After Christmas Christmas Shopping

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Christmas, Gift Giving

So, since we postponed our Christmas until this coming weekend, I get to Christmas shop and benefit from the after Christmas sales! This is awesome because I do have at least one “big ticket” item to get, which would be a digital camera for my daughter. My husband and I were talking tonight about gift ideas for each other. He had no idea that I already knew what I planned on getting him, which I won’t mention since I know he reads this blog…LOL! But I did drop some hints about some of the things that I’d like. He knows that I really need some new perfume as well as some new jeans, but I think I blindsided him when I showed him a couple of really nice gold chains that had caught my eye, but that’s probably because I never ask for jewelry.

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I got to talk to my niece last night!

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Friends/Family, Gift Giving, Parenting

I called out to my moms house last night to see if she was ready for the snow storm that is supposed to hit us today and my niece answered the phone. She is my very first niece, but not the only one now…LOL! But she holds a very special place in my heart and always will! She is now married and her son turned two this week and she just passed the third month of pregnancy with her second child, which is exciting for many reasons!

Although there isn’t going to be a baby shower for her this time around, I still want to try and find her a special gift that will help make things easier for having a second child in her life, especially since her first born has just hit the “terrible two” stage. I found something from amby baby that I think would benefit both her and the new baby. It is an Amby Motion Bed that looks similar to a baby swing, but it allows babies to feel that they are being swaddled while they are sleeping. And as a parent who had a child that was a restless sleeper, I recognize how important that swaddled feeling is for newborns and infants! I think this would be the perfect gift and that it would definitely make having a newborn a little easier.

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Christmas is postponed

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Christmas, Gift Giving

You know, in many ways I wish my kids were still young enough that they still “believed”. Christmas was always such an exciting time when the kids were young! Christmas Eve would be spent getting things ready for Santa’s visit that night. We’d bake cookies and dig our special plate and cup out that we used every year for Santa’s treats. The kids would carefully write their last minute letters to Santa and leave them with his treats, as well as a few carrots for Rudolph and the gang, because we all know that reindeer get hungry too! Then we would start the huge chore of getting the kids to wind down and get to sleep. Being kids, they were always totally excited that Santa was going to pay them a visit, and we went through heck and back trying to get them to sleep! I remember one year that Santa almost didn’t pay them a visit because they were up so late that Santa kind of fell asleep on the job…LOL! Fortunately, Santa is an early riser!

This year, the reality is that the bills have to come first. And since my kids are now teenagers, we don’t have to worry about Santa any more. So, after a family meeting and explaining to the kids that we have to put the priorities first, we asked them if they would be OK with us postponing Christmas for just two weeks. We explained to them that by doing so, it would be more possible for us to fulfill their Christmas wish lists which include things like MP3 Players, Cell Phones and a notebook computer. Not that they’ll actually get what’s on their wish list, but by postponing Christmas two weeks it means that they’ll actually be able to have a Christmas. So even though I miss the magic of the Christmases from when they were young, I appreciate the fact that they are old enough to understand that priorities are more important in life!

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I think I’ve made my decision

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Christmas, Gift Giving, Holly

Of course, the word “think” is the key word there…LOL! My husband has been asking me for weeks what I would like for Christmas, and I keep putting off giving him and answer, because I honestly didn’t know what I wanted. But after catching the flock of wild turkeys that run around out here two times in the past week, but not being able to see them well, I think I’ve decided on a good pair of binoculars. Since we’re surrounded by woods, the opportunity to use them would be almost daily, and I’d love to be able to actually see the turkeys up close rather than squinting to see them when they’re on the outer edges of the property!

Besides the turkeys I could also get a closer look at all of the gorgeous birds that I hear, the deer that are way out back, and I might even be able to catch a glimpse at the cute guy that has been using a brush hog to knock down the tall undergrass in the woods surrounding our property! OK, after all of this, I’ve definitely talked myself into it, and I REALLY like this pair of Bushnell binoculars, they’re small enough that I can keep them here on my desk, but powerful enough that I’ll be able to enjoy the animals and the nature around me!

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Things I’m thankful for!

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Christmas, Education, Gift Giving, Great Products, Kids

Yes, I know that Thanksgiving was yesterday, but since I’ve been gone since noon yesterday I thought I’d fill you in on a few things that have happened. I was recently chosen by Learning Resources® to do a product review of some of their educational toys. Yes, I know, my own children are teenagers, but I have a 6 year old niece who was held back to repeat kindergarten, so my thought was that if I could find something that would help her in school while having fun at the same time, I just might be able to help my sister win the battle!

The first game up was one called AlphaBall™ Electronic Word Game.

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This was the game that I looked forward to the most because one of my niece’s biggest struggles is learning her alphabet and spelling. AlphaBall has several different games to play, and since you play using a trackball, and my niece loves a computer mouse, I thought this would be an awesome game that might hold her interest. This was a HUGE hit with my niece, and I’d post the picture of her laughing and having fun while playing it, but unfortunately I left my digital camera up in Michigan, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. But even my sister commented that she loved the fact that my niece was learning but having fun while doing so! As all parents know, if learning is made fun, the kids learn even better!

Next up was a game called Spill Your Guts™ Human Body Game.

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My thought behind choosing this game was the fact that what kid doesn’t like things that seem GROSS! And no, I don’t mean gross on a bad level. We’re talking about pretend body organs that look so very authentic, even though they are much smaller than real size. Although she’s a bit young for science, my niece, as well as her older sister and my own two children, gave this game a total of eight thumbs up for being fun!

