Not Everyone's Mama

Through the hustle and the bustle of the holidays, what do you do to make the season just your family’s for you?  Here’s some ideas that I have and that we as a family do.

(that is my poor sad tree missing most of it’s ornaments thanks to my children last year)

1.  Shop online.  This sounds like a silly tip to making it a fab holiday season until you stop and think about it.  I’m all for Black Friday shopping but after that, I’m done.  I hate the holiday crowds. I hate the cranky moods of people (employees and customers alike).  I hate fighting for parking spots.  It all stresses me out and takes away some of the joy of the holiday for me.  After Black Friday, if there is something else I need, I go online and do it.  I’ve placed 3 orders now with Target and 3 with Wal-Mart.  Shipped right to my door, no crowds, no parking, less stress, more time for other things that I actually WANT to do.

2.  Help others.  Whether  it be putting some $$ in the ringing bell person’s bucket, helping out at a homeless shelter, buying for a needy child through your school or Toys for Tots (or another organization). Visit a nursing home and read to the elderly people who might feel forgotten (I used to work at one as a CNA, many are stuck there and pretty much forgotten. They get to where they considered us their family.)  Anything you can do to help someone else who may need it.  Then continue that tradition year round. 

Here’s one I heard you could do today when I was listening to our local Van & Bonnie on WHO.  Help out the Red Cross.  They have The Gifts That Save The Day catalog.  You can give a military comfort kit, a full day of emergency shelter, blankets, emergency water containers, blankets, vaccinations, all those things that we take for granted here.  AND if you don’t have extra money to donate right now, go ask them about volunteering.  They will train you for free and when something happens and the Red Cross is needed, you’ll be prepared to go help them.

3.  Start a family tradition that doesn’t revolve around presents.  One I’m quite upset that I was told we weren’t doing this year.  My dad must be joking.  We have a tradition of going out to eat for Chinese on Christmas Eve after we go to church as an entire family (when I say entire I mean mom, dad, siblings, spouses, kids, etc.  Everyone but the dog, cats, and birds!).  Why a Chinese restaurant?  Because Christmas Eve is my dad’s birthday.  We celebrate it apart from Christmas because that’s how it should be. It’s his day.  This year my dad said we should put our money towards our own families.  I say he is incredibly silly.  It’s his birthday.  It’s tradition.  It must be done.

4.  Do something crafty together as a family.  I still need to make sugar cookies.  That is something I love to do with my kids and they love to do with me.  The other day Katiana and I sat down and cut out paper snowflakes.  We taped them to our sliding glass door.  She is so proud of them and shows them off to everyone.  Those are the snowflakes mom and I made.  Mine looks like it has an angel in the middle.

5. Remember the armed forces.  I don’t care what country your in, they are important to your country and they are without their family this holiday if they are stationed overseas/out of state/etc.  In the US you can go to http://anysoldier.com and click on where to send.  In the side you will see a list of military contacts.  You can email them for an address to send a gift package, a thank you card, anything to a soldier who could use some thoughts from home.  And while we’re remember our men and women stationed away from their families, let’s not forget the “stay-behinds”.  The wives, husbands, children who are left here to hold down the fort.  If you know one personally, offer to take the kids to a movie to give the husband/wife some me time to maybe Christmas shop, read a book, etc.  We all know how important that downtime is.  Give them some.  Take them a home cooked meal.  Just let them know we appreciate them too.

6.  Make time for your extended family too.  We are going out to the Manning family get together on Christmas day.  There will be as many Manning’s (by birth and by marriage) as we can fit into a community center.  I love these days.  I get to spend time with my grandma, with aunts and uncles, with cousins I don’t see very often. I just enjoy every moment because as we get older, these times are farther and fewer between as we all become busy with our own lives.

7.  Go out and look at the Christmas lights.  We do this a few times during the Christmas season.  There is not much that can live up to the brightness in my children’s eyes as they look at the window at the decorated houses.  For the littlest ones, even a couple of strings of lights amaze them.  I love it!

8.  Remember to take pictures.  Take a lot of pictures.  Don’t pose them.  Just snap.  You’ll get some fun amazing shots that will make you think of those days past when you look back through them down the road.  I have thousands of pictures on my computer and my kids love me to set them on slideshow so they can look back at themselves.

9.  Slow down.  This goes along with so many of the things above, but slow down and enjoy it.  Don’t get so caught up in the hustle and bustle that you don’t enjoy the things you are doing.  Enjoy your family.  Enjoy your traditions.  Don’t stress over every little thing.  Just savor the moment.

10. For my family this is the most important part.  Remember the reason for the season.  It’s not the presents.  It’s not the give me give me give me mentality.  It’s not about crowded shopping malls and food.  For my family it was about the birth of the Savior in the manger.  If that’s the reason for the season for your family, remember to highlight that.  Read the story in Luke.  Make a cake for Jesus.  Something to reinforce why we celebrate Christmas.  If you have another reason why you celebrate the season, highlight it, make sure this season isn’t just about the commercial aspect of it.

Now, tell me your tips for making this the ultimate season for you!

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I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Hasbro Ultimate Gifts blogging sweepstakes, making me eligible to get a $50 Gift card to use at www.HasbroToyShop.com! For more information on how you can participate, click here.

