Do You Still Send Holiday Cards?

I used to stress so much over sending out cards that I would start compiling my lists and getting the cards addressed and ready just about now. But the last couple of years, I decided to cut back on the stress and the expense. Yeah, it can get pretty expensive sending out cards! Especially when you have a list as long as ours which include overseas addresses.

Thank goodness for email! No, I really don't mind emailed cards. I don't get offended but some people do. So if you're still sending out cards this holiday, consider making personalized cards and order them online from on of many direct mail printing places. They will print your cards cheaper than if you buy them by the box, and the ones that you print will be personalized making them more meaningful for the people you send them to.

3 Tips for a Simple and Stress Free Holidays

I received these tips via email and I thought they are worth sharing. These helpful tips are from Libby's Table.

Three Tips for a Simple, Stress-Free Holiday Season

Skip the Lines, Shop Online!
I heartily agree with this tip. I think this is the first year that I will be doing most of my gift shopping online. I think if I can order my groceries online, I would! But that's another matter.

Keep the Classics
During the holidays you might feel the pressure to be a gourmet chef. No need! This is the time when you should focus on sharing memorable times, so comfort food is the way to go. Stick to easy, hearty recipe ideas everyone will love, such as winter minestrone and turkey tetrazzini! - absolutely! Although totally against what I've done in the past, believe me when I say that the Holidays is not the time to experiment.

Don't Party Every Night
Between office parties and family gatherings, kids' play dates and community events, your family holiday festivities will start to add up quickly. Sit down as a family and prioritize the parties everyone is looking forward to most, and don't stress about the remaining ones. - don't feel like you have to attend every party you're invited to. You don't have to be a total recluse either like someone I know who sits in front of the tv all day and night watching Mesothelioma commercials.


DO YOU HAVE A TIP FOR STAYING STRESS FREE OVER THE HOLIDAYS?
Share your own holiday tips on the Libby's Facebook page!

AND If you're looking for a way to give back this holiday season, please join or donate to the Libby's and Feeding America Virtual Canned Food Drive! Every $5 donated equals 35 meals. Join or donate today!

Refuse to be stressed

Stress during the holidays is something that almost seems inevitable. I refuse to succumb to it though. I try to make my holidays as stress free as possible. I may not have the prettiest decorations or the most sumptuous meal but I will be the most sane hostess for the holidays.

This year, I have come to embrace online shopping. I can't believe how stress free it is to simply Google everything you think anyone in your family would need! There are even online coupons and discounts like these aj madison coupons that you can't find elsewhere. The best thing is, I avoid the crowds! I hate crowds and having to fight for parking space. Plus, when you shop online, you can plan farther ahead instead of procrastinating until the night before Christmas like I have done in the past.

Another New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The first month of the year is almost over and here I am just getting around to posting. Sure hope everyone is doing well? Did you set a New Year resolution for yourself this year?

Me, I don't declare resolutions as I don't want to jinx myself. Based on my Facebook friends (real scientific, don't you think? lol!) everyone is pledging on better living and improving their health. Time to put all those fitness equipment, diet books and other health paraphernalia you got for Christmas.

I'll probably do the same thing; you know, eat better, exercise more, smoke less, etc. It will just be an ongoing goal, continuing on from last year.

Did you make any resolutions?

Dare We Start Shopping?

Now that we've rested a while, I we're trying to muster up some energy to go out in the cold and hit the malls. We haven't really done any Christmas decorating nor bought any gifts for anyone. I've been procrastinating with the shopping and now here we are two weeks before Christmas and still nothing is prepared.

The Sears 3 Day Sale started on the fourth and today is the last day (Dec. 4-6). They have a bunch of decorations and gift items that I want to go look at. One is the GE Christmas lights set for $7.99. The lights we have are probably 2-3 years old and they just need to be replaced. I mentioned to the girls that Sears is also having a sale on artificial and already lighted Christmas trees but that didn't go over too well. They still want their real, live Christmas tree. So I guess we'll just buy new lights and maybe new decorations.



Every year, I try to buy a new ornament for each one of them. A couple of years ago, Sears had some Craftsman Christmas ornaments that were just so cute. All their tools in miniature. What could be cooler? This year though I may have to get the full sized ones for my husband. His hand tools are even older than our Christmas lights and they've been slowly conking out on him, one after the other.

