It's Christmas! Day 4: Write a Letter to Santa

It’s Christmas! is a 25 day blog and vlog segment that I’ll be doing this December to bring you crafts, reviews, and ideas to make your Christmas season even more fun this year (especially, with this pandemic thing we’re all trying to navigate).

Hopefully, my family can inspire yours to not let this crazy year ruin the holiday season for you.

One thing that most families do every year, is write a letter to Santa. I wanted this letter to be special this year. My son is 10 years old and still believes in Santa. I know some parents out there think he’s too old and should know better, but I say, keep the magic alive for as long as possible. That being said, he’s going to stop believing soon, so again, I wanted this letter to be special.

I started by printing off a template for the letter to make it look extra special. I had my son use a fancy pen to write his ideas. In order to teach my son what the holiday is all about, I decided to give him some ideas. Santa is a very generous and important man. You should do your best to speak to him (or write to him) with respect. For instance, just saying I want this and I want that comes across as a little demanding. So, in order to be more polite, perhaps you could start your letter with appreciation for his generous acts in years past. You could apologize for the mean or rude things you’ve done this year. You could tell Santa how you’re going to work on being a better person in the future. Don’t forget to also tell Santa what you would like for Christmas, though. And make sure you thank him for his time. Sign your name at the end so Santa knows who sent him this amazing letter.

Here’s how my son’s turned out:

Make sure your kids write to Santa this year and every year to keep that magic alive!

And as always, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! Day 3: Building a Gingerbread House

It’s Christmas! is a 25 day blog and vlog segment that I’ll be doing this December to bring you crafts, reviews, and ideas to make your Christmas season even more fun this year (especially, with this pandemic thing we’re all trying to navigate).

Hopefully, my family can inspire yours to not let this crazy year ruin the holiday season for you.

We have made a gingerbread house every year for as long as I can remember. We always buy a kit from a store. Sometimes we get something a little different though. One year, we made a gingerbread train. This year, we bought the Gingerbread House Kit from Michaels. We always have so much fun! Seriously, we cranked some Christmas music and sang and danced and laughed. And then afterward, we made some hot cocoa and just sat around, sipping our drinks, watching Christmas movies. We seriously had a good, wholesome Christmasy time. Anyways, sometimes our houses look like big giant disasters. Other years they look great! And you never really know what they’re going to look like until you’re done.

So go out there and get your family a gingerbread house to decorate! I’ve even seen people making them out of pop tarts this year! Or graham crackers! Or, if you’re feeling super adventurous, you can make your own from scratch. No matter what you do, just have fun! One of my son's favorite parts this year was dusting the top with powdered sugar to look like fallen snow!

Now, here’s our finished project this year:

And as always, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! Day 2: Christmas Tree Farm

It’s Christmas! is a 25 day blog and vlog segment that I’ll be doing this December to bring you crafts, reviews, and ideas to make your Christmas season even more fun this year (especially, with this pandemic thing we’re all trying to navigate).

Hopefully, my family can inspire yours to not let this crazy year ruin the holiday season for you.

Disclaimer: Technically, we did this before December. But there’s still plenty of time to find a Christmas tree farm somewhere near you.

This year, we decided to visit Hardy’s Reindeer Ranch. This is actually the 3rd year we’ve been here. We usually go on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but we decided to go on Black Friday this year. I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not, but there’s pluses and minuses to both days.

When we showed up, it was pretty busy! We couldn’t turn around and go home though because it takes us about an hour to get there. So, we wore our masks (which I’d say only about 50% of people did), and did our best to stay away from everyone else. We bought our tickets for the reindeer tour as soon as we got there. They cost $6 per person and include 2 cookies to feed to the reindeer. We fed them, pet them, and even got reindeer kisses from them. It was a little crowded, but we did our best to just stay in the corner to avoid the rest of the people. When we have visited on Sunday in the past, it wasn’t nearly this busy.

After we were done visiting the reindeer, we walked out to the tree farm and looked to see if there was a tree we wanted to cut down. I had a couple requirements: must be 6 to 7 feet tall, can’t be too prickly (we made that mistake last year), and it had to look pretty (obviously). We were able to find our perfect tree, so we went to work cutting it down. Once it was cut, we wheeled it to the front where they shook the tree to get any loose needles out, cut off some of the lower branches, and wrapped it up for us. My husband went to the store to pay for our tree, then we stuck it in our car to be transported home.

