how to organize Christmas gifts for your kids!

Disclaimer: only read if you're a parent!

I have memories as a child opening up a gift Christmas morning and it was clothes and socks. Boring. Next it was my sisters turn and she opened up a box of FUN stuff...WOW! So I had to wait until my next turn to open the cereal box shaped gift to find out what my FUN gift would be....

So now as a mom of four, and a semi-organization freak, I decided years ago to be organized on Christmas morning so it would be easier on my kids and me! No one wants to open a boring gift and then watch a sibling open a cool gift, unless its the other way around!

 I know all the Santa's elves out there have different handbooks they go by. Some homes all the gifts are from Santa, some homes Santa leaves several gifts and other gifts are from the parents, and Santa's gifts are wrapped or unwrapped.

Now in our home Santa fills their stockings and leaves ONE gift unwrapped. The rest is from my husband and I. Selfishly I would like to get a little bit of credit for some of the items they receive. Before I do any shopping, my husband and I go over budget, budget for the Santa gift and budget for the gifts from us. Then I know what items to seek. The demo below we gifted 6: clothes, a fun item, pajamas, books, a DVD and another fun item. Each family can modify to what they prefer.

What You Need:

the number of wrapping paper rolls per kid, I have four kids so I bought a four-pack.

tape

scissors

labels or tags

pen

 

Step 1:  After the gifts are purchased it's time to wrap! Organize in what order you want the gifts to be opened, such as fun item, clothes, books, games, etc. Have this written down and assign the number order. So when you're wrapping books you know it's number 3 or pajamas was number 5.

 

Step 2:  Select one wrapping paper to each child. Fill out the labels for each child (to: and from:) and NUMBER them 1 through how many gifts they each will get. Here is an example of the label with the #6 on it. My daughter knew this gift was to be opened last.

Step 3: After I know the order I start wrapping gifts for each child. You can either wrap the number ones first, then all the twos, etc. or, wrap each child's gifts at a time. Just follow your order and label correctly! It's easier when you have your list and the labels already filled out.

Step 4: You're ready for Christmas morning!! Since they're all labeled with numbers I do mix them up under tree, otherwise it will look funny in pictures to see 5 blues together one side of the tree, and 5 green ones under the tree and 5 red ones on the other side of the tree, so mix them up! Christmas morning they love to hunt for their gifts and once they know which wrapping paper is there's they get it fast and giggle as they search for them all around the tree. 

Pictures of our Christmas 2012:

Here are my four daughters with their "piles" of six gifts.

My oldest was a blue and red stripe.

My second daughter was blue with penguins.

My third daughter was a checkered Santa, snowman and penguin.

And my littlest daughter was a light blue snowman. She only had five gifts, as she is little.

Here are some pics of them opening their first gifts (labeled #1): clothes! We go youngest to oldest when opening gifts. The younger three got new shirts and my oldest got a new skirt.

Gift number 2 was a FUN ITEM! Each child depending on age will have different ideas of fun. The baby got a toy, my middle two got a dress-up dress and my oldest (who was 11 and to cool for dress-up) got a Taylor Swift perfume and lotion kit. This was something she really wanted and her idea of fun.

Another round was new pajamas!

And another round was books. Each got books for their level.

Since organizing the order we have had a more joyful morning. The older ones watch the youngest open and when they realize it's a book they get excited to know their gift will be a book but they don't know which one! When the youngest opens a toy they all squeal because they know their next gift will be fun too.
 Now in 2010 I actually wrapped each number different. So all the number ones (clothes) were wrapped in Santa paper, all the number twos (books) were wrapped in Green paper, etc. Then they had five gifts with different paper. I would tell them to find #3 or the one with Snowman paper (see pic below).

So choose what is easiest for you!

Pumpkin-shaped Butter-Garlic-Permesan Cheese biscuits

Halloween Pumpkin-shaped Butter/Garlic/Parmesan Cheese biscuits!

You will need:
cutting board
a can of biscuits (Regular or flaky)
knife
green food coloring
a few drops of water
small paintbrush
butter
Parmesan cheese
garlic powder

First step: pre-heat the oven to the temp on the biscuit can. Open the can of biscuits. Most cans have 8 biscuits. You can make 8, or if you want to split them in half (use flaky layers=top layers/bottom layers) you can have 16 biscuits! This demo will show you one which was split in half, I used flaky layers, so I made a total of 16 pumpkin-shaped biscuits.

with a sharp knife cut two triangles on the top, this will make the 'stem' and the top part of the pumpkin

remove the two triangles

round out the two pointy tops, you can massage it to the shape you like, it will look like an apple or pumpkin

Next step: in a small cup (i used the medicine cup) add 3-4 drops of green food coloring plus a few drops of water. Paint the 'stem' green. If you want the green to be lighter add more water drops, if you want it to be darker add more drops of food coloring.

 Next step: in a small bowl or ramekin, melt 2 tablespoons of butter in the microwave

brush the biscuits with the melted butter twice, butter each biscuit and then go back and do it again, then sprinkle the garlic, then the Parmesan cheese. Bake at the temp and time as stated on the cans directions.

Voila! Pumpkin shaped Butter-Garlic-Parmesan biscuits

these were a hit at our Halloween party!

Red, White & Blue Toenails!

Used red, white and blue nail polish on my four daughters toes (yes, that makes 40 toes!). Painted the big toenail blue, then all the other toenails red for the holiday.

 After painting the other nails red the big toe was now dry. I placed a small dollop of white nail polish on a napkin and then used a match to dip the polish and then 'dot' the big toe, repeat as much as you want

Hint: for babies or toddlers who can't hold still, wait for them to fall asleep to paint their nails

Father's Day 2010

Father's Day Booklet/Card -2010

Step 1: print the words you want to appear in the pictures. I have three girls so I printed "Happy" "Father's" and "Day", I chose different fonts and on plain white paper so it would stand out against them and in the booklet. You can also use little chalkboards or wooden signs.

Step 2: take lots of pics, some individual and some as a group. Don't worry about getting a perfect picture, some outtakes become the favorite and show off the child's temperament personality.

Step 3: Upload all the pics and chose the ones you like and have them printed. I chose 4x6 and color.

Step 4: Art for Cover, I printed the words "Happy Father's Day" and used text effects so that each letter could be colored in. The two oldest colored in the words using different colors and designs.

Step 5: Making the 'book', I took two pieces of black 8x11 scrapbook paper (the thick kind) and used them as my front and back cover, in between I added four pieces of different scrapbook paper (was 12x12 but I cut them down to 8x11). You can add as many pieces as your project needs. Once all sandwiched together, I folded one side about an inch inward. I then stapled it, or you can punch holes and run ribbon thru it.

 Step 6: Assembly, I glued the cover title after it was colored in by my girls on the first page. I also added a tie from the leftover paper.

 The next page I filled in lots of pics of my youngest holding the "Happy" paper, remember outtakes are great too.

 Then my oldest holding "Father's".

 Then my middle daughter holding "day!"

 The last page was pics of all three of them together. It worked out using more than one pic because not one was 'perfect'. I had them all sign their names on the bottom.

My husband LOVED this. I also did a smaller one, 5 x 7, filled with 3x5 cropped pics for my father-in-law, which he loved too.