Student of the Week

Way to go Molly! Our Student of the Week was recognized at school for being an all around Super Scholar and taking pride in her work. We are proud of your attention to detail and continued focus, Molly. Keep it up!‪

Well Said Wednesday

Saw this quote on Pinterest this week and it really hit home! As we wind up this amazing year of growth and development for SYDNEY PAIGE, we are struck by the wonderful giving we have accomplished together, with your help! There is much more work to do - but we are excited for it!

{find more on our Well Said pinboard}

Student of the Week

Honoring Dylan (8th grade) as our #StudentOfTheWeek for being an incredible big brother to his autistic sister, Destiny (6th grade), escorting her to their middle school Christmas dance. Overshadowing any shyness a brother would normally have about taking his sis to their dance, he escorted her with PRIDE, wanting Destiny to experience her 1st school dance just like every other girl. And she had a BLAST, dancing the night away! We are so proud of you, Dylan!!

Well Said Wednesday

{find more on our Well Said pinboard}

Student of the Week

We are honored to celebrate 4th-grader, Alexa, this week for receiving 3 incredible awards at school! Perfect Attendance (since kindergarten! wow!!), Citizen Character Award AND Silver Honor Roll! Way to go, Alexa. We are sooo proud of your hard work - keep it up!

Holiday Tips & Tricks

The holidays often equal "hustle and bustle," don't they? I have definitely felt the crunch this past week! Between getting our cards addressed and in the mail, putting lights on the house, attending kids' Holiday programs at school, baking for cookie exchanges and teacher gifts...IT IS BUSY!! But I do love this time of year. In the midst of the madness, there is most certainly MAGIC!

To help with some of the stress that accompanies these last few weeks of the year, we've rounded up some of the greatest tips and tricks to help make this holiday season a bit easier for you! -ERIN

First up – how many of you drag out a giant brown Hefty in the middle of Christmas morning gift-opening in order to catch all of the wrapping paper and toy trash? I know we do! What an unsightly thing to have lurking in the background of your precious Christmas photos. Chica and Jo have the solution – wrap the sides of a giant box with Christmas wrapping paper, leaving the top of the box open. That way, it can function as a trash can AND still look nice for photos. What a brilliant way to manage the morning mess!

My husband and I always wrestle with the tree lights every year - untangling them, replacing broken bulbs, testing to see if they still light up...to take some of the pain out of this process, I'm going to try this tip when we put the lights away this year. Wrap them around cardboard for neat stacking in bins! Thanks, Martha Stewart, for this great tip!

Wondering how to store all of your wrapping paper? I have a box that stands upright in our front hall closet - and for the entire month of December I am at battle with it! I've been known to just cram everything in the closet and shut the door real fast in hopes that nothing falls out. Sound familiar?  I saw this idea on Practically Martha and it is genius! Use a hanging garment bag to store all your gift wrap rolls.  I will be putting this tip to use THIS AFTERNOON! 

At my house, there is rarely a time when Glitter isn't present - I'm a firm believer in the mantra "Glitter makes everything better!" I've had kids leave my house and their mothers call later in the afternoon saying, "Bryce came home with glitter in his hair, did you guys do a craft?" Um....no. There's just a good chance, if you play at our house, you'll leave with glitter on your person! We don’t stress about cleaning up the glitter. But I think my husband would appreciate it if I did...(he once taught 6 periods of Biology with a huge sparkle on his cheek), so this lint-roller idea from Real Simple sounded like something I need to embrace. Maybe you do too?

I have a friend who has been using this trick, found on Organizing Junkie, for years...and I think I am going to try it! Make wrapping simple by choosing one wrapping paper for each member of the family. It takes much less time to wrap gifts in one paper than it does when switching gift wrap each time. And you will also use up small pieces too so this means less waste. And if gift tags should fall off, you know what wrapping paper belongs to which child. Heck - I might not even make gift tags...MORE TIME SAVED!

Ever wonder how you can hang a pretty Christmas wreath from your kitchen cabinets? Timmons Family Lemonade bought a few of those 3M Scotch Hooks, turned them upside down, and stuck them to the inside of her kitchen cabinet. Simply loop the top of the wreath’s ribbon through the hook, close the cabinet and admire how beautiful it looks.

Bake at 350 has the perfect solution for easy cookie decorating with kids (or clumsy adults, like me!) Simply grab a few ketchup squeeze bottles from the Dollar Store and fill up with your choice of colored icing. No more messy clipped-corner-plastic-bags. Or the need for multiple pastry tips. I HATE cleaning those little pieces!

Do you find that many of your ornaments are broken each year as a result of poor storing? We keep ours in old wine boxes with tissue. But we have aquired some ornaments over the years, that I want (need!) to pack away with some extra care. This idea from Mom’s Party Cafe looks like an easy, inexpensive way to do just that – hot glue some cups to a piece of cardboard and layer to fit in plastic bins. Ornaments will fit snugly in each cup and keep from getting crushed.

And, finally, this is my favorite tip of all! The kids and I have made it a tradition to decorate Gingerbread Houses every year since they were young. And although it is always great fun, I can't remember a year that everyone's structures didn't come crashing down in the end. (My husband knows my OCD tendencies and started last year off by handing me a huge glass of wine. "Here," he said, "You're going to need this.")  The Macs suggest solving poor gingerbread architecture by HOT GLUING the graham cracker houses together the night before. Brilliant! Not edible, but definitely sturdy! (The only one eating our houses was the DOG, anyhow ;-)

Do you have any tips or tricks that make your Holidays more Merry? Please share them with us in the comments. I need all the help I can get!

Student of the Week

We are so proud of our Student of the Week, Blake, for receiving the SUPERSTAR award for working so hard to be a good listener, stay on task, and be cooperative and helpful in class! Way to go buddy - You make us smile!