NaBloPoMo Day 30: Small Business Saturday

This is the second year in a row that we've done Small Business Saturday.  I really love supporting our local businesses, and we've got some awesome ones in our little town.  I managed to get gifts for 4 people, for a reasonable amount of money, without fighting through crowds of people.  

Cub and I outside of one of my favorite local shops

SO happy that someone bought The House Cafe, a local favorite.
I can't wait until they finish the remodel and I can get my grub on!!

Bennett likes the toys at Moxie :)

Post-shopping grocery trip shenanigans!

After shopping, we went home to continue a mini Harry Potter movie marathon and I baked my Grandma's/Brother's chocolate chip cookies.  I ate at least 3.  Probably more like 4.

I had to put them in a vintage tin like my Grandma used to :)

NaBloPoMo Day 24: Bits from my wish list

Since I couldn't think of a post for today so I decided just to show a few items from my wish list.  I showed off some of the boys' items from their wish lists but these are some things that I've been lusting for:

This is goat's milk soap.  Shaped like a DONUT.

TARDIS dress?  Yes please!

This color is called "Always" from the "Witchcraft & Wizardry" collection.

<3 td="">

Need this book.

This shirt is made up entirely of the text of Hamlet.  DROOL.

NaBloPoMo Day 20: The boys' wish lists

How are you doing on your holiday shopping?  Truth be told, I don't usually start mine until after Thanksgiving.  I like the whole, under-the-wire aspect of finding gifts for people.  Our family does amazon wish lists, which makes it super easy to get stuff for (most of) my relatives.  We do separate wish lists for the boys and I thought I'd share some of the items that I put on there.  Shopping for kids is waaaay more fun than shopping for adults sometimes.  

To be completely honest, I get overwhelmed at Christmas sometimes when the boys are opening their gifts.  It can be daunting to look at all of the stuff that we need to fit into our tiny space.  I've seen lots of great ideas for keeping holidays minimal that look really great, I just haven't implemented them yet.  The boys are very lucky, though, that their family tends to get really great stuff for them.  We have a very generous family!

Here are some of the items that I've put on their wish lists:

Jacob:

Um...how cute are these?

Classic.  Great message for a young child who wants everything!

Cub has been super into planets.  I thought these looked fun!

Exterminate!

Classic.

Bennett:

Again with the Gap.  This is Bennett.

Bennett has the Halloween version of this book and LOVES it!

Fun!

Pull toys are classic and super fun for a new walker :)

What's on your wish list?

Highlights from the holidays & Bennett's 3 month

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!!  Ours was busy as usual but really fun to spend time with family.  Bennett's first Christmas began with opening gifts at home on Christmas Eve morning, which is usually pretty relaxing since we don't leave super early to visit everyone.  Cub opened his 3 gifts from us and we ate an amazing eggnog coffee cake, perfect for my holiday sugar splurgeathon.  

Another addition to my sugar spree was our "gingerbread" TARDIS.  We used graham crackers and ate it pretty much right away afterwards, but Cub helped make most of it so that was fun.

"Can we just eat it?"

Allonsy!

Then we had a great visit with Grampy, who scored major Cub points with his big bag of Thomas books, and later, Bennett had his first movie theater experience when we took him to The Hobbit.  I was concerned with bringing him to the movies on Christmas Eve, since I'd never brought a baby to a movie before and I wasn't sure if the theater would be crowded.  Bennett also had some leftover coughing and congestion from bronchiolitis, so I was afraid we would be in the hallway for most of the movie. 

As it turned out, a brief coughing fit in the beginning of the movie was all the noise he made until he nursed and passed out on me for most of the 2 hours and 45 minutes.  The movie was loud, and there were plenty of people in the theater, but nobody seemed to know that there was a baby (until he screamed bloody murder while being changed in the bathroom afterwards). 

Nurse, nurse, sleep, sleep

 That night, we stayed over at my Mother in Law's house, which was really nice because we were able to wake up Christmas morning in our pajamas and see everyone right away.  I didn't sleep too well next to coughy McGillicuddy, and hubs got to share the air mattress with a snuggly Cub.

So much room on his side :)

 Despite the poor night's sleep, I loved being with family first thing in the morning, and the rest of the day was filled with good food and fun seeing our loved ones.  It really made me wish we lived closer, though an hour and a half drive is better than having to fly out from another state.

New Yellow Label doll :) 

Pouring salt in his new toy

The day after Christmas also marked Bennett's 3 month.  Going.  By.  So.  Fast.

So big!

I hope your holidays were wonderful!!

Bits of lately

I hope you are enjoying your holiday season!

NaBloPoMo Day 23: Small Business Saturday

We have some wonderful local shops in our small town, and so I had no trouble participating in Small Business Saturday this year.  I crossed about 5 names off my list, and supported our local businesses at the same time, which always feels great.  I'm making good progress on my pledge to have most of our holiday gifts be local or handmade, with one or two exceptions.

After shopping, we had lunch at my favorite cafe downtown, The House Cafe.  I was craving a soy chai and their salsa-avocado wrap is AMAZING.

yum!

YUM!

 After that it was nap time, which turned into tea/"Breaking Bad" time for me and hubs.

I even had time to paint my nails!

Did you shop local on Saturday?  Any great finds?