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I have so many dreams and aspirations.  If we’re just talking short term, as in this coming year, I really would like us to finally settle down and buy a house.  I am so very very very tired of apartment living.  When we moved in here we had 2 kids in a 3 bedroom.  Now we have 4 kids in a 3 bedroom and it’s just not enough room.  We get so close, then something happens.  Right now we are struggling with “insufficient” credit.  Not bad.  Just not enough.  The bank said that we can either pay off my new car longer or get a co-signer for a year and then they will refinance it to just us.  We’ve paid on my car for 18 months now.  I’m hoping a few more months will get us where we need to be. I want room.  I want Jordan to have more space to get away from the little ones.  I want the little ones to have a fenced in backyard with a play yard.  I want room to move.  Is that too much to ask?

Another aspiration, which I do not know if it will happen this year or not, but I hope so, is for Pato to finally open his own restaurant.  He’d be able to work more flexible hours, be home more often to help with the kids, be able to help with soccer, he’d even be able to coach one of the kids teams because he could make his own schedule.  Plus, I could go up and help out.  We could have the kids up there with us with a play area set up in the back room.  That’s always been what we have had in our mind for when he does get his own restaurant.  And hopefully it would mean more financial stability.  That’s something we all aspire for isn’t it?  No matter your bracket (and we are definitely not at the top of those income brackets), you always want to be as stable as you can be.

Those are my big aspirations for this year.

I think they have been my aspirations EVERY year for a couple of years, but we get closer to both of them each year.

My other dreams are just to have happy healthy kids who succeed in whatever it is they dream of doing.

Smaller hopes?  I have those too.  I want to see NKOTB in concert again.

I want to get Christiano potty trained when he’s 2.

I don’t want to be at the doctor’s office every other day this winter with one of my kids.

Getting Pato and the kids to turn off their psps, DSs, etc more often.  That would be awesome!

Attainable right?

What are your dreams and aspirations?

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I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network blogging program, for a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

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I would like to say I made it through the first birthday in like 3 years without shedding a tear.  YAY me!    My birthdays depress me, I’ll admit it.  But, yesterday I didn’t dwell on getting older, I just tried to enjoy the day.  My mom and dad took me out to Prairie Meadows during the day.  I didn’t win, but it was fun none the less. 

Came home, listened to the kids fight and Pato telling the kids to get their stuff done so we could leave for my birthday dinner.  Threatened to cry if the decibel level didn’t go down soon, but I didn’t.  We went to the Iowa Machine Shed for supper.  It’s one of my favorite places to go.  We don’t go often because it gets quite pricey over there with a family of 6.  Pato would take me more often if I asked, but I feel the mommy guilt about spending that much on one meal.  Last night though, I didn’t worry about the price and just ordered what I wanted.  (Will you tell me why I stress over money so much when Pato doesn’t stress at all?  Probably because Pato doesn’t stress at all.)

Be patient with me as I get used to my new camera.  These aren’t my best pictures.  The new camera is so much smaller than my older one.  I had to hold that with both hands, this one fits in the palm of my hand.

My drink – a caramel cream martini with crushed butterscotch on the rim. YUM!

The fried mushrooms – these are heaven in a fried coating.  I had fried mushrooms twice yesterday, these beat out the casino’s by a long shot. And I’m sure my arteries thank me.  I have to start worrying about that stuff soon don’t I?

Country fried steak.  This is why I go to the Machine Shed.  For real.  When I was pregnant with Alyce we went to Arkansas for vacation.  What is in every restaurant in the south (I swear)?  Chicken Fried Steak (and sweet tea).  I came back from vacation (after eating it every day in Arkansas because it was so good) and called every restaurant I could think of.  I craved that so much during my pregnancy with Alyce.  Now I get it once a year because … well look at it.  That would go straight to my butt.  I actually only ate about 1/4 of it because I filled up on mushrooms and bread before my meal even got to the table.  It’s in the refrigerator waiting for me to eat it for lunch.  Yummy!

And the crème de la crème?

My birthday apple dumpling with cinnamon ice cream that came out accompanied by about 5 servers singing me happy birthday – Machine Shed style. Something about the farmer down the road, birthday…that’s what we were told..no working…ya di da.  I don’t know it’s fun. 

And my kids helped polish that puppy off very quickly.  I think I got 3 bites.  Christiano, strangely enough, didn’t like it.  He took a bite and said, yucky and went back to his macaroni.

After that we went off to Sprint to tell them that I cracked the screen on my cell phone (Palm Pre ).   They ordered me a new one.  First time in 6 years I’ve used the insurance I pay $7 a month for on my own phone.  I can’t wait for it to get here.  The crack makes me mad.  I’m not even sure how it happened.  It was in my purse and I pulled it out to see it was cracked one day.  So sad.

Then we went to Wal-Mart so I could grab stuff to make bird bread.  While there I found a pair of fleece Tinker Bell pajama pants I had to get.

Then we came home and I went to bed.  Cuz I’m getting old.  And that long day just wore me out.

Tee hee

Actually, it’s because I got up really early with Junie (she had to go go go) and couldn’t get back to sleep.  Just tossed and turned.

So, that was my birthday.  I’m not giving out any pinewood trophies for best birthday ever, but it didn’t stink too much.  I’ll chalk it up as a good day.   How was your day yesterday?

I hope it is wonderful today!

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