It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If you've been following my blog at all, you know I am a bargain hunter (bordering on extreme cheapskate). 

Yes, I even sometimes do Christmas and birthday shopping for my son at thrift stores (hey, he just wants the toy! he doesn't care where it comes from! so why would I spend a fortune on it only to be selling it on eBay in a couple years when he doesn't want it anymore?). 

So when I found a coupon for $10 off $50 at ShopKo, my first thought was, "Hmm, I wonder if there's anything I need that I can get for a good deal at ShopKo?" 

Couldn't really think of anything, so I was about to throw it away, like I often do with these kind of coupons that make you spend a certain amount. 

(couponing tip: sometimes they are a good deal, sometimes they aren't if you would be buying something JUST to use the coupon. I always have to remember this one!)

Then I saw an ad online for Operation Christmas Child and I thought of all the shiny toys that I've seen around ShopKo at this time of year. That's when I decided to use the coupon to do a little Christmas shopping.

It's an American tradition... you walk through these department stores and listen to the Christmas music and look at all the nice new things (whether it's toys, clothes, food, whatever) and it just makes you feel happy! And it's even more fun when you are picking something out for someone else. Better than buying for yourself... buying something you know your loved ones will enjoy. The experience of "going Christmas shopping" is something I don't always get anymore since I do most of my Christmas shopping throughout the year at catalog parties, online shopping, or just picking up gifts as I come across them. 

But most of the world doesn't ever have that "Christmas shopping" experience. Parents in many other countries would love to walk through a store and pick out toys, clothes, and food for their children, but they can't. This past week I was excited to get a good deal on 10 pairs of new socks for my son. Many parents would love to be able to buy just one pair for their child.

So I decided I would use that ShopKo coupon to go pack a shoebox or two for Operation Christmas Child!

Now, if you are still reading this and have no idea what Operation Christmas Child is, here is a link to the website.
http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

Time for a little background: 

I remember doing Operation Christmas Child a lot with our church when I was a kid. One year we got something like 80 boxes-- with only a few dedicated people packing them and a very small but giving congregation (this is a church of less than 40 individuals) collecting items throughout the year. 

As a teen, I even had the privilege of volunteering at a collection station one time, and I spent an entire day packing little boxes into big boxes... from churches and individuals all over several states. It was awesome to unload mini-vans that were stacked floor to ceiling with Christmas gifts for needy kids. If THAT doesn't get you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will! (Maybe a little snow. But since it was upstate New York in November, that was a given.)

So, finally to my "blog-story"! 
Here are the shoe boxes I packed:

I chose plastic shoe boxes because we don't buy shoes very often, so we didn't have any boxes lying around. Also, these ones I don't have to wrap, and they can be reused by the child. (But wrapped cardboard shoe boxes are really cool, too)

I got one of these books for each box. I don't know what makes this book "for boys" but it has nice pictures with the Bible stories, so since the child probably won't be able to read, he can at least enjoy the pictures. And probably someone will be able to read it to him at some point. I picked a board book because we're doing the boxes for little guys.

These are the toys I was most excited to put in. I wanted to pick a green tractor since that is Charlie's favorite toy (and his favorite color right now), and a rubber ducky, since he is also really into those. Racecars and airplanes are also things I thought Charlie would like. So now we can tell Charlie that there will be two little boys somewhere across the globe playing with the same kind of toys he has!

He doesn't really  understand what is going on this year. But he was still excited to "help" me pick out all the toys and pack the boxes. He especially loved holding the tractor and the dinosaur in the shopping cart.

I supplemented my ShopKo findings with some free samples of soap and toothpaste that I had collected over the year (I stuff all my free samples in a box till I need them... now I'm so glad I do!) and some extra stuff from the Dollar Tree. 

Dollar Tree is great for filling these boxes! Just don't buy all cheap stuff. You know that your kids break toys pretty much as soon as they open them... these kids will probably be much more careful because this may be their only present all year, but they are still kids.

I also put in one of our family pictures that will be going out in our Christmas cards, with an address label on the back. (Sometimes if you write a note, the kids may write a letter back to you! I doubt a 2-4 year old knows how to read or write, but maybe he will like the picture.)

This whole project was so much fun! 

I decided that if we are going to make this a family tradition, then I want to pick a kid who is close in age to our kid each year. Since the youngest age group is 2-4, we did two boxes for 2-4 year old boys.

