Six Dollar Christmas Tree Decoration

Its almost Christmas! Wish you all a very merry Christmas.

I don't blog consistently but one thing I surely post about every year is the Christmas Tree. I love the holiday season. Its happiness and joy everywhere during this season. So I try to bring that mood into our house by putting up the decorations. Our decorations were minimal this year though. Lights outside, Wreath on the door, Tree and Stockings on the mantel.

As far as the tree decoration goes, I have collected many ornaments for past few years, some basic and some special to us. We put them all every year and add a couple more each year. Even though they look so beautiful on the tree, packing them after the season is a pain. I wanted to save us that pain this year (for a  reason) so looked at other low-cost-high-impact options for Christmas tree decoration.
Though my daughter put up some basic ornaments when we put the tree up few weeks ago, I left the remaining ones unpacked. Since we use an old artificial tree that doesn't look as full without lot of ornaments, I decided to go with Christmas mesh. I bought 2 rolls (one in red and one in Red & white) from Micheals. They were already 60% off so I got them for $6. Wrapped them around the tree and gathered at about a foot or 2 and bent a branch around it to tie. Alternative to tie a wire or pipe cleaners. I rearranged the ornaments to cover some of those ties. Added bows made of ribbons, some poinsettia ornaments we had and the tree looks full & beautiful. I had two tree skirts that matched my decor theme so I put them in layers underneath the tree.

Even though its nice to have the ornaments that have sentiment on the tree every year, a little variation also helps bring the same cheer. I wanted to share this for folks that are having a Christmas tree for the first time and want to decorate it without spending a whole lot of $$$.

Have a happy holiday season!

Kids Morning & Evening Routine - Free Printable

Christmas is in 2 days and I am posting about kids daily routine, and I didn't show pictures of our tree yet! Yeah I am waaaaay off blog world schedule, but that's our life now.

Anyway, since my kid is going to be 4 in few months, I have been trying to get her to do some things on her own. With us working full time, mornings are very busy around here, so to make them a little more comfortable I prepared a tiny list of her morning routine with pictures. Printed it and stuck it on the wall next to the hallway bath. It got her excited. She liked to finish each task and telling me that she is done. I realized checking off items from a list motivates humans of any size. So I created one for evenings. To be honest, the evenings didn't get as easy as the mornings, but it does help save some valuable time that used get lost somewhere in the middle of 'Bath time now come on... 7th time' & 'Dinner is ready, let's eat' & 'Finish your food fast, you have been sitting there for 40 minutes' and so on. We now have some quality time at the end of the day for some cuddling and rolling off the night slowly.

For families that have similar routines, I am providing our printables. Go ahead, print them and try it out. Even if you gain 10 minutes in a day, it is worth. Don't you agree?