them on the presents as I'm setting them under the tree at Grandma's (and in our case, ma'ams) house.

It saves a lot of headaches, stress and honestly, more stress is the LAST thing a mom needs at Christmas.

Salvation Sunday: The Magic of Christmas

Quite often we get a little too wrapped (pun intended) up in all of the Christmas traditions, baking, gifts etc etc.

The other night, Daddy was getting off of work late, I was tired and didn't want to cook dinner and we agreed to meet at Pizza Ranch (or Pizza Ants, as Sean calls it).

Daddy had a small mishap at work (bus accident, but he's fine) and was running late. The kids were hungry, and tired, and whiney, and fighting and and and...mom had enough.

Even though I knew Daddy wouldn't be able to meet us for a while, I loaded the kids in the van and we drove around looking at Christmas lights.

Baby B has started saying, "WOW! WOWOW!" at the Christmas lights. It was too cute. But Liam stole the show. He exclaimed, "Mommy! My heart is so full of Christmas joy I feel like it could explode!!"

And while that's not a very traditional Christmas vision, it made my heart warm. I knew what he was trying to say. I knew what he meant. And it was sweet.

Because I remember feeling that way about Christmas when I was a kid. And when he said it, I had that feeling return again.

It is magical.

Tip Tuesday: Frugal and Festive Holiday Decorations

It will be nice when I can decorate my whole Christmas tree...but for now, we'll just decorate the top half.

Now that we have hardwood floors, I knew I didn't want to put any breakable ornaments on the tree. I can just see it...the boys come running, crash into the tree and there would be green, red, gold and silver glass shards all over the floor.

Nope. Not going to happen.

But I really hate having decorations that I can only use once a year and knowing they're just sitting in a box in storage. It doesn't seem like a good use of property.

So I grabbed some vases and put the glass balls in them. I put three vases in our front entry way, one on the boys bathroom counter and one on our bathroom counter.

The boys bathroom with glass balls in a vase

Master Bathroom

Front entry way


It really gave all of the rooms a festive feel and it didn't cost anything as I already had the supplies!

Make Monday: Make It Festive (And Smell Good Too)--Even If It Includes Mr. Hankey

Yesterday I came across a recipe for applesauce and cinnamon ornaments. The kids seemed excited about them to we made them. When I say "we", I mean "I". They stuck around for about 5 minutes before playing with the Angry Birds set.

When it came time to pick out the shapes, they were all about it. We have snowmen, Christmas trees, Candy Canes, Gingerbread Men and stockings.

I found I had just a bit of dough left, and not wanting to waste anything, I did something I wasn't proud of.

We made a Mr. Hankey Christmas ornament. It wasn't my finest parenting hour. But the kids had fun and it will make for a conversation starter at our house warming party.

The recipe I used is as follows:
3/4 cup applesauce
1 bottle (4.12 ounces)of ground cinnamon

That's it. Mix it, roll it, cut it. Before baking, use a straw to cut a hole in the top of the ornament so you can string it and hang it on the tree.

Bake at 200 degrees for 2.5 hours. It will make your house smell AWESOME.

Even if the last bit of dough is in the shape of, well, Christmas poo.

I love being a mom of boys, I love being a mom of boys, I love being a mom of boys.


(Note: Mr. Hankey was my HUSBAND'S idea.)

Salvation Sunday: Keeping Christ in Christmas

We all know that saying and we know what it means...but do we really?

Quite often I see people too wrapped up in their Christmas shopping, decorating and baking that they're doesn't seem to be a glimmer of Christ in their CHRISTmas.

Someone fired shots outside of Valley West Mall on Black Friday. Someone was choked at the 8th Street Wal-Mart over a video game. Two teens got in a fight at Jordan Creek mall. Would Christ be involved in any of that? I don't think so.

We need to remember what's important...that HE is the reason for the season. We're celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The man who came to Earth, the man who died for our sins. The man who is more than just a man, but the Son of God.

It's not about who has the "right gifts", who has the "house with the most lights" or who has the "perfect" decorations. It's about that "Dear 8 pounds 6 ounces baby Jesus, new born, not even spoken a word yet."-Ricky Bobby.

