a tale of two presents

Santa brought a new trampoline. With an enclosure, don't worry. It just wasn't assembled yet in the picture. He also stuffed the girls' stockings with craft kits he bought for $1 at Michael's. I know they were only $1 because he left the price tags on. Well, the pictured craft kit is one where you put the beads on the pegs, iron it until they all melt together, and then stick a magnet or key chain on it. Fun, fun. As fun as a trampoline? Apparently so. The "connection dots", as she calls them, were such a hit with Maggie. This is how conversations between her and enquiring adults would go:
Adult: "What did Santa bring you?"
Maggie: "CONNECTION DOTS!!!!"
Adult: "Wow! I don't even know what that is. What else did he bring you?"
Maggie: "Not a dog, Mrs. Claus won't let him bring dogs anymore."
Me: "What else did Santa bring?"
Maggie: "Um...Ratatouille."

Moral of the story....5 year olds are just as happy with stuff from the dollar store as they are wonderful presents that will provide years and years of enjoyment. So save your money.

I took the oldest three to Christmas at the farm tonight at Wilson-Rutlidge. I had to bribe the kids with M&M's to get them to sit on Santa's lap.

Even M&M's weren't enough to convince Lucy.

Santa's promise of a candy cane in addition to my M&M's was enough to get her to pose for a picture. But not enough to touch him.

When Maggie asked for a real dog and a trampoline Santa really came through for us by explaining that Mrs. Claus won't let him give pets anymore. She was just always worrying that the kids weren't taking good care of them. On the car ride home, the girls wondered how he got by with bringing them a goldfish last year. Hmmmmm......

Christmas card rejects

After falling apart last year on our way to our 4th party of the day, I vowed that this year would be different. No more over-committing ourselves and our children to the point that we don't even enjoy the season. You know what? It's worked! I am really enjoying the Christmas festivities this year. I can't believe that we have only 4 days left but I'm ready. The only area where I seem to be an utter failure is in getting our Christmas cards out. I really could of skipped it but the ole mama guilt took over as I realized that it is Daisy's first Christmas. So I finally ordered our cards on Friday. At Walmart because it would of taken too long to get them in from the website where I normally order from. I tried to get by with sending less this year but it has become clear that's just not going to work. So, looks like I'll be getting a few dozen more and sending them out this week, probably arriving after Christmas. Until you get yours, here are a couple of our reject pics.

cooking 101

Out of the 22 parties and get togethers we have attended or are planning to attend leading up to Christmas, one of them stands out as the most anticipated. I've been looking forward to this day for weeks. We spent the afternoon soaking in Diana's culinary knowledge, talk about Titus 2 in action. She shared her recipes and her heart for young wives and mothers. Best of all, my freezer is now stocked with 5 delicious meals for my family. Mrs. Recipe Box, how about you hosting the next class?

I'm breaking my word

I know I said I would never speak of this again but I can't help it. There are a few deals out right now that I just have to tell you about. First of all...our local Kmarts are finally participating in double coupons, this week only. They will double your coupon up to $2.00. That means a $2 off coupon becomes a $4 off coupon. I'm heading out to get me a bunch of free stuff in a minute. Today is also cyber monday which is supposedly the biggest online shopping day of the year. I don't know if it lives up to all the hype but there are a few good deals to be found. Old Navy is 20% off site wide and there is free shipping at Gap, BR, and Old Navy. TRU is running some great deals, too. Just google cyber monday and you'll find a lot of sites running specials for today only. Finally, is all this deal seeking and couponing worth it? Well last month I spent $321.62 on groceries. My total before coupons would of been $849.73. To me, that's worth it!