It's Christmas! Day 7: Shopping Local in Uptown Normal

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.

I was scrolling through Facebook a couple days ago and saw an advertisement from our local children's museum. Since it had been closed since March, they were asking people to buy Santa's Reindeer Riddle cards to support them in this time when they're not receiving any income from guests.

Here's how it works. You buy a card and walk around Uptown Normal looking for riddles on specific business' windows and write the answer to the riddle on your card. Plus, if you spend more than $10 at any of these businesses, you get an extra stamp. Then, you turn your card back in to the Children's Discovery Museum to be entered for a chance to win $500 cash. Any stamps you accumulated along the way by making purchases count as an extra entry.

Honestly, I don't really care about winning the money. I just care about supporting our local businesses. Plus, it was a great way to spend a couple hours. We walked around Uptown Normal, answering riddles and shopping. We had fun just hanging out as a family.

So go out there and support local businesses.

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

It's Christmas! Day 6: St. Louis Zoo

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.

For my birthday, my husband and son took me to spend a night in St. Louis. When we got there, we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens to see their lights at the Garden Glow. I talked all about this yesterday, so if you missed it, go take a look at Day 6 after you’re done with Day 7.

We then spent the night at a hotel (which was a little nerve racking due to Covid, but we sanitized everything and brought our own pillows).

The next day, we got up early, checked out of our hotel, and drove over to the St. Louis Zoo. Now, keep in mind that I’ve been to this specific zoo probably 20 times so it’s nothing new to me, but I just love it every time. Due to Covid, I did have to get online a week in advance and get us a free reservation time so keep that in mind if you’re planning to come here at this time.

So, I absolutely love the St. Louis Zoo. It will forever be one of my favorite zoos. One of the most amazing things about this zoo is that it’s free to enter. So, if you can find a spot along the street to park, your trip can be at absolutely no cost.

When we went on a weekday in early December, there was practically no one there! It was so cool! We almost had the whole zoo to ourselves. Socially distancing was SUPER easy since there weren’t very many people there. I think the animals enjoyed the small crowd, too, because they were out and moving and easy to see. Yes, there were a couple animals off exhibit due. However, we were able to clearly see animals that are normally sleeping when we visit. Overall, we had such a great time! I mean, just look at these pictures:

Please go out and support your local zoos and aquariums during this pandemic because they could really use our help.

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

It's Christmas! Day 5: Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis

Today is my birthday! I know as adults (especially ones with children), we tend to not really think about ourselves on our birthdays. That's why I love having a December birthday. When I was a kid, I didn't like it that much because I felt like Christmas always outshined my day. People were always busy and didn't have time to celebrate with me. Family members would give me a gift "for Christmas AND my birthday". It just never felt special. Now that I'm older, I choose to see it as an ongoing celebration of life and I'm lucky enough to have everyone celebrating with me (even if they don't know it). Ok, now that you're all in on the celebrating with me, let's get back to why you're here.

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.

For my birthday this year, my husband took me on a little one-night trip to St. Louis. We only live a couple hours away, so we visit here frequently. One day in November, I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw that a friend of mine posted about the Missouri Botanical Gardens hosting the Garden Glow again this year. I thought it looked like a blast, so I signed up my family to attend.

There are different ticket types for this event. On weekends and the couple of weeks during Christmas and New Years, tickets are a little more expensive. There is also a family day (on Wednesdays) where kids tickets are much cheaper. For our family, however, it worked out for us to go on a Thursday night, which fell on a “Merry and Bright Bargain Night”. Our tickets cost us $18 per adult and $10 per child. When you purchase tickets, you choose a time to enter. We chose a 7pm to 7:15pm entry time.

We knew ahead of time that there would be opportunities to pick up hot chocolate, s’mores, and other food throughout the Gardens. We got some s’mores to roast. It was great to take a little break by the fire.

My husband and I were really excited to try some of the specialty drinks. There was the Tree Topper (Fireball hot chocolate) which is what my husband got, Cozy Caroler (Amaretto hot chocolate), Snowed In (Peppermint hot chocolate) which is what I got and it was delicious with the peppermint schnapps, and the Merry Manhattan (whiskey, vermouth, bitters, and holiday spiced simple syrup). I even got a light up mug for my drink.

Covid safety is important to my family so we were pleased to see a statement on their website explaining their health and safety guidelines. Their rules included social distancing from people not your party, providing hand sanitizing stations, requiring everyone to wear a face covering, increasing the frequency and intensity of cleaning surfaces, limiting trash cans to limit touch surfaces, having health screenings for their employees, and adding plexiglass to their sales counters. Overall, we only noticed one person not wearing a mask (who we stayed far away from). So we felt pretty safe.

We had a great time! The lights were gorgeous. And we definitely recommend a trip if you get the chance.

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!