Yes, you heard me.  We are going to DisneyWorld!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now that you are done screaming with me, let me tell you all about it.  Due to some Christmas money, gift certificates, and money we didn’t spend on Christmas, we were able to pull this off.  Disney is offering a buy 4 night get 3 free deal.  This also includes your park tickets.  Also, if you go before March 29th, you get a $200 gift card to Disney when you get there.  I was able to find airfare from Southwest for $78 each way for each of us.  To save a little money, we are making Will a lap baby (wish me luck on that one).

I was to Disney when I was 15, but haven’t been back since.  This will be the first trip for Bill, Madison, and Will.  Madison is pretty excited.  Since I have a few weeks before we get to go, I’ll be talking a lot of Disney. 

However, Bill has already told me I am not allowed to pay for internet access while I am there, so you all will at least get a  little break from the Disney madness.

Tell me about your trips to Disney.  Anything we definitely need to do?  Any advice you want to give me?

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I had some great experiences shopping this year before and after the holidays.  Now, I am still not sure where there is a local TJ Maxx by me.  However, I did some shopping at the one in Wisconsin by my family after Christmas.  It is was just liked I remembered — great items for low prices.  With the economy the way it is, we all need to start shopping at places like this.  You get the same quality items — just at a way better price!

Now, the one of the best shopping experiences I had this holiday season was at Marshalls.  We had a holiday party to go to on December 20th.  Now, I personally hate shopping in the month of December, because well, it sucks.  However, my wonderful little girl outgrew her Christmas dress!  It fit at Thansgiving, and it looked like she grew 2 inches from then!  Instead of panicking, Madison and I headed over to Marshalls.  Now, this was high holiday shopping time, and I was impressed.  They had a great selection of kids clothes that were marked, so it was super easy to find what we needed.  The fitting rooms were clean and large enough for me to go in the room with Madison.  On the way to the fitting room, I found shoes.  I was able to try on about 20 different pairs that I liked.  I loved that they had the little foot stockings at the end of each aisle for you to use when you forgot to bring socks.   Being the weekend before Christmas, I was seriously concerned about checkout.  However, they had a great system going and every register was open.  (Nothing irritates me more when you go to a store that is really busy and they only have one or two registers open, and they don’t open any more).  We had a great experience on Marshalls, and I will definitely be going there for more presents and items for my kids.

What are your favorite places to shop and why?

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How do you clean up after the holidays?  For us, it is a tad more interesting.  Madison’s birthday was yesterday (she turned 5!), so we always have the quick cleanup that needs to be done from the time we get back from visiting Wisconsin and her birthday party.  I usually get about a week if we are lucky.  Since we have the basement now, Bill let me keep up the Christmasy decorations, but we did pull down the Christmas tree.  I need as much room as we can get, and this is pretty much the only way I was going to get it.  I figure everybody will hang out downstairs for her party just like they did for Christmas Eve.  The sad thing is that we are the only one on the block who still has their outdoor lights up.  Now, we don’t leave them up till June or anything, but it seems that it is kinda odd that on 8th of January that everyone has packed up everything already.  Now, I’ve slacked this week, and I have to get all my cleaning done tomorrow with the kids underfoot.  This should be interesting.  My sister is arriving tomorrow, so its not quite the end of the world if she’s the only one who sees my non-clean house.

How do you clean up?  Do you have a set plan?  Do you just do a little bit each day?

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Now is the time of the year to talk with your kids about fire safety.  With many of us stuck in our homes (see the post before this about being snowed in) and having real Christmas trees, this is a talk we all need to have.  Even if you don’t have a real tree, your kids definitely need to know what to do if a fire would happen to break out.  I know that everyone thinks it won’t happen to them.  However, I am sure that the people who have house fires think that also.

Liberty Mutual has a great website dedicated to being fire smart.  This is a great way to start a conversation with your kids.  There are some great forms on this site that help you develop your fire plan and to just help you start the conversation.  Even though my kids are still pretty little, this is a conversation we started having with Madison last year already.  They even have sections especially for children, parents, and educators.  You are also able to search your local firehouses and learn about them too!

Be safe this holiday season and make sure you check out BeFireSmart just in case.

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I’ve never been a big fan of my mailbox.  However, it served its purpose till last night.  We woke up this morning to our mailbox laying on the ground.  Since a lot of my product reviews are sent by the mail, this is a very bad, bad thing.  Second problem, it snowed here last night, so the ground is frozen.  We think it was hit by the snow plow in the middle of the night (it was still there at 11 pm).  The beam that actually holds the mailbox is split.  We had to do a horrible fix job in about 20 degree weather today.  Bill took some industrial clamps and zip ties and that is the only thing that is holding the beam together.  The beam also leans forward pretty bad, so we had to take stakes and pound them into the ground around the base.  This looks like the worst white trash mailbox I’ve ever seen, and there is no way to fix this until the ground thaws out.  I am hoping to get some pictures of my sorry looking mailbox tomorrow.  If anyone has any ideas of how to get new a mailbox into the frozen ground, I am all ears.

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