What I Learned This Christmas: Weight Management

It's not rocket science. In fact, it's pretty logical. I first heard it on Dr. Oz, and I scoffed at the idea. But when I followed it, I found I didn't feel bloated and bulky after the Christmas season. I felt great.

What is this great weight management tip for the holidays? Don't cook anything at home. Of course, I didn't follow this 100 percent, but for the most part, I did well. I didn't bake cookies, treats, or other snacky items to take to parties. Why? Because the leftovers would've been lying around the house begging me to eat them. If they weren't stacked in the fridge, they weren't tempting me.

We made two exceptions for this rule: tiger butter and cinnamon rolls. The tiger butter was my hubby's project. It's wonderful but oh-so-not-healthy (so unhealthy I won't even admit on here what the ingredients are). Of course, none of those pieces of tiger butter went to waste, just to my waist. I also made cinnamon rolls. Holy mother of butter. Those were so worth it. And, believe you me, not a single one missed my waist either. I can't imagine if there had been more sweet treats lying around my home. Well, yes, I can imagine it, and I can imagine myself snacking on them during all hours of the day.

So, wanna feel amazing after the Christmas holidays? Keep the food in someone else's house. It's that simple. And, be willing to buy something pre-made, so you don't have to deal with the dozens of leftovers you couldn't cram on the cute Christmas plate you took to your mother-in-law's.

All of these cookies were assembled at my mom's. We took a small plate home and left her to battle the dozens of leftovers =)

What I Learned This Christmas: KISS

I'm not a big crafter by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, my mom made me take sewing and cooking lessons when I was young. Yes, I appreciate them now. Yes, I'm making way more use of my sewing skills than I'd ever imagined I would. But that doesn't make me crafty.

I am a big copycat. Original craft ideas don't bloom in my head. But I can copy other people's ideas with the best of them. So, with a world of craftiness at my fingertips (i.e. the Internet), I can make almost anything.

Here's the problem with being a copycat--there's so much to copy. So, this year I decided to follow the old acronym KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). For my friends' boys, I wanted to sew matchbox car play mats complete with roads, trees, pools of water, etc., but it would've taken me FOR-EV-ER. So, I didn't let myself start the project. Instead I looked for great toy deals online, and I picked crafts that wouldn't take a long time.

My stocking stuffers came from Babble, my new favorite source for craft, decoration, and new recipe ideas. I found it through a suggestion on FB, and it has changed my life. Here's the post that inspired my stocking stuffers: Favorite DIY Christmas Ornaments. I made the Felt Monogram Ornaments which turned out exactly like the pictures! THEN I found this:

Look familiar? They were available at West Elm, but they're already gone. =(

I also made hair bobbies for my girl friends. I unashamedly copied a clip I had seen in one of my favorite stores. Basically, I made a small fabric yo-yo, sewed a bead in the center, and sewed it onto a hair pin. Voila! I should've taken pictures for a tutorial, but I didn't. Sorry.

My friends and family loved the presents--everyone got a little something handmade. And I pumped them all out in the time it took to watch a couple of Christmas movies after my family went to bed.

Next year, it's only simple projects for me. Past that, I can find great inexpensive deals online--and those are delivered right to my door step.

KISS-ing works for me. In fact, I think it's one of my favorite things to do =)

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What I Learned This Christmas: Photo Cards

I'm pretty proud of my Christmas card for this year. I chose to make it a Christmas card/birth announcement for various reasons:

1. Most babies don't take good pictures when they're fresh from the womb. Most look like aliens, and flashes make their eyes buggy. If you give them some time and wait until Christmas, they look much cuter.

2. Immediately after baby M was born, I didn't have time or motivation to take pictures, assemble a card, gather addresses, and post a bunch of birth announcements to family and friends. Plus, they all saw her on Facebook, which takes away from the birth announcement being as much of a necessity nowadays.

3. Postage is expensive, and I married into a HUGE Mexican family. Birth announcement done right would break the bank.

4. I'm going to spend the postage for Christmas anyway, might as well take care of the baby as well.

BONUS: I don't have to be in a picture if the Christmas card is all about baby.

So, a friend of mine stumbled across this mother's pictures of her sleeping baby. Our favorite was the bookworm. So, we got together one afternoon, popped Toy Story 3 into the DVD player for the toddlers, and set to taking pix of my little one. Here's what we came up with.

