Holiday Cheer

Hi All! Here I am. Not completely gone from blogland, just out for a little while my husband underwent and recovered from surgery----good news is that all went very, very well and just in time for us to enjoy ourselves a merry little Christmas.

Above photo is of some of our neighbor and friends gifts. Idea was found here. Love how easy and inexpensive they were...we're talking only 0.79 cents per 2 liter bottle of root beer (snagged on sale at Lees!) plus craft materials I already had on hand. Kids really enjoyed having a part in them too with their painted hand prints (which can also double as tree ornaments).
Tags read: 

"ROOT"ing for a won"DEER"ful Christmas and New Year!

Other festive things we've been up to...

Live Nativity at a local church....our first I should add! Liked how this was done the weekend after Thanksgiving when normally everyone is out and about shopping....it was nice to start Christmas honoring its true intention.

Fun neighborhood party- isn't just the best when you find out you really like the people you're already living by?

Reindeer Trek at Willow Park Zoo....decided I much prefer Santas that don't charge money to take your child's photo with them along with a more rustic style of decor.

Found an amazing piece of furniture at Downeast Outfitters at a steal of a deal (thanks to a Thanksgiving Day sale) to house and organize our never ending array of shoes, boots, gloves, mittens, and hats-----you moms know the tornado of winter gear that I'm talking about! I will try to post of pic of it sometime!

Getting ALL of the presents wrapped and ready for the big day.....this was so NOT the case for me last year where I was stuck wrapping, wrapping, wrapping on Christmas Eve :O. I can't express how much I LOVE getting this done and done with lots of time still left in the month to enjoy it all ~

photo credit of Gingerbread Homes found in downtown Logan

Outing planned today to peruse Gingerbread houses displayed around downtown Main St. (see photo above) while sipping on hot drinks....yes, I know I am cheesy but things like this get me so giddy about the season and yes, we live in a town with a street actually called Main Street!

That's it for me today ~ hope you're all finding joy in this wonderful season!

p.s. just in case any of you are in need of some good gift ideas...click here for a fun family/young kid gift, here for Planes movie lovers toy (love that they don't take batteries!), and here for little girls who love to say wheeee! Now let's hope my kids don't find this post! :O

p.s.s.. here's some fun stocking stuffer ideas....(all found very inexpensively at Kmart)

• toothbrushes
• silly putty
• glow sticks
• mini candy bars 
• stickers
• wind up bath toys
• hair elastics (for girls)
• Learn-to-read books (these are our favorite)

p.s.s.s. (last of these ps's i promise)....did you know Amazon.com does price adjustments?! Yes, they do as long as you purchased the item from Amazon directly! So, if you ever buy something from them (even over 6 months ago!), then later see it selling for less (even by pennies) and would like to be refunded the difference, do this:

1) type "Contact Us" in the search field. 

2) click on "Contact Us" in blue right below. 

3) It will now bring up a listing of all your past orders, click on "Chose different orders" if you're not referring to your most recent purchase. Once your order is found, select what specific item you know is now priced lower.

4) Select "Payment Issues."  

5) Select "Price changed on website." 

6) Select Email as the way to correspond for this correction, then type this: "Noticed that this item is now selling for less than what I purchased it for....could you please refund my credit card the difference? Thanks!"

....and volia, you're done! In a 1-3 days you should receive an email back notifying you that they will be refunding your card for the lower price amount. Love this!!!