TGIF Y’all!
I hope you had a beautiful week. I meant to blog, but life just got in the way! December craziness and all that. 🙂
First, I want to announce the winner of the oils giveaway.
Kim Delaney said…Would love to try this starter kit. My daughter suffers from asthma, allergies and migraines.
Congratulations Kim! You can email me at harpersmama8(at)gmail(dot)com and I’ll get everything out to Jill for your order!
Moving on-
I can’t believe December is pretty much half over. How in the world did that happen? I still have so much to do but I’m feeling a lot more calm about everything. This year I’m not putting expectations on myself. No stress. No guilt. Thinking about what really, truly matters.
Look at this picture! I feel like this was just yesterday. I remember watching them together and thinking how much I loved them. They were babies!
Okay. That’s it for today. I know this is really random. I just wanted to say hi!
What are you doing this weekend? Oh- and what are you getting your little ones for Christmas? I’d love to hear your ideas.
xoxo
S
This weekend is the unit Christmas party tonight, Saturday is snorkeling at the sandbar with the wives followed by surprise birthday downtown for one of them, then hiking Sunday on the North Shore. I haven’t set up the Christmas tree or any decorations and just may not at all. I’ve never felt more relaxed or happy during the holidays as I have this year. This no stress thing is pretty awesome!! Presents are slim. The kids don’t need a thing and just want surf boards. For my 9yr old its a couple Ever After High books and rainbow loom stuff. As simple as it sounds life is good. Really really good.
This weekend is the Nutcracker and church Christmas program. Very excited about both. Might even sneak in a Santa visit. Oh, and our daughter is obsessed with playing Santa Lucia for the family tomorrow morning so we’re working on prep for that. Having fun!
Honestly… haven’t quite got that far on Christmas gifts yet because Gracie turns ten on Sunday and that has taken all my brain power… but she is getting a 6 month subscription to Tinker Crate for her birthday + the book The Art of Tinkering. We’re awfully excited because she is SO into science-y/engineering/building stuff right now. She would have loved the Doodle Crate subscription too but we decided to go the slightly less expected route since she is at an impressionable age for science/tech stuff : )
Keeping it simple here, thereby staying sane. That’s the plan anyway. We’ll probably go for a walk tomorrow in the sunshine, and on Sunday we’ll go to the nearby wildfowl and wetlands place to see all of the amazing birds that have turned up to winter here. Some of them have flown thousands of miles from the Arctic tundra to be here, it’s quite incredible. Oh, and the tree will be decorated by my three boys tomorrow morning. Deep breath… CJ xx
Presents are done with, well, except for a gift card to McDonalds for my mom (so she can buy some sweet tea when she is out). I just came from a work Christmas party and then this afternoon I am going to pick up a dog, a shih tzu/ poodle mix, I am adopting from the shelter. I am very excited to welcome Wally to my world!! Then I work one more week and then I am off for two weeks. So,yeah, I am keeping it simple too!!! Merry Christmas to you and yours!
I’m trying to wrap everything up this weekend because we’re leaving to go home for Christmas. I’m so excited about my nephew’s gift. He waits every Tuesday for the trash truck(he’s 3) I found him a trash truck!It even lifts & empties a tiny trash can.
At the moment I am waiting for cookie dough to chill so I can finish baking for our public library’s cookie sale/fundraiser tomorrow. For our girl this year we’re actually giving some similar things to last year: books, movies, Legos. Oh, and a stuffed Olaf that I couldn’t resist at the toy store today. She already has many stuffed friends to love, but I know she will love him.
We are finished Christmas shopping – YAY!
This weekend we hope to decorate the tree.
For my youngest (age 9) I bought this :
http://www.goldieblox.com/products/goldieblox_action_figure
She has several of the other sets & loves them!
Also, for my older two, we are feeding their love of Marvel, books
and board games. =)
We’re going to a neighborhood Christmas party (kinda nervous because I only really know the hostess, and only barely know 2 other gals….22 people on the evite – yikes!) and my baby has 2 softball practices, Saturday and Sunday, so there’s that….speaking of her, she’s 15 and getting a PBTeen bedroom makeover for Christmas (shhhh! It’s a surprise!)
Of course the Italians have to have insanely stylish Poinsettias too!
Ciao,
why you don’t try the Christmas markets of Trento (Mercatini di Natale di Trento)?
They are typical and beautiful, this weekend there is also the fair of saint Lucia which is nice to see.
Moreover Trento is not too far from Vicenza…
Hope I have helped,
Bye!
Since this was a random post, I have a random comment. I love sending and receiving Christmas cards and sadly people seem to be sending fewer cards every year. So when I saw that you could send a Christmas card to ‘A Recovering American Soldier’ c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue NW, Washington DC 20307-5001, I thought it would be a small but nice thing to do for our wounded servicemen. I can’t remember where I saw this but I wanted to share it. Have a Merry Christmas.
My 7-year-old boy has asked for Star Wars themed Lego and 4 Tintin books.
And I thought I’d share with you that we fly out of London this week to spend Christmas in Texas (the Houston suburbs) and we are super excited!
Happy Christmas to you and your lovely family!
Karigan is getting a real sewing machine. It’s super cute and I wish it were mine. She’s also getting craft stuff and books.
Lillie and Emme are getting an Ikea kitchen that I plan on painting and dressing up. This will be about the 10th kitchen that we have owned since having kids. It would have been worth spending 1000’s on those pottery barn kitchens. Seriously!
Lots of frozen stuff because they still adore it. Thankfully, they don’t watch the movie much anymore. My boys are getting iPods becasue well, they are 13. I seriously cannot believe that I have teens. CRAZY! Aren’t I still just 25!
How about you? What are you getting your girls?
xo.
What a beautiful weekend! I hope you had FUN!
Sounds just perfect!
TEN! How is that possible! And I saw the tinker crate sub and love love love that idea.
That sounds absolutely beautiful and magical. Hope you had a wonderful time.
Welcome ,Wally!!!!
Such a good aunt. xoxo
I bought a stuffed Olaf today too. Along with a stuffed Sven. They were way too cute to pass up!
I LOVE Goldie Blox!
Oh, I hope you had such a good time. It can be hard to step outside your comfort zone, but usually so worth it. Merry Christmas!
I know, right?
It’s on my list! Buon Natale!
How did I NOT know this? Thank you so so so much for telling me.
Ohhhh you are going to my HOME! Eat some Mexican food for me! xoxo
How in the world are they 13? Oh my goodness! I think we will get Sadie an Ikea gymnastics beam (full length but very close to the ground), Cate and Lucy bikes, and I’m not sure about Harper. Maybe a karaoke machine!
We got our girls the usual few toys, Legos and stuff, but for their ‘big’ present, we’ve bought a little toy kitchen and a table with chairs from ikea, and we’re going to set it up on christmas eve, and they’ll have a restaurant/kitchen to play with out the back patio. Both girls love cooking (and play cooking) so we hope this’ll be the perfect present! Hours of fun OUTSIDE WITHOUT A SCREEN!