Think about it like this... if you are buying socks for your kid, why not buy a pair for another kid? If your kid wants a stuffed giraffe (what kid wouldn't??), maybe another kid would appreciate that. 

Obviously this example can't go too far... I don't expect everyone to go buy groceries for another family every time they buy for their own. Although if you DID do this one time with your kids... what a lesson! 

And with small kids, it WOULDN'T be a good idea to let them pick out corresponding toys for themselves every time you fill a shoebox! But I just mean this could be a good way to let your kids "window shop" for gifts... they get the excitement of buying a toy they really like, while you explain to them how much another child will love playing with it.

As I'm writing this, I'm reading back and hoping it doesn't sound like I'm bragging. I was just pretty proud of our little box and I was excited to share about it with someone. Many of you probably already do boxes on your own or with your church. It's not a competition about how many boxes you pack... I just thought maybe this could give you ideas for your box next year (Depending on when you are reading this, I'm sorry to say there's not much time left to collect boxes for this year... collection week is November 18-25, 2013). If you have some other good ideas for what you put in your boxes, feel free to share!

But this is the main reason I am sharing this:

If no one had introduced me to this project years ago, I might not be passing it on to my family today. 

If my parents hadn't instilled in me the need to help others when I was young, I might not be so passionate about it today. 

One of the stories I heard ALL the time growing up was when my sister wanted a box of Apple Jacks but it was too expensive. As a family, no matter how little we had, we always gave to the food drives at church. You can imagine how surprised mom and dad were to find out that the food drive that year was FOR US. And right on top was a box of Apple Jacks.
Alot of people have a story like this. Here's another one:
http://video.samaritanspurse.org/player/?vid=FwcmpkZzobboBJqD4714Man4GEYnARDD&storyline=35&title=uncle-sis-favorite-christmas-memory

My parents always were (and still are) a huge example to me of giving to others. 

My in-laws are also some of the most giving people I know. 

I hope maybe I can inspire someone else to give, too.

But where should you give?

There are lots of charities that need help. Don't forget about the Philippines. (Samaritan's Purse is also calling for donations to help them right now. And there are probably many other Christian organizations doing the same.)

The reason I chose Operation Christmas Child is this: 

I just look at it as one small way I can begin to teach my son that kids around the world are just like him. Yes, they need people to provide for their physical needs, and I'm glad there are organizations that do that. But also, these kids love toys just like he does, they need love, and most of all, they need someone to tell them about Jesus. 

When you think about it, my son is just as spiritually lost right now as a little child in Africa. But the difference is... that child probably doesn't have a Christian family to share the gospel with him. And he definitely doesn't have a mom and dad who are able to buy him Christmas presents. If I can help his mom do those things for him-- or if I can be a part of that mom to him if he doesn't even have a mom-- why wouldn't I? 

I have no idea how many of these kids who receive a Christmas box will accept the gospel. I won't find that out till I meet some of them in Heaven. But the disciples probably never knew how many of the 5,000 decided to follow the Savior. All they did was hand out the bread and fish, and let the Savior do His work.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%206:1-14&version=NKJV

Christ IS doing His work around the world today. And this organization is one small part of that.

So I'm not going to spend my whole Christmas budget buying gifts for a kid who has more than he needs and plenty of people who shower him with love and presents. I know he can't understand this year, but like I said before, I want to make this a tradition for our family. Hopefully someday my kid(s) will love Christmas shopping as much as I do... not for themselves, but for others.

If you want to go fill your own shoebox, great*. If not, that's fine too. I'm just asking that everyone who reads this try to do SOMETHING. There are plenty of people with need whom you can be helping. Take some food to a food bank. Give to your church missions budget. Volunteer some time at a homeless shelter. Take a meal to a sick friend. Showing God's love doesn't have to be big... start small!

And not only at this time of year, but all the time. (Charities will have an influx of help in the next two months, so please don't forget about ways you can donate and volunteer during the rest of the year.) I know I personally could be giving more... of my time and my resources. I know most of my past (and future) blogposts about my life will reveal my inherent selfishness. And I know most of YOU reading this probably give of yourselves much more than I do. Thank you. Your reward is in Heaven if you are doing it for Christ.

