How We Spent Our Christmas Vacation

Can you believe that the blog was silent for two weeks? I had plenty I could say, but not a whole lot of time to write my thoughts out. Sometimes it's just better to live life than to document it, so that's what I did.

If you follow me on social media (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter), you know I wasn't completely silent. After all, I did share a few pictures and status updates along the way. Still, there was more going on than I even shared. Here's the rundown:

Pre-Christmas:

We spent the holidays with Hubby's extended family. My mother-in-law had all kinds of fun projects for us - like making a few special Christmas recipes for me and cookie decorating for Kiddo. He really loved decorating those cookies and insisted on putting a cinnamon dot or chocolate chip on every single spot where there was icing. :-)

We also went downtown to see the lights. We visited a fancy hotel in the area, famous for its huge tree and beautiful decorations. 

While there, we took some beautiful family pictures. This one of Kiddo and my niece is one of my favorites. It's so crazy to think there will be two more cousins (our baby girl and a new nephew) next Christmas!

After the hotel, we went to see some beautiful Christmas light displays. Both kids really enjoyed it, since it wasn't too cold.

Christmas Eve:

It's hubby's family tradition to bowl on the morning of Christmas Eve. It's actually a perfect time to bowl. The lanes are usually pretty empty and the bowling alley we go to donates a portion of each game fee to a charity of our choice. 

Kiddo really got into bowling this year. He wanted so badly to make the ball go fast like the grown-ups, but he didn't have the strength, even with the light kiddie ball. He much preferred using the ramp to rolling it himself, and with the bumpers up he thoroughly trounced my scores. I totally stink at bowling while a few of Hubby's family members participate in a bowling league, so I've learned to just enjoy the game and laugh off my gutter balls.

Merry Chrismas! Having a great time bowling on Christmas Eve. This little guy is beating the pants off of me. #ChristmasEve #tradition #bowling #MaybeINeedTheBumpers

A photo posted by Kim {Pinspired Home} (@kim_pinspired_home) on Dec 24, 2014 at 7:33am PST

After bowling, we got together at my in-laws' house for a smorgasbord. Most of it was finger foods/apptizers, like Buffalo Chicken Dip and Shrimp Cocktail, but we also had pulled pork and chicken barbecue with Grandma's famous coleslaw. :-) I ate SO. MUCH. FOOD.

In the evening, we laid low. Kiddo and my niece each opened one present - their Christmas jammies - and my father-in-law read them a story about the first Christmas. Then it was time to put the kids to bed and finish getting the presents in the stockings and under the tree 

Christmas Day:

On Christmas morning, the kids watched a little TV while I helped my mother-in-law with Christmas breakfast and Hubby and his dad drove over to pick up Nannie to join us for the festivities. After a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, French Toast Casserole, fried apples, and orange rolls, it was time to open presents. My big present was a really nice lens {affiliate link} for my new camera. I can’t wait to break it in with a recipe post – now to decide which one!

Around noon, we headed over to Grandma and Pawpaw’s house for Christmas Round 2. After a yet another big, delicious meal (So. Much. Food.), it was time for the gift exchange. We each took turns revealing whose name we drew this year. We have so much fun with this, it has quickly become one of my favorite parts of our Christmas celebrations.

Between Christmas and New Year’s:

On Monday, Kiddo and I took a trip out to my parents’ house for an informal family reunion. My Grammy was staying with my parents for the Christmas holiday and all three of my aunt’s children  and their significant others were in the area, so we met together for lunch. I don’t get to see this set of cousins very often at all, so it was a real treat. I got to meet my cousin’s baby and they all got to meet Kiddo. It was a great time of family togetherness.

The Whole Crew.

We stayed overnight to get a little more time with Grammy (my last living grandparent). She really enjoyed watching him play.

Meanwhile, Hubby was hard at work putting down our new laminate flooring at our house. Since there isn’t much work for him to do at his job, Hubby always takes the week off between Christmas and New Year’s and picks a big home project to work on. Last year he painted our family room and sunroom/playroom, and this year he made steady progress toward replacing the horrible carpet in our upstairs. Can I just say that it looks fabulous? I’m so fortunate to have such a handy husband!

Kiddo loved helping his daddy measure and "cut" the flooring.

New Year’s:

While hubby was hard at work upstairs every day, I tackled the mountain of laundry leftover from our Christmas adventures and cleaned and purged in preparation for company.

