All About Kimberly

Sailing Along the Life of Single Parenthood

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MomDot Party – Day 6

The days keep rolling by…I can’t believe we are already halfway though the MomDot Christmas Party. We’ve been discussing many aspects of our life and the holidays, but they’ve all had an adult focus. We introduced our current family (where most of us mom’s naturally focus on our little ones), we’ve shared the traditions we have in our houses, our favorite foods, shopping experiences, and charitable organizations, but today we get to think back to the past – back to our own childhood and tell you our: 

Favorite holiday memory from YOUR childhood

For me this is not one memory, but a series of memories – the memories of Christmas at Grandma Roberts’ house. I spent almost the entire year each year as an only child with no cousins around either.  It was me, the parents, and the grandparents.  But once a year, we went to Indiana to spend Christmas with my step-sisters at my grandmothers.  My dad is one of 7 and everyone lived around Shelbyville, Indiana except for us.  This means our visits were a big deal so the cousins were always around.  I had people my age to play with in abundance. They were everywhere. And Grandma had a basement!!  A BASEMENT!!!  That we got to all go play in….our own territory – an “adultless” area.  There was one other bonus – we frequently got SNOW!  Yes, this Texas gal got to see snow from time to time.  That was something that never happened at home, but come Christmas time, I got to play with so many cousins, have sisters, and occasionally, play in the snow!  What better memory could there be? (and this is probably one of the reasons, I love Christmas so much)

Below you’ll see some of my childhood Christmas memories:

MomDot Party – Day 5

What does Christmas really mean? It’s not really about the stories or the traditions. It’s certainly not about the shopping or the food.  Christmas is about putting others before ourselves – giving to others so that makes today’s MomDot Christmas Party topic one of my favorites so far:

Do you volunteer during the Holidays?  What organizations do you donate your time to?  How do you teach your children the true meaning of the holidays?

Instead of focusing on one big organization, we divide our time through several smaller local charities.  My daughter and her dance/twirling class go to all of the local nursing homes and perform to holiday music. For both Thanksgiving and Christmas we also support multiple food and toy drives as well as a coat drive for those who are less fortunate than we are.  And then there’s the Salvation Army men at the front of all the local stores ringing their bells.  I actually make sure to carry cash and change during the holiday season so that we don’t pass a one without making a donation.  Cameron doesn’t even think twice now.  She knows that we’ll be dropping some change or a couple dollars in every one that we pass. And finally, we have an adopt an angel tree at school. Teachers fill out an angel for any student they teach that they feel will not have a Christmas. The tree does not have a name, only a description of the child – their sizes, likes, etc.  We go each year and pick an angel off of that tree and purchase items for them.  This is an extra special chance for me to show Cameron that we support our community.

So how do you teach your children the true meaning of the holidays?  Go blog about it and post your link at Momdot.  I can’t wait to read these stories.

MomDot Party: Day 4

Can you believe it? We’re already in the fourth day of the MomDot Christmas Party and the fun is just getting started.  So far we’ve learned about each other’s families, our traditions, and our shopping habits. So what’s left to talk about? One of my favorite subjects – FOOD!!!!  Today’s topic is:

What is your favorite Holiday recipe, describe your Holiday table, biggest holiday cooking disaster.

Hmm….Well I am still lucky (at least I think it’s lucky) enough to not really be in charge of the cooking when it comes to the holidays.  I’m still able to just show up to most family occasions.  I do have one food responsibility though for all family holidays – the banana pudding.  I’m not sure where all of you readers are from, but if any of you are southern girls, then you know that no holiday meal is complete without the ‘nana pudding.  I don’t think I make the best in the world, but it is pretty tasty and there’s usually none left by the end of the holidays.

No Bake Banana Pudding

Ingredients

  • 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix (5 ounce) 
  • 2 cups cold 2% milk
  • 1 can low-fat sweetened condensed milk (14 ounce) 
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 container frozen light whipped topping, thawed (16 ounce) 
  • 8 ounces of whipped cream
  • 1 package low-fat/light vanilla wafers (12 ounce) 
  • 4-8 bananas, sliced

Directions

  1. In a large mixing bowl, beat pudding mix and milk for 2 minutes.
  2. Blend in condensed milk until smooth.
  3. Stir in vanilla and fold in half of frozen whipped topping and the whipped cream.
  4. Layer wafers, bananas and pudding mixture in a glass serving bowl. (I make 2 – 3 layers)
  5. Top with remaining whipped topping and crumbled wafers.
  6. Chill until serving.