I promise to get off my soapbox now, but if there ARE any of you who are still thinking that you just don't have enough to give, please go to this website to put things back in perspective.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/

Note: the above link is simply for the statistics. I don't know anything about the charity organization behind it, so I am not advertising for you to donate to them in particular

*If you pack a shoebox, remember that each box costs $7 for postage. If you pay this online, you can actually track where the box will go!
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/follow-your-box-iframe/
Another online option is a $30 donation to have someone pack a box for you.
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/buildonline/

Sorry this is so long. You deserve a medal for reaching the bottom of this post!

But you don't get one. You just get a...

Thanks for reading. 

(And Merry Christmas! Don't hate me because I am wishing you this when it is still November.)

Cheap Easy 1st Birthday Party

This is not a "How To Throw A Cheap Easy 1st Birthday Party" post... I'm sure there are plenty of those out there.
I'm sure you could think of even better ways to save money and to add fun details to your child's birthday party.

This is simply a post about how I did it.

And I'm sure I probably saved money in ways that you might not be able to (I chose a theme that I already had plenty of decorations for, and found several great deals along the way). In fact, maybe some of my "cost-cutting" strategies are things you would never do... (I am not above shopping at thrift stores and yard sales!) 

But I just wanted to share our experience in case this gives you a little inspiration. My goal is just to show that it is possible to have a fun 1st birthday party WITHOUT spending a lot of money or taking a lot of time in preparation.

1. Theme

My husband and I were "those weird people" who decided not to find out the gender of our child before he was born. So, about  year and 9 months ago, we had to choose a gender-neutral nursery theme. (Bonus saving money strategy-- now we can re-use all our baby things when we have more kids someday!) 

So the theme we chose was giraffes.

Why? Well, I have been collecting giraffes since I was a little kid, so I already had TONS of giraffe stuff. Also, there is a TON of cute giraffe baby stuff out there for both boys AND girls. It is a little bit more gender-neutral than just plain "jungle theme" (note: giraffes actually do not live in the jungle. just FYI.) although we still got a ton of jungle/monkey/zoo type items anyway, which worked perfectly since our child turned out to be a boy. And all that stuff can still can be used for a girl-- we'll just put a little pink in there. :-)

So, when choosing a theme for the birthday party, it was easy to know where to start! The baby shower had been animal themed, so why not make this party animal themed? 

Then... we found our venue, which I will talk about next.

2. Venue

Ok, so the venue actually kind of came BEFORE the party theme. 

Quite a few months before his birthday, I had been looking on the Milwaukee Zoo website to see when their "free days" are. My husband and I like going to zoos, and there are a lot of great free ones out there! (Around us, there is the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago-- which we haven't been to yet because it is a bit of a drive... and the Henry Villas Zoo in Madison which we have been to several times since we moved to WI.) 

But I happened to know that the Milwaukee Zoo hosts several "family free days" each year (my husband and I had been to one before) so I was checking to see when they were in 2013 so we could maybe take our son when he got a bit older. 

Lo and behold, the fall free day was on the Saturday before his 1st birthday!

Perfect. 

Now we have a theme, and a venue. 

And I think a zoo is a perfect venue for a birthday party because: 

a) You don't have to plan much in the way of decorations

b) You don't have to plan ANY games or activities

c) It's something that adults AND kids/babies can enjoy (Isn't a 1st birthday party really about the adults anyway? I mean, I'm glad our son loved it, but he's not going to remember this day, so we might as well spend it doing something WE enjoy, too)

3. Invitations

This party was just kind of falling together for me. I didn't have a checklist of "How To Do A Birthday Party" because birthday parties weren't really a big deal for our family growing up. We did a couple (I remember at least one sleepover party for the girls' birthdays) but when you have 4 siblings and you live far away from your cousins... birthday parties are really just a "Mom makes a cake and gives presents after dinner" sort of thing. So that's kind of what I planned to do for our son's birthdays. 

BUT since we decided to go to the zoo, I thought it might be fun to invite some people. I already knew the grandparents wanted to come (unfortunately MY parents weren't able to make it, but my husband's parents came up) and we have a couple friends with young kids at church whom we like to do things with. So, I thought I should probably do some sort of invitations. 

Once I decided on the details, I made a couple invitations to hand out. 