We didn’t stay up to ring in the New Year, but we did toast to 2015 with sparkling cider before falling asleep in front of the fire on the sleeper sofa.

My view when I woke up on January 1st. Not bad. :-)

On Saturday, we hosted my family’s Christmas get-together. We always have a good time with my siblings and my mom’s brother's family.

All the "loot" for my family Christmas gathering, plus a toy bin.

Now that our Christmas celebrations are officially over, I hope to get back to normal. We took the tree down Sunday night and my goal was to finish taking down the decorations this week. It turns out that it hasn't happened so far - and it's Friday!

For starters, it has been so cold that I haven't had a lot of motivation to pack away all the pretty decorations. I've been doing a bunch of freezer meal prep between the ham from our Christmas gathering and some other recipes. Then Wednesday ended up being a day of unexpected running around - what a week!

In the meantime, I'm not going to complain about a little extra Christmas cheer. And I'm thankful that I didn't get too many decorations out due to A Simpler Christmas. :-)

Tell Me About You:

How did you spend the holidays? Any special traditions? Favorite gift? I would love to hear about it in the comments!

I link up at these fabulous link parties.

How We're Keeping Toy Clutter to a Minimum: A Simpler Christmas

It's every kid's dream.You wake up Christmas morning to stacks of presents so high you can practically swim in them. You open them to find toys galore. And in those glorious morning hours, you play and play next to the Christmas tree to your heart's content.

In reality, half of those toys will be shoved aside, hardly used, and clutter up valuable real estate in your home. I can tell you that Totally Hair Barbie (my Must. Have. Toy. in third grade) lasted about a week (if that) before she was set aside. After all, how many different ways can you style Barbie's hair before it gets old?

Also, you should definitely check out the commercial linked above. Pure 90's cool. I'm pretty impressed that I still remembered the jingle over 20 years later. Great marketing, Mattel!
But I digress...

So, how DO you keep the toy clutter to a minimum? These are the tips and philosophies that I've found work best for us.

• Save the toys for Christmas, birthday, and Easter. When Kiddo was little and we had next to nothing, I purchased several toys at yard sales. Since then, however, I limit toy purchases to special occasions.

Grammy loved buying him toys for his firs "big boy" Christmas.

• Don't buy (many) toys.
  Leave the toy-buying to doting grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We try to limit ourselves to one gift per special occasion, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a toy. 
  On a related note, try not to buy something just because it's on super-sale. The deal might be tempting (who doesn't love the rush of paying pennies on the dollar?), but I always try to ask myself this: will it be used or will it be clutter? No matter how amazing the deal, if it brings mess and chaos to my home, it's not worth it.   

• Purge regularly. I try to go through our play room a few times a year. As I notice a toy that is outgrown or neglected, I pack it away to donate, sell, or save for baby girl.

• Think quality, not quantity.
  It's better to give one really great-quality toy that will stand the test of time than to give a bunch of inexpensive toys that won't hold up. For example, this Christmas, I knew I wanted Kiddo to have a nice set of large wooden blocks to replace our very worn yard sale-purchased alphabet blocks. After looking online and reading a boat-load of reviews, it became clear that our best choice was to go with this Melissa & Doug set. It certainly wasn't the cheapest option, but knowing that it's a timeless and well-made toy that should hold up to a lot of abuse made it a worthwhile choice. The best part is, after much deal-hunting, my mom was able to pick the blocks up for half price on Amazon last week. (Score!)

• Add to an existing collection.
  I picked up this tip from Jen at I Heart Organizing and it's been wonderful. If your child already has a themed toy that he or she loves, add to the collection. Her example was legos, but for us, it's been Kiddo's Thomas train set. My parents have been adding track pieces and trains for Easter, birthday, and even a special reward for being potty trained. :-) The great thing about this is that I don't need to find a place to store these new toys - they just go into the bin already designated for that kind of toy!

• Go with a useful "big gift."
  This goes along with the quality vs. quantity example. Sometimes, if you have the space, a bigger toy can have a huge impact. Past big toys included a play kitchen, t-ball set, art easel, and bicycle. This Christmas, Kiddo is getting a trampoline from my in-laws to help him exert some of that abundant energy on cold winter days. 

• Think outside the (toy) box.
  Kids can get just as excited about non-toys as toys. Last year, Kiddo was tickled to open his own kid-sized shovel and snow boots for Christmas. Books, stickers, art supplies, and play dough are always well-received. And I can't tell you how excited Kiddo was to get a gift card to Chick-Fil-A for his birthday. Experiences, lessons, and memberships are also great options that we are keeping in mind for the future. 

