the 12 days of christmas catch-up

like my friends lyndsey and emily, i am joining aly and molly's 12 days of christmas link-up party a little late. because we are mid kitchen remodel, i haven't had tons of time to blog lately and i thought this would be fun to do, at least until we finish the kitchen... which will hopefully be happening sometime next week.

so here are days one through seven...

{day one} - christmas/holiday traditions
because we have three christmas celebrations to go to every year, we tend to be a little frantic around christmas. there are, however, traditions that we have kept throughout the years. we always go to church on christmas eve and we always open up one present on christmas eve (always pajamas). we typically split our time on christmas morning between my dad's house (since i have a 7 year old sister who still believes in santa clause) and griffin's parents house. we wake up super early and open presents at one, then go to the other, then go back to the other, and on and on and on. at my dad's house, we always open up presents in order of youngest to oldest and while my dad always spends the same amount of money on each of us, we sometimes have a different number of presents. we typically do my mom's house either the day before or the day after because, in her opinion, she would rather have us a full day, rather it be the actual holiday or not, than have to share us. this past year she gave us money and we all went shopping together the day after christmas. at griffin's house we draw names between all of the siblings and there wives in order to save money and we've already decided to do this with my side of the family starting next year.

{day two} = black friday/general shopping tips and tricks
aside from last year, we don't usually do the black friday after christmas shopping. because i am very frugal, i do have a few tricks up my sleeve when it comes to buying presents for others, something i actually LOVE to do. i always start early. before thanksgiving, i already had the majority of it done. i watch for sales and deals starting at the beginning of november and buy a couple of presents here and there each paycheck to offset the large amount of money that we spend. for some reason, fifty bucks each pay period seems a lot more manegable than five-hundred all in december. i also shop black friday the day after thanksgiving. we went this year and were able to get quite a few things. also watch for great online deals on cyber monday, which happens to be today, the monday after black friday. you can find things for a fraction of their retail cost. my sisters and i also go in together on a lot of the presents we purchase my parents so that we are able to get them something nicer than we would have been able to get on our own.

{day three} = meaningful/memorable gifts
honestly, i consider every gift i receive to be meaningful, and i try to make every gift i give meaningful. as much as i love opening up gifts on christmas morning, i also love to buy gifts for other people. yes i am frugal, some might even say cheap. but when it comes to christmas shopping, i love finding good deals on things that i know my friends and family will love.

{day four}: tips/tricks to a budget friendly holiday season
honestly, see day three... i already addressed this question there :)

{day five} favorite holiday movie/TV show special
the classics...

and the modern chick-flicks...



and the tv favorite...

{day six} = gift ideas... for me!!

i would love, although i'm not expecting to receive all of these...

1) a new camera (the rebel was just too darn big)

2) spode christmas dinnerware

3) a new schwinn bike to go riding with griffin and baird

4) scentsy candles

5) normal yankee candles

6) and perhaps some things that we still need for baby...

{day seven} = holiday craft/diy

about the only thing i've diyed around the house is our tree skirt, which i bought as a round table cloth and rigged into a tree skirt. we do have the tree up and the mantle done, and a few things on our dinner table, but aside from that, not much else. i'll post pictures later today of our christmas decor :)

hope everyone is having a wonderful monday :)

love,

maggie