Search Results for: blog holiday traditions little surprises

Frugal Living Week in Review: December 17th Through December 30th

The middle of the holiday season is pretty hectic, isn’t it? Have you been snapping up those bargains? Now that we can take a deep breath and relax for a bit, we can catch up on all of the frugal goodness that is out there. We had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a happy new year. I hope it is the same with you. Look for lots of new frugal ideas and news in the upcoming year! This is the Frugal Living week in review for December 17th through December 30th. December 17th Frugal Living Week in … Continue reading →

Christmas Tree Games

We have a pickle hanging on our Christmas tree. Don’t worry, it’s actually an ornament—not a dill. According to the paper that came with the ornament, this is an old Bavarian custom. Parents are supposed to hide the ornament on the tree, and the first child to spot the pickle gets an extra gift and good luck for the year. Apparently though, no one from Germany has actually heard of this custom. And it may have originated instead in a Georgia Civil War prison. Or maybe a manufacturer thought of it and thought they would sell more with a legend … Continue reading →

Do Something Different this Thanksgiving

Maybe you are the type of person that prefers not to be bound by tradition. Maybe you like to keeps things fresh and different all year long, including during the holiday season. There is nothing wrong with that. While I do stick to some particular traditions because they are things that my family would miss if I didn’t, I still like to add a few new changes here and there. That may mean adding different foods to the menu or preparing certain items differently on occasion. It may also mean changing the time we generally eat dinner from later in … Continue reading →

Our “Gotcha” Day

For our family December and January are one long list of special days, holidays, birthdays and celebrations. When our children are a little older we may end up taking the whole month of January on a family vacation–hopefully to Hawaii! For the four of us all of our birthdays take place between January 5th and February 2nd. We literally party from Thanksgiving to Ground Hog day every single year and we have no choice about the matter. To top it all off our Adoption Day is in December and our Gotcha Day is wedged between two of the four birthdays … Continue reading →