Putting his boots and shovel to good use after last year's big storm.

Ultimately, on Christmas Day or any day, your child's joy will come from receiving things they really love and will cherish rather than just the sheer abundance of toys, which may be exhilarating but short-lived. Gift-giving is a display of love, and certainly not a competition (even with yourself) to go bigger and better each year. If we spend more of our time and money on traditions and togetherness, we are doing what really matters. We can express our love by giving gifts, but we must also make sure this motivation isn't lost in the "to-buy-list" frenzy. After all, at its core Christmas isn't about quantity; it's about quality--the quality of time spent together and the thoughtfulness of our gift-giving.

Unless you don't have children, or you get rid of your child's toys, there is no way to completely eliminate clutter. I'm by no means an expert on toy storage and clutter. Our play room is currently in need of another purge, and there are days when toys are left scattered on the floor, a total cluttered mess. I also know things will get more complicated with the addition of baby #2 this spring. However, with the above plan in place, I feel confident that our toy situation can be managed effectively without driving Hubby and me crazy!

How do you handle the toy clutter, especially around the holidays? What was your favorite Christmas gift as a child?

I'd love to hear from you in the comments in the comments below!

I link up at these fabulous link parties.

 This is a part of my series on A Simpler Christmas.

    

 

Saving With A Family Swap: A Simpler Christmas

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Budget. It's often a dreaded word around Christmas time. I'm a part of a local moms' group on Facebook (buy, sell, advice, etc.) and the budget question has come up a lot in the last few weeks. How much should you spend on family? How much should you spend on kids? (I'm in the minority on this one, I'm sure.) How can you give meaningful gifts to family members while on a small budget?

Our Solution:

When it comes to our extended families, I think we've come up with a good solution: we draw names. We buy gifts for immediate family - parents, siblings, and our niece - but then we swap with the extended family. As cousins get married and babies are born, the gifts start adding up fast! We began the swaps over five years ago and have come up with a pretty good system:

• Each family member (including kids after their first Christmas) draw a name for the person they will give to that year.
• All wish lists are sent to one family member, who sends out a master list the week before Thanksgiving. (Gift cards are allowed, but should not be the only things on the list.)
• Gifts should have about a $30 value. 
• The name you drew is a SECRET which will be disclosed at the time of the gift exchange. (Christmas Day or family Christmas get-together)

Why We Love It:

The gift swap has been a great solution for our family for several reasons:

• The Surprise. Like a Secret Santa exchange, it's fun to watch who receives what gift from whom! 
• Less Shopping. Buying for a few specific people saves me the time, money, and hassle of trying to find a perfect gift for each family member. 
• A Clear Budget. Knowing exactly how much to spend per person gives us a clear budget, meaning we won't over-spend.
• Purposeful Giving. Because we have specific people in mind and a clear wish list, we can buy a few nice gifts that we know our assigned family members will want, rather than a large number of smaller, clutter-type gifts just because it's Christmas and we have to buy a gift.

Stockings:

If you still have a hard time not buying a little something for your extended family members, stockings are the answer. When we began our swaps, both of our families exchanged stockings. We'd lay the stockings out and as they arrived for the family party everyone would fill them with small items - gift cards, sweets, chapstick, books, calendars, etc. My side of the family still does stockings. However, with the addition of two babies and a few marriages, it was getting hard to keep up with Hubby's side of the family. Sadly, it was agreed that we stop with stockings last year.

How do you give gifts on a budget?

I would love to hear your tips, tricks, and ideas! Leave a comment below. I promise I'll respond to every single one! :-)

I link up at these fabulous link parties.

 This is a part of my series on A Simpler Christmas.

     

 

Our Favorite Battery-Free Toys: A Simpler Christmas

 

As part of my quest for a Simpler Christmas, I'm talking about toys today. Lately my Facebook feed has been filled with deals on toys, toys, and more toys. It's actually quite overwhelming for a girl like me!

I'll begin by confessing that I can be a bit of a "toy snob." By nature, I don't do well with a lot of "stuff" because it overwhelms me and gets messy... fast! For my sanity, everything needs to have a place and be easily managed.

To limit the clutter, I try to keep the number of toys to a minimum and purge our play area several times a year. (While I have donated and sold a few, most of the purged baby and early toddler toys are saved and packed away for baby girl.)

