A Second-Hand Christmas

This is the first Christmas is years that will be a proper Christmas for my family. We've moved during the last few and I'm excited to be at home and looking forward to establishing some of our own Christmas traditions. Hairbaby, who is only 5 months old, will be too young to remember it, but Headbanger is almost 20 months old and will be able to appreciate the fun of big family meals, decorating and opening presents.

As the kids are still very young and will play with anything, I've been trying to find second-hand toys to give them. I've been looking on Ebay, but have had better luck on Craigslist. Last week, I bought a Little People Car Garage set for Headbanger for $10. Its in good shape and it retails for about $30-$40.

Flashlight and I feel that saving money is important this year. New gifts will be kept to a minimum and we'll spend a lot of time making candies and other treats. We've also decided that every Christmas season from now on will involve a Lord of the Rings Extended Edition marathon.

What are your holiday traditions and how will you be saving money this year?

Defeating the Sunday Morning Mommy Monster

Ever since I posted about my Sunday morning struggles, I've been trying to slay the Sunday Morning Mommy Monster. I took an objective look at the time between waking up and leaving the house and observed the following things:

1. I spend a lot of time looking for shoes - baby shoes (2 pairs) and my own. They get lost because Headbanger likes to play with them during the week. She puts individual shoes in her secret hiding places, like the kitchen cabinets, and then I can never find what I need. This, more than any other thing, triggers the monster within to start raging.

2. I spend some time trying to find the pieces to cute baby/toddler outfits. It takes me at least ten minutes to decide what outfits the girls should wear and then find matching tights.

3. The diaper bag is never as ready as I think it is. There are always lots of last-minute additions.

4. 50% of the time, Headbanger pulls her pony tails out before we even get to church, so its not worth spending a lot of time on them.

Solution: find the baby shoes the night before, set out the girls' outfits the night before and get started on the diaper bag the night before and don't stress about toddler hair.

During the last few weeks, I've been trying to get organized on Saturday nights and its helped a lot. I can't say that the Sunday Morning Mommy Monster is absolutely dead or that we've arrived at church perfectly on time, but we're getting there. This past Sunday, we even arrived at church during the opening prayer and I wasn't feeling stressed at all. We're making a lot of progress and when Flashlight sees me putting in the effort, he tries harder too.

How have slain your inner demons?

Threats and bribbery

I have a problem. I can not get anything from my kids unless I threaten them of being spanked, or I promise them something they would really like (like a piece of chocolate). That is how they go to bed or they tidy up the living room. When they are doing something obviously bad (like hurting their younger sibling), I have nothing better than to tell them:"Stop that immediately or you'll be spanked. I count to three, ONE, TWO, " and they usually scurry away at THREE. My problem is the following : they start doing the same thing between them, and this is obviously not right. When they tell their sibling, "if you don't come play with me, I won't let you play with my brand new birthday gift anymore". What should I do? How do you do to foster a positive atmosphere into your house? Why do people need to threaten each others? Fortunately, the relationship between Monsieur and me is based on sound grounds of love and speechless cooperation. Why can not it be the same between my children and me? And why are they so cute when they are sleeping and you forget everything!!