Focus on Family in 2009

I would be remiss in not sharing that Once Upon a Family has a couple great specials going this month for those that are interested in focusing more on their families in 2009. =)
If you have young children, Lessons for Little Ones is an awesome product that gives you 12 months of fun activities for your child, all having to do with whatever holiday is that month. You get great tradition ideas (the Magic Easter Cake is especially fun!!) that you can do year after year. With monthly themes like Honesty, Gratitude, Respect, and nine more, these important values are woven in with fun activities that your children will love to do. This set comes with all 12 months of activity packets, along with a decorative storage box to keep the packets in, all for just $49 in January. Set is valued at $153, for a total savings of over $100. Visit my website at http://www.createyourtraditions/ to read more.
Our other HUGE special this month is on our Live Laugh Love Club, which I call the girl’s night out club. This is a club like no other, where you get together with your girlfriends each month to learn new ways to connect with your family, get a take home tradition to start with your family, and get a featured keepsake idea each month. Valued at $169, you get all 12 months of packets and a keepsake traditions binder for only $49 during the month of January only. Visit my special LLL Club website at http://www.livelaughlovetampa.com/ to learn more and see the different themes of the month.
Additionally, January is double hostess rewards month, so if you are interested in purchasing several sets of the above, or other products, let me know and I can hook you up with some great free product.

Merry Christmas!!

Since I don't know that I'll have a chance to get on the computer tomorrow, I wish you all a very merry Christmas! And I leave you with a couple last minute ideas to make Christmas even more memorable for your little ones:

• Reindeer food - if you're not already doing this tradition every year, you simply must start! We've been doing this since Owen was a baby and it's SO easy and cute. You can make Reindeer food out of just about anything (oats, cereal, etc.) but I like to use birdseed. If you don't have birdseed, pick something else. There are no rules, really. Well, except that you need glitter. Ya know, since they're magic reindeer and all. Mix it up in a baggie and let the kids sprinkle it in the lawn right before bed, so the reindeer have something to eat while Santa is inside leaving his presents.
• Santa photo - If your kids are starting to doubt that Santa is really coming to their house and leaving them gifts, check out this site, it just might keep the magic alive another year - http://www.capturethemagic.com/.
• While you're at it, how about having the kids write thank you notes to Santa to leave with the milk and cookies?

Okay, I need to do some work for a few hours before my mommy gets here for the weekend. Hope that Santa is good to you all!

giving thanks

So I'm sitting here sending out my monthly newsletter, and I really loved this idea. Well, I really loved it all, but this is the one that stuck out as something I wanted to share with you all.

So, what are you thankful for this year?

fall leaves

no, we don't have them here in FL. Palm fronds don't quite count.

Those of you that have been to one of my celebrations know how much I adore this story. So in honor of the time change, and it being fallish in most of the country, I'm sharing.

"On my birthday in October, we had always raked huge piles of autumn leaves with the kids and then jumped in them, stuffed them in our shirts, threw them in the air, and just generally had a wild time. We thought as the kids got older, their interest in such a frivolous activity would fade. On the contrary, when they were teens, the leaf piles just got bigger.Finally, one year, four of our children were away at school or living abroad. On my birthday, four birthday cards arrived. As I opened the first, a leaf fell out and a note, 'Dad, I honored your birthday tradition. Here’s a leaf from my jumping pile. I love you.' Through my tears I opened the other three — and a leaf fell from each." ~ Richard Eyre

Wow, right? That STILL gives me chills every time I read it.

So your mission for the day is to go create your own leaf story with your family.

Getting Boo'd and the Great Pumpkin

My Once Upon a Family newsletter this month had a very cool idea of starting a Getting Boo'd Halloween tradition. I'm posting that here so you guys can enjoy it, as well.

A new Halloween tradition is spreading rapidly grass-roots fashion throughout the culture. Called "Getting Booed," it involves a family making a Halloween gift basket and leaving it anonymously on a neighbor's door step with a sign "You Got Booed." The receiving family's job, then, is to make up another gift basket and play the trick on another family in the neighborhood who doesn't have a 'got booed' sign on their door. Here is a poem you can use for your "got booed" sign.
The air is cool, the season is fall, soon Halloween will come to all.
The spooks are after things to do; in fact, a spook has brought this to you.
"BOO" is a shield, from witching hour, Just hang it up and watch its power.
On your front door is where it works, it ward off spooks and scary jerks.
The power comes when friends like you will copy this and make it TWO.
We'll all have smiles upon our face. No one will know who Booed our place.
Just one short day to work your spell or a big ZAP will strike your tail.
And don't forget a nifty treat, like something cute or something sweet.
Please join the fun, let's really hear it! Spread some Boo's and Halloween spirit!

I thought this was very cute, and it brought back memories of something I started in my neighborhood a few years ago and somehow had lost it along the way. This tradition was called being hit by the Great Pumpkin, and I had a poem for it too, which I am sure I can't find anymore. But around the beginning of October, I went to three neighbors and left them each one of those plastic jack o lanters with a couple bags of candy in them, and left them as a surprise, with instructions to each hit one new person with a jack o lantern and leave the jack o lantern on their front porch so everyone knows they've been hit. It was very cool to see more and more jack o lanterns on the porches as the days and weeks went by. I might just have to revamp this this year, and if I'm going to do it I guess it's about time to get going on it!

If you'd like to read the rest of the newsletter, go here.