 

Hmm….after typing this, I’m glad Thanksgiving is almost here….I’m ready for some holiday pudding.  Now head over to some other MomDot blogs and see what type of holiday food stories everyone has to share.

MomDot Party: Day 3

Today is the third day of the MomDot Christmas Party.  If you’d like to read more, about the details refer to my day 1 or day 2 party posts, but on to today’s topic – a favorite of many women – SHOPPING!!!  Our topic today is:

When do you start Christmas shopping?  How do you budget for Christmas?  Do you stick to your budget?

I start Christmas shopping the day after Christmas.  I actually carry a list in my purse and add to it as I purchase things throughout the year so that I can remember who I’ve gotten what for.  All of this stuff is stored in Rubbermaid boxes until November when I pull it all out, give it a final look over and begin wrapping it.  

By doing this, I do very little shopping in November and December.  Except for buying for my girls, I try to be almost totally done by Halloween.   This helps with budgeting too.  Why? Because I pay for everyone’s gifts here and there and do not have to go on one big outing and spend a ton of money.  For that big spending that does happen every year though (like the girls’ main gift or if I decide what to buy someone something in particular earlier in the year, but it won’t fit in the budget), I always get a larger than normal check in November.  For most careers this would be a “Christmas Bonus,” but in teaching it’s really not a bonus.  Instead they take what we make over the state minimum and instead of dividing it out between all 12 months of the year, they give it all to us at once.

As a side note, one day I hope to have a house that’s large enough that I’ll be like one of my heroes.  She, like me, buys her gifts throughout the year, but she also keeps Christmas wrap in a spare room in her house and wraps them as she buys them and stores them in the closet so that there’s never that day of sitting and wrapping and wrapping and wrapping. I always start wrapping with a lot of festivity, but then by the time I finish it seems be a chore. 

MomDot Party: Day 2

Today is day two of the MomDot (the site for Mom Blogs) Christmas Party.  If you haven’t already, you should definitely join in. Not only are we all getting to know each other over at MomDot, there’s also prizes involved!!! Today’s topic:

Traditions, what are some of your favorite family traditions? What are some traditions you want to begin?

Our biggest tradition is just being together – whether it be Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other holiday we come up with, we like to spend it together.  For all of my life, we spend the holidays together.  Now, this may mean celebrating a holiday on a day other than the day it is marked on the calendar, but somehow we come together.  In fact togetherness is so important that last year, so that my brother would not spend Thanksgiving alone, the girls and I loaded up and drove and stayed in Arizona so that we can spend the few hours he was allowed off base each day with him that week. 

What other traditions do we have? 

 

  • Let’s see Dad makes the turkey, Mom makes the mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, and I make the banana pudding.  This is our responsibilities no matter why we are all gathering or where.
  • During the time we are out for Thanksgiving, we go take Christmas pictures at Sears.
  • Turkey Day = Dallas Cowboys!  Yep, no one is allowed to have anything on the family TV but our Cowboys. (I dream one day of watching this game in person) We’ll also watch the UT/A&M game during Thanksgiving week!!
  • Decorating the house is a family occurrence.  We go all out. Christmas is everywhere, and putting everything in its perfect place is a family.  We do everything together except the ornaments on the tree. Placing the ornaments on the tree is my job. I do it late at night when everyone is fast asleep. It’s my peaceful entry into the Christmas season. 
  • Cameron spends every Christmas morning at home (well except for last year when we spent the entire time at Disney). We then load up and go to my parent’s house for lunch and early afternoon family time. The day is ended with Christmas dinner with my grandmother and other dad.  So every Christmas Day we have 3 Christmas’s.  
  • Christmas cards are placed around the doorway to the hall. Mistletoe is hung in this doorway also.
  • Santa uses Disney Christmas paper on all the presents he leaves at our house. Mom uses generic Christmas paper.

Now as for traditions, I’d like to start. 

 

  • I’ve heard of families that open one present on Christmas Eve.  I’ve thought that sounds neat.
  • I’ve also heard of families that make that one person pajamas so everyone wears their new pajamas to bed on Christmas Eve and then look cute in the early morning Christmas pics.  I really like that idea and thought of buying matching pjs for us.
  • One day I will learn to make the turkey so that I can do that when it’s Cameron bringing the grandkids to my house.

I’m sure there’s more…I’m going to read other people’s posts and find some more great traditions we can start.