We actually saved this activity for after Christmas last year so that we could buy a kit on clearance (because I'm frugal cheap like that), but we ended up having so much more fun than our previous attempts at gingerbread houses that I had to share this tip. I'm pretty sure we're not the only…
While I love the idea of spreading our advent activities over the entire month of December, we've never successfully done that without petering out halfway through the month. Twenty-five days of activities -- even simple ones -- is a lot on top of shopping for and wrapping gifts and normal life duties! (Although we will…
Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday, and this is one of my favorite ways to give each holiday season: We're blessed to have pediatricians whom we love, and since a scary experience with our third daughter several years ago, letting them know how much we appreciate them has been an important part of our holiday celebration. We…
As we kick off the holiday shopping season, a great way to help families in your own city and state is to volunteer to ring the Salvation Army bell. In our experience, the local coordinators are always looking for more volunteers! This is a fun and meaningful activity for kids, and children ringing the bell…
Happy Thanksgiving! It's a holiday, but the countdown must go on, and today's project is a fun printable for your family: First, a confession: We don't really "do" Santa at our house. He's a fun character, but we tend to treat him like Minnie Mouse or Dora or any number of other characters -- fun…
The following post is from Emily of Live Renewed: Most of us have probably started to think about Christmas already. Every year I feel like I should wait until after Thanksgiving to start thinking and planning for Christmas, but then it's almost too late and I don't have the time to plan or do some…
In addition to raising funds for military families in need, the Red Cross spearheads the Holiday Mail for Heroes campaign to send encouragement and joy to troops during the holiday season. Each December, they deliver tens of thousands of Christmas cards to veterans, military families and active-duty service members at hospitals and installations around the…
With early sunsets and cold evenings, we enjoy family movie night a little more often in December, and I'm already making lists of which movies we'll be watching from this year's 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family. I absolutely love Polar Express, and watching it together is one of our annual Christmas traditions, but there's…
When we were in college, both Sean and I lived at home (it helped that our families lived across the street from each other!), but we had several friends who lived together in a townhouse nearby while they went to school/worked/etc. We spent a lot of time hanging out there, and one of my favorite…
The following guest post is from Jennifer of Swing Whistle Zing: Music is about as important to the holiday season as cookies and presents. What would Christmas be without its accompanying soundtrack of carols, hymns and original popular Christmas songs? But, if your children get stuck on a favorite album (or worse a favorite song)…