Archives for December 2015

Why I’m Making My Child Give Away Her Toys

December 30, 2015 | 1 Comment

Christmas 2015 has been here and already gone. As much as I love decorating and savoring all that is Christmas, I want my house back in order by the 27^th. I put away all the decorations and clean pretty much all day, it’s become a part of my holiday ritual.

With a young child, there is that much more to do now in terms of clean up. We now need to clean and organize her room and play area to accommodate the new gifts which she received. As much as I try to tell friends and family to please not buy/limit the gifts for her, they never listen and before I know it we’re researching contractors to do a house addition. While it’s not really that bad, we do have a finite amount of space to contain her stuff and so as objects come in, some must go out.

Living in a house with minimal storage space is both a blessing and a curse. We don’t have a garage or even an outdoor shed. Take your basic house and think about closet space, that’s basically what we have to live with. We do have a very small storage/cold/laundry room which is 40% laundry space, 40% tools/work area, 10% food storage (we have no pantry either), leaving us with about 10% additional storage. Not much. So when stuff comes in our house we really have to consider how much we want it and if we do want it, what has to go to make room.

Thankfully most of the gifts my husband and I receive are pretty practical or very small in size, so we really do only need to work on our daughter’s stuff (why must some toys be so large?).

I thought about sneaking into her room and doing a big purge, throwing it all in a big box destined for donation, but I decided it would be better to involve her instead. While I did go through her clothes, she will insist everything fits her forever, when it came to the toys, I put aside a bunch I thought she’d be ok with letting go as asked her to help me sort.

I wanted her to be involved in the process of giving her toys away. Kids build attachment to toys and I needed her to understand that I wasn’t taking her toys away to be mean, but rather have her understand that she has been very fortunate to receive so many new ones and there are children out there who have much less than she does. Especially at Christmas time, I want her to feel like she was helping someone else.

I’m the first to admit that my kid owns more stuff than I’m comfortable with but I think there can be a balance between giving and receiving. Not only is it important that she understands how fortunate she is, but by involving her in the process of giving to those in need she can learn compassion and gain a real life understanding of her situation.

How do you manage the post-holiday toy clutter?

Favorite Family Christmas Traditions, Modernized!

December 23, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Christmas is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year. More than anything I like the traditions that come with the days leading up to Christmas because for me, it means spending quality time with those who I love the most. If you’re looking to start your own family traditions, consider one of these new traditions instead!

Old Tradition: Cookie Baking

New Tradition: Cookie and Beer Exchange

I have spent many years baking cookies and treats with my sister only to feel sick about the sheer volume of sugar flowing through my veins. We’d spend an entire day baking and divvy up our treats among our friends and family. If you’re looking for a new tradition consider a cookie and beer exchange.

Instead of baking a ton of different treats, pick your favorite cookie recipe and bake that. To accompany the cookies, pick your favorite beer, invite your friends (plus spouses) to come over where you will host an exchange. You will do up a treat bag of cookies plus one beer for every guest party attending, they will do the same and everyone will swap. You go home with bags and bags of cookies as well as many new beers to try. For best ‘’swap results’’, maintain something like a Google doc to ensure there aren’t multiples.

Old Tradition: Christmas Turkey Dinner

New Tradition: Christmas Brunch (with a light dinner).

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good turkey dinner but there’s something about staying in the kitchen all day Christmas preparing a large family meal that is depressing on Christmas day. I much prefer the idea of doing Christmas morning and then all sitting down for a large brunch instead which leaves the rest of the day to relax and be together. After a larger brunch enjoy an easy, light dinner of finger foods. Most of which can be prepared the days before.

Old Tradition: Store Bought Christmas Cards

New Tradition: Make a personalized Card

I love receiving Christmas cards. I especially love personal cards. Sending personal cards seems to be a lost art though, not that I don’t appreciate a store bought card signed with family members, I love getting personal card with photos or even just personal notes. If you look for sales early enough you can often get deals for personalized photo cards at various online outlets for quite inexpensive. I had 40 personalized cards made for less than $10.00 and they were beautiful.

