I heard about this sweet card drive at Ling's Design Studio to bring a little cheer to the elderly this Christmas last week. There's over a week to get any Thanksgiving or Christmas cards you would like to donate sent off.
Or look into nursing homes in your area and send them a few signed cards to pass on to their residents who need it most.
Now that Halloween is over, it's time to get serious about planning Christmas. Maybe the way I plan my Christmas shopping is a little nerdy or OCD, but it works for me. I made a simple spread sheet with my kiddos names and my husband across the top. In our family, we give four gifts to our children - something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. So on the left hand side of my spreadsheet I have "Want", "Need", "Wear" and "Read". Below that I have the names of all my children, to keep track of their gifts for each other (just to make sure everything is taken care of). Last, is the section where Santa and I get in sync and make sure things are distributed evenly.
I start off filling my spreadsheet with ideas, then as I purchase gifts I highlight the box and include the price in parenthesis and keep a running total under each person's column. A girl's gotta to keep track of her bottom line!
I also make an even simpler list on a separate tab of the spreadsheet of our extended family, friends and neighbors we like to do a little something for at Christmas. The list will be getting shorter once again as we decided to send cards to our more of our extended family. (That darn budget thing again!) I use this page the same as the first page, a place for ideas; then I highlight the gift when it's bought. I also keep track of what I spent on each gift and a running total. Email me (raejeaneasyaspie at gmail dot com) if you would like me to send you a blank copy.
I have ideas for some of my children, the older ones are more challenging - but at least they are content! Besides collecting ideas for them, I also looking for ideas for neighbor gifts. I found this recipe for Praline Ice Cream Sauce at Skip to My Lou that might fit the bill. What do you think? Do you have any awesome small gift ideas?
This has been a very eventful month, with many roller coaster rides (physical and emotional). Overall, I have many reasons to be grateful in this season of Thanksgiving!
0 - Broken bones or major injuries
1 - Totaled vehicle
3 - Fun filled days at Disneyland
4 - Scrapbook layouts. I'm very behind. I need to complete 20 this month to complete my goal!
5 - Days spent with family in California
6 - Articles for The Homemaking Cottage and Arizona Mama.
8 - Times Trick or Treaters rang the doorbell.
20 - Blog posts
602 - Another record for monthly page views!
What exciting benchmarks did you meet in October?
I heard about this sweet card drive at Ling's Design Studio to bring a little cheer to the elderly this Christmas last week. There's over a week to get any Thanksgiving or Christmas cards you would like to donate sent off. 
Now that Halloween is over, it's time to get serious about planning Christmas. Maybe the way I plan my Christmas shopping is a little nerdy or OCD, but it works for me. I made a simple spread sheet with my kiddos names and my husband across the top. In our family, we give four gifts to our children - something they want, something they need, something to wear and something to read. So on the left hand side of my spreadsheet I have "Want", "Need", "Wear" and "Read". Below that I have the names of all my children, to keep track of their gifts for each other (just to make sure everything is taken care of). Last, is the section where Santa and I get in sync and make sure things are distributed evenly.