And now that you're laughing, keep sweet little baby Jesus in mind. Because, it is about his birth.

Toy Thursday: Surviving The Holiday

There are SO many toy commercials. Honestly, I was expecting more political commercials than toy commercials, living in Iowa one month away from the caucus. But I couldn't be that lucky.

Woah. Wait. Did I just call myself lucky to sit through political commercials? I did. I must be losing it. And Mattel must have a larger advertising budget than Mitt Romney.

But every time my kids see a commercial for something the TV tells them they need...they want it. The toy commercials have even infiltrated my evening news.

24 days until Christmas. We'll be watching a lot of IPTV (commercial free) and less Nickeloden between now and then. I'm done toy shopping for the boys and I don't want them to decide there's something they need between now and then.

And then there's the Pampers "Silent Night" commercial that never fails to make me weepy. And even though they scream and fight and yell for toys, they're my little angels.

Tip Tuesday: Christmas Shopping Savvy

Whether we're ready or not, Christmas is coming. I find it hard to believe that some stores already have their Christmas gear out...did I miss Thanksgiving? No? Okay. Just checking.

I've been buying all year for Christmas. When items go on clearance, I grab them. I stash them. I spreadsheet them. I am a nerd. And in addition to my "gift tote" I also had to figure out a way to get the larger toys from the apartment to our new house in the move. It wasn't easy.

My boys LOVE Angry Birds. They love it so much, they "play" angry birds. That means on kid is sitting on the couch and the other "launches" himself from the other side of the room, to the kid on the couch, screaming "CA-CAW!"

When I saw this deal I couldn't pass it up.

A "live action" Angry Birds game, complete with sounds, for HALF PRICE.

My oldest (the biggest Angry Birds fan in the house) turns 6 just after Thanksgiving. I know what he's getting for his birthday!!

Toy Thursday: Christmas Toy Catalogs!

We have not even had Halloween yet I find myself being bombarded with Christmas. You? Every department store has had their Christmas trees up and decorated next too all their Christmas wares and merchandise for over a month now.

My husband even took our son Judah to Menard's one night to look at tools. Instead, they ended up going through the Winter Wonderland complete with a tunnel of lights, big snowman inflatables, and lots of decorated Christmas trees of every shape and color. Now my son talks about seeing Christmas trees when we come to every nearby Evergreen tree. Even the decoratated trees outside our neighbors house with orange lights are Christmas trees.

We limit our television time to watching mostly videos, thus avoiding commercials on regular programming. However, I can only imagine the toy commercials have increased on the air. And soon we will be listening to Christmas music as well.

Now I typically enjoy the Holiday season especially as Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday (perhaps because it is like Christmas only not commercialized). Yet, I always enjoy the activities of Fall so much as this is my favorite season of the year. This year I feel cut off from wearing my orange and making my pumpkins as the rest of the world seems ready to move onto Christmas.

In spite our efforts to avoid commercials, the advertising world has taken a hold of our mailbox filtrating it with Christmas catalogs and coupons of all kinds - pajamas, clothes, tools, plants, and yes TOYS!

This is really the first year I have seen Judah sit down with the toy catalogs turning the pages and looking at all the bright colored pictures. And I have heard him say, "Neat" and "I want to play with this" as if the item will magically jump out so that he can touch it and play with it. I guess you can say the advertising world is clever when it comes to marketing toys.

The toys though on the market this year are actually not that cool. To me they scream mess, noise, and boring. In the back of my mind, I have already picked out some educational, fun, and neat toys for Judah. And I plan to go and look for these regardless if they are in the catalog or not. So good try toy stores.

Toy Thursday: It's a Woot-off!!

If you haven't checked out Woot! today is the day. It's a Woot-off! What's that mean? Basically Woot! is trying to sell out their overstock. That means they sell one item until it sells out---and then it's something new.

You can snag some great deals...and it is a flat $5 shipping. So if it is a good deal, grab three of it and put it in your gift closet--and still only pay $5 shipping.

It's a good time to buy ahead for Christmas. I've also gotten items (for as little as .01) and put the games/toys in the Toys for Tots bin at Christmas. Be sure to check out Kids Woot and Wine Woot too!!

Have fun shopping!