2009 December — We are THAT Family

Happy New Year {Giveaway}

7:00 am Bykristen

This giveaway has now ended. Winners will be announced soon!

I thought about posting my best posts and pictures of 2009 like so many other bloggers are doing.

But y’all. I didn’t get out of my pajamas until 2:30 p.m. yesterday. I’m working the lazy this week.

So, I thought a giveaway (a great one at that) would be just as good!

These pictures have one thing in common.

Can you find it?

Hint: Follow the red arrows.

Some good guesses might be…my pasty white skin, my love of denim and Disney…

(This has nothing to do with this post, but I have decided next time to actually watch my little girl open her presents on her birthday and to open my eyes during pictures. You could call them resolutions, if you will).

Answer: I’m wearing my favorite necklace from The Vintage Pearl.

It’s the Eclectic Necklace. (I traded it for advertising months ago).

Here’s a closer look, but I don’t know who those children are:

It’s a New Year. And The Vintage Pearl and I are starting it off with a bang and giving away TWO $50 gift certificates to TWO winners!!

I also love this bracelet:

Erin of The Vintage Pearl is making one for me to review!

Leave a comment and tell me something you plan to do in the New Year!

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y’ALL!

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WFMW-SwagBucks

10:25 pm Bykristen

I hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas and are ready for the New Year!

I’m just ready to stop eating. And I will, as soon as I find my self control. I seem to have misplaced it. *Cough*

I’ve been hearing about Swagbucks off and on for several months. I signed up probably 6 months ago, but didn’t get it and didn’t do anything with it. I didn’t really take the time to investigate it.

And then, the week before Christmas, I heard that two people paid for all of their gifts with Swagbucks (like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars in Amazon gift cards, purchased with saved Swagbucks!) Suddenly, I found the time to learn about it with some help from Twitter friends!

Now, I am hooked. (Especially since it doesn’t require any more Internet time that I normally use). In just two weeks, from consistent use (no tricks or secrets, really), I’ve earned over 100 Swagbucks! I made Swagbucks my home page, so I have to type in my usual URLs. I’ve earned several, just for going to my own blog!

You can easily join (for free) and start earning your own Swagbucks today! How does it work: It’s very simply a search engine that rewards you for searching. Instead of using your regular search engine, you use the Swagbucks engine or even more handy, download a great toolbar that’s right at your fingertips.

Every once in awhile, while searching, a Swagbuck or two or five will be awarded. These can be redeemed for prizes or Amazon gift cards.

And that’s it, easy! I’ve quickly learned that if you invite friends and family (no blog, needed!) and they sign up, it increases your Swagbucks. I’m not much of a salesperson, but I sincerely want to help people pay for Christmas next year!

If you have a blog, you can post a button to help people sign up (like the one below) to encourage your readers to sign up and then they can encourage their readers and so on:

(click to join)

Are you ready to sign up? Click here.

Remember, this isn’t an overnight money miracle. It’s a slow, steady consistency that pays off in the end. My goal is to save my Swagbucks for the entire year and pay for Christmas next year!!

I think this is a great goal for the New Year.

Please remember *NEXT WEEK* is a themed WFMW: BACKWARDS Edition! It’s your turn to ask a question of your readers!

Thank you for joining me for WFMW! {You can read the guidelines here.}

Have a Works-For-Me Wednesday tip you’d like to share? I’d love for you to join us! Please note that the links will close at 9 pm CST tonight, in order to keep away the spammers!

Was your link deleted? Click here.

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Memorable Christmas Snapshots

7:00 am Bykristen

1. This is the picture I snapped right before she knew. I got caught holding ~~the stockings~~ the bag with my mouth full of Santa food:

2. My hubby reading the real Christmas story on Christmas Eve is one of my favorite traditions:

4. My daughter and her iron foot sewing tiny pockets and bean bags and capes for her dolls.

6. The Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls (enough said, really, but I have to tell you as my hubby and I were dumping two cups of butter and two cups of sugar onto the dough stretched across our table, my hubby said of The Pioneer Woman, “This woman is seriously messed up.”

In a totally delicious way.

7. Playing The Nativity with my 3 year old who has insisted on being called Mary for the last four days (She even let me be the coveted Angel once).

9. On our after Christmas shopping trip to Old Navy for $10 jeans, my hubby found a mannequin hand on the floor. He taught my son how to pass time while Mom shops.

Hope your Christmas was merry and bright. Up next: A New Year!

P.S. I’ll be posting Works for Me Wednesday (WFMW) late Tuesday night if you want to join in. I’m also getting ready to send out my January Family Room Newsletter, so watch your inbox.

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This Post is For ADULTS Only

10:40 am Bykristen

(Yes, I wanted to cry).

(sneaking back off to enjoy my blog break, but I knew you’d want to know)

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A Christmas Lesson

7:00 am Bykristen

My firstborn is an overachiever. She works hard at everything she does. This is good and sometimes frustrating. Because who can excel all the time?

In school, she just completed a three week Recorder session in music. This was the first time in her nearly 10 years that she’s ever picked up an instrument, much less learned to read music.

[I am probably the most unmusical person in Texas. Let me put it this way, I took piano lessons for 2 years and never found Middle C.]

My daughter loved playing her Recorder. She played it constantly during those three weeks (and I took a lot of Ibuprofen).

A couple of times a week during the session, each student tested (similar to Karate) and received a “belt” (a colored piece of yarn) tied to the end of the Recorder. Each color signified a level, which is a big deal in the fourth grade.

The last testing day, my daughter missed a note. She was given a second chance and she missed it again.

She didn’t get her “black” belt. (Only a few kids did and I think most of them played the piano or some other instrument).

Oh, the tears and devastation this brought my girl. (Hello, hormones).

I didn’t know what to say. In the scope of life, this isn’t a big deal. But she felt so proud of herself for all she’d learned, talked about playing a Flute or Clarinet someday and raised her self esteem about 2.5 notches.

And then I had an idea, “Why don’t we find some Christmas songs and you can practice them for the next three or four weeks and give a little concert for our family at Christmas. You can even dress up!”

I saw the glint in her eyes and smiled.

My good friend, Robin, emailed some of her Flute music and I bought more Ibuprofen.

There were a few more tears shed over a particularly difficult note, in which, unmusical as I am, insisted that a note on the Recorder cannot be broken! “It’s a hole.”

I recorded these songs during one of her practices. I am very proud of her…not so much for the music she makes, but for not giving up.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCwF5VKKmeg]

We both learned a lot from this lesson.

I hope your Christmas is blessed and you enjoy a wonderful time with family and friends. We’re staying close to home and looking forward to it.

I’m taking a little break until next week. Merry Christmas, from our house to yours.

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