Then, about a month before the party, I got a coupon for FREE invitations from Shutterfly (see one of my previous blog posts for that story) so I thought, "What the hey? Why not send some invitations to our family members who are far away?" Even though I knew they probably couldn't make it, it made ME happy to send them a cute little invitation. The grandparents loved it. :-)

(For privacy reasons, I took out the event and RSVP details)

4. Menu

Since we planned to do the zoo trip in the early afternoon, I wanted to provide lunch for our guests. I picked an easy picnic lunch menu that would be cheap, with little clean-up. Just deli sandwiches, chips, soda, and fruit salad. (For the fruit salad, I chose our son's 3 favorite fruits-- melon, raspberries, and bananas. He pigged out.)

I wanted to get Zoo Plates for the picnic, but Walmart was all out, so I settled on regular paper plates (that I already had) and Zoo Bowls for the fruit salad.

5. Cupcakes

I have ZERO cake decorating skills. I even attended a cupcake decorating workshop once and I still have no idea what I'm doing. So, again, I wanted something with easy clean-up and almost no prep work. I found an idea for "zoo cupcakes" on Pinterest that just have an animal cracker standing in a field of green sprinkles. (Okay, I can do that.) 

Made them with white cake and white icing so I didn't have to worry about staining any clothes. I had received a cupcake tree as a secret-Santa gift last Christmas, so I was glad to use it. Also, those animal print cupcake liners were just too cute. (Thank you, Walmart)

I have also seen a lot of little "cake banners" floating around on Pinterest, so I thought that would make a nice "zoo" sign. Planned to just use two wooden skewers and a piece of beading string, but my son took a longer nap that day, so I kept adding little beads and scrapbooking stickers that I had around. But all my embellishments made the banner a little too heavy to stick in the cupcakes, so I had to improvise. (Good thing I happen to own giraffe salt and pepper shakers!)

6. Party Favors

Are you getting the idea that I am just making this up as I go along? Good.

I wasn't really planning to do party favors (it's not like we were expecting a lot of guests, and I had told the guests on the invitations that we did not expect gifts... my son has more than he needs!) but then I happened to see the cutest little favor bags at a thrift store for 25 cents. They were new-- apparently the previous owner just didn't need the whole package-- and they had zoo animals wearing party hats!

So, I passed them by, telling myself I couldn't justify that kind of expense.

NOT.

They were obviously too cute so I had to get them. :-)

Now I just had to find a couple things to fill them! (That's what the Dollar Tree is for.)

I think I spent $2-3 on 5 party favors.

The little white bag is jungle animal fruit snacks. I didn't know from the package that the individual bags would be so plain, so I found some animal print stickers in my scrapbooking stuff to "pretty" them up a bit. Not every bag was the same, but they all had a couple cute little zoo themed items in them.

7. Decorations

Like I said before, we are going to the zoo, so I didn't need much. But, at the last minute, our plans changed a little. The weather was a little rainy in the morning and some of our guests couldn't make it to the zoo till a bit later, so we decided to do our picnic at the house and THEN go to the zoo (It worked out perfectly because it rained on the way up and the way back but was perfect weather while we were there. Which is wonderful for WI in November... the week before we had a snow flurry!)

So I "had" to decorate the house a little for our picnic. :-) Easy to do because most of what I own is giraffe themed. 

(note: I even served the drinks in giraffe glasses... I didn't think to take a picture of these because they are actually the glasses we use for dinner most nights at our house. Yep. We're a little different...)

My husband laughed at me as I was cutting out party hats for my son's toys the night before. 

Yes, my son's party guests are toys and a picture of himself. But come on... do you really know any one-year-olds whose best friends DON'T consist of themselves and a few stuffed animals??

Another last minute decoration decision... my old Junior Zookeeper vest from Zoo Camp back in the day. (Not something I expect most of you have lying around the house... but I did!)

Our dog's birthday had been a couple days before, so we had to add her to the fridge. The "crossword" look is because we didn't have enough h's, y's, and l's.

8. Party Day

Finally the day came! I turned on some toddler songs on Pandora, dressed our son in his most safari/zookeeper-like outfit and we had a great time. 

My husband picked up a helium balloon at the Dollar Tree that morning.

He had a blast at the zoo! There were plenty of places to crawl and get close to the animals, but it was also was very stroller friendly for mom-and-dad sanity.

Thanks for reading!