An Easy Way To Spice Up Your Christmas Tradition.

Today I'm posting as part of an online Christmas advent calender.  You can check out the other awesome posts as they unfold daily HERE.

Christmas has a way of testing one's resilience.

Especially in the eyes of my youngest daughter, Cali.

That girl is all spice.

And honestly, I get it.

I do.

I remember, as a kid, snooping around in my parent's room for my presents.  Sometimes I'd find them, but usually not.  We lived next door to my grandparents, and I found out as an adult that all of our Christmas presents were hidden in my grandparent's basement.

Obviously a wise choice on my parent's part.

But there's only so much a parent can do, and only so much anticipation I could handle.

As the presents began to show up under the tree, wrapped in pretty wrapping paper, and labeled with our names, I would sneak out to the tree in the middle of the night to look at them in all their Christmastime glory.

I would quietly find the packages with my name on them and careful peel back the tape on the end of the wrapping so I could unfold the end and see what was inside.  Then I would follow the folds of the paper, wrapping it back up just how it was, and replace the tape.

Guys, I know.

I was such a stinker. Horrible.  And my parents had no idea.

Honestly, I came to realize that Christmas morning really wasn't that much fun when I already knew what all my presents were.

I faced a similar situation a few years ago with my own children, Cali in particular.  Only, apparently, they're not as stealthy as I was as a child.

I began noticing that presents had ripped corners, exposing some of the present within.

Knowing how I was as a child, and knowing how I inevitably always ruined the magic for myself, I took this as a challenge.

How can I keep the magic of Christmas, but not have a strong temptation for my children to peak into wrapped presents?

Last year I heard about the perfect solution, so we tried it.

I wrapped all the presents as I normally would, but then labeled them with code names.

The kids still had fun poking around in the presents, and trying to guess what was in them, but I found as they didn't know which presents belonged to whom, that not of the presents were peaked into.

Though I did take the extra precaution of wrapping them in unidentifiable boxes as well.

It drove my kids crazy not knowing which presents were theirs.

On Christmas I had them pick one present with the code name that they thought was theirs.  One by one they would open the present they had chosen and then guess if they thought they were right, or if they thought that present belonged to a sibling.  After everyone had opened their present we told them if they were correct in their guesses, or not, and everyone got sorted out, and knew which code name belonged to them.

They loved this so much they asked if we could do it again this year.

And we are.

Maybe you have kids that are better behaved when faced with a pile of tempting presents than I have (or I was), regardless, this little trick added a layer of surprise that the kids really enjoyed.

If you're looking to try something new to spice up your Christmas traditions, this one is really easy to do.

With the holiday season up us, we wish you a Merry Christmas, from our family to yours.

Here

New Partners

So this fantastic thing, where I partnered up with:

{here}

{here}

{here}

And soundsofzion.com, which will be up and running in Jauary 2014.


Where I get to tell you about the amazing new cd's and artists and concerts and giveaway said cd's and... well I don't get to give the artists away but I will be able to give concert tickets away and greet and meets which excites me beyond what I can express.

Follow them on fb:
yourldsradio
yourldsmusicstore
EFY Music

AND.  I wrote a guest post on their blog today on the choas but joys of our Christmas.  Go check it out HERE and show me some love :).

They're creating a place where you can come together and talk about all things good.
And the LDS radio station has a few channels you can stream online.

Awareness, A Cause, Moral Support

The Circus was on one this morning.

Like, more than usual on one.

Like walking around and calling each other "sibling" instead of using names.

I might have been on one too because when I did Casidee's hair for crazy hair day I swooped her bangs up and asked her if I could safety pin them.

I'm surprised any of us made it out of the house with our pants on.  Or with matching shoes.

Today I have a special guest blogger that would like to introduce you to a subject that is near and dear to her heart.  Every now and then I post things about cancer, whether it be that I have parents who have fought various types of cancer and won, or that I'm fighting the need to be tested for the breast cancer gene but the test is so insanely expensive and not covered by insurance (hello, preventative), or about various causes to raise money for childhood cancer, or about Tayler's desire to raise money for cancer.  That's a tear jerker, that one.  You can read it here.

I'd like to introduce you to Heather.  I don't know what it is about hearing stories of cancer, and realizing how many, many different types there are, but when Heather reached out to me, to introduce me to her story and her cause, I just knew I had to let her tell us all about it.

I wonder if someday I'm going to need help from others of my own, and so I feel such a need to help where I can.

I hope you'll take a minute to read Heather's story that she wrote for us here, and then go check out her blog HERE.  Also her husband's blog HERE has a different perspective that I loved reading.   Because when it comes down to it, we all need each other.  Even if it's just moral support.

I am 43 and a mother to a quirky little 7 year old, Lily. She is my only child, and my whole world. When Lily was just 3 1/2 months old, I was diagnosed with Mesothelioma; a type of cancer that kills 90-95% of those who have it. As I’m sure you can imagine, the first thing that came to mind when I was diagnosed was my baby girl and how I wasn’t going to be able to watch her grow up. After intense treatment and recovery, I'm still here almost 7 years later and cancer free!  My journey with cancer was a terrifying one and I'd like to turn my pain into purpose and become someone that other people can look to for guidance, inspiration, and hope in situations like my own. 

I'm trying to raise awareness of this horrible, little known cancer that is such a deadly killer (and sadly, 100% preventable).



  My Story: Mesothelioma at 36

The three words nobody wants to hear are you have cancer."

Yet, there it was, coming at me during what otherwise was the best time of my life.  I had just become a mother 3 1/2 months earlier.  A doctor gave me the diagnosis.  I had malignant pleural mesothelioma, which is an asbestos exposure-related form of cancer.  What has shocked people the most when I tell them about my diagnosis is that not only has asbestos not been banned, but that I got this disease from secondary exposure.

When I was a little girl my father worked construction.  Apparently, asbestos was in the drywall and other materials he worked with doing drywall taping, mudding and sanding.  He wasn't aware of it at the time, but millions of microscopic asbestos fibers were in the dust that covered his clothes and jacket that he wore home.  They even fell into the car he drove.

I was 36 years old when I was diagnosed.  It was rare at the time to find someone so young with malignant pleural mesothelioma because this disease was at first associated with older men who spent their careers either on military ships or as mechanics, electricians and plumbers, or in the heating trade.  But as time progressed doctors discovered that secondary exposure had sickened the wives and, like me, the children of those men.  They breathed in the innocent looking white dust particles that followed them home from work, caked to their clothes that were subsequently put in with the rest of the family's laundry.  Little children jumped into their daddy's arms when he came home from work.  Many children, like me, put on their father's jackets - without a clue what toxic substances were on those clothes.

Teachers and secretaries who worked in schools that had asbestos have also developed this form of cancer, as have the children who attended those schools.  And of course there are young adults who grew up playing in the vermiculite insulation that was peppered with asbestos in the attics of millions of homes across the country.  These young people, just starting their lives and their own families, are having to put everything else on hold to fight this horrible disease.

The great news is that a growing percentage of patients, young and old, are beating this disease as more advances in the treatment of mesothelioma are being made.  A cancer diagnosis at any age is still more than devastating, but I am hopeful.  Many of us who have mesothelioma have built a community of support for each other.  we cry with each other and we celebrate the successes.

More needs to be done to cure this disease, though, and that's why I continue to share my story.  My hope is that this brings more awareness to this form of cancer that is striking the young and old alike, and to offer hope to mesothelioma patients.