Having fewer toys means less mess and less stress for both Kiddo and myself (fewer tripping incidents and power struggles about picking up toys). With less toys to play with, I have chosen to be very purposeful about what is in the playroom. They need to be enjoyed and used regularly. For this reason, the toys we request for his birthday and Christmas wish lists rarely require batteries.

I prefer battery-free toys for a few reasons:

• More opportunities for creative play.
• Less opportunity for sensory over-stimulation .When Kiddo plays with a lot of toys with all the bells and whistles.
• Not as annoying. (If I have to hear that Laugh & Learn Puppy sing "If You're Happy And You Know It" one more time...)
• Less expense. (The cost of batteries can really add up!)
• Kiddo plays with them longer.

To be clear, electronic toys aren't banned at our house. Sure, we have a few fun battery-operated toys, but they are most certainly in the minority. And to be honest, they are also the toys that are least-used. Kiddo definitely seems to prefer the open-ended play found in his battery-free toys.

Our Favorite Battery-Free Toys:

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• Blocks (He loves both wooden blocks and MegaBloks)
• Wooden Train Set
• Cars (We started with chunky cars like B. Wheee-ls and Tonka Chuck, but now he's really into Hot Wheels)
• Wooden Puzzles
• Play Kitchen with Dishes, Utensils, and Empty Food Containers
• Little People (At 3, he rarely uses the play sets, but he still likes to play with the figures on occasion)
• Lacing Cards
• Toy Tool Set and a small working tape measure.
• Books
• Stuffed Animals
• Blankets (I put play silks to this year's Christmas list, which I know he'll love.)
• Art Easel with Crayons (Crayola, of course!)
• Play Dough (He loves this no-cook Kool-Aid play dough too!)
• Pom-poms (Some of the best money I've spent at the Dollar Tree.)
• Stickers

I think my favorite thing about battery-free toys is how versatile they are. A blanket or play silk can become a cape, picnic blanket, or fort. Blocks can become buildings, fences for toy farm animals, or a garage for toy cars. And who needs play food? Kiddo loves to use empty spice containers to pretend that he's pouring and mixing things in his kitchen. Or he loves to use play dough or pom-poms to make something extra-special.

If I can encourage you to try one thing this Christmas, it would be to go battery-free with your small children. It's completely worth it!

What are your kids' favorite toys, or what were your favorites when you were a child? Did they require batteries? Tell me about it in the comments below!
 

I link up at these fabulous link parties.

This is a part of my series on A Simpler Christmas.

A Simpler Christmas: 10 Things We're Choosing To Do and Not To Do This Holiday Season

With all the great ideas out there and all the talented and creative bloggers I follow, I've been bombarded lately with adorable traditions, delicious treats, gorgeous decor, and sweet handmade gifts every time I go online. It's SO easy to pile more and more on our to-do lists. So today I want to encourage you that we don't need to do it all. We need to make the choices that are best for our families, no matter what.

Last week the incredibly sweet Megan over at SortaCrunchy shared this post on her facebook page and it really resonated with me. Take a moment to read it. I'll wait right here.

Ok, you're back! What a great reminder, right? My favorite line:

"If baking cookies and watching your kids sling sprinkles all over the kitchen is going to make you yell today? Then no. Don’t do it. Always choose the relationship with your kids over the Advent activity that makes you scream. Always choose the Simple over the Pinnable."

Reading this just confirms what I had already decided. Some things need to give this year. I have a busy and stubborn three-year-old. I have another child on the way. And I still haven't regained all my pre-pregnancy energy. I have to be really purposeful this year.

I want a Simpler Christmas. So I sat down and thought about what is most important to me, and what isn't, during this Christmas season.

I want to be clear. These are the choices we are making that work best for our family in this season in our lives. My goal is certainly not to be critical of anyone else or their traditions. I'm sure that your list will be different than mine. :)

Ten Things We're Choosing Not To Do This Christmas:

 

Christmas Card/Letter

I love Christmas Cards, but this isn't the year. Think on the bright side: we won't have to pay for cards or postage and I won't have to take the time to address a pile of cards or take them to the Post Office. I'll save the mass mailing for a birth announcement after our baby girl arrives this spring. :)

Elves (of any kind)

Elf on the Shelf, Kindness Elves, Rascally Reindeer, Christmas Mouse... Whatever it is, I can guarantee I would forget. Or it would just be one more thing to grudgingly check off my to-do list, which is already longer due to the holidays. Kiddo is blissfully ignorant of these cute little traditions and that's perfectly fine with me.

