MomDot Blog Party - Day 8

Welcome to Day 8 at the Blog Party from MomDot! Today's sponsors are: Koshas (stylish yoga belts), Leapfrog (yes - THE Leapfrog...Leappads, Didj, Leapster...love it!), and Soda Stream Soda Club (kits for making your OWN soda at home!)

Day 8 - Do you shop on Black Friday? What time do you start? Do you finish all your shopping on that day? What’s the best deal you have found? What’s your shopping strategy?

I will admit I am woefully ill-equipped to even answer this question. I can just barely tolerate the mall during the year...so when the insanity of Christmas takes over as the last of the turkey is settling in my stomach, I'm more inclined to hide under my covers than venture out.

My sister-in-law is the Black Friday shopper in our family. She started plotting her strategy last week, and once the dessert dishes are cleared from the Thanskgiving table she will run out to her car, and return with armloads of flyers to get her hardcore planning done. She will get up at 3AM, brew a huge pot of coffee, and hit the road with one mission: Stuff her little Corrolla as full as it will get before her daughter gets up for breakfast.

I admire her gusto, really I do. If I were inclined to make any major purchases for Christmas I'd probably fall under her tutelage and learn her ways :) I'm lucky that the Boy Wonder is still young enough to get me off the hook for big ticket items, but I am fully aware that it won't last. Soon I will be joining the masses and zombie-walk through the pre-dawn hours in search of that video game, that MP3 player, that one thing he MUST have. I just hope the coffee's REEEEAAAL strong...

MomDot Blog Party - Day 7

Lucky DAY SEVEN at the MomDot Blog Party!

Today's Sponsors are: Sillymonkeez (fun teeshirts, pet products and more) and My Baby Bump (maternity wear with attitude)

Day 7 - Who's on your naughty list? Who's on your nice list? Why?

On the naughty list? One of the managers at work. You don't need to like me, but you do need to treat me like a professional...instead I am faced with a situation that feels more like the girls locker room in high school than a medical unit at a major area hospital. So not cool. The good news, her boss's boss likes me, so she can just get on my nerves and not much more.

On the nice list....that's a tough one. The Boy Wonder, obviously because he's the most awesome little guy. My Mother-in-law for being the amazing, caring, generous woman that she is. My own mom passed away 10 years ago, and my MIL has taken up the gauntlet and treats me like one of her own kids. She even kinda reminds me of my mom :) My bestest best friends, for putting up with me for the last 20 (what???) years. We still have tough roads to travel, but we are doing it together! My husband, for being willing to put up with me for the REST of his NATURAL LIFE. That is one brave dude :) My landlords, because they are the BEST landlords ever...I've never rented from anyone who gave ME a Christmas gift. Or been willing to drive out and unclog my sink on a Sunday morning. And my Daddy....we haven't always had the best relationship, after Mom passed away he put a lot of his hurt and anger on me because I look just like her. I prayed for years that we would reconcile. God gave me patience to wait for the right moment to open up communication again. We are now closer than ever, and THAT is one of the best gifts I will ever receive.

MomDot Blog Party - Day 6

On the SIXTH day of Christmas, MomDot gave to meeee.... :)

Today is sponsored by: Flying Colors Baby (adorable duds for the kiddos), Uncommonly Cute (totally hip baby tees), and Lollipop Book Club (Books and a book club for the wee ones!)

Day 6 - Favorite holiday memory from YOUR childhood

I really had to think about this one - not because the pickings were slim, but because I had the great fortune of having a truly rosy childhood. And I learned how to love Christmas from my mom, Mrs. Claus herself.

I already told you about the Christmas morning stocking, but another Christmas tradition of my mom's that I LOVED was the scavenger hunt.

Every year (once we were old enough to play along), she'd come up with a new present hunt. We got stuff under the tree, sure (many years she wrapped socks, stuff for school, etc..but we always had a LOT to unwrap!). But there were always one or two "big" presents for each kid, and one "family" present. So she would create these scavenger hunts that would lead us to our big gifts, then the family gift. We would get excited to help each other find our presents...and every year the hunt was a little different!

One year, there were clues hidden in the Christmas tree. Another year, they were inside walnut shells (which my dad laboriously glued back together). One year we had to follow a string of yarn all through the house. Stuff like that added to the excitement of Christmas morning, brought us kids together, and made for great stories to tell :)

MomDot Blog Party - Day 5

Welcome to DAY 5 at MomDot's Blog Party! Today's Sponsors are: BabyPop Designs (Superhero capes and other sweet kids' apparel) and Chic Covers (seat covers, cart covers and more!)

Day 5 - Do you volunteer during the Holidays? What organizations do you donate your time to? How do you teach your children the true meaning of the holidays?

I have often been overcommitted. I love volunteering for things, and offer to help any chance I get. Before we moved, I was hands-on in just about every activity my old church offered up. I've cut back considerably, mostly because we moved and I only recently found a church that I was happy with, so I'm still figuring out the inner dynamics there.

