amazon mom

I just found out from my friend that if you're a mom, dad, or grandparent, you can sign up for Amazon Mom. With it you can get special discounts at Amazon.com and you get three months of free two-day shipping. How perfect for the next week of online Christmas shopping!

So click here to go sign up.

christmas ideas: friend gifting

My friend Jenny has a tradition of taking her kids to the dollar store to pick out their gifts for friends and family. I love this! Jenny says it's one of her most fun traditions.

It's great because the kids really think about what they want to get people since they're the ones picking, and it's affordable. Some of the best gifts we've found for friends' birthdays have come from the dollar store. And it helps kids focus on others rather than on the toys and gifts they want to receive.

Love it!

christmas ideas: daily book

Another friend Stephanie recently shared a great book tradition. She gathered all her Christmas books, wrapped them, then put them under the tree. Her boys get to open one book a day until Christmas.

I love this for so many reasons: It makes reading exciting. Kids love opening gifts and now they can have a little bit of that fun every day for a month. And after a year break from reading the books, they will be excited to find some old friends, with maybe some new ones mixed in.

I had already pulled out all our Christmas/winter books and put them in a basket about a week ago, but we haven't read them all yet. I'm going to get some paper today to wrap them up. Kapria and Mila will have so much fun. Thanks, Steph!

christmas ideas: gift tags

My friend Stephanie comes up with lots of great ideas for celebrating holidays, special occasions, and every days. One of my favorites is her personalized gift tags. She created these for her family:

What's so great is that even kids who can't read can recognize which gifts under the tree are for them. I know this will be really exciting for Kapria.

Trav is about to start drawing some pics of our family so I can make some. I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

christmas ideas: gift-giving

Oh the holidays. I could just buy and buy and buy for everyone around me, especially my family. I love giving gifts. If I had the money, I'd be getting gifts for everyone I know. But I don't, and really my girls don't need tons and tons of things.  And as we recently heard in conference, we need to simplify.

A few years back my sister came across this awesome gift giving guide that we both now use for our families.

It's simple and refreshing. Each person gets: 

Something you want.
Something you need.
Something to wear.
And something to read.

For the girls I add in:
Something from your sister.
And something to hang on the tree.

And of course, Santa's in charge of stockings (+ 1 gift.)

No matter how many good deals I find, if I've already covered the bases for each person, I can't buy anything else. I love it.

meliss and doug

I love these wooden toy sets and with Amazon's Deal of the Day TODAY you can get several for 50% off. Go check it out here!

They're perfect for Christmas presents.