Have you ever wanted to write your husband a little love note on the bathroom mirror, but knew you would have to spend a lot of time getting the lipstick to come off? Or maybe you’ve wanted to scribble something funny and cute on your children’s bedroom mirrors, but knew the cleanup wasn’t worth the trouble?

Well, here’s a helpful tip to bring back some fun into your life.

The next time you want to leave behind a special love note and words of encouragement for your family, use dry erase markers! Although they may not be as dark as lipstick, they are so much easier to wipe off. All you will need is a tissue or paper towel and you’re done.

And just in case you were wondering…dry erase marker does NOT come off easily from the underside of a white toilet lid…even though it’s white and shiny. Not that I would know of course.

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Today begins a marathon for wrapping as many presents in one day as I can. I’m not quite sure how it got to be four days before Christmas. Unfortunately, it’s already 1:00 in the afternoon, and I haven’t wrapped the first present yet! Maybe that’s because I’m busy writing this post.

To begin, I thought you’d enjoy this picture. Now, I’ve wrapped a lot of presents in my lifetime, but never have I ever attempted anything quite this big!

Photo found at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026873.800-the-scientific-guide-to-gift-wrapping.html?full=true

I wonder how many rolls of paper and ribbon it took to accomplish this? Well, I guess in actuality, if you can  afford to give a present like this, the price of paper and ribbon is no object.With Christmas right around the corner, Faith and I thought you might enjoy having our list of helpful and useful tips to assist you with your final gift wrapping. Whether it’s a marathon session for you, or simply finishing up those last-minute items, we hope you will find these tips beneficial.

1. First, put on your favorite Christmas music. This is absolutely essential. There’s nothing quite like some good Christmas songs to set the mood.
2. Wrap presents with some other people. Gift wrapping can be such a lonely and thankless job. Do it with other friends and family members to help pass the time and to keep you motivated to finish.
3. Station yourself at a big table if possible. I’ve tried wrapping presents on my king-sized bed for years, but I’m finding it’s hard on my back. Being able to sit down and wrap presents at a table or other surface you can slide your knees under will definitely help with back strain.
4. Make sure you have plenty of snacks. You can work up quite an appetite as you measure, cut, and secure your packages. Snacks like luncheon meat and crackers, salsa and chips, as well as fresh fruit help to keep up your strength during this event.
5. Your own roll of tape, scissors, and pen are a requirement. While Scrooge is not my favorite character at this time of year, it’s easy to get a little “Scrooge-ish” when you have to constantly take back the tape your helper “borrowed.”
6. The new stick on nametags are a must. What did we ever get along without them?
7. Don’t waste your time peeling off the back of sticky bows. You know they’re going to fall off your package if you do that. Besides, trying to find a corner to where the backing is easy to peel away from the sticky part can cause you to become “unglued.” Instead, put a small piece of scotch tape on each side of that piece of sticky backing and tape it to your package.
8. Some gift bags from the Dollar Store are a blessing for those odd-shaped items. Round is not a fun shape to wrap with paper.
9. Be sure you leave enough time to finish wrapping all your gifts! Just like running a real marathon, it’s no fun not to be finished when the event is over.

If I could think of one more, I would call this a “Top Ten List” of some kind. But I can’t, so I won’t.

We hope these tips come in handy for your wrapping session. Plus, now you will know what to do for next year in case you wait to do your gift wrapping at the last minute like I did.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I can say that because this is our blog.

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Before we became a multi-generational family, I had been running our home for 36 years. During these years of raising five children, I’ve accumulated several sets of sheets–solid ones, floral ones, stripes, twin, double, queen and king.

With so many different sized beds and sheet sets in all different patterns, colors, and sizes, it can be tedious to find those tiny little tags sewn in the corners of the sheets in order to know which ones fit which beds. On occasion I have found myself dreading having to go to the linen closet to get sheets when it’s time to change the bed linens.

Since we have combined households, we now have eight beds and two for guests–like when our other married children visit. Here are a few tips we’ve learned along the way to organize this issue and some of which we have incorporated into our lifestyle. Maybe you’ll find something helpful you can use at your house.

Organizing Sheets

1. Make a decision now to purchase different patterns and colors for different sized beds in your home. Consider buying solid colors for your king-sized bed; floral patterns for the twin; stripes for the double, etc. This can be especially helpful when you move and have all your sheets thrown together in a big box. Ask me how I know!

