Brilliant and paperless

I was talking to a super sweet and super duper awesome mama friend of mine the other day and she was sharing with me how she handles the whole 'wrapping' of the Christmas 'morning' gifts.

(insert Light Bulb-'Tink')

She doesn't spend any time whatsoever wrapping ANY of her kids gifts!

None.

Zero.

Zip.

Zilch.

Nada.

I thought: BRILLIANT!  A paperless Christmas!

Her theory is this: If 'Santa' brings the gifts, he doesn't NEED to wrap them plus, it looks nicer to see all the lovely items decoratively displayed under the tree for the kids to be delightfully expressing 'Oohs and Aahs.'  Good point, mama friend! Kudos to you on that!

I'm out of luck on that idea because I've already wrapped every single gift for the girls.  Plus, I would totally hate to rip apart all of that paper all by myself.

So much better for them to do it themselves!  

I must confess, I do feel bad about wasting paper but the sound of tearing off paper from the gifts on Christmas morning kind of makes the anticipation of seeing their little faces so much more delightful.

I may just ditch the wrapping altogether next year.  We'll see.

It would ACTUALLY be a laid back Christmas for me if I didn't wrap ANY gifts but then I'd have to deal with the 'I saw it first so it's MINE' drama.  Pass.

PLUS, the girls are totally buying the idea that this creepy little dude, aka 'Jack', aka 'Elf on the Shelf', is the one helping 'Santa' wrap all of their lovely gifts.  

Our 'Jack' hanging upside down from a corner wall by the tree.  What a weirdo! 

Who knows, my kids just may have ME totally buying 

that THEY are totally buying the whole 'Jack' thing? 

I shall continue to wonder...

Holiday crafts for little hands: Pin Ideas!

If you're looking for my holiday decor Giveaway you still have time to enter! Hurry, go here!

I'm always trying to find fun, easy and totally 'doable' crafts for my kids to engage in.  My girls are craft fiends like their Mama, so I wanted to share a few of my fun 'craft finds' with all of you.  I've mentioned how insanely FOND I am of Pinterest.  Here are some ideas straight from the Pin!

Enjoy, have fun, be creative, go wild, laugh, chuckle, make a mess, switch it up, over do it, 

but most of all, create sweet sweet memories 

with your little darlings...♥

Colored Rice Now how cute is that?! Rice feels great in the hands and it's a lot less messy than sand. So simple to create too! (click the link to view instructions) 

I would do Red & Green colors for xmas.

Googly eye ornaments! This 'looks' like so much fun.  I'd guess a plastic clear ornament and dabs of paint with crazy eyes set in each dab.  Fun, simple and SO adorable! 

My daughter, Sabrina, fell in LOVE with this plastic cup ornament.  I may just have to try it too! 

Paper snowflake garland! So simple (& for the scissor savvy bigger kid) 

Just fold and cut away different parts 

and then open up your paper to see what you ended up with.  

I would do a variety of colors and then hang them on bakers twine.

These are mini terra cotta pots! How adorable and easy as well.  

There is so much that you can create once your creative juices start bubbling out.  

Hope you've found some 'holiday' crafty inspiration! I'd love to hear where you find ideas too.  

Happy crafting with little hands! 

♥♥♥