Our Christmas Gifts

It's become a habit that we buy each other gifts that are tax deductible, so I got a cool paper shredder and Dad got a rotary carver. As my one friend says, "How heartwarming!" Sorry to say that we want to be green, but purchasing locally just does not cut it; products are never in stock and customer service is generally awful. Both gifts ordered from Amazon.com - three cheers for FREE Super Saver Shipping!

Back to the Grind

Sigh....the holidays are over, as is school vacation. Went by much too quickly...the kids had a fun Christmas but it is good to be back in our groove again. We purchased an artificial tree this year. It was surprisingly easy to set up and prelit so not having to deal with stringing lights was a plus. It should be an economical investment, since we typically spend over $ 100 per year on trees, and we got this tree for about $ 120. However packing the darn thing up and getting it back into the bag that came with it...what a pain! I keep threatening Dad that one year we'll go to Dubai or some country that doesn't celebrate Christmas so we can escape some of the holiday madness. I know...Momma Scrooge!

It's a Miracle!

We enjoyed an evening Christmas performance at school about the Nativity entitled "It's a Miracle!" They did a really good job and it was lots of fun seeing the entire school in action.

On another note, Big K discovered that the shopping center close to school has a baseball/trading card/toy store filled with lots of Pokemon, Transformer and Star Wars toys. Talk about kid heaven! When informed that good behavior could result in Santa delivering toys from this store, Big K gave us his trademark rascal smile - can you see the tilted halo above his head?

Holiday Cards - Sneak Peek

We're ordering photo cards online from Sam's Club again this year (yes, I know - the evil affiliate of Wal-Mart!). As usual, we don't have a decent shot of both kids and since we are so NOT the photo studio types, I resorted to a collage again. Attached is a preview of the two monkeys in all their glory!

Christmas Lists

For the second year, we are using Kaboodle for our Christmas lists. It's a pretty neat feature - you simply download their software to your Web browser and when you see something desirable on the 'net, can easily add it to a created list.

You will find a variety of items, with an attempt to emphasize practicality. The kids are fairly low maintenance - Big K just needs color markers and paper to keep himself occupied, and Miss M can find lots of pleasure with an empty Kleenex box, socks and toilet paper rolls.

Another BORING alternative are the variable life insurance policies we are establishing for both kids. As both an investment and insurance protection vehicle, the intent is to put any money the kids get from birthdays, etc. into these accounts. (So their money actually is saved for their future use, vs. being used now for diapers, toilet paper, etc. - yes, I admit - that's what it oftentimes comes down to!)