Before we left, we popped into the Cafe to get a cookie and some hot cocoa for my son (for $4). He said they were delicious.

Overall, it definitely wasn’t a cheap experience: about $90-$95 for us. However, it was so much fun. We spent about an hour here, created great memories, and came home with a beautiful live tree to decorate.

So get out there, and pick out a beautiful tree for your family.

And as always, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! Day 1: Advent Calendars

It’s Christmas! is a 25 day blog and vlog segment that I’ll be doing this December to bring you crafts, reviews, and ideas to make your Christmas season even more fun this year (especially, with this pandemic thing we’re all trying to navigate).

Hopefully, my family can inspire yours to not let this crazy year ruin the holiday season for you.

This is a big one for us. Somehow, and seriously I have no idea how this happened, we have 6 different advent calendars to open this year.

Quickly, let’s go through all the store-bought ones we have. And by store-bought, I mean Aldi. All of our advent calendars came from Aldi this year. I, of course, bought the infamous wine one. Plus, we had to get the cheese calendar to go with it. I got my husband the coffee calendar (which is filled with K-cups). I got a calendar for my dog. She loves treats of every kind so, it just made sense. Then, I also got the craft calendar. Although, this isn’t a complete advent calendar because it only has 12 days.

After spending all that money, my son felt a little left out because he didn’t have a calendar all to himself. And he had a point. So, of course, being the extra mom that I am, I came up with an advent calendar just for him.

It looks like this:

Inside all of those bags are things like gloves, fuzzy socks, Christmas paper to write to Santa, lip balm, a bookmark, a friendship bracelet, a mini notepad, Lego kit, an ornament, stickers, a game, Pokemon cards, temporary tattoos, a 5-surprise ball, a puzzle, a shrinky dink button, popcorn, a snowglobe, a stress ball, lotion, sprinkles, stencils, hot chocolate, and a small framed photo of my son and Santa.

It was a lot of fun putting things together that I knew my son would love. I know that every day is going to be a blast this year, especially with all these fun things to do every single day.

The thing I love most about advent calendars is that they give a little Christmas joy every day and they help you celebrate, even if only for a couple minutes.

Now, go out there and enjoy every second of this wonderful holiday season.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas! Intro

It’s Christmas! is a 25 day blog and vlog segment that I’ll be doing this December to bring you crafts, reviews, and ideas to make your Christmas season even more fun this year (especially, with this pandemic thing we’re all trying to navigate).

Hopefully, my family can inspire yours to not let this crazy year ruin the holiday season for you.

My #1 tip this year: Have a good attitude. Seems simple enough, right? Well, apparently it’s not. I know I struggle with this sometimes and let my frustrations come out. However, Christmas is my favorite time of year. My birthday is in December. I love holiday music. Christmas lights just put me in a great mood. I watch so many Hallmark movies in the months leading up to Christmas. But along with all of these great things, comes a lot of stress, which can lead to anger and frankly, disrespectful behavior. I’ve already seen plenty of people having a bad attitude online this year. People are complaining about Santa being behind a plexiglass wall. I’ve seen people complaining about wearing masks everywhere. I’ve seen people complaining about everything being so expensive. Here’s what you could do instead. Be excited that you get to see Santa! Here’s something I’ve learned. If you have a bad attitude, your kid is probably going to have a bad attitude. If you’re excited, your kid is probably going to be excited. They feed off of our energy. About the whole mask thing, I’m pretty excited to wear a mask this winter. My least favorite thing about being outside is constantly having a cold nose. If I wear a mask, it’s going to keep my face warm! As for things being expensive, think about all of these businesses that have lost so much money due to the Caronavirus. I feel terrible for these businesses and people that are losing their jobs. If I can support these places, I feel good about it. Do I have the money to support everyone? No. Which is why we’re going to be doing plenty of activities at home and taking advantage of some free activities. However, we will do our best to support some of these businesses (regardless of how expensive they are). And if you don’t have the resources to do this, don’t get upset. You know what your kids want to do? They want to spend time with you. As hard as this is to believe, Christmas isn’t about spending money. It’s about spending time with your family. It’s about embracing the joy of the season. I know that your holiday season, just like mine (fingers crossed), can be amazing if we all just keep a positive attitude. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have emotions. I’m saying that there are a lot of things we don’t have control over. There are a lot of things that won’t go as planned. And getting upset about every little thing is only going to make us more miserable. I know my family is going to get a little sad when we think about celebrating without my husband’s grandma that passed away this year. And that’s okay. I know my son is going to be sad that we’re not going to spend as much time with family as we normally do. And that’s okay. Those things are kind of a big deal. But we’re not going to get upset about not going to a cookie decorating class this year. We’re not going to get upset because we’re not going to a Christmas festival. We’re going to focus on having fun, creating new memories, and spending time with each other. And if all of that isn’t good enough for your family, feel free to be upset and negative, but don’t bring my family down with you. We’ll just be over here, spreading all the Christmas cheer.

