Sunday, November 25, 2012

Christmas Family Traditions

What are your family traditions?  Are they traditions that have been around for decades, or new traditions your family has stumbled upon?

Many of our family traditions are new with our immediate family, but of course we do have some from each of our extended families that have been carried over to our household.  It will be interesting to see which traditions our children choose to keep and carry on!

Quite a few years back I created an Advent Calendar, which has become the centerpiece of many of our Christmas Traditions.  Our boys look forward to the Advent Calendar being hung and get excited about each day (some more than others), quickly reading through them all so they can "hi-five" over their favorites!

Here is what I had put together, inspired by an advent calendar I had seen posted those many years ago (sorry, don't remember who originally created it, or even when).  I can just remember being in my workshop working diligently on putting this together and being so proud of how it turned out!  The hardest part was determining the "activities" for our advent calendar.  Each day had to be something that could be done regardless of day of the week (i.e. workday, schoolday, weekend, etc).


This is our list of Advent Calendar Activities...if you don't already have your family traditions or an Advent Calendar, hopefully our list, or some of the other ideas show below will help you get started!

December:
1 - Write Letters to Santa
2 - Put Candy Canes on the Tree
3 - Read Precious Moments Christmas
4 - Look through our Christmas Album
5 - Write a Letter to a Soldier
6 - Watch Rudolph
7 - Make Gingerbread Houses
8 - Watch the Grinch
9 - Make Bird Treats
10 - Create Teacher Cards
11 - Order Pizza & Play Board Games
12 - Drink Cider & Listent to Carols
13 - Watch National Lampoons Christmas
14 - Hang the Mistletoe
15 - Create a Christmas Photo Ornament
16 - Donate
17 - Make Reindeer Food
18 - Watch Frosty & Drink Cocoa
19 - See Christmas Lights
20 - Make Chocolate Covered Pretzels
21 - Make Santa Cookies
22 - Deliver Goodies to Community Service Workers
23 - Read Twas the Night Before Christmas (yes, a little early)
24 - Set out Santa Cookies and Reindeer Food

Here are some other ideas:

Order Pizza and watch a Christmas movie together


Clean out closets of unwanted toys and clothes and donate those in good condition to a shelter or charity.


Talk about hope and share one thing each of you hopes for.


Write a letter to Santa.


Decorate
the tree.


Wrap 
present(s)


Go see some Christmas Lights

Do an act of service for someone you love.

Read a
holiday story


Sing a Christmas Carol.

Make a new ornament for your tree.

Make a list of the gifts that God has given you.

Come up with as
many words from
 the letters
MERRY CHRISTMAS
as you can

Read about how Christmas is celebrated in another country

Go Christmas caroling

Watch a
Christmas
movie

Purchase an item for “Toys for Tots” (or whatever is in your area) and wrap and deliver it

Do an act of
service for
a neighbor

Draw or color a Christmas
picture

Take a photo
of your
Christmas
tree

Make
Christmas
cookies

Make a
Christmas
Card.

Put out the
cookies and
milk for
Santa

Tell what
Jesus Christ
means to you

Monday, November 19, 2012

NoreensChat Sale-A-Thon: FREE Embellishments

Cyber Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday....oh my, the sales and shopping season are hitting their stride!  I've got tons of embellishments to give away, so start your shopping with me today!


NoreensChat
SALE-A-THON
FREE Goodies/Embellishments
Black Friday Offer
NoreensChat SALE-A-THON
(Tuesday, November 20th - Monday, November 26th)

***Order directly through my website and JOIN the SALE-A-THON gathering.  Your order will ship directly to you and I will mail your bonus goodies separately!!  This special is only available via my website http://noreen.ctmh.com ***

Please email, call or text me with any questions or concerns.
Noreen@tscretreats.com  618-604-5490

Click each underlined/linked item to view.

Place an order of $25+
Bonus:  Receive Wrangler Assortment & Haunted Assortment($10.90 value)

Place an order of $50+
Bonus:  Receive Wrangler Assortment, Haunted Assortment, &Autumn Lane Assortment ($16.85 value)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***NOTE:  The $50+ and all higher levels enable you to receive the Stamp of the Month for only $5 and any other stamp set of your choice for 50% off!!****
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Place an order of $75+
Bonus:  Receive Wrangler Assortment, Haunted Assortment, Autumn Lane Assortment & Sparkles Black Flourishes ($21.80 value)

Place an order of $100+
Bonus:  Receive Wrangler Assortment, Haunted Assortment, Autumn Lane Assortment, Sparkles Black Flourishes, & Boutique Assortment ($27.75 value)

Place an order of $150 or more
Bonus:  Receive Wrangler Assortment, Haunted Assortment, Autumn Lane Assortment, Sparkles Black Flourishes, Boutique Assortment,  Brocade Assortment, & Opaques Pearl Florishes($38.65 value) PLUS $25 in Select Product Credit of your Choice!!!  (TOTAL $63.65 VALUE!!!)

PLUS, everyone who places an order on my SALE-A-THON gathering between now and Monday 11/26 will be entered into a drawing to win your choice of Workshop on the Go (up to $44.95 value) (Winner will be notified on Tuesday 11/27!!)

**Be sure to check MyBlog throughout December for my "25 Days of Gifting"**

Thursday, November 8, 2012

CTMH Flirty for Fall

The Close to My Heart Flirty paper pack (X7160B) and chipboard Complements (X7160C) are a fun "flirty" way to celebrate fall!

Flirty is also one of our new collections that has two limited-edition colors only available in this set: Flirty Raspberry and Flirty Yellow.  I opted to make my background for this layout with New England Ivy so the accent colors can pop without this layout looking overly feminine for my boys and their fall adventure.
 I love the texture the chipboard complements provide, and with a touch of bling...bliss!







Want a little more bling?  Check out our Autumn Lane Assortment (Z1749) which includes resin flowers and epoxy sentiments: Autumn & Family