Last weekend we went on our annual shopping trip to Hallmark to pick up cards and ornaments. This year something new caught our attention. Hallmark now offers Recordable Storybooks for The Night Before Christmas, The Very First Christmas, and Frosty The Snowman!

My Mother-In-Law is the most amazing story teller. When she reads to the kids the adults will stop and become mesmerized as well. It is like she has us in a magical trance and we hang on every word waiting to see what happens next. It could be a story that I have read to the kids a hundred times, that I know word for word, but when Oma reads the book it is like hearing it for the first time. In an all new way, a special, delightful way. I could listen for hours getting lost in magical lands of fairy tales and far away places. The thought of being able to capture her voice forever…well the thought brought tears to our eyes.

We bought The Night Before Christmas and on Thanksgiving day we had Oma read and record the story. I truly love this idea! We were worried that the story would be lost if you had to change the batteries but there is a lock inside that holds the story there, you just need the batteries to play it back. I look forward to creating a new tradition with my family listening to Oma read The Night Before Christmas for years to come! Hopefully this is something that will be able to remain in our family so that my grandchildren can listen to her read as well.

I grew up reading The Night Before Christmas with my Grandparents on Christmas Eve and now we read about Jesus’ birth in the Bible on Christmas morning. Do you have a Christmas story you read together as a family?

Easter is just around the corner, and it’s time to start thinking about how dress up your Easter table. I’ve gathered together some ideas that I hope will inspire you.

These bunny napkins from Martha Stewart would be a great compliment to your Easter table. And your guests will certainly be impressed by your napkin folding skills!

For instructions on how to fold visit The Creative Party Place.

Check out these robin’s egg nest place cards that I found over at SouthernLiving.com They have step by step instructions on how to make the eggs.

If bunnies and eggs aren’t your style then keep it SWEET with a lollipop topiary for your centerpiece.

Lollipops are easy for your kids to stick into the styrofoam.  So you can get them involved with making the table sweet and beautiful.  There are other candies you could use too.  Like this one that features sugared gum drops.

The other way to go is to embrace Spring and adorn your table with flowers.  I love these creative floral placecards from LotusHaus.

Visit LotusHaus for instructions on how to make these floral accordian blook placecards and how you can use them to personalize your Easter gathering this year. There are also pics of the entire table setting.

I hope you have a blessed Easter. And remember that you can always find inspiration for your next party or gathering over at CreativePartyPlace.com

Last year I made candy treats for my kids to hand out for Valentine’s Day.

This year I opted for Smarties bagged up and attached to a card I made using Picnik.

These are seriously easy to make. I printed four cards to a sheet of card stock (blue for boys and pink for girls), cut them out, punched a whole added string and a bag of Smarties! With three kids I like simple, and if you do too, I created a PDF download for the cards!

Click to Download:

Be A Smartie, Be My Valentine! Cards

What did you do or make for school Valentine’s?

So many people celebrate Valentine’s Day in so many different ways. Today I hope to inspire you with ideas that will fit into your big plans for the day that celebrates L-O-V-E.

Party Inspiration:

Save the Date Cupcakes threw a fabulous Valentine’s Party that is sure to inspire you to throw one too. Yummy sweets and a few ideas that would be great for Valentine’s gifts. Be sure to check out all the Sweet Details over at Save the Date Cupcakes.

One Charming Party put together an amazing Valentine’s Day Party filled with DIY treats and crafts. The decor and table settings are simply fabulous. You will definitely want to check this one out. It’s filled with inspiration!

DIY Sweet Treats:

Everybody loves a sweet treat on Valentine’s Day and homemade treats are always a favorite. Check out these super cute Valentine Sugar Cookie Pops from Our Best Bites. They’ve got a detailed tutorial for you to follow so you can make your very own for the loved one’s in your life.

Cindy from Skip to My Lou has a free download that will help you to make these adorable Flower Pops especially for V day. You can use them as gifts for your kids class, place cards, or even put several of them together to create a centerpiece boquet!.

Games & Activities:

If you love a good DIY project and want a handmade game that you and the kids can pull out to play year after year on Valentine’s Day then Roots and Wings has a great Tic Tac Toe Tutorial for you.

Kaboose.com has some really fun ideas for games to play with your kids on Valentine’s Day. These would be great for a party at home or a party at school! Head on over to Kaboose and get the details for Valentine Bingo, Pin the Heart on Cupid, and the Valentine Box Contest.

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I’m actually kind of lame when it come’s to Valentine’s Day. We live near all of our family, so I know that between school and the grandparents my kids will get plenty of sweet treats. Honestly…I buy them each a couple books and call it good. I hope you found all of these ideas as inspiring as I did. I’m thinking I need to step up my game on V-Day this year.

I am sad to see it go but I am relieved to get a little resemblance of order back in my house. I am still working on finding homes for a few toys, but the rest of Christmas has been packed away and cleaned up. I have been on an organizing streak the last couple of days and it feels great! If you haven’t packed up those decorations yet here are a few tips and hopefully a little motivation to get you jump started.

Weed Out The Unused. Does that singing Santa drive you crazy but you keep it anyways because someone gave it to you? If you find yourself with decorations that  you don’t use or love feel free to let them go. Don’t go through the headache of re-packing them each year. Save yourself the space by donating the items you don’t want to keep.

Protect The Breakables. Find creative ways to pack things. I use our stockings and Christmas towels to wrap up the more fragile decorations if I don’t have bubble wrap or other packing material on hand. For extra fragile items I keep the original box the item came in.

Organize The Ornaments. We have a fabulous ornament storage box that we used to store some of our ornaments in this year. The rest of our ornaments usually get stored in their original packaging. No sense in adding to the landfills. The packaging, especially if it is a box, will work for quite a few years. If you pick up ornaments that don’t have packaging think of things you have around the house to wrap them up in like grocery bags or paper towels. Egg cartons would work great for containing smaller ornaments!

Maximize Your Storage Space. When storing decorations like wreaths in a bin use all of the storage space available. I stored our stocking hangers in the open circle of the wreath. Then I packed lighter items like fake greens and pine cones on top of the wreaths so they would not get squished and out of shape.

Take Out The Guess Work. At the very least label your containers with “Christmas Decorations” or “Christmas Ornaments”. To take out the guess work label them with more descriptive identifiers like “Tabletop Christmas Decor” or “Mantle Decorations”. If you really want to take it up a notch, take pictures before you pack the decorations away so you know exactly where everything goes next year when you take it out.

Most importantly, have fun with it. Organizing doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore. Get the family to help and time will fly. Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t packed things up yet, after all if you were too busy spending time with family it was wort it!

So let’s be honest, we are now 3 days into the New Year, how many of you still have up your tree? Or are you the take it down on the day after Christmas type?