My secret santa gift! A Santa advent with little gifts! YEAH!

has arrived at my house today!  I am so excited. I am participating in 3 online secret santa gift exchanges. One with my nanny friends, and two through another online message board.   Today I scored…Look what came in the mail:

Day 1 gift: Happy Birthday! Plan for many pleasures ahead!

Day 2 gift: Today's fortune: Be mischievous and you will not be lonesome.

 This is what was in Day 1 and Day 2 gifts… I love, love them! Thank you SS!

Birthday Bubbles & hanging snowman ornament with crystal

Kidlets basically forgot my birthday yesterday till I reminded them. Kidlet #1 just brought me a sweet tea from McDonald’s and said Happy Birthday. I will accept that :)  Mom was mad last night when she came home and Kidlet #3 said, “isn’t it terrible when you are sick on your birthdayyyyyyyyyy.”  She looked at me in horror and asked “Is today your birthday”  I said yes.  She asked the kidlet why he didn’t call and tell her etc.  She said we will have a belated celebration.  I told her that works, as I celebrate all year long!  Then Kidlet #1 reminded mom that my birthday is the day before Britney Spears.  Awesome now they can remember it next year

Rebecca blogged about my giveaway and shared with me that she really liked the Get Crafty Interactive Journal  I have to say I think that is going on my shopping list now too, Rebecca.

Thank you everyone who participated! I am hoping to have some more in the near future as I get more items!

Day 7

Sponsors: Day Five Blog Party Question is Brought to you by Flying Colors Baby, Uncommonly Cute and Lollipop Book Club.

VIP BLOGS to visit are Parent Reviewers , Mom Most Traveled, Mommy Zabs, MomStart, HipposToes, Run DMT

Question of the day is: We would like to know what is your favorite holiday memory from your childhood.

I too don’t remember tons of things specifically to one holiday or another in my childhood, like some other bloggers.  I do have lots of memories from the holidays over the years.

I remember as a child having the Christmas Tree set up ontop of this huge wooden train platform and playing with the electric trains for hours.  Then we sold that wooden train platform to one of my friend’s dad’s because he liked trains.

My grandparents also lived in York, PA and they have the Stauffer’s Biscuit Company there. My childhood consisted of getting Butcher Bologna from the farmer’s market and getting Dark Chocolate Stars from Stauffers.   These are so freaking yummy it is terrible!   I go every year and pick up like 6-8 boxes of them from the store. I even love getting the factory seconds too!  I ship some to my brother in Seattle, take some to my Aunt’s family in Virginia Beach, my friends here in the DC area and Richmond area etc. 

Last year Trader Joes had a special batch made for them called Chocolate Stars but they were made with shortbread and not graham cracker stars. They were good but not as good as these.  

I am going Saturday to the factory to pick up this year’s supply. Let me know if you need any. 

Another favorite memory of Christmas is when I was 24, and my mommy finally took me to Disneyworld :)  The year before my Grandparents both had died within six months of each other, so the holidays kinda of sucked.  My brother was in the Army at the time stationed in Georgia and not coming home.  My best friend Amy was going to hang with us for the holidays. So my mom treated her, me, my brother and Melissa to Disneyworld for 3 days in 1996.  We flew out of Raleigh Durham around 7pm on Christmas Eve, but got delayed for several hours because of a snow/ice storm.  I remember sitting bored in the airport and nothing being opened to eat. They did end up giving us rice kripsie treats.  It was something :)    We finally got to Orlando and our hotel.  When we awoke on Christmas Day, Santa had left us Stockings to open.  He found us!   I remember it being hot and wearing shorts and DisneyWorld being decorated for the holidays.  It was crazy.

Good luck!

Sponsors: Day Five Blog Party Question is Brought to you by Baby Pop and Chic Covers

VIP BLOGS to visit are Parent Reviewers , Mom Most Traveled, Mommy Zabs, MomStart, HipposToes, Run DMT

Today’s Question for Day 5 is:

What do you do to give back during the holidays. I normally through my local Nanny group, ADCAN, donate to a local family in need. This has consisted of gathering gifts for the children, parents and/or grandparents.  We have also included gift cards to a local grocery store so that they too can have a holiday meal.   I also do a “Adopt A Kid” through various organizations that I find during the holiday season.  I tend to give to different ones every year.

 Do you volunteer your time?  If so, please tell us where.  I don’t generally volunteer my time during the holidays. It is however one of those things I would like to do one year. 