Though Christmas is about traditions for many, it doesn’t mean that old traditions can’t be modernized. Instead of cramming everything into Christmas day, our family really spreads the celebrations out over three full days. This allows us to be together and really savour everything as family.

Does your family have any modern traditions??

Winter is Coming, Time to Address Your Budget!

December 16, 2015 | Leave a Comment

It’s hard to believe that winter has either arrived, or in the process of coming for many parts of the world. Just this week I had some pictures from our summer vacation printed and now we’re making appointments to have snow tires placed on our vehicle.

With a change of season comes a perfect time to really address your budget. It’s so easy to set your budget on auto-pilot and forget to tweak it as needed. I was reminded of that this week. Speaking of winter tires, it was something I forgot to add to our budget when I did it up months ago. Thankfully it’s not a huge amount of money so I was pretty easy to ‘’make up’’ but still an annoyance. Had I spent a little more care going over everything as I should have, it would have been a non-issue.

Creating a Winter Budget

For this reason I like to spend time every season to make sure everything is accounted for, especially the winter when, for us, bills tend to get a little higher. I know our bills will get higher because I pay attention to our spending history. Without this I have no way of making predictions but I know, for instance, that our electricity bill will increase significantly because we have electric heat and live in a cold climate. It only took one $1,100 bi-monthly electric bill, right after Christmas, to make sure I did what I could to get established on the power corporations annual ‘’budget’’ which allows us to pay a monthly bill year-round based on average annual consumption, rather than face extremely high bills in the winter and extremely low bills in the summer.

For us, winter also means Christmas and quite a few important birthdays. If I’m not careful these can easily creep up on us and we’d get stuck making some tough decisions about how to manage the un-budgeted amount which, quite honestly is never a fun situation to be in.

With kids too, seasonal things have changed. Hubby and I, traditionally, don’t do anything for Valentine’s day. But, with a kid, as I look forward into my winter months, I know we will need to budget something for it. She will have a little Valentines party at her daycare, as well want to exchange cards with her friends, though it isn’t much it’s an expected expense coming up.

Winter has a higher potential for emergencies too, while we could manage without A/C in a vehicle for example, we couldn’t easily get by without heat. While I don’t like to think about emergencies and dealing with things such as a potential accident, the probability is definitely higher in the winter which means we need to take a good look at where our emergency fund is sitting. This is something I don’t do enough and get lazy about reimbursing it when an issue does arise that we may need it.

A budget shouldn’t be something that you set and forget. It needs to be continuously addressed and as we approach the New Year, it’s a perfect time!

P.s. some readers like this article because they want a recommendation for snow tires. I can just say that Costco should be considered as part of your shopping list. They have really excellent customer service and although their automotive section isn’t always as well rated as their food or consumer electronics, Costco sells good quality tires and batteries. So check them out.

5 Pinterest Inspired Christmas Crafts That Anyone Can Do!

December 9, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Though I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest, I mostly love it. I am a very visual person so appreciate the ability to see the final product of whatever it is I’m looking for. My favorite uses of Pinterest would be recipes and crafts for kids. In my mind, Christmas is much more of a season than a single day, and for this reason we tend to do more related crafts for Christmas than any other holiday.

I’m a reformed neurotic tree-trimmer. Gone are the days of spending hours placing the lights and ribbon alone; standing back and squinting from every angle to make sure there is an even distribution of twinkling lights and perfectly placed ribbon. Now, I have a three year old who is ripping open the ornament boxes before half the tree even has lights on it.

To me a Christmas tree is about representing the family who decorates it. Our tree is a perfect mix between beautiful ornaments we’ve purchased, super special ornaments from our travels and highlights in our life such as marriage and even more important, homemade ones from our daughter. I finally get why my mom wouldn’t allow me to get rid of the ugly ones my sister and I made in school. I’m currently staring at a red Solo cup turned decorated Christmas bell and love it. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a tree loaded with ornaments made by your child.

