Holiday Bucket List

I do not have an official Bucket List for my life.   It seems to far away and complicated what I might want to accomplish and do in the next decades.   So many unknowns and possibilities.   So I’m starting small.  Here is what I would like to do between now and New Years.   Realistically,  I know I may not get to all of these and I may find new adventures that I didn’t even think of, but it’s a start.

• Put up and decorate tree
• Watch Elf
• Make ornaments with the girls  (purchased ornaments to make)
• Watch other Christmas movie 1 2 3  (Grinch,  Mickey’s Christmas)
• See the Holiday Lights
• Take the girls to see Santa
• Bake with the girls 1 2 3
• Wrap presents 1,  2, 3
• Drink Eggnog or Tom and Jerry’s
• Try a Spiced Mocha (I liked it, but a little bit more mild than I was expecting)
• Play on the pond/ Ice Skate
• Play in the snow
• Elf on the Shelf
• Listen to Full Transiberian Orchestra CD 
• Listen to Full Candlelight Processional CD
• Nighttime Walk

That’s all I can think of for now.  I may add more later.

Gobble! Gobble!

Happy American Thanksgiving! (Canada has theirs in October)

Hope you have a great day! I’m busy packing for a trip to visit family. It always seems like it will just take a few minutes in the morning to get everything ready. 4 hours later there are still plenty of stuff to do. My mom had a document saved on the computer of a running list of things to pack. Then, we could print it off and make sure we had everything. As we got older, we were given our own list to pack our clothes and she would double check we had everything before it went into the suitcase. I am going to have to start doing that (not today though).

We wrapped a few Christmas presents for people we won’t see on Christmas day. It was fun to see each girl “sign their name” on the card. They also decorated the plain wrapping paper with stickers. We had our daughter do that with Valentines for school and it was priceless to see her pick out the stickers and color the Valentines we printed from the computer. So much more personal and WAY cheaper than buying cards.

Off to finnish packing and make lunch for the drive. Enjoy the long weekend and time with family!!

Organizing Decorations??

Anyone have any tips for organizing and tracking decorations?  I need to find a place to put them so that they are accessible so I use them.  That place also needs to be out of the way so its not taking up valuable storage place for items I do use on a daily/weekly/basis.

I also want to find a way to track which decoractions I actually use so I don’t save some and never use it for 10 years.  Some decorations that I won’t use now, but will use once the kids understand the word FRAGILE (whenever I see that word it makes me smile because I remember A Christmas Story) .  My theory is once they know what the word means they should be able to be careful with it. 

I also want to find time to watch some Christmas movies.  I’ve seen parts of Frosty, Rudolph, classic Grinch, and A Charlie Brown Christmas.  The next movies on my list is Elf and Alastair Sim‘s The Christmas Carol (which I don’t have).  Have a great day! 

Christmas Decorations!

It’s December!  There is snow! Time to decorate for Christmas!   The nice part of it is that it actually motivates me to clean.   We wanted to vacuum before we set up the tree so I cleaned up the toys in the front room and vacuumed.  Then I figured since it was out, I might as well do the family room.  Then I got into a rhythm and started cleaning the floor.  It felt good.

My oldest daughter (3) is starting to get into it.  She grabbed ornaments that she saw on the counter and started putting them on the tree on her own.  I had Christmas music in the background and it was so fun to sing along to and get both girls to dance to it.  I love to see the enthusiasm that little kids bring.  As you get more excited, they get more excited.

Plan for today:

• Clean bathrooms
• Exercise–weight circuit 2x with running as warm up and breaks
• Clean surfaces so decorations can be placed on it
• Plan for week for school
• Plan chores for the week

Bonus tasks:

• Get Groceries
• Organize counter
• Purchase Christmas presents

Hopefully I can make a good dent on the list. Good luck getting your own list done!