Check back on December 1st to see all our family fun! From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Free Crochet Pattern: Braided 5 Strand Headband/Ear Warmer

This pattern came about for the sole purpose of keeping my ears warm while we go on bike rides in the country. Seriously, the last time we went, I was fine everywhere except my ears. They were so cold, they hurt!

So, I looked online for some inspiration and saw an ear warmer that was braided. The one I saw was only 4 strands, but it was made with bulky yarn. I had a worsted weight yarn that I wanted to use so I decided to just make my own pattern. Without further ado, here it is!

Materials:
-worsted weight yarn (I used Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn! Metallic in Ivory)
-5.5mm hook
-yarn needle

Terms:
ch = chain
hdc = half double crochet
in front 3rd loop = when looking at your work, there is a loop in front of the 2 that you would normally put your hook through, so you'll put your hook in the extra loop in front in order to work in the 3rd loop
sc = single crochet
sl st = slip stitch

Instructions:

Strands: Make 5
ch 87
Row 1: hdc in 3rd loop from hook and across (85)
Row 2: ch 2, hdc, hdc in front 3rd loop x 83, hdc (85)
Finish off and weave in ends (except on the 5th strand).

Face all strands the same way, working across all 5.

Row 1: ch 1, sc in each strand end twice (10)
Row 2: ch 2, hdc in each st across (10)
Fasten off and weave in ends.

With the textured sides of your strands facing up, braid them together, making sure to keep your braid somewhat tight.

When you're done with your braid, pull up yarn at the end of the strand at the far right and repeat rows 1-2 from before, just like the other end.

Join your ends together and sl st the ends to form your headband. Fasten off and make sure all ends are woven in.

And that's it! I was able to finish this in just a couple hours, using less than a skein of yarn. Now that's my favorite kind of project!

Homeschool: Read Aloud Books for 4th Grade

One of the things my son has become really great at over the past couple years is reading. However, that doesn't mean that he doesn't still love to be read to. We've been reading books to our son since he was born and I love that now (since he's older), I get to read books that are interesting to me too! Since we started homeschooling, I definitely wanted to keep Read Aloud time during his "school day". He told me how much he loved it when his public school teachers would do it. My son did NOT have a very good public school experience so if he said there was something he liked, I was absolutely down for keeping that a part of our day. So, every day, I read from a book (that I have chosen) for 20-30 minutes. We also have silent reading time every day where he reads a book of his choosing.

These are the books that we read last year (2019-2020 school year). We truly loved them all (but some more than others, for sure!).

I found these books based on online recommendations and from teachers. I wanted to keep the books age appropriate, but still fun.

1. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Staar
This book was interesting. I don't think it was my son's favorite. But I loved how a lot of things didn't make sense until the end.

2. The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
This was easily my son's favorite book all year! He still talks about how amazing it was. I never thought I would be able to relate to a robot, but this book has made me a believer.

3. The Wild Robot Returns by Peter Brown
Obviously, we had to read the sequel.

4. All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor
This book does talk about prison, but it's in a calm, minimum security kind of way. It was definitely different from what we normally read.

5. Fish In A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
I loved that this book gave the perspective of someone that is unlike my son. The main character has dyslexia, but she's moved so many times that no one has ever caught it. I think reading books like that help to show why should have empathy for people that are suffering even if we don't know what it's like. It also shows why you shouldn't judge others or be mean to them because they might be going through things that you know nothing about. I definitely want to find more books like that this year.

6. The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
I remember reading this book when I was a kid. It still held my interest, even to this day.

7. Smack Dab In The Middle Of Maybe by Jo Watson Hackl
There is a lot to unpack with this book. I don't think it was one of my son's favorites. But mostly because he didn't like how sad he felt for the main character. That being said, it is still a pretty good book.

