Don’t Miss These Holiday Deals and Freebies!

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are filled with plenty of deals and tons of sales. It is the time of year when even people who dislike shopping will be doing it anyway, alongside the people who consider shopping to be their favorite activity. It’s no wonder that there are so many holiday deals, sales, and freebies right now! Here’s a few you won’t want to miss. Hallmark is having a “Keepsake Ornament Gift of Memories Weekend”. It will take place from December 7, 2012 through December 9, 2012. Buy 1 or more Keepsake Ornaments at the event and you … Continue reading

Holiday Gifts from the Heart

The holiday season is an ideal time to teach kids about the importance of giving.  This year, though, consider doing one better by giving your children the opportunity to take a hands-on approach to gift-giving. There’s no need to break the bank purchasing expensive holiday presents for loved ones when you can use your creativity and other talents to craft a slew of special treats.  Show kids that by putting their heart into making a personal present for a loved one they will be giving a giving a gift you can’t put a price tag on. Some simple ideas include: … Continue reading

Thanks for Giving

In the chaos that surrounds the holiday season, it’s easy to lose sight of the true meaning behind the special occasions. Thanksgiving is filled with food, food and more food. The sumptuous spread can tempt people to focus more on what’s sitting on the table rather than who they are sitting next to at the table. When you are designing layouts for your Thanksgiving scrapbook, don’t forget to include memories that illustrate the true meaning of the holiday. Look for photos that speak volumes for the type of relationships your family members share with one other. You can further enhance … Continue reading

Simple Teacher Gifts For Christmas

The carols are blaring and the decorations are out, and I am tempted to put my head under something minty-scented until January. Although I love the giving aspect of the Christmas season, its commercial bent gives me a strong desire to flee. But then there’s the problem of homemade. In this world of busy and this world of “but I don’t know HOW to make things,” how can you create homemade Christmas items for teachers, friends, and family and have them delight in what you have made? Over the next two weeks, I’ll explore some super simple ways to create … Continue reading

Avoiding Holiday Photo Mishaps

Nothing ruins a holiday family portrait more than missing heads. My mom is notorious for decapitating my dad, grandparents, brothers and her grandkids in Christmas pictures. While the season is filled with hundreds of magical moments, if you are not careful when wielding a camera, you can turn festive photo ops into pictures you’d sooner forget. For example, if you are like millions of other amateur photographers out there, then you don’t pass up the opportunity to snap keepers of loved ones opening gifts on Christmas morning. The annual tradition yields an array of emotions that are highlighted in facial … Continue reading

Holiday Photo Ops

The holiday season is ripe with memorable photo opportunities. From the excitement of gift opening to the traditional carving of the Christmas ham, and hugs galore for visiting friends and family, now is not the time of year to be without your camera. In fact, now is the time to make the most of your picture-taking tool. I recently attended a Christmas party where the host’s camera took center stage. Rather than walk around the shindig snapping pictures of guests, my friend set-up a mock photo booth where people could shoot their own pictures. The camera sat on a tripod … Continue reading

Get Creative with Christmas Photos

Are you tired of trying to get your kids to pose for a traditional family photo in front of the Christmas tree? This year, consider ditching the dull lineups, and instead, look for ways to capture candid Christmas shots. For example, rather than having your kids stand next to their stockings and smile for the camera, let them dig for treasures while you snap away. The goal is to document genuine emotion, which is hard to do when young children are forced to strike a pose and smile on cue. Other cute candid Christmas-related photos include: *Your cat playing with … Continue reading

Prepping for Fluffy’s Holiday Photo

It took working at Families.com for nearly a year before I got my first taste of the term “Fur Baby.” The very first time I saw the words featured in a blog I thought the writer was referring to this. Then, I took a closer look and realized that it was “Fur Baby,” not “Furby.” It didn’t take long to deduce that the blogger loved her four-legged “kids” as much as her two-legged ones. In fact, I became friends with said writer, and the following Christmas I received a hilarious photo card with her furry kids sitting on the laps … Continue reading

Do Your Pets Factor into Your Holiday Plans?

Do you make your holiday plans around your pets? That’s an assertion that the Associated Press recently made in an article: pet owners revolve their late-December events around their pets. Examples given by the AP include taking holiday-themed photos of pets, using these or other pictures with the animal for seasonal cards, buying pets gifts (the article maintains that just over half of pet owners do this), and even creating special menus for the pet so it can have a holiday meal alongside its human family. There are two sides to this: one, in which a little holiday cheer is … Continue reading

Need a Great Gift Idea? Family Photos are Always a Hit

It is getting towards the end of holiday shopping season, and despite your best efforts, you can not seem to find any good gift ideas for some of the people on your list. Before you give up, why not think about whether there are some special family photographs that each of those people would like to receive as gifts this year. Perhaps one of your relatives just had a baby. Chances are that he or she has been very busy taking care of the new bundle of joy and may not have had a chance to print out any of … Continue reading