Santa and other festivities.

I was starting to get stressed out thinking I was going to have to give in and buy the $25 wallet size photo of Santa at the mall...But then, Winston Salem came through for me, again! This Saturday, a real estate company had a precious Santa event in a little park here. Free picture with Santa, sticker crafts, cookies, and cider all about 3 minutes from our house...it was perfect way to spend some time together on Saturday morning!

Lily really loves Santa and is PUMPED that he is coming to bring her presents, but she was NOT digging the picture with him. Thus: Santa, Lily, and Mama. Of course.

I loved their little "create a Santa stickers!" Lily is getting really good at stickers, which is awesome, because now I don't have deal with her screaming "Lily do it by herself!" while she simultaneously thrusts them at me to peel them for her. Two year olds are confusing.

Santa was at Sci-Works later, and this was the best picture I could get of Lily with Santa. I realize he is not actually IN the picture, but he was in the room, and on her shirt, so that counts.

*Quick shout out to Aunt Manda who got Lily these awesome boots on Winter clearance last year and Auntie Kay and Sissa who bought Lily tons of Santa shirts on clearance last year, too. I love that the whole family looks out for us! Thanks!*

One of our sweet friends, Zade!

Why do I encourage this hand-holding adorableness now but in a few years will dread it?

A family magazine here sponsored a breakfast at Chick-fil-a where we got to meet the Elf Cow, make a necklace AND reindeer food, plus I won a door prize! Yeah!

But, the BEST part of the morning was when heard this conversation, coming from the inside of the tube slide:

Little Girl: That's my sister out there. Do you have a sister?

Lily: Yeah.

Me (in my head): What??!?!

Little Girl: What's her name?

Lily: Dixie.

:)

Of course, it's a good thing the little girl didn't ask where Dixie was, because Lily probably would have answered: "In her crate, because it's raining."

How CUTE is this stocking stuffer?!?!

Hughes' Mom, Auntie Kay, and Mama Gen are super talented and used to do craft shows. His aunt made these before, and I remembered them this year. It is a toilet paper roll, filled with candy, and wrapped with tissue paper! It's really so much cuter in person. I put all of Lily's stocking candy in them, so the candy won't just be floating all around the stocking. Plus, I hope it will be a fun tradition every year that she remembers!

They also made many of the UT ornaments on our tree!

Visiting Daddy at work on a Sunday...

My husband is currently in his 9th year of POST-COLLEGE education, and, YET, he STILL has to pick up extra shifts on the weekend for more money. It's going to be awesome when the new health care plans go into effect, and doctors make even less money when they are finished training. I am sure there will be TONS of talented, smart people begging to be overworked, broke and in debt for ten years, only to finish and make 12 dollars a day from the government. And, by awesome, I mean totally terrifying.

On another note, I LOVE this shirt she is wearing! Sissa bought it for Lily when I was PREGNANT! On clearance, of course. Lily also has a pink one in a size 6, just waiting for her. We really love a deal.

Lily LOVES a list, since she has grown up with them scattered all over the house, and it is just in her genes to love a list. So, when we go to the store, she wants her own list. She is super obsessed with letters and words (also in her genes!), and these are a few of the words she can spell and recognize on her own. *She almost has all of the lower case alphabet perfected, now, too! The pesky q and g keep confusing her, though.

This has REALLY helped with the lower case letters. I bought a pack of flash cards for $1 at Michaels, and we spread them in a circle on the floor. We play random games, like "run and step on the baby e." At one point, there were cute pants, Santa socks, and a reindeer bow. Whatever.

Circle Elf. Love him.

WS has an H&M, now!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to be careful, because I want to buy everything (it is 2 floors!), but how cute is this PINK polka dot sweater? With her PINK cowboy boots (target daily deal!). The girl loves pink, so this meant a non-stressful getting dressed session.

Christmas Parade!!! We are super festive around here.

Adorable shirt we borrowed from Anderson until it fits him next year: It is a Tennessee Santa!!!

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CHARITY.

We are broke, but we have everything we need and almost everything we want (I want better jeans and Starbucks more often), so I try to give back whenever we can, even if it's not much money. I just got an semi-unexpected $20 Mastercard card for spending money online with my MC. I thought it would be cool to see how much I could do for $20. It's just another way of doing the deals!

I used to do the Salvation Army angel trees and things like that, but...and please forgive me if I sound like a total jerk here, ...I am pretty sure that poor people in America are doing okay. I am not trying to get all political or mean here, but I think that food stamps actually allot more money each month than our own grocery budget allows. My taxes are charity enough. (When I had a job and paid taxes, anyway). I am just saying. However, when I was a teacher, I would anonymously adopt 2 TRULY deprived kids and buy them clothes and books. It would make my DAY when, for the rest of the year, they would walk into my classroom wearing the clothes I had given them. Super cool.

Usually, I like to help other countries and St Jude when they guilt me into donations with the free address labels and pictures of sick kids. My FAVORITE is heifer.org. They have the coolest concept! You can "buy" animal for a poor family in a developing country. For example, for $20, you can buy a flock of chicks, which gives that family eggs all year (protein!), AND eggs to sell/trade/give away to other poor families. Some of the eggs can hatch and then they have more chickens...it is the best cycle, ever! You can donate $1 or more (you can buy cows, goats, rabbits, bees, etc...). Love it.

Some other ideas (I saw these in Oprah mag)

• $1 (yes, $1): TWO BOOKS shipped to Africa (in most schools there, 20 kids share one book): https://www.booksforafrica.org/donate/funds.html
• $3: A field trip to a museum or theatre show for an at-risk youth: http://createnow.org/
• $4: Two hours of phone time for a soldier to call home: cellphonesforsoldiers.com
• $10: Cloth and tools so an Afghan woman can become self-sufficient by taking a 6 month tailoring course: http://www.globalgiving.org/