How To Survive the Holidays

Here are some of my tips for surviving the Holidays:

Read/Buy this Book!

It will make you smile and feel good and it's realistic too.

For example, one of the pages says,

"Calling the Season what it really is - Cold and Flu Season."

Do watch the movie Elf at least once with your family.

 Also, watch some Cheesy Romantic Holiday Hallmark Movies too.

There are lots to choose from on Neflix, Amazon prime,

and a Hallmark TV channel app too.

Sip some Hot Chocolate.

Mexican Flavored Hot Chocolate is my new favorite.

If you aren't exercising regularly.

Start now. Don't wait until 2018.

Walking, Running, Biking, etc.

Ask your friends what they do to exercise.

See if you can join them.

Look into different classes, and gyms near you.

Lots of communities have city rec exercise classes

that are more affordable than gyms.

Look for something you can start now.

It's more important than making homemade ornaments.

Follow the #LightTheWorld Calendar.

It is a nice way to bring

the true Meaning of Christmas

into your home.

Don't overdue it though.

You can feel overwhelmed quickly if you try to do it all.

Just pick 5 of your favorite ideas.

The New Era magazine has the best, simple ideas for each day.

The Friend magazine has a star advent you can use too!

Use Facebook, Instagram, and Social Media less this Month.

Everyone's traditions, homes, ideas, fashion, pictures, etc.

will look AMAZING and you might start to feel bad or overwhelmed.

Most of it is edited, and dare I say, maybe even a bit Fake.

This is great article about this very thing.

Just use social media a little less this season and bake these cookies instead.

These cookies are really easy to make.

No refrigerating dough ahead of time.

No rolling out sugar cookie dough.

No messy flour.

No cutting out cookies.

Cutting out sugar cookies always sounds fun,

until you are in the middle of a huge flour mess

with too many children in your kitchen.

No having to frost either.

DO LESS THIS SEASON.

Take one thing (or more)

off your December to do list this year.

Maybe it's cards, or matching pj's, or

gingerbread houses, or homemade presents or ornaments, etc.

Good Luck,

Ready or Not Here Comes December!

25 Ways in 25 Days

My kids and I love counting the days until Christmas!
Usually, we have lots of ways we do this with countdown chains from school,
chocolate advents from Grandma, and our elf, etc.

I like to prepare an advent for our family about Jesus Christ
- his life, his stories, his miracles, his service, etc.
It helps us stay focused on what matters most during this Season.

Our church has prepared an advent reflecting this very thing.
This year all over the world, no matter your age,
your faith or religious beliefs,
you can do small things to help serve others.

It's beautiful and simple.



You can do one thing each day, or just do a few of things
throughout the month. No need to go overboard, or to feel guilt, or stress.

It starts tomorrow on Dec. 1st.
It will help you enjoy Christmas better, in a more meaningful way.

Go to this link to print out a pdf of the calendar, so you can follow along.

The idea is to #lighttheworld with small acts of service.

This initiative will help each of us remember Jesus Christ,
and more importantly come to know him.

This website will give you more information.
Share your ideas on social media using the #LIGHTtheWORLD

2016 Favorite Things

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 girls or boys // 9 // 10 // 11 // 12 // 13 // 14 // 15 // 16

I love sharing my favorite things with you.

They aren't exciting or glamorous items.

It's just a list of basic things.

Each of these items have helped me smile, survive,

and enjoy my home and family during 2016.

You can buy most of these items in your local stores.

Most of my links take you to Amazon to give you a price idea, and

to use as a resource to help you find the product and read reviews.

I am not affiliated with any of these products, companies, or websites.

Our Christmas Eve Program and Christmas Morning

My grandparents started a tradition of having a

Christmas Eve Program -  a Talent/Variety Show with their 5 children.

My mother and some of her siblings continued the tradition with

their own kids, and now the grandkids -

our family and others do the same tradition!

It's strongly encouraged that everyone participate in some way.

This year we hosted my sister and her family of 5 boys, my college brother Steven,

Dianne, my mother-in-law, and our family for our program this year.

Here was our program:

written down by cousin Matthew.

 The coloring contest.

I was the judge, this was my talent. Judging!

Steven wrote an awesome poem that he shared!

 Kyle performed the saxaphone.

Lindy performed on the piano!

 Cousin Spencer Sang!

 Sadie Clogged!

 Tate showed us how to solve rubik's cubes!

 Sam demonstrated how to make snowflakes with paper!

Both Tate and Sam's performances turned into some comedy as well!

Hilarious and great Fun!

 Molly read us a story from our prophet, Pres. Monson when he was a boy at Christmas.

 Chris did the 12 days of Christmas Star Wars Version!

Fantastic, he handed out the words so we could all follow along.

 Brandon did Jingle Bells, and encouraged all the cousins to sing with him.

 Molly's family also did Christmas Bingo!

 Uncle Jeremy read 'Twas the night before Christmas'

Oh Christmas Tree

Once upon a Saturday in December we took too long to do our chores.
But, we decided to head into the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree.

A 1st for our family.

It was nearing 5 'o clock, by the time we got started,
and picked up a Christmas tree permit from the local ranger station.
We only had about 45 min. before it would get dark - to find a tree, cut it down, and strap it our car.
Thankfully, we found one, and we're able to get on our car  in the dark.
It was a fun adventure, one worth doing again, but next year will get an earlier start in the day!

Lindy loves how her dad's ear/head warmer is above his ears!

I loved our Christmas Tree this year!

Easy Reindeer Games

Here's a couple quick games to play with your kids,
or for any party or gathering you may have in the next few days before Christmas!

Roll a Snowman Game

Let's Celebrate Christmas!

I was feeling sad about some of the negative in the world, and in the news.

It seems so many are hurting, hungry, or are in mourning,

and still others may suffer in different ways,

When I was feeling down,

and wondering how can we continue to celebrate.

 I remembered the Who's down in Whoville.

I was reminded of how they celebrated Christmas morning,

even when they woke up to nothing at all.

It was a wonderful reminder, and filled me with peace and joy.

It also reminded me to keep things simple as I begin this Christmas season.

Storing my Kids Christmas Ornaments

My kids each have their own Christmas ornament collection.
Our Aunt Carolyn gifts them a new ornament each year,
they have some ornaments they've made,
and a couple they've gotten as gifts.

I decided it would be much easier to store the kids'
ornament collection in their own boxes.

I've also tried to mark their ornaments with a sharpie marker on the bottom
of each ornament the first initial of their name,
and if there's room the year we got the ornament.

Our Costco sells it's gallons of milk in boxes. I know not every Costco does this.
We go through a lot of these boxes.
They were the perfect size to make ornament boxes for each of my kids.

I got some chevron contact paper to cover each box.
When I work with contact paper, I find it easier to cut smaller pieces of the paper.
Instead of working with longer pieces - this creates less bubbles and stickage problems for me.

Then, I printed out a big red letter of each of my kids' first initial
of their name to put on the front of each box.
I happened to have some extra shoelaces that I used to tie the boxes shut.

The boxes store nicely in the plastic storage containers.

My kids are getting older, so this is why I had time for a project like this.

Most of my kids are gone in school for most of the day.

Truth be told, I still haven't done Brandon's box yet.

4 out of 5 isn't bad, right?

It's a good tv watching project.