2. When folding your sheets on laundry day, place a set inside one of the pillowcases included in the set. This will keep all the linens of the set together and allow them to sit neatly on the shelf. How’s that for easy?

3. What I do now is have two or three sets of sheets for each bed and keep them in the bedroom closet where a particular bed lives. Since everyone does their own laundry, it makes the linens easy to find, handy for making the bed, and convenient for washing the dirty ones. Once their laundry is done, the clean sheets go right back into their respective closets to wait for the next time.

This has drastically solved the problem of trying to figure out which sheets fit which beds.

4. Color-code the sheets for each bedroom. Our son has blue, our daughter has purple and lime green, etc. This is especially helpful if someone forgets to take their sheets to their room on laundry day.

How about you Faith? Any comments?

Ah Man! Here I was all excited to share the tip of putting the sheets inside the pillow case and you had it on the post already. Oh well.

I love this tip! It’s crazy how hard it can be to find the pillow cases that go with the sheets you want. This works out great to solve this problem!!

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Can you identify with this picture?

I must confess there have been some years at Thanksgiving and Christmas when I’ve felt like this. Some years I’ve felt as though I hardly had time to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee, much less time to watch “It’s A Wonderful Life!” But it IS a wonderful life, especially during this time of year when we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Well, this year I’m going to try something different. I’m going to poll the members of my family and ask them this question: “What three things are the most important aspects of Thanksgiving and Christmas that just have to be there for you in order for it to feel like Christmas?” For me, that means asking the two youngest children still at home who are 13 and 14, my mother who lives with me, and my husband. I, too, plan to examine this question.

I don’t know about you, but I can feel so out of control during the holidays that I lose focus of what is really important.  It’s so easy to get sidetracked on non-essentials. For instance, nobody makes me send out Christmas cards, decorate the house like it’s an entry for House Beautiful, or bake as if I was opening a restaurant.

For me, much of my stress level rises because I do it to myself. I know that time pressures elevate my blood pressure and December 25 is certainly a biggie. While I enjoy many of the things that come with Christmas, I want to use good judgment and make my efforts count. I know about being a good steward with my money, but my time is valuable, too. I want to use it wisely and for moments that really matter to my family.

Well, here is my chance to break the crazy cycle of the holidays–to find ways to slow down and cherish these special moments with my family.

So, this year I’m going to try a different approach. And while I haven’t asked my family members the “big question” yet, I suspect there will be a few things we all will share several things in common. Those will be the things I will focus on the most.

Will you join me?

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Do you find some things difficult to deal with during the holidays? You know, things like little babies and small children ending up inside the Christmas tree, or beautiful presents being prematurely unwrapped.

Since 1977, there have been little ones in my life–first my own babies, and now grandchildren. There were two things that were always a struggle for me during the holiday season–how to keep the little ones from grabbing the special ornaments off the Christmas tree and where to put a nativity scene? Well, here is how I’ve dealt with these issues over the years.

I’ve accumulated many special ornaments over the years and I used to be afraid that my treasures would end up broken if they were too close to the bottom of the tree. While putting them up high enough so little fingers couldn’t reach them, was an option, I decided to do something different.

I bought two trees! One for the whole family, to display our treasures, and one for the little children. I purchased a small four feet tree, placed it next to the family tree, strung some lights on it, and then put ornaments that were unbreakable on it. These were ones like fabric ornaments, plastic, and ones they made at home and church.

This would allow my children to play and redecorate their  own little tree whenever they wanted. Nobody told them, “Don’t touch,” or “Leave that alone.” We did teach them to leave the ornaments on the big tree alone. Whenever we noticed they were tempted to bother the decorations on the big tree, we redirected them to their own tree. This worked beautifully for us until the children became old enough to graduate to the “big tree.” To this day, our two youngest children still enjoy decorating their own little Christmas tree in each of their bedrooms.

The other thing I did was to purchase a nativity set that was kid friendly. Nowadays, there are many that are  made of resin, wood, and even plastic. Ones like those designed by Fisher Price allow children to enjoy learning the story of Christmas without you worrying about Jesus losing his head! To this day, I place the resin nativity scene in the wooden stable, under the edge of the Christmas tree on the floor. Then I place my Willow Tree nativity scene in a place where little ones are not tempted to bother it.

By taking the time to think through a few of the important issues such as presents, trees, and ornaments, the holiday season can be much more enjoyable and relaxing for everyone–especially you!

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