8. The Infinite Lives Of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge
This was an unexpected book. I didn't really know what it was about before wwe read it. There's a lot of science. And it doesn't have your typical happy ending.

9. Gloom Town by Ronald L. Smith
This book is dark. But not in a bad way. It was just very intense. But we still enjoyed it.

10. Matilda by Roald Dahl
This is a classic! And I realized I had never read it before! I have seen the movie a good 20 times, but never read the book. I'm glad I did. And of course, we watched the movie when we were done.

11. Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
This book was definitely in my son's top 3 favorites this year! It's such a fun story about a girl and a squirrel.

12. The Seventh Wish by Kate Messner
I loved that this book really showed you the consequences of wishing for things instead of doing everything you can to make them happen. It's a good lesson.

I hope our list gives you some ideas for what to read to your own kids!

Everything We Did in NYC!

Our trip to New York City for my 30th birthday was seriously amazing! We just had the best time. And now we can't wait to go back! So, here's everything that we did on our trip to NYC.

Day 1:

1. Checked into our hotel: Hilton Garden Inn New York/Midtown Park Ave
2. Walked to Bryant Park to get food from a Christmas Market.
   -We had delicious food from Pierogie Boys.
   -We ate an amazing chimney cake for dessert.
3. Walked around some more to take pictures with Christmas decorations.
   -Giant ornaments
   -Giant lights
4. Went to the top of the Empire State Building (102nd floor)
5. Dinner at Il Mulino

Day 2:

1. We took a carriage ride through Central Park
2. Then we took a behind the scenes tour of Radio City Music Hall
3. Shortly after our tour, we watched the Holiday Spectacular featuring the Rockettes
4. Waited in line to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center
5. Watched the Saks Fifth Avenue light show
6. Stopped to look at Times Square
7. Ate dinner at City Kitchen
   -chicken strips for our 9yo
   -ramen and pork buns for DH and myself
   -donuts for dessert!

Day 3:

1. Walked around Central Park
2. Had Coffee at The Plaza
3. Walked down 5th Ave to look at the window displays
4. Stopped to look at displays at the Lego Store
5. Went to Washington Square Park
6. Ate at the Meatball Shop
7. Went to the Museum of Illusions

Day 4: 

1. Checked out of our hotel
2. Walked to Macy's
3. Saw Santa at Macy's
4. Looked at the interactive windows outside of Macy's
5. Took a cab to the airport
   

NYC Trip: Brooklyn

    This past December (I know, a lifetime ago), my family went on a trip to New York City for my 30th birthday. It was so much fun. I had always wanted to go to New York, but was kind of nervous because everything is super expensive, it's easy to get lost, bad things happen to tourists, etc. Well, it turned out, there was nothing to be nervous about at all. We mostly stayed in Manhattan, but one morning, we decided to spend a little time in Brooklyn. Here's how our day went.

Around 10am, we took a cab that dropped us off in the Fulton Ferry District. We weren't 100% sure what we wanted to do yet, so we just had our cab drop us off so that we could walk around. We ended up walking over to the corner of Washington St and Water St to get that iconic photo of the Manhattan Bridge. You know you've seen it. It's been in shows, movies, commercials, every person's Instagram. It was a beautiful spot to get pictures, but there were TONS of people there. I'm guessing that if you want to get pictures with little to no people in them, you'll have to get there super early in the morning.

After a couple minutes, we decided to walk down the street to Main Street Park. That's where we found this great little rocky beach area to take pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline. It was surprisingly peaceful so we sat and chilled there for a while. 

We didn't have a lot for breakfast, so around 11am, we started our walk over to Old Fulton St. Now, the entire reason we came to Brooklyn was to get some iconic pizza! Our first instinct was to go to Grimaldi's, but after some research, we learned the owner of Juliana's was actually the original owner of Grimaldi's before selling it. So, we chose to eat at Juliana's. We did stand in line for about 20 minutes before it opened, but we were seated immediately, ordered soon after, and had our pizza within 10 minutes. O-M-G that pizza was good. We're from Illinois so my husband is a huge deep-dish fan, but I prefer that thin, foldable, delicious, wood-fired pizza. You may wait in line, but this pizza is so worth it. I'm sure people that live in New York City have other places that they prefer, but Juliana's really lived up to the hype for me.

