Christmas comes 4 times a year for us....

Yes, Christmas comes 4 times a year for us but it's all crammed into the week of Christmas.  Not as much fun as you thought, huh?  Both my husband's parents and mine are divorced so my kiddos have 4 sets of grandparents.  Can you hear the tensions start to rise?  But this past Saturday we had Christmas at my father in-law's and it was really a nice time.  No cousins fighting, no sister/brother in-law squabbles.  It was truly a great time.  The kids racked up on all sorts of good toys and hubby and I got some cool stuff too.  My fave is the canvas tote that my husband's stepmom embroidered for me...it says PLASTIC BLOWS.  This is in honor of my reuseablebags.com sticker that is on my back windshield. :)
My 8 year old daughter got the coolest present from them though!  She got the Designed By You  Fashion Studio from Creativity for Kids.  It is such an amazing present for a girl her age.  When I was her age I dreamed of being a fashion designer and I doodeled creations all the time.  She does the same thing but now with her super-cool gift from Gran she gets to actually design it,measure it,  fit to the body form (!), sew  and everything in between! She has been playing with it non stop.  I would reccommend this for any kid who enjoys creating anything.  My almost 11 year old son came out sporting a leapord print Tarzan-esque loin cloth that she made for him and my poor 3 year old son got the luck of the draw by being the "model" for a black A-line skirt.  Hilarious to me now...not so much when they remember it when they're 25 and try to make me pay for therapy.
Definitely check out the site. http://www.creativityforkids.com/
  I actually looked at it later to see what good stuff they have for boys and they have such an array of things.  I know that some parents find it intimidating to drag out all the crafty stuff for fear that their house will be a mess for a good 3 hours.....well, it will but look at the kids and how much they are learning about themselves and boosting their confidence and imagination. 
Merry Christmas everyone!

Green but disposable?

Since my daughter's birthday was on Thanksgiving we waited util today to do the class party thing. I went to the store today to pick up the 2 dozen cupcakes I ordered this morning. You gotta love living in a small community where you can order the cupcakes that morning and they're ready well before noon. I already felt guilty buying the dang things in the first place because I have been making the Bday treats from scratch lately and mostly organic. With all the craziness of late, I decided to cheat and buy. They were oh so good though! Whipped chocolate icing.....the kids looked like they were licking ice cream comes it was so high. While there I found a new line of juice ouches for this little independent store to be carrying. It is called Space Gang and it claims to be a "natural juice drink". Now everyone knows when they add drink tot he end it means it's not 100% juice but I was skeptical about how natural something could be without being 100% juice. It contains water, cane sugar or fructose, 3 different kinds of acid and red or white grape juice concentrates and natural flavors. Is this natural enough?? I don't think so. I would rather stick to my 100% juice or a flavored water. I did use the Chinet bowls which the company says they are sustainable. For a class party I can live with it but we do not use any more paper plates in this house. Haven't for probably the past 4 years. Just some random thoughts to end the night.