Christmas Decorations: In Progress.

First, it was a joy on Thanksgiving night to assemble our small Christmas tree  in all of 5 seconds. There is something to be said for a pre-lit tree!

But on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we ventured to pick up the real live tree for our living room. I love the smell of a live tree!

My three year old was so excited about putting up the tree and making crafts!

Shopping Tips:
1. Don't forget to start Christmas shopping at the Labor Day sales, which has saved me a lot of money.
2. Pick up small items when you see them on sale. Thank you CVS for the free stocking stuffers! ( I have also been picking up various Thirty-one presents as gifts along the way.)
3. Make a budget with your spouse and stick to it!
4. Buy big ticket electronics online on Black Friday.
5. Pick up small items like video games and DVD's in-stores on Black Friday/Thanksgiving.
6. Buy toys about 2 weeks before Christmas.

Things that made life fun:
1. We are having a family party on the Sunday before Christmas with all the cousins and siblings from one side fo the family. We had the cousins draw names for presents. The adults are doing a Christmas Gift Game Exchange.
2. I made a few quick triangle potato stamps, and let the kids decorate some plain wrapping paper.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for the many blessings in my life. I was especially grateful this morning that I had already cooked the two items that I was taking for Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's house.

This morning I reheated the collard greens in the oven, then popped the casserole dish gently down into my double thermal organizer, which was inside a large utility tote.  Then I used my single thermal organizer to store the icecream. Since the casserole only took up the bottom part of the double thermal organizer, I was able to fold it down a little, then put an additional thermal picnic tote to hold my chilled homemade cranberry sauce.

I put the top-a-tote on, and everything was ready to go!

It was very nice to arrive with a dish that was hot, plus still frozen icecream, and chilled homemade cranberry sauce in their respective containers.

31 Upcycling Shower Ring Ideas

Thanks for all the ladies who came out to my organizing workshop last night. For those of you who couldn't make it here are five of my "31" ideas!

1. Keep hair ties together in a bathroom drawer.

2. Use to hang/store gift bags in your hall closet or pantry.
3. Use shower curtain rings to hang your collection of baseball hats from a hanger.
4. Hang tools from wire shelving (like a hammer) with shower curtain rings.
5. Hang large kitchen utensils in your kitchen cabinets using shower curtain rings and a tension rod.

Update:
I have used shower rings for two new purposes this week!
32. Use a shower ring to hang hula hoops from a rail in a utility closet or from wire shelving.
33. Fill long gift bags with all your stocking stuffers then hang the gift bags at the back of your closet using a shower ring. When Santa arrives, all he has to do is empty the gift bag contents into the stocking!

Thirty-one Black Friday Ad

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