Sears has a Craftsman 16-drawer tool storage combo that I think will be perfect for him to store all his tools in. I know he'll love that one but I'll have to see still how the budget is and depending also on which tool I get for him. I know he needs new drills and saws. During this 3-day sale, the Craftsman tool storage is 50% off so I'm hoping the tools are also as deeply discounted. Better get going!

What Holiday?

I can't believe people are already thinking of Christmas. I received an email yesterday about a Christmas party reminding us to start signing up for committees and thinking of shopping lists and such. I had to do a double take and look at my calendar. Are they serious? And I thought it was bad when stores started pulling out Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving is even over. Geesh, I'm still wearing tank tops so I can't think of Christmas. I DON'T WANT TO think about Christmas.

But of course, advertisers won't let you forget. Ads are already coming in for sales on playstations, laptops, xbox 360, nintendo, psp and all those high ticket items that kids love but parents hate. Well, at least this parent does anyway. My girls are probably getting deprived somehow; they don't have any of that stuff. They don't seem to miss it and they don't seem to be any worst for being without it. So for the meantime, I'm pretending the holidays are still many months away. How about you? Are you getting ready or are you in denial?

The Easter Weekend

Happy Monday! So did you have a good Easter weekend? Even though I don't really observe Good Friday, I took the day off since the girls were off from school so I ended up having a nice long weekend :)

Anyway, most of the weekend was spend shopping. You can check out Mi Hija's take on our shopping spree. They all got outfits and new bedding. Mom? Well I just got to see their happy faces. It's so funny how even the older girls got all excited over their Easter baskets.

I was too tired to download the photos last night, so maybe later in the week I'll post more pix at our new house.

The Free For All

I feel like I've been on a treadmill these past few days; running on auto pilot most of the time, just going through the motions of getting from here to there. So it's no wonder that I almost totally wigged out and forgot it's Easter Sunday this weekend!

At least the girls are not still into the easter egg hung thingy. I won't have to take them to the easter free for all at the local park. Amazing how competitive some parents are. They used to hog all the eggs so their kids can pick them up. I remember one time I took my daughters to the park for the free for all and when my daughter was getting ready to pick up an egg (don't forget she was only two at the time) some jerk had the nerve to tell her his little girl was on her way to get that! I started to say something to the idiot, when I noticed my daughter gave him the "no comprendo, no hablo ingles" look, turned and walk away with her egg. LOL!!

I forgot Easter this year

If ever there was an award for thoughtfulness, I would probably not get it. I cannot believe how dense I have been lately. Can you believe I almost forgot Easter? If it hadn't dawned on me on time, we would have been getting up on Sunday morning (or noon) and probably wondered why everyone is so overly dressed up for church. We would have been scrounging around for left overs too, since I haven't bought anything for Easter dinner!

So while I am running around the next couple of days to pull some semblance of an Easter dinner together, I hope that you and your family have a fine weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not.

Thank goodness I'm out of the Easter Egg Hunt phase! :)

Post Christmas

So, Christmas is over. Did you get all your shopping done? Did you get what you wanted for Christmas or were you in line on the days following to exchange your gifts? We were out the day after Christmas, but not to exchange gifts. We were out for the sales and to spend gift cards.

I like gift cards especially for men who you don't really know what to get for. It used to be that you can get away with generic stuff like socks, ties, cufflinks or handkerchiefs. But that gets old after a while. You can only give those items so many times in a row until it becomes like the ubiquitous fruit cake. So gift cards it is.

But that can get so impersonal too. I personally like giving away and receiving books as presents. It shows that you've at least thought about the person and tried to match them up with something they may be interested in. Food items are a good, safe gift too. Those are always sure to please and gets demolished in no time.

Actually, this is why I like Thanksgiving. No stress over gift giving, just lots of good food and good company.

A Holiday Vacation

Every holiday, we keep saying we should go away instead of staying home to celebrate. We are again toying with the idea, but there is just nothing that beats that feeling you get on Christmas morning and you run to the tree to see what Santa has brought you. So we're thinking, what if we go after the Christmas presents are opened and spend a few days away from home?