Christmas dress

Hot cocoa, anyone?

Advent calendar

Santa baby

Too many lights

And this is the one that ended up on our Christmas card--my favorite!

And here's our attempt to recreate the bookworm. Tee hee hee.

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What I Learned This Christmas: New Traditions

Christmas 2010 was one of the most balanced Christmases I have ever experienced. To be honest, the peace of it all caught me by surprise. I expected hustle and bustle and holiday stress, but this year panned out a lot differently. I'm devoting my first few posts back to a series I'm calling "What I Learned This Christmas."

First of all, let's talk about traditions. There are a lot of traditions my family has followed and I have carried on to my family. For example:

1. Collecting ornaments wherever we travel so that decorating the Christmas tree results in a trip down memory lane. (Be sure to label your ornaments--when you got them and anything special that's connected with that trip; otherwise you will forget--I'm not even that old!)

2. Cutting down our own Christmas tree. As a child, my family would team up with two other large families, pile into an assortment of vans and minivans, and head to Eby Pines to cut down our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. Once the trees were all piled in a trailer, the kids would perch on the sides and belt Christmas songs while we drove to the front to pay. Good times.

Here in Tulsa, there's only one Christmas tree farm I know of that's relatively close. This is great for Owasso Tree Farm's business, but not so great for selection this year. There were so few trees to choose from, we opted for a pre-cut tree.

Big mistake. The tree was dead and withered within two weeks. How did this take away from the stress of the holidays? Well, I was so ready to get rid of the tree that I felt no guilt when I pulled it down on December 26th. I feel refreshed when I move large objects out of my home and reorganize. Am I alone?

New Traditions that didn't add a lot of stress but did add fun:

1. Decorating Christmas cookies with the kids at my mom's house. My mom did a fabulous job of preparing for this event (anything involving two toddlers is an event). She had three simple recipes picked out ahead of time. She had all the ingredients out (and measured if necessary). And she picked recipes that were relatively safe to eat if not cooked (my daughter LOVES to eat as she cooks. Sticks of butter are her favorite--where did I go wrong?) Baking cookies at someone else's house meant I didn't have dozens of yummy treats setting around my home tempting me to have "just one more." I know I spared myself a couple extra pounds because of this. Plus, the kids had a blast.

2. Baking cinnamon rolls from scratch for Christmas morning. I did NOT save myself any poundage with this recipe (or the piles of leftovers taunting me from my fridge). BUT these were a smash. AND I gave away a few trays of rolls as Christmas presents and scored major love and requests for upcoming holidays. We usually make pancakes Christmas morning, which I love; but we make pancakes on a pretty regular basis, so this was a new special treat. Did I mention it provided extra Christmas presents?

3. Simplifying my Christmas lists. I decided to follow Design Mom's guide for buying presents for our kids: something to wear, something to read, and something to play with. I really think this is going to help us avoid a lot of conflict or "that's it?"-attitudes later. Plus, it makes my gift-buying much more focused. And, I loved picking out a book for each girl (something I'm ashamed to admit I don't often do--we get most of our reading from the library).

Overall, I found the less commitments I made, the less stress the holidays brought. It's a nice change to have two little ones as an excuse to not attend/be invited to a lot of holiday functions. Family time is the best. Plus, since my hubby works two jobs, and his hours go through the roof in December, we cherish any time we can spend with him after a long December of only seeing his sleeping face.

Merry Christmas

Dear Readers,

Life with two, mixed in with the holiday season, and self-prescribed maternity leave has left no time for blogging. I miss checking in with all of you, and I have many fun things to share (Teaser: my toddler is potty trained, I made super fun ornaments for Christmas gifts, and a good friend has re-inspired some challenging but much needed healthy changes to my lifestyle). Alas, I will wait until after the first of the year to resume my regular blogging. Until then, a very merry Christmas to you and yours. Love you!

Merry New Christmas Year (what do you say in between the two holidays?)

A belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year to my readers.