Finally we have my personal favorite, a game called Gears!Gears!Gears! ® Lights & Action Building Set. It’s relatively basic packaging gives you no idea of the fun your children will have when they open it up!

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And although this was my personal favorite to begin with, the four kids playing it each gave it two thumbs up at least a dozen times! I cannot even begin to explain the many different creations kids can make with this set, the options are endless if you let your imagination run wild! I can tell you that besides the actual gears, there are also lights, stickers (some of which glow in the dark), as well as a battery operated motor to make everything work once your child builds to their hearts content! The kids enjoyed all four games, but this one kept them busy for over 2 hours alone, which says a lot considering that three of the for are teens with ADHD!

So my message to parents out there is this: Right now we are all worried about the toys that our children play with. There have been many toys that have had recalls because they make your children sick, there have others that have been recalled because pieces break off them. To alleviate your worries I recommend you check out the Learning Resources® website! Their toys and games are not only very well made and durable, but they also help your children expand their imagination and help them learn! Add all those things together and you honestly cannot ask for a better gift for your gift giving dollars!

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A special gift for their birthdays

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Family News, Gift Giving, Special Occasions

My mother and step father are celebrating their 70th birthdays in just a couple of weeks. Between the two of them, they have six kids, so all of us have decided to pitch in and get them one large gift rather than several small ones. Knowing some of my step siblings though, they’ll also bring small, but expensive gifts to the party. Anyway, after tons of back and forth emails and phone calls we finally came to a final decision on what I’m sure will be a very special gift. We’re sending them on a royal caribbean cruise. They’ve talked about wanting to go on a cruise for a very long time, but it’s just not something that they’d actually purchase themselves, so we did it for them! I can’t wait to see the look on their faces!!!!

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Have I told you how much I love my digital camera?

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Gift Giving, Holidays, Technology

After spending a couple of years dealing with a VERY crappy digital camera, I finally broke down and purchased my Kodak Z710 in January. It was so amazing to see the difference in how much better my photos turned out on my new camera versus the old one that I had been using!

For instance, on December 24, 2006, we took the kids to an NFL football game. I had the old camera and we had some pretty good seats, but the pictures that I took of the field were the pits. Here is one of the pictures of the field that I took with the old camera.

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But this past August my hubby and I went to another NFL game and although we still had some pretty good seats, they weren’t as good as the ones from December. But this time I had my Kodak for picture taking, and even though the batteries weren’t charged, the photos that I took of the field turned out awesome, as you can see for yourself from this photo.
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Now, I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for what I have, because I do truly love my Kodak digital camera. But with all things in life, we always want something bigger and better. So, if money were no object I’d LOVE to have a top of the line digital SLR camera like the Nikon D3! I’d love the ability to snap on one of it’s amazing zoom lenses so that I could zoom in and grab a close up shot of one of my favorite NFL players in action at the next game I go to! It would also be nice to be able to grab a shot of the deer and other wild life that frequent the woods on the back of our property since sneaking close to them to grab the shot isn’t a possibility!So if you’re sitting here reading this and have been wondering “Gosh, what can I get Holly for Christmas this year, you now know what the perfect thing to get me would be.!!

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So many choices…

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Gift Giving, Holidays, Hubby

Out of all of the people I buy Christmas gifts for, my husband, without a doubt, is the most difficult one to buy for. When I ask him for suggestions as to what he might like for a gift, I get the standard “Surprise me” answer. Now, if there is a type of answer to any question that I totally despise, it is an answer like that! I get an answer like that a lot from my son, no matter what question I ask him. But, back to my husband and shopping for his Christmas gift. I know of the many things that he likes, but he is not as specific about his dislikes.

For instance, I know for a fact that he loves all of the Detroit sports teams. As a child, his father would take him to as many baseball, football and hockey games as possible. And even though the Detroit baseball and football teams haven’t had many successful seasons, he’s still supported them as a fan. I also know of a few different movie stars and movies that he is a big fan of. For instance, one of his all time favorite movies is Easy Rider with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. And one of his all time favorite actors is none other than Jack Nicholson. I also know that he enjoys watching The Three Stooges because we have several of their movies on DVD.

Knowing what I know about his likes, I’m leaning towards getting him a gift of some type of sports or movie memorabilia. I personally like this signed Easy Rider poster!

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SOOOOOO glad I waited!!

Author: justsimplyholly  //  Category: Gift Giving, Great Products, Kids, Shopping

As you know, a few weeks ago my daughter was trying out for her school’s basketball team. I wanted to buy her something special to “commemorate” the fact that she made the team, but something inside of me said that I should wait and make for sure that she made it before I bought anything special for her. I’m glad that intuition set in because I was planning on getting her personalized dog tags that were engraved with her school name, her name and a basketball, which would have really upset her seeing how she ended up not making the team.

So rather than order them with the basketball theme, I ended up opting to go with a different theme, one that I knew would apply no matter what sport she ends up playing. She was so excited last week when I handed her an envelope to open. She kept trying to get me to tell her what was in it before she opened it up. And I kept saying “Stop asking questions and just open it!”….LOL! To say she was happy with her new dog tag was an understatement, as you can see here:
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I was very pleased with how the tag turned out as well!
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And here is my proud Clarinet Chick sporting her sweet looking dog tag!
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Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to get her another one customized with her sport of choice, but for now, we’re both very happy with this one!

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