But as good as I usually am with donating my time during the year, holidays seem to hold me back more than they drive me. Schedules are crazy, the whole season is a frantic one, and things like volunteering fall to the wayside when I feel like I barely have enough time to breathe. Right now, we donate presents to Toys For Tots and Angel Tree Ministries, and we make a monetary gift to Heifer International. I perform with my old worship team at the local Juvenile detention center and the Salvation Army recovery center. When the kids get older, we want to find a way to volunteer as a family, either with the local soup kitchen or Habitat for Humanity, but I think that's a ways off for us.

I hope that teaching my kids the true meaning of Christmas goes far beyond just the holiday season...the Boy Wonder is little now, but if I can foster a sense of appreciation for the blessings we have, and a spirit of giving ALL the time, I'll consider my efforts a success :)

MomDot Blog Party - Day 3

It's DAY THREE of the MomDot Christmas Blog Party!! Today is sponsored by Appledonia, Hippos Toes, and My Bag.

OK, OK....I know I'm a little behind on the Blog Partying. Blame the Powers that stole my old blog site!!! :)

If you don't already know, there's a big bloggy love-in going on over at MomDot from Nov 12th-Nov 27th! You can read up on the fine details HERE, but in true Dottie fashion this blog party involves two things - giving linky love to other blogs, and PRIZES :)

Friday was officially Day 3 of the party, so I missed the first two days. But since I'm loathe to leave out any juicy details, I'll do an abridged version of the first two...

Day 1 - Introduce your family, share a past holiday photo
This is an easy one. My happy household consists of DH, myself, and the Boy Wonder, currently checking in at 20 months old but he thinks he's one of the big kids. Both of us come from families that get a little nutty about Christmas :)

Here are a couple of pics from last Christmas, BW's first!




Day 2 - Talk about your family's holiday traditions
Well, as mentioned before, we are Christmas-holics that come from a long line of Christmas-holics. There has to be a support group somewhere for us. My tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving and sometimes comes down by the end of January. I had one tree that finally met the curb just before St Patrick's day.

We are still figuring out how to meld our Christmasy superpowers...but here's a favorite tradition from each side of our family that we are carrying on to our kids:

- From DH's side, the "fantasy" christmas list. Every year, each person makes out their wish list to post on my mother-in-law's fridge. The list does always include a few actual gift wishes, but the bulk of the lists are for "fantasy" gifts. Sometimes they are poignant items (end to the war in the Middle East, help for the needy)...but often the items are truly ridiculous. Last year my brother in law asked for the keys to Gillette Stadium. My sister in law wanted a swimming pool full of orange Skittles. I asked for a Llama. :-)

- From my side, the Christmas morning stocking. This was a ploy by my mom to earn her a few extra minutes of sleep on Christmas morning. As kids, we knew that we had to get right to sleep because Santa didn't just leave presents under the tree, he brought our stockings from the mantle and laid them at the foot of our bed. I can still remember getting excited when I first woke up to feel something heavy on my feet and realizing it wasn't the cat :) There were always little toys, treats, a piece of fruit to eat before breakfast, and usually something that my brothers and I could do together - like puzzle books or little games. We used to gather in one of our bedrooms and compare our loot. Truly good times :)

And FINALLY:
Day 3 - Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Do you budget for the holidays? Do you always stick to your budget? Share with us any budgeting tips you may have!

I don't look forward to Christmas shopping. Any other time of the year, I can troll the malls with the best of them...but come the holidays I would rather poke myself in the eye with a rabid weasel than go near the shopping hotspots. My sister in law is the quintessential holiday shopper, she starts planning her Black Friday purchases as soon as the flyers come out. She gets up at 3AM to be first in line at the store. I wish I had that kind of gusto, but it's just not my game.

A few years back, I made a couple of changes to my holiday shopping habits:
- I come up with one homemade gift idea that can be given to all of the adult members of our families. I personalize the individual gifts along the way, but I decide on one base project. I have done cookie mix/brownie mix jars, soup mix jars, crocheted hat and mitten sets, herb-infused olive oil in decorative bottles. I start gathering supplies after Labor Day and chip away at the projects through November. By Christmas I'm good to go.
- I shop at thrift stores and consignment shops for toys wherever I can. The thrift stores here don't get into as much of the Christmas hype and I always find a wealth of stuff for the wee ones. We also make sure to donate back at least one toy for each one we are buying for our little guy. I do look out for stuff at yard sales over the summer too, I've come across unexpected prizes many times...the biggest challenge with yard sale holiday shopping is STORING it until Christmas!
- For those gifts that I just can't get at the thrift store, I online shop. Around this time of year, most online retailers do free shipping deals, and it's pretty easy to find discount codes. A few of my favorite code sites are Retail Me Not and DealCatcher. This year I am going to give eBates a try, they give you a percentage back on your online shopping AND you can use discount codes.

We try to budget for about $50 per family that we're buying for, and $50 for our own kiddo. Hubby and I exchange one gift with each other, and we use some of our Christmas budget to pay for our annual trip to the NY Comic Convention :) Most of the time I'm pretty well under that budget, because I make so much myself and shop secondhand. I also don't have teenage children in the house! My condolences to the parents of older kids...I hope that Best Buy is good to all of you this year :)

Be sure to check out the other posts for Day 3 of MomDot's Blog Party!!