Hello friends!
I do hope this finds you doing well!! I am sitting in my sunlit office with the outside temp.being almost 70° today - just lovely! I am thinking of my snow-covered Northern friends as I wear my shorts and flip-flops! :-) Are your Holidays still Happy? To be honest...I have had a few rough spots this month with my Happy Holiday Really mission and I am trying to correct one situation right now as I think about what to share with you this week. Hopefully, when I check in next time my mission will have been accomplished!
Can you believe that Christmas is this week?! Of course, since about the time I turned 25 I've said that every year, but every year I am still surprised at how fast Christmas approached!! Okay...at the risk of being redundant, what things would you like for Ammie and me to share with you and/or help you with? Would you like to do recipe exchanges? Do you need parenting tips? What about money-saving ideas or even decorating how-tos?
We don't have all the answers to any of those things, but what we do have is a great network of others moms that we can tap into. Let this blog be our gift to you...take from it what you need and/or leave something to! For today's "share", I am leaving you a link about "Coastal Christmas" decorations. When I saw this, I immediately thought of my cold-weather, northern friends and how this might be a way to add some extra sunshine to your holiday. I know that a lot of families get to travel to warm weather, beach-laden places throughout the year so these decorations are not only unique, pretty and easy to do...they would also conjure up good memories of those trips for all of you!
Like thousands of other families this Christmas seasons, I am hitting the road this week to be with family on Christmas. For my fellow travelers, safe journeys to you! For everyone...My wish for all of you is that the true meaning of Christmas will shine brightly for you and that you have a very, very Happy New Year!!
Smiles,
Your JBF Friend Andrea
http://www.completely-coastal.com/2009/12/ideas-for-homemade-christmas-ornaments.html
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Still having a Happy Holiday Really!
Good Morning!
I am still having a Happy Holiday really, although some days it has been just barely! (Can any of you out there relate?!). The "barely" part really came into play yesterday when we went to buy our son's Christmas gifts and the invoice I was handed was about $900.00...(gulp, sigh and small sweat!). We buy our children only 3 gifts each year...something to share with each other, something they need and then something they want. Well...until about a month ago 2 of my sons were still in bunk beds. Bunk beds are great and we had them for about 10 years, but...my boys are getting big enough now that I thought it was time that they graduate from that scenario and get their own, twin beds.
So...for the past 6 months I have been working on this task of getting them out of the bunk beds and into the twin beds. I have utilized Craigslist and Freecycle and managed to get 3 free box springs, one free bed frame and one bed for only $15.00. Well - doing the fast math you can see that I am still one frame and 3 mattresses short for getting them all into a bed which is where the $900.00 invoice comes in! We are fortunate enough to live very close to a mattress manufacturing company that has been in business for 113 years and have an excellent reputation with good prices and wonderful mattresses. Even so...buying the 3 mattresses all at one time, at a good price still put us out a significant amount of money.
Now...the really tricky part here is how to make this $900.00 purchase exciting for my 3 boys who have actually enjoyed sleeping on the floor in their sleeping bags since Thanksgiving! (We took the bunk beds to my parent’s vacation home over the Thanksgiving break knowing that we were going to be buying mattresses). Any ideas on that would be most appreciated!!!
Now that we have made that purchase my goal of having a Happy Holiday Really is going to be tested this weekend as we try to finish up Christmas with a drastically revised budget. I am looking at all the Free Christmas activities my town has to offer (luckily...living in a large metropolitan area does help with that!) plus I have a few things that we can do here. So...I will let you know how that goes. And for the rest of the gifts I need to purchase? Well...coupons and bargain hunting, etc. are something I have been doing for year and so I will use those skill to once again "pull the rabbit from the hat"!
I am trying to encourage the other half of the Germantown/Port Washington Just Between Friends team to write something here as she is in the middle of that snow storm that has been talked about all over the news! She is hilarious and always has something going on!!!
We do this blog just for our friends, so...let us know what you think, how you are doing and what you know!
Keeping Happy!
Andrea
I am still having a Happy Holiday really, although some days it has been just barely! (Can any of you out there relate?!). The "barely" part really came into play yesterday when we went to buy our son's Christmas gifts and the invoice I was handed was about $900.00...(gulp, sigh and small sweat!). We buy our children only 3 gifts each year...something to share with each other, something they need and then something they want. Well...until about a month ago 2 of my sons were still in bunk beds. Bunk beds are great and we had them for about 10 years, but...my boys are getting big enough now that I thought it was time that they graduate from that scenario and get their own, twin beds.
So...for the past 6 months I have been working on this task of getting them out of the bunk beds and into the twin beds. I have utilized Craigslist and Freecycle and managed to get 3 free box springs, one free bed frame and one bed for only $15.00. Well - doing the fast math you can see that I am still one frame and 3 mattresses short for getting them all into a bed which is where the $900.00 invoice comes in! We are fortunate enough to live very close to a mattress manufacturing company that has been in business for 113 years and have an excellent reputation with good prices and wonderful mattresses. Even so...buying the 3 mattresses all at one time, at a good price still put us out a significant amount of money.