I started looking at Hotel Reservations for nearby areas we'd like to visit and checked out HotelReservations.com. I checked the other sites too, and found that it was worth comparing sites. There are price differences not only in prices but also in hotel listings. I like the fact that bed and breakfast inns and vacation rentals were included in the mix when I searched HotelReservations.com. I hadn't thought about the bed and breakfast or vacation rental, so I was really glad I was given that information. Now I am concentrating my search to those types of accommodations. It's perfect for a family of five!

Relax, but not too much

While foodies like me look forward to Thanksgiving because of the food, others look forward to this weekend for the time to become couch potatoes and recliner rangers. Several bowls of the football variety are scheduled and are sure to keep many a sports fans glued to the tube. For the rest of us, smells from the kitchen will keep us glued to the kitchen chairs instead and we'll be handling a different sort of bowl.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's three a.m. on Thanksgiving day and I'm up blogging because I can't go back to sleep and it's too early for me to start cooking.

Husband found just the right size turkey for our family of five, he found a 8 pound fresh turkey, so I don't even have to defrost it! I know, it's cute, I almost panicked when I saw the little turkey. It doesn't seem big enough, especially when you're used to cooking twenty pounders. But it's just the five of us again this year, so I think this will be perfect. I can cook a pork roast by the weekend. hehe!

Visit our food blog for recipes. I'll be posting new ones that I try out this year. If you are still looking for recipes to make, just put thanksgiving in the search box and you'll find recipes we've cooked up in the past.

Turkey Trial Run

The holidays are upon us again. It will be Thanksgiving before you know it! Just last weekend when the girls woke up, they all said it felt like Christmas and started singing Christmas carols! ~sigh~

Well, rather than lamenting how time flies, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon. Last night, I started my annual Thanksgiving trial run and cooked a whole turkey. We do this every year because as soon as the temperature dips below 80 degrees, some people in my house start singing Christmas carols and wishing for turkey. We didn't eat it last night since it was midnight by the time it was finished cooking. We're having our turkey dinner tonight. I'll go home and fix all the fixin's and we'll be nice and full by the time Survivor comes on tv. hehe!

The Clone asked if we can eat by candle light. So I said so long as they do it, they can set the table as they want. So she already took out the tablecloth, napkins and placemats last night. I'll have to wait and see until I get home tonight to see what she comes up with.

More on Holidays

I hate to start harping on the holidays already when the summer is really still in full swing. Some of the vegetables in the backyard are just starting to take off; and just last night while we were sitting out in the backyard we (husband and I) were hoping that the frost will not come too early so that the late bloomers will have a chance to fruit. Then almost in the same breath we start talking about christmas gift ideas for the girls. We looked at each other with the "what the...." look and laughed. Well, maybe shuddered rather than laugh.

Scary how time is just flying away from us. The Clone is in fourth grade this year, and she didn't even want me to walk her to her classroom this morning. She said that would be just too embarrassing. Then she ran into her friend at the doorway, and off they went together. So we're left to sit and ponder inane stuff like what to do for the holidays. So sad.

Gearing up for the Holidays

Today it's warm and bright and it's time to get back to back to school. Before you know it, it will be cooler and the holidays will be here again and the mad scramble for holiday shopping will start. Here in the U.S. where Thanksgiving is celebrated on the last Thursday in November, there is a phenomenon called Black Friday which occurs the following day. It could be the turkey or the general overindulgent feasting on Thanksgiving, but the following day, people have been traditionally prone to go out and start off the holiday shopping frenzy. The stores have caught on to this and now make it a point to offer huge bargains to further entice shoppers to come out and walk off all the turkey and pies from Thanksgiving and lighten their wallets. Most of the time, the advertisements for the sales are kept secret until the very last days prior so as to create an even bigger sense of anticipation among shoppers. Now you can take a preview of or get email notices on black friday ads. Now you can plan your course of action, or if you're like me and hate crowds, you can even start ordering online, in the comfort of your own home. Yep, you can just sit at your computer after Thanksgiving and give that feast some time to slowly work its way into the nooks and crannies of the muscles you save by not trekking to the sales :) Did I convince you to sit on your fanny, or are you still going to put on your battle gear and conquer Black Friday?