Four Family Christmas Traditions + 1 New One

Each family seems to have their own holiday traditions and it can be so fun to hear about everyone's! Sometimes you get a new idea! Here are four of our traditions plus a new one we are starting.

1. Four gifts per person.  "Something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read."  We find that this helps our family reign in the consumerism, stay within a reasonable budget, and be more grateful for the gifts we receive.

2. Christmas Light-Seeing.  I put popcorn in a baggie for each person, pack travel mugs with hot chocolate, and we pile in the car to drive around looking at Christmas lights. Sometimes we do it as a scavenger hunt: Who will be the first to spot 10 snowmen?  Where will we see the first nativity?  Can anyone find a light up polar bear?

3. Operation Christmas Child.  If you've been reading here long at all you know that our family loves to fill shoe boxes to donate to this ministry of Samaritan's Purse! All year long I am scouting for things...I've already got a start on NEXT year's boxes!

4. Angel Tree.  Our Walgreens puts up a tree with names of local elderly, home-bound people who need Christmas gifts.  I take my oldest son and let him pick a name and then we shop together to pick out things for that person (each name also has a few suggestions on there like lotion, house slippers, ornaments, etc).  This is special Mom/Son time and helps him learn that giving to others is a priority.  We go out for ice cream afterwards. :)

NEW TRADITION

All good ideas come from pinterest, right?

This year's new tradition is gifting each child with a new set of pajamas and a pack of hot chocolate and popcorn on Christmas Eve.  Then we can sit and watch a Christmas movie as a family while they are wearing their new jammies and enjoying the snacks.
Here's the pin that inspired me:

Unfortunately the pin did not lead to the original source.
If you know where this is from, please tell me so I can credit them!

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14 Snacks for the Letter "O"

 Here we are at the end of the Letter of the Week Snacks series.  Last but not least, ideas for the letter "O."

1. Oatmeal
2. Oatmeal cookies
3. Onion rings
4. Okra
5. Oranges
6. Orange jello
7. Orange juice
8. Oreos
9. Ocean Spray drinks
10. Olive
11. Omelet
12. Ovaltine
13. Oh's cereal (I rarely see it at Kroger, but Wal-Mart seems to always have it)
14. Oven baked fries

Friday Funnies (Cooking Style)

Happy FRIDAY!

The day I took a facebook quiz

I kept seeing my friends' quiz results pop up.

"Sally Smith is most like tv mom Carol Brady."

"Jill Jones is most like tv mom Lucy Ricardo."

"Pam Pargo is most like tv mom June Cleaver."

"Sue McJones is most like tv mom Elyse Keaton."

"Cool." I thought.  "I like all those moms."  So I clicked through to finally take the quiz.  Answer a few questions, wait for it to calculate my results...

suspense.  Which cool, awesome, mom will I be?!

The answer was in.

"You are most like tv mom Roseanne."

Wait, what?  Roseanne?  The sarcastic, half-crazy woman? Me?  Well, I never!

Needless to say, I opted to NOT post the quiz results on my facebook page!
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What tv mom do think YOU are most like?  Do you ever do those quizzes and get off the wall results?

4 reasons we give our kids 4 Christmas gifts

  

Let me set the scene for you.

The year is two-thousand-something.  It's the end of January/beginning of February.  I'm trying to walk through the front room and I step on something.  It was something our son had gotten for Christmas...probably a little activity book or action figure or something.
I looked down and realized our living room was littered with little things leftover from Christmas.  Things that were appreciated certainly but it really felt like a scent out of a Berentstain Bears book.
*ahem*

Anyway, seeing all the excess made me realize that I had bought stuff for Christmas just so there would be MORE UNDER THE TREE.
Let that sink in.
I bet some of you have fallen into that trap too, it is easy to do.

You pick up this and one of those and a few of these so there are more things under the tree. So it looks fuller.  So Johnny has a nice Christmas.

And yet, I don't think that's what the original intention for Christmas was.

A poem came to mind that I'd seen before about giving gifts. Give four things.  "Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read."  I decided to implement this gift-giving standard for Christmas and we could not be happier!


Here are 4 reasons we chose to do it this way
1. I am much more intentional about the gifts I give.  Instead of grabbing a half dozen things my kids will "like," I am getting ONE thing for their "want" gift so we put a lot more thought and consideration into it.

2. The kids are less stressed.  This simplified gift giving seems to ease any holiday anxiety.  They know what to expect on Christmas morning.

3. Giving 4 gifts is a rejection of the American idea of commercialized Christmas in which we overload on products likely made in sweat-shops, or attempt to one-up each other by having the latest and greatest.

4. 4 gifts can fit almost any budget.  If you need to buy each item from the dollar store or yard sales so that you spend $4 or less per child, you can.  If you have a bigger budget and do $5 items or $50 items, you can.  If you are so inclined to spend thousands, you can certainly do that too.  But having just 4 items to purchase helps you stay inside your predetermined budget, whatever it is.
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Updated 2015: This blog, Thirty Handmade Days, has free printable tags you can use on the 4 gifts.  Head to her site to download them. They are super cute!  See?

From: Thirty Handmade Days

I share this with you so you can see how we do Christmas in our house.  I by no means think everyone should do it this way and neither my husband nor myself grew up like this.  It's just what works for us right now. I'd love to hear about YOUR family's gift-giving philosophy in the comments. :o)

Shared at Family Friday, RockABye Parents, Creative K Kids, & Serenity Now.

13 Letter "V" Snacks

Looking for letter-of-the-week snacks?  For the letter "V?"  Look no further!  I came up with 13 14 snacks/foods that start with the letter v.  If you can think of any I missed, let me know in the comments!

*Zucchini Summer Blog is an Amazon Affiliate. Links may be affiliate links. Full disclosure here.

1. Veggie tray
2. Venison jerky
3. Vienna sausages
4. Vegetarian anything
5. Vanilla pudding
6. Vanilla bean ice cream
7. Veggie chips
8. Veggie straws

9. Vanilla wafers
10. Vegetable soup
11. Very cherry juice

12. Vitamin water
13. Vlassic pickles
14. Vermicelli (pasta)