Christmas was . . . tranquil. There was only a splash of drama. Overall, I realized how much I love being home. I found myself wishing for more time to sit on the couch and stare at the twinkle lights on my tree. We got our stockings embroidered this year, and I only had a week to admire them before the holidays. I saw a few of my favorite holiday movies (White Christmas, The Holiday, Family Man, Miracle on 34th Street, and the good part of Home Alone), but I still have many titles I want to see. We spent time with family, but all of the festivities went so fast. And the time celebrating with friends went doubly fast.

I am not complaining. I am realizing how much I love the quality time that comes with the holidays. And I have decided I will keep my Christmas decorations up longer than usual. I just can't say goodbye to the twinkle lights and Christmas stockings yet.

On a completely unrelated side note: I've been thinking a lot about my new year resolutions, and I am really excited about 2009. I can't wait for the year to start and my life to start on a new path--focused on a new goal. Bring on the next 4 day weekend, and all the fun that starts after!

Christmas

As I've mentioned before, this Christmas has turned into a storm of to-do lists and busy-ness and not a lot of fun, festivity, and focus on the real Reason for the season.

Next year we plan to do things differently, and I've been discussing with my hubby how we can make that happen.

It all comes down to priorities. What are the priorities we are going to focus on so that Andie learns our perspective on the season?

A few priorities so far:

1. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, not presents

2. Giving, not getting

3. Family & friends

4. Traditions

Some ideas bouncing around in my head now are to only give presents to family, and even scale back on that. Until I can keep things simple, I'm not going to drown myself in the deluge of what to buy, only to be stressed at the end that I didn't get the perfect presents for my friends and even missed some people I love dearly. I may donate/volunteer in their honor. I used to scoff at this idea, but I see the value in it now.

I'd like to create an advent calendar that suggests something to give each day--give a smile, give a plate of cookies, give your time, give a friend a call, etc. 

I've read many testimonies of people who give their time at local soup kitchens and retirement homes. Perhaps we'll look into those options next year.

I heart traditions. I have quite the list for the Christmas season. Perhaps I should scale back on this too. If it again turns into a to-do list for mama, where's the fun in that? The focus should be on quality time with family and friends.

Your thoughts? Your ideas? Your traditions? I think I might just talk about traditions later. We'll see!

Christmas handiwork

I borrowed this idea from a friend. Yes, borrowed, I will kindly give it back if she insists, wink. It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I tried again with a different pillow and ended up with Christmas tress under a starry sky. Perhaps I'll post it later.

The Christmas craziness is finally feeling like it's beginning to slow. I've been taking a hard look at our priorities/to do lists, and I think our Christmas next year will be very different. Before I post all my thoughts, dear friends, tell me about your holiday experience and what you might change for your family next year.

hugs and kisses!

Holiday Spirit

*Gingerbread house I appliqued for my baby girl

This year I've taken to crafting, primarily because that's what most of my stay-at-home-mom friends are doing. It started as something cute to do, then turned into a money-saving option for upcoming Christmas gifts, and now has overtaken my living room couch with a number of projects looming over my To Do list. Suddenly the holidays have become a goal, not an event. Right now I'm not dreaming of present possibilities, wishing for a white Christmas, or simply sitting back and being thankful for all the fun, family, food and so many more things that the holidays promise. My goal is to get my presents bought/made and wrapped a week ago.  And instead of joy, I feel stress.

Stress? That's not what the holidays are about! Where did I go wrong? From this point forward, everything changes.

1. Presents are no longer items on my To Do list; they are opportunities to bless others.

2. The bottom line changes from how much to spend on each gift to how much love I can sincerely pour from my  heart into each present.

3. If it's not perfect, it's perfect. I must keep reminding myself that perfection is not necessary or realistic.

4. I'm not setting any more dates that I have to get something done by; I do what I can, when I can, and most important, I live in the moment.

5. This is my daughter's first Christmas, and even though she may not remember it, I want it to be as memorable as possible. I refuse to get too old to remember the little things that made the holidays special and that I looked forward to each December first.

Since we were out of town for Thanksgiving weekend, we haven't decorated yet. This weekend our holiday begins with cutting down our own tree. From there we break out the rubbermaid boxes and adorn the house in red and gold. And, as Christmas day approaches, we will consume ourselves with traditions such as making an ornament to commemorate the year and will continue with going to as many Christmas parties as possible and remembering the true Reason for the festivities.