Elaborate Decorations

We will put up the tree, display our nativities, and hang stockings on the mantel. Beyond that, I'm not holding myself to much more.

Lights or Decorations in Our Yard and Porch

A simple wreath on the door will be just fine this year.

DIY Christmas Decorations

I love these! A Christmas DIY would make a great project to display on the blog. Not this year, though. I'm going to focus my craftiness on other areas.

Pictures with Santa

We don't make a big deal about Santa at our house, and I'm not sure Kiddo would be game to sit on his lap. He's still pretty wary of the cow at Chick-Fil-A.

Fancy-Wrapped Presents

Oh, they look so pretty under the tree! But they will also be torn apart and tossed in the trash on Christmas morning. I will use my collection of festive gift bags and Christmas wrap , but our presents will not look like the cover of Martha Stewart Living. Instead of bows, dollar store to/from stickers will be the only things adorning our gifts, and I am ok with that.

Elaborate Christmas Activities for Kiddo

There are so many great ideas on Pinterest - Christmas crafts, science experiments, sensory play, etc.  I probably won't do any of them. This year I bought photo ornament craft kits at Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off a few weeks ago. We'll make those and get out the Christmas cookie cutters for the play dough. Beyond that, I'm not expecting much from myself. If we get to more, it will be a fun bonus.

A Real Tree

We already have an artificial tree which does not need to be watered or cared for in any way. Right now, that will work fine for us.

Christmas Eve Service

I love going to the candlelight service at church! Unfortunately, it is usually over well past Kiddo's bedtime and it can be hard to get him to settle down to sleep on late nights. With such a busy Christmas day celebrating with our extended family, it's better to let him get a good night's sleep and enjoy the festivities rather than keep him up and risk a cranky Christmas.

10 Things We're Choosing To Do This Christmas:

Advent

We are reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible (I recommend this reading schedule) and then Kiddo will place a star on his Advent Calendar each night after dinner. Since Christ should be the focus of our Christmas, I'm excited to use this simple activity to build our anticipation of Jesus' birth!

Gingerbread Houses

My mom hosts a gingerbread house decorating shindig the weekend of Thanksgiving, so this wasn't too much work for me. Everyone brought some candy and all I had to do was use my mold to make gingerbread pieces for two houses. Kiddo LOVED decorating his gingerbread house and literally decorated it for well over an hour before I made him stop to eat lunch. :)

Black Friday Shopping

This is a fun tradition with my mom, sister, aunt, and cousins. Daddy and Grandpa held down the fort with Kiddo while we spent quality retail time together.

Operation Christmas Child

We just turned in our shoebox before Thanksgiving. I love the opportunity to teach Kiddo about giving to others. We went shopping together to fill a box for a boy aged 2-4 years old. It's still a little hard for him to grasp the concept of packing a gift for someone he doesn't even know who lives so far away, but I think he's starting to get it. I was really proud of him for being willing to give up some of the fun things we picked up for his box.

Christmas Cookies:

I love baking, so I will probably make two of our favorites from scratch. I may do this with Kiddo, or I may make them during naptime by myself. I'm hoping to have my sister over to bake with me one day in the month of December.

Nativity Display

Our Willow Tree nativity will find a prominent spot on the mantel, hopefully this week. Kiddo's Little People Nativity will be out for him to play with during the month of December, which should bring many opportunities to discuss the true meaning of Christmas.

A Christmas Tree

We will set up our artificial tree and hang it with kid-friendly ornaments we already have. It will probably not be anything to blog about. :-)

Simple Decorations

I plan to put up the tree, display our nativity, hang stockings on the mantel, and hang a wreath on the door. Anything else that adorns our home will be a bonus.

Handmade Christmas Gifts

I plan to make a few EASY handmade gifts this year, some of which Kiddo and I can do together. I can't tell you more about them because then the gifts wouldn't be a surprise! :-)

Photo Ornaments

This is something I do every year for our relatives. I mentioned above that I'm even simplifying this project this year by purchasing craft kits from Hobby Lobby for Kiddo to make with my help.

What about you? Have you made a "Not to Do List" this year? If you haven't yet, I'd encourage you to at least review your priorities for the holiday season. It never hurts, and it might just simplify your holidays for the better!

What's on your list? I'd love to hear from you!

  I link up at these fabulous link parties.