By this time, it was after noon. We were extremely close to the pedestrian entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge so we decided to walk across it. I had read that the views were beautiful and they definitely didn't disappoint. There are a few benches along the way if you need a break or just want a place to step to the side for a picture. We stopped multiple times so our casual stroll across the bridge took about half an hour.

In all, we spent less than 3 hours in Brooklyn, but we had tons of fun while we were there and we won't hesitate to go back.

Our day in La Jolla

Last October, during our trip to San Diego, we decided to spend a day in La Jolla. It was my husband's birthday, and we ended up having a great time. We really only spent about half the day there, but here's what we did with our time:

We started out the morning by driving up to the Mt. Soledad Veteran's Monument. To be honest, we didn't really look at the monument very much. What we did do was look at the amazing views that you see from that height. It was beautiful, and while it was a little foggy that morning, we got a great view of La Jolla.

We then made our way down to the heart of La Jolla and ate breakfast at Cody's. We got there around 9am on a Wednesday and it wasn't busy at all. My husband ordered french toast while I ordered the breakfast chicken sandwich with cheddar scallion biscuits covered in sausage gravy. Both were amazing. If you're in the area during breakfast, you should definitely stop here for some food. It did seem a little pretentious, but the food itself was really good. My son didn't really find anything on the menu that appealed to him (because he's picky. ugh.) so he just ordered some bacon.

We then walked to The Cave Store. Now, this is obviously a super touristy thing to do, but we weren't going to see the inside of a sea cave without going here, so we made the trip. It cost us $13 for 2 adults and 1 child to walk down the stairs. There was a super rude woman at the bottom, but luckily, they left shortly after we got there. There isn't a whole lot of space so I would say that area can really only hold less than 10 people at a time. It is very difficult to take pictures in here with the severe brightness outside compared to the darkness of the cave. We did see some snorkelers swimming by, which was cool. We enjoyed our time down there and no other people came down so I could have enjoyed the peaceful ocean waves for hours. The stairs back up didn't seem that bad. There were over 100, but as an obese person that isn't in shape, it wasn't that bad.

We went to get the car and drove it closer to where we wanted to go next. Be aware, we were there on a weekday in October and it was difficult to find a spot. If you're going during the summer, it will be next to impossible unless you show up super early. That being said, we did find a spot. We were planning to go to a cove, but on our way there, we got distracted by a ton of sea lions and seals playing in the water and sunbathing on some rocks. We knew not to get too close (even though apparently, some people did not!). I believe there is a law in California that you are to stay a specific distance away from these animals. We didn't get anywhere near that close. That didn't keep up from getting some great pictures though. We stayed here and watched these amazing creatures for about half an hour. We easily could have stayed longer though. In this same area, there was a cool rock that you could sit on and get some great pictures of the waves breaking on the rocks. I would have thought that lots of people would have wanted pictures here, but I guess they were all distracted by the sea lions.

We then walked over to Shell Beach because it was right next to where we were. We didn't have our swimsuits with us and it wasn't a very warm day, but we did take our shoes off and explore. The beach itself is very small. But it's so fun. When you first walk down the stairs, to your right is a little cove area that you can explore. The rest of the beach has the huge wall of rock going up to where everyone else walks past. It's actually a pretty easy beach to skip by and not notice. That being said, there weren't many people down there with us. My son loved standing on a rock, letting the waves crash against his legs. It was a great little break away from a lot of people. I wouldn't say there were very many shells there though.

We continue to walk down the coastline to the Children's Pool. This is where you can watch the seals. While we were there, there weren't very many seals, but we did get to see a couple. You can walk out on this wall that juts into the water to create an area of beach where the water isn't very rough. This is why the seals love it so much!

We then tried to drive around and take some cool pictures with some Instagram spots I had found online. Some of them turned out okay and others were a hot disaster. So, that was mostly a waste of our time and just be aware. If you're trying to look for a specific mural or photo spot, it might be difficult to find parking or even find how to get there.

After that little adventure though, we decided to get lunch. We went to the Taco Stand where my husband got a carne asada taco and a baja taco. I got carne asada fries and my son got a 1 lb bag of tortilla chips. What can I say? He eats much better at home, but we were on vacation. Everyone loved their food and I was pumped about my fries. They were delicious. We then shared some churros.

This was the last day of a somewhat exhausting vacation so we decided to go back to our hotel and just pack, watch movies, and order room service to relax and enjoy the rest of our time before returning back home. We had a great day exploring.