Here are my favorite Pinterest inspired Christmas crafts that I’ve either done with my child or made myself when I was a kid.

Mason/Baby Food Jar Snow Globes

I plan on making some of these for the first year with my daughter. I remember making one for the first time when I was in elementary school and loved it so much I made my mom dump all the glass jar sauces we had in the house into plastic containers so I could have the jars and make more. With dollar stores they’re incredibly easy and cheap to make, kids will have a ton of fun with it.

Handprint Art

I love handprint/footprint/thumbprint art mostly because it’s a fun and creative way to document growth. I have done a few different things with my daughter but one of my favorites is the reindeer thumbprint ornament her daycare teacher made with her.

Pipe cleaner Candy canes

My daughter’s current favorite craft is anything with beads so this will be fun this year. My sister and I made these every year for our tree and only requires two cheap and readily available supplies.

Popsicle Stick crafts

Like the handprint crafts, there are a ton of cute and super easy craft ideas involving popsicle sticks. I’ve seen huge bags of over 500 sticks at our local dollar store, super cheap and easy.

Paper Snowflakes

Pretty self-explanatory but I love paper snowflakes. Folding paper, random cuts and opening to see what you’re left with is always fun. There are sites out there that have templates if you’re neurotic and want the perfect snowflake too. Have fun with fancy craft paper too.

Hopefully you have a little extra time away from work this holiday season to enjoy some of these fun family crafts with your kids!

Do you have any favorite crafts?

How to Enjoy Hassle Free Christmas Shopping

December 2, 2015 | Leave a Comment

I’m not much of a gift lover, except for Christmas. I love spending time thinking out a nice gift for someone and then buying it and giving it to them. I generally enjoy the whole process, picking it up, taking it home to wrap and then spending time with those I love to give it to them. The only part of the process that I don’t love sometimes, is going out to shop for it.

I hate crowds so needless to say shopping for gifts in the peak of the holiday season can be stressful. The issue is that I hate crowds, but enjoy shopping at Christmas time, when the stores are decorated and Christmas music is playing, I will never be one of those people who has their shopping done in July. There are many ways to enjoy the best of both worlds, enjoying the process of shopping during the holiday season while containing your stress levels.

Start with a List

This is absolutely the first thing that needs to be done. We’ve all done it. Head to the stores with no direction, hoping to be inspired but it doesn’t work out that well. We waste time and end up frustrated. There is no need to leave the house before having a list. Check out local sales to get inspired. I also keep a running list year round when friends and family mention something they may want or need. This is the biggest help in making things run smoothly.

Get Out Early

I know not everyone necessarily wants to spend a day off shopping but if you want to avoid the crowds go as soon as the stores open. With your list in hand, you can come up with a plan to execute it in the timeliest manner. I have both an outdoor shopping area as well as a traditional mall where I live. If I can avoid the mall and go right for the outdoor shopping district I do. Not only do I enjoy the village-style outdoor shops and how it is decorated during the holidays, it saves me time. I like being able to park in front of a single store I need rather than walking through an entire mall to get to a store. It also eliminates distraction and saves time.

Shop Local

I’m a big advocate for shopping local when you can. It’s something I’m guilty of not doing enough but it’s so important so I’m trying to do it as much as possible now. For me, local shopping includes buying my daughter’s Christmas book (a tradition) at a local independent children’s book store instead an international big chain. Also, once my list is made, I will check to see what I can buy from local vendors at our markets and shops. Not only is the one of the most personal and fun Christmas shopping experiences, its fun. It feels good to support a local entrepreneur over a big chain any day.

Christmas can be stressful if you let it. Stressing over shopping is not worth your time or energy though. Spend a little time getting organized and you’ll thank yourself!

How do you enjoy hassle free shopping?