12 Days of Christmas Catch Up

So I've missed the middle 5 days of the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Challenge, so I thought I would do a little catch up post. And it's snowing outside, which makes it all the more Christmas like!





Day 4: Tips to a budget friendly holiday season

Besides the usual advice of having a plan for who you will buy for and how much you will spend and sticking to it, one other fun thing I recently found out about is ebates.com. Have you been there? It's free. Basically you sign up and then when you want to buy things online, you go to ebates.com first, go to their directory of stores, click on the website you are looking for and then buy whatever you want. Once your transaction is complete, and your item has been shipped to you, you get a percentage of your purchase credited back to your account. So say you want to buy something from the Gap. Go to ebates, find the Gap, and click on it. It will take you directly to the Gap's website. You will see that you get 8.0% back. So if you spend $100 at Gap.com, you will get $8.00 credited to your account. How awesome is that? And it takes you directly to the company's website, so you can use promo codes, gift cards, etc. as well. And you get $5.00 just for signing up and making your first purchase. The % you get varies from store to store, but they have tons of stores.

Day 5: Favorite Holiday Movie / TV Special

Well #1 on the list would have to be Elf. It's a classic. But I also love White Christmas, The Holiday and the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Day 6: Gift Ideas

I've already made a pretty extensive list and sent it off to my family. We do Christmas lists. I don't understand why people don't. It makes it so much easier to get someone you love a gift you know they will want. One thing I didn't put on my list because it's pretty expensive but that I would love to get is a DSLR camera. Especially since I am without a camera.

Another item I would like that I forgot to put on my list is a new trash can. I know, exciting! But I broke ours and would love a shiny one like this:

Day 7: Easy DIY Craft with Pictures

Well this will be difficult since I have no camera and am not the craftiest person in the world. But a super easy craft, I don't even know if you could call it that would be to take pinecones and spray paint them and add some glitter. It would end up looking something like this:

Day 8: Least Favorite thing about the holidays

I wish we didn't have to split time with our families. I love being with both my family and Derek's family and I wish we could be 2 places at once and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with both families. Also, we are getting better about it as we get older, but it's still hard to decide where we will go and when.

Day 9: Favorite Holiday Recipe

Choosing a favorite is hard. For a main dish it would have to be sweet potato casserole. Mix 3 cups of mashed sweet potatoes, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 beaten eggs and 1 tsp of vanilla together. Put it in a 1 1/2 to 2 qt casserole dish and top with 1 cup chopped pecans, 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup butter, and 1/2 cup brown sugar all mixed together. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. It's delish!

As far as deserts go, that is much harder to decide. These King Arthur Flour Chocolate Bon Bon Drops might be my favorite thing I made last year.

Ok, we're all caught up! Happy Tuesday friends! Also, if you want to keep my sister in law Kayla in your prayers, she is having a C-Section today and our little nephew should be here soon!