Now...the really tricky part here is how to make this $900.00 purchase exciting for my 3 boys who have actually enjoyed sleeping on the floor in their sleeping bags since Thanksgiving! (We took the bunk beds to my parent’s vacation home over the Thanksgiving break knowing that we were going to be buying mattresses). Any ideas on that would be most appreciated!!!
Now that we have made that purchase my goal of having a Happy Holiday Really is going to be tested this weekend as we try to finish up Christmas with a drastically revised budget. I am looking at all the Free Christmas activities my town has to offer (luckily...living in a large metropolitan area does help with that!) plus I have a few things that we can do here. So...I will let you know how that goes. And for the rest of the gifts I need to purchase? Well...coupons and bargain hunting, etc. are something I have been doing for year and so I will use those skill to once again "pull the rabbit from the hat"!
I am trying to encourage the other half of the Germantown/Port Washington Just Between Friends team to write something here as she is in the middle of that snow storm that has been talked about all over the news! She is hilarious and always has something going on!!!
We do this blog just for our friends, so...let us know what you think, how you are doing and what you know!
Keeping Happy!
Andrea
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Happy Holidays Really! (So far) - -
Good Tuesday afternoon to you!
Okay...normally I will just post once a week, but I thought I would at least update the mission we are on to make the Holiday Happy Really!
We were gone for Thanksgiving for over a week and did not get back until Sunday. I am just now getting caught up with laundry (last load is in the wash now...yeah!!) and my e-mails have finally all at least been looked at (no internet for 5 days = over 500 unanswered e-mails!!) I am sure many of you can relate! I at least have the Thanksgiving decor gathered and 90% of it is stored away for next year...well, the last post mentions how that happened. :-) So now...it is time to get the house decorated for Christmas (this is where if you were sitting here, you would hear an audible UGH!!). That sound effect would be due to the fact that we have tubs and tubs and tubs of Christmas decor. (again...does this sound familiar to anyone?!). I LOVE how our home looks when it all decorated, but it takes about 5 hours or so to get it all done. Well - I will skip all of the background conversation that my husband and I had about how it is just us, no one sees the house all decorated except for the kids, etc...., but this year our Holiday is going to be Happy Really! because we are only putting up the 2 trees (the children have their own), decorating the mantle (we can't skip the stockings!) and putting out the children's most favorite items (of course their favorites involve buttons to push and singing/dancing).
None of our Christmas traditions are being altered (we still read them a Christmas book each evening, have our advent candle out...), but what we have gained is reduced stress during a time where the tasks are more than time available to complete them. Now, I can use that saved 5 hours from the decorating and saved 3 hours from the undecorating to do something like...get my Christmas cards mailed out BEFORE Christmas Eve day, watch a movie with my children, take the walk I have been meaning to take for 3 days now, etc.
So...off to enjoy more Happy Holidays Really!! How have you been doing with that? Let me know...it is always so nice to know you aren't alone on things, isn't it?!
Smiles,
Andrea
Okay...normally I will just post once a week, but I thought I would at least update the mission we are on to make the Holiday Happy Really!
We were gone for Thanksgiving for over a week and did not get back until Sunday. I am just now getting caught up with laundry (last load is in the wash now...yeah!!) and my e-mails have finally all at least been looked at (no internet for 5 days = over 500 unanswered e-mails!!) I am sure many of you can relate! I at least have the Thanksgiving decor gathered and 90% of it is stored away for next year...well, the last post mentions how that happened. :-) So now...it is time to get the house decorated for Christmas (this is where if you were sitting here, you would hear an audible UGH!!). That sound effect would be due to the fact that we have tubs and tubs and tubs of Christmas decor. (again...does this sound familiar to anyone?!). I LOVE how our home looks when it all decorated, but it takes about 5 hours or so to get it all done. Well - I will skip all of the background conversation that my husband and I had about how it is just us, no one sees the house all decorated except for the kids, etc...., but this year our Holiday is going to be Happy Really! because we are only putting up the 2 trees (the children have their own), decorating the mantle (we can't skip the stockings!) and putting out the children's most favorite items (of course their favorites involve buttons to push and singing/dancing).
None of our Christmas traditions are being altered (we still read them a Christmas book each evening, have our advent candle out...), but what we have gained is reduced stress during a time where the tasks are more than time available to complete them. Now, I can use that saved 5 hours from the decorating and saved 3 hours from the undecorating to do something like...get my Christmas cards mailed out BEFORE Christmas Eve day, watch a movie with my children, take the walk I have been meaning to take for 3 days now, etc.
So...off to enjoy more Happy Holidays Really!! How have you been doing with that? Let me know...it is always so nice to know you aren't alone on things, isn't it?!
Smiles,
Andrea
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