O Christmas Tree

I was totally inspired by Smiling Mama's Christmas tree story so I wanted to share one of my own.

Six years ago, hubby and I packed all of our things and left Syracuse, NY. I arbitrarily chose the DC Metro area. We were both working in the theatre (he was acting and I did costumes). Both of us applied for apprenticeships/internships at DC area theatres.

Hubby was accepted as an acting apprentice at Round House Theatre. Now, as you know, apprentices and interns are not paid very well, if at all. Luckily he did receive a stipend, but probably would have made more money if he got a job flipping burgers. I was able to find employment at a soul-sucking insurance office.

Needless to say, we were quite broke. Cost of living here is much higher than Syracuse. But it was ok, right? Because it didn't snow 8 months out of the year. And the cultural melting pot didn't consist just of Polish, Italians, and some other European culture. (No kidding, someone told me that Syracuse as a melting pot due to those cultures. I'm knocking Europeans, but it's only one continent.) Oh, and since we were newlyweds, so we had love. Cute right? We couldn't afford much, but we didn't mind.

Our first Christmas, I barely remember. I remember freezing our asses off because our apartment had horrible heating. We had to turn the thermostat up to 80 degrees to get our apartment up to 70 degrees. Not to mention it was a high heating bill.

I wanted a live Christmas tree just like we had done in Syracuse every year. We visited this big red barn there and bought our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The barn had the nice fancy, pretty trees, but we went down the reject aisle to pick our tree. It was fun tradition, and we usually found a decent tree for $5 or so.

I was shocked that live Christmas trees in our area were so expensive. I couldn't justify buying a tree for $30+ only to throw it out in 3 weeks. So we went treeless.

Until on Christmas Eve (we didn't fly home to visit our families). On the drive home from the movies that night, I noticed the Christmas tree lot near us had been vacated. Whoever ran it, had moved out BUT they left some sad unwanted Christmas trees.

Hubby reluctantly kept watch while I picked out one of the unwanted trees. He was terrified of getting caught, but I guess he loved me enough to risk getting arrested. To my credit, it was late, around midnight or so. He even helped me load up stuff the tree into our car.

He dragged into our apartment, pulled out our Christmas ornaments, and we decorated the tree together. Now we had a Christmas tree.

Gotta love my hubby. He puts up with my crazy impulsive ideas.

Christmas Shopping with Clever Girls Collective

Normally I love Christmas shopping. Last year I bought most of our gifts online. No trekking out to the mall. It was all shipped directly to me (or our parents). I try not to get sucked into the commericalism of Christmas. We normally only give gifts to our immediate family, in-laws and very close friends.

This December life has been a bit crazy. We have a newborn (who turns 3 weeks old tomorrow!). We're also on a very tight budget. Hubby and I talked about not doing Christmas presents to each other this year.

I feel very lucky, even though we're pinching pennies (like everyone else). Hubby doesn't complain about my Twitter addiction. Thanks to the Clever Girls Collective, I won an amazing toy package last week during one of their Twitter parties. Thanks to them, my shopping for Sophia is done.

Check out what I won:

•  I Can Do That Games!
•  Eco Toy Alliance toy, Cool green toys that will last.
  
•  Little Passports 3-month subscription. Ever since I heard about them from Tech Savvy Mama, I knew Sophia would love getting mail about Sam & Sofia's adventures around the world.
  
•  VTECH V-Motion™ Active Learning System Sophia has been asking for this toy every time we go to Toys R Us (ok, as well as the Leapfrog Zippity and a gazillion other toys, com'on, she's 4!). As much as I've been against getting her a game system that hooked into the tv, this one is educational at least.

I'm so glad to have met the amazing ladies of the Clever Girl Collective. They are friendly, funny, and not at all pushy about their clients' products. So follow them on twitter & join their mailing list because they have amazing twitter parties with great products. I met these ladies at Blogalicious, and they stand behind the products of the companies they represent.

Clever Girls Collective, you totally helped us make an amazing Christmas for our daughter!

Now I just have to figure out what to get my sister (can't tell you because she reads my blog). Also hubby's birthday is 3 days before Christmas, so have to figure out that one.

Since hubby & I decided not to get each other presents for Christmas, I thought it might be a bit sad not to have presents to open Christmas morning.

While sitting at a red light, I had a fabulous idea! We'll each get $5 to shop at our favorite thrift store. We have to find a present for each other there. How fun will that be? It'll force us to be creative and we'll totally surprise the other. Neither of us (nor our apartment) needs more stuff, so I think this will bring the fun back into Christmas for us adults.

What do you think? What are you giving your significant other for the holidays, especially if you are on a tight budget like we are?

I was not compensated for saying all the cool things about Clever Girls Collective and the companies they represent. However, I did win the amazing prize pack. I have yet to receive any of it, but did get to see a sample Little Passports kit at Blogalicious.

Ready, Get Set, Sew!

I finished my holiday shopping last week (thank god for Amazon Prime Shipping). DH is going to wrap the gifts tonight while we watch season 1 of Criminal Minds. I'm not a die hard fan but I catch episodes when I can. Now, I've got DH hooked, so we're going to catch up on the series, all 3 seasons. (It's currently in its fourth season). Since most of our usual shows go on hiatus until mid-January, I think this will be fun for us. Earlier this fall, we caught up on a fun Sci-Fi show, Eureka.

