We’ve had a busy weekend… well, I have. I’ve been working on my pantry makeover and I’ve completely moved things around 3 times already! I will post pictures as soon as I have it the way I like it but it is an improvement already and I think it makes better use of the breakfast nook space that just didn’t work for us.
Continue reading “Update with more pictures! Preparing for Christmas… St. Nicholas, Gifts in a Jar, and so much more!”
I don’t know about you but my phone has been going crazy with notifications about packages that will be arriving as we just finished up the majority of our Christmas shopping. I have a huge black tote in my room that I am keeping the gifts in… yes, I believe they will all fit in the one tote this year.
Now, I have to figure out how to wrap them. I have a bunch of leftover paper from years past. There was a time when I liked to have things color coordinated and usually each kiddo had their own paper to keep things a little more organized as the tags seemed to get lost before Christmas morning. I have always seen the towers that people do with different figures and they look so cute but I don’t want to buy special paper for them.
I have an idea of just buying some fabric and making reusable bags but maybe making them so that they could stack and make these adorable gift towers… with our new 3-4 gift rule it might make this a real possibility!
Here are some cute pics of the ideas I have from Pinterest:
It might be a little late in the game for these goodies but I needed to make some for my Holiday Planner anyway and I figured I’d share them here just in case anyone else could use them. They really aren’t anything fancy but I did try to make a couple of festive options to help you feel a little more in the Christmas spirit.
We plan to start implementing the 3 or possibly 4 gift rule in our home because things are just so expensive and our kiddos really have everything they need and a lot of what they want so we don’t want them asking for tons of things that they won’t or can’t use. We really want them to stay focused on the reason for the season … we are dedicating these weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas for an Advent Study. We also want them to think about gifts and appreciate the time, thought, and money that goes into each gift they receive and not what they expect to find under the tree.
Continue reading “Free Printables for Holiday Shopping plus some tips for buying for special needs kiddos!”
Thanksgiving is over but there’s no time to rest yet as the real preparations are beginning for the holidays! One of the biggest things we need to do is to take time to sit down and evaluate how our Thanksgiving was. What was everyone’s favorite part? Was there anything that didn’t work well? Do you need to set up a rotating schedule to have dinner at other family member’s homes? (Odd year here, Even year there, or every 3rd, 4th, year?) Would it be better to have a potluck-style meal where everyone brings something? Was there anything you would like to do differently? Start now for your planning for next year so you don’t forget these ‘little things’! We will also be getting all of our Fall decor ready to be put away next week so we can start pulling out the Christmas decor.
We pray that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and that you didn’t go over budget with the Black Friday spending. We had a beautiful day and we were so blessed to have family and friends to enjoy it with.
The kids did a lot of work to help with our Thanksgiving dinner and preparations. We counted it as Life Skills and they were happy that it wasn’t ‘bookwork’. They have asked if we can have more lessons like this.
The weeks before Thanksgiving the kids helped to plan out the menu, check the pantry for supplies, and help order the groceries. Then they helped to organize the recipes and pull out the dishes and serving trays that would be needed. They did a pretty good job as you will see in the pictures below.
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