  What do you do to teach your children the true meaning of the holidays? Since I don’t have children of my own, I work with the children that I nanny about understanding the meaning of the holidays, by giving back to their community.  Right now Kidlet # 3 is working on shoeboxes filled with useful items for the homeless.  We pick a special day to go shopping for those items and put together the box to send into school.  In the past I have helped the kids pick a child off the Salvation Army Tree to get clothes/gifts for a child.  We would go together and pick out everything and bring it back. 

Day 4

Our VIP blogs are:  Parent Reviewers , Mom Most Traveled, Mommy Zabs, MomStart, HipposToes, Run DMT

What is your favorite Holiday recipe:  I really like my Mom’s Sausage stuffing & my Grandmother’s simple stuffing with just homemade bread cubes, butter, onion and celery.  I also like these little biscuits with ham and swiss cheese on them that you bake in the oven.  For a few years on Christmas Day my mom hosted a “Christmas Open House” and these were served.  This was one of the things my brother and I could eat before others came to the house.   I think I should tell her to bring some next weekend to my aunt’s house.  I think they would make an excellent Black Friday breakfast before shopping

Ham & Swiss Biscuits (sorry no exact amts of anything here-I will try getting these)

• Slices of Ham (like a pound package from the deli)
• Slices of Swiss Cheese (prepackaged works too)
• tub of Land of Lakes soft butter or whatever softbutter you like
• Poppy Seeds (1-2 tablespoons)
• 2 packages of dinner rolls like from Pepperidge Farms
• squirt of Yellow Mustard or Dijon mustard
• Worchester Sauce (1-2 teaspoons)
• chopped/minced onions (1-2 tablespoons optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together in a bowl the butter, mustard, 1 tablespoon of PoppySeeds, 1 teaspoon of Worchester Sauce, onions, then set aside (add more poppy seeds, Worchester, and Onions to your preferance)
3. slice the dinner rolls in half to make like a sandwich
4. spread on each side of the rolls some of the butter mixture
5. Then either layer the ham and swiss on the rolls (or you can dice up up the ham/swiss and then put on rolls) If using thin sliced ham use two slices.
6. Put lid of roll on
7. Precut all the rolls before baking
8. Bake for 15 -20 minutes to get the cheese/ham butter mixture bubbly and yummy. The outside of the rolls should be toasted
9. Take out and let cool for a few minutes
10. ENJOY!

These are really a kinda of put together as you go receipe.  They are great rewarmed in the microwave too.  We often make several batches and eat throughout the day as they are yummy snacks.          

Describe your Holiday table: When I was growing up Mom would break out the good china.  It was nice but I hated having to hand wash the glasses etc.  Hey I was a teenager, we complained, right?   Since I have been going to my Grandma’s friend’s  house the past 3 years for Christmas Eve dinner, they use styrofoam trays that are divided.  It kinda of cracked me up the first year I was there and eating from a tray and not a china plate-but honestly it didn’t matter because everyone was having a great time. It was also so simple and easy to clean up so we could move on to the gift opening time!

Biggest holiday cooking disaster: I am pretty sure (while knocking on wood)  I haven’t ever really had a holiday cooking disaster. I will say that I am often in charge of making the green bean casserole because when my mom makes it is often too “soupy” so it is kinda of a run joke in the house. Right, Mom?     One year though my aunt’s oven died on Thanksgiving and luckily she had the keys to the next door neighbor’s house and they were gone (she was petsitting) so she cooked the meal over there.  I wasn’t there that year for some reason-I think this is one of the reasons she now prepares everything for Thanksgiving basically on Wednesday for fear of disasters.

80% of child carseats are installed and/or used incorrectly. Is yours one of them? Ask me if you want more info!
Proud to be “extended rearfacing” my 23 month old daughter
Proud to be “extended harnessing” my 5 year old, 46 pound charge
Pround to be “extended boostering” my 8 year old charge
All children ride safely in my car!
www.carseatnanny.blogspot.com

She has definitely opened up lots of eyes regarding her “passion” for extended rear facing carseat children.  I hope that you will read her blog and gain some useful and informative info.  If you have any questions leave her a comment/email and she will get back to you. 

Here is the review link to the carseats she likes.

Today’s contest is sponsored by these awesome bloggers: Appledonia, Hippos Toes, and My Bag. Please go check them out!

For today’s questions:

When do you start Christmas shopping? 

I kinda of shop all year long and then still don’t formally make a list of items to get for people.  I buy for my friend’s two girls and my other friend’s son and they are pretty much done…noisey toys and books here they come :)  For my family they normally get White House Christmas Ornaments when I get them this time of the year to help a local Children’s Center fundraiser.  I really buy when I see something I know that the person would like. My list is almost done just a few more family member gifts..and well they have to be done ASAP as we are celebrating at Thanksgiving!

How do you budget for Christmas?