So I decided a few days ago, that I would make pajama bottoms for everyone. Just in time to lounge around in for Christmas Day. Am I crazy? It's all thanks to Betz White, who inspired me with her pajama bottoms. I figured that I can thread the 4th spool of thread onto the serger and just assembly line those suckers! I've been wanting new sleep pants anyhow. Sophia's going to get an entire pj set though. The pattern I bought for her is pretty simple.

I'll let you know how it goes! Tonight I'm going to cut out all those fun flannels from the picture. Tomorrow night I can serge. Tuesday night I can hem and put in the elastic. Or that's my plan at least.

I had my last Passion Party this past Saturday. Whew! It's been an amazing year for me. It had its ups and downs but overall, it was very successful. Now I'm going to take a bit of a break before we gear up for our busiest season. You got it! Valentine's!

Don't worry, I'll give you a sneak peek of the goodies soon. I promise.

Baby Magic--Or Where Babies Come From

Sunday, as we walked back to our car from Christmas shopping, Sophia asked me, "Mama, how did I get into your belly?" Now we'd been talking about belly buttons (or in the words of Sandra Boynton, bee-bo). She's amazed by innie (which never seems to end BTW) since she has an outie.

"Mama, how did I get into your belly?" She repeats.

"Um, well . . ." I debated changing the subject or distracting her. "Well, when mommy and daddy love it each other. . .magic happens!"

I know. It's a bit pathetic. But she's 3 right? That's all she needs to know. She seemed happy with my answer. After all, she still believes in fairy godmothers. That reminds of the time she asked my husband if she could have a stepmother. Thank you Disney!

I'm feeling burned out. Last week I did 3 parties and a shopping event. I think the adrenaline from November is dissipating. I have 2 more parties this weekend. They'll be fun, but I'm glad for a break! I'm giving myself 2 weeks off from parties. I was going to say work, but I know I'm be answering emails, phone calls, etc during that time.

I'm doing the last of my Christmas shopping the past couple of days. Ok, I didn't really start until Sunday night. I'm sure I'm not alone in my dilemma, but we have too many toys for Sophia (thanks to Leapfrog and great deals on Amazon)! She really hoped for some fun things from Santa, but they are too hard to get. I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those parents that ran all over town trying to find the exact gift she wanted.

I finally figured out what to give hubby for his birthday, which is only a few days before Christmas. I can't say what it is, since he reads my blog. (Hi!) Sophia wants to bake him a cake with black frosting. She thinks it's his favorite color. Probably because he wears it a lot.

So next week we're baking cookies for Santa and making black frosting. I should take a pic and send it in to Cake Wrecks. What are you doing?

It's Mardi Gras!

Happy Mardi Gras! Being transplants from Louisiana, we sometimes forget it's even Mardi Gras until the actual day. Well this week is full of holidays for our household. Mardi Gras today, MIL's birthday tomorrow, and Vietnamese Tet on Thursday. Whew!

I decided to make king cakes this year. I used my bread machine to make the dough--thank goodness because I would going nuts by the kneading and waiting the rise. I'm not too patient when it comes to baking that involves yeast. I used this recipe (slightly modified). Just a warning--it rises BIG! It almost overflowed out of my bread machine. I should have taken of picture of it. The dough is enough for a very large cake or 2 small-ish king cake. They're filled with a cinnamon brown sugar mixture and its icing has a hint of lime. And of course the obligatory gold, green, and purple sugar. Usually there's a hidden plastic baby in the cake. The person who eats the piece in it either has good luck or has to bring the next king cake! My cake is baby-less. DH took one of the cakes to work and it was a HUGE hit. I'm not usually a fan of these cakes because they're so sweet, but of course I had to have one piece of my creation.

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Fa-la-la

It never feels like Christmas until the tree is up and trimmed. Last year Sophia didn't really understand the tree trimming. But she had a blast this time! As we listened to Barenaked Ladies Christmas music (If you haven't heard this, I highly recommend it! Green Christmas & Elf's Lament are two of my faves), we unwrapped our ornaments. Since Larry and I got married, we started to buy each other an ornament every year. It sounds hokey, but when we unwrap them, it does bring back memories. We haven't gotten this year's ornaments yet, but I'm inspired to get wood cutouts and paint them.

This year instead of having friends over just to trim the tree, we also decorated gingerbread houses. I'm waaaay to busy to bake gingerbread so we used graham crackers! This is a really good way to kids to make their own. I made the royal icing (the house glue or spackle)--which takes FOREVER with a hand mixer. I've drooled over a stand mixer but can't justify it nor do I have the space. Larry picked up some graham crackers and everyone else brought their fave candies. I think more candy ended up in our stomachs than our gingerbread houses. But that's what it's all about!

Sophia had a blast decorating, but I think the adults had the most fun. I don't remember the last time I laughed so much I almost wet my pants. Decorating the houses brought the child out of everyone. Why don't we do that more often? I mean as adults, we're always so serious. Just to sit down and do a fun, no pressure project.

BTW, I knew Sophia was going to eat a lot of candy; I mean, how could she resist with it all in front of her. She spent the evening literally running in circles! Out the living room, through the kitchen and back around! LOL.