It Worked!!

First, let me say, I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
For the first time in many years, all of my immediate family were together in MI for the holiday! We all took a week’s vacation and spent the time together around the holiday!

My son and daughter-in-love hosted all 18 of us! We used an Airbnb as well, so everyone had a bed to sleep in. They did a fabulous job providing a comfy, cozy holiday vacation. Of course, we all pitched in with food, etc., but we all know hosting can be a gracious, tiring gift of love. That it was!!

I’m pretty sure the coffee shop with a play area for kids knows us on a first name basis! It was so fun to figure out what each day was going to bring. Not only did we go to the playroom several times, we also went to an aquarium, an indoor mall playground with a full size Merry-Go-Round! Several of us hopped on for a ride. I didn’t mount a horse, but I enjoyed the ride seated in a sleigh! I hadn’t ridden one in a very long time, but love them. I didn’t want to miss the chance! We watched Moana 2 at the theater and on the last day; we welcomed sledding as the snow fell like we were living in a Snowglobe.

Let me say … Michigan knows how to do indoor activities for kids!! They have long grey winters, and they have a plethora of unique indoor activities for children!! Our dilemma was suiting the age range of our kids 18 months to 8 years old. The Moms and Dads did a fabulous job finding the best activities.

Of course, there was lots of downtime for cousin/aunt/uncle/ZeeZee/ Papa play. We took full advantage of that!

Zee Zee took her Mary Poppins bag, supplying some craft projects. A few Thanksgiving. A few Christmas. I didn’t get very many pictures, but here are two. A busy ZeeZee doesn’t have time to take pictures. My hands are full with my “little loves”, which fills my heart even more than a picture😍.

We had a 2-year-old Bluey birthday party! Our precious Indie turned two the Monday before Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time celebrating her! She is an adorable precocious “girla”: full of humor and spunk! She knows what she wants and she can tell you all about it! My favorite is when her deep brown eyes look up and she mouths “love you so much”! Ahhhh, instant heart-melt!

Having been to Disney this year, she loves Disney princesses. Her newest obsession is Frozen 2, which she calls “Elsa 2.” She got an Elsa dress-up costume as a gift. This dwarfed mini version of Elsa throughly entertained us. She held her head real still as she walked so her wig didn’t fall off and we couldn’t stop giggling. Multiplied Adorableness!!

It worked! My plan I blogged about two weeks ago WORKED!!

Read about it HERE, if you need a reminder or update.

I executed my large Santa bag idea perfectly!

It took me maybe 2 hours tops to unpack all the gifts I had delivered to my sons, wrap each in tissue and place them in one large bag for each recipient. I filled eight bags. The rest of the crew I will see closer to Christmas.

I made tags using my Cricut and a rub on transfer. Easy peezy. I made them at home and brought them in my suitcase. I’ll link the tags and the transfer set I purchased from Amazon.

Click here for the tags. If you don’t have a Cricut, the tags do come with letters to stick on.

Click here for the rub-ons.

When everyone went down for rest/nap time, I put the bags by the fireplace. I will say prior to being handed out, the older ones were reading the tags and figuring out whose bag was whose. That was fun too!! They didn’t touch, but I could see their minds wondering and dreaming🥰.

The four littles receiving Christmas presents seemed to love it! We handed them each their own bag. The smallest sitting with parents for help. When we gave the signal, they dug in!! Squeals, cheers, oh’s and ahhh’s were audible. Their little faces were angelic. Happiness filled the room!

It was so much easier than making preschoolers wait for other people to open a gift and then get to open one themselves. I think this suited their age very well. My eight-year-old grand loved it too. They could stop to see what someone else got or wait until their bag was empty if they wanted.

After all the kids finished and were busy with their new acquisitions, the adults opened their bags, one at a time. One person finished their bag and then we went on to another. It worked great. We just discarded some tissue paper at the end. If you don’t choose to use tissue inside, it would work just as well, just be a little less surprising.

My daughter, with an 18-month-old, said, “Mom, this will be great for Delaney too, cause she doesn’t yet know how to unwrap gifts or even what wrapping is.” We will celebrate with them nearer Christmas, so I’ll be doing the same for her.

Tell us about something new you are trying/doing this season in the comments!

Wishing you love and joy this season,

A wonderful gift for a reader in your life or for someone who needs some inspiration or connection with God and miracles!

Available on Amazon HERE!