Adventures in Mommyhood: Christmas 2011 In Review: Do's and Don'ts

1. DO find a super cute outfit for your 18-month-old son and take LOTS and LOTS of pictures of him.

2. DO show your family how much you love them by making fun homemade gifts.

Homemade Stationary

Mailing Kits: personalized contact list and return address labels, homemade stationary
and a book of stamps all wrapped up in a cute box!

3. DON'T choose to make seven homemade necklaces that require twelve strings of seed beads each and a complicated sailor's knot. The recipients will love them, but you may find yourself feeling suicidal at some point during the creation process. (They turned out beautifully, but A LOT of work!)

Pretty necklace!

4. DON'T ask family members to chip in on a gift for your husband then lose the checks they give you. Yep, I did that.

5. DO make lots of yummy goodies for family and friends in the days leading up to Christmas. My personal favorite from the 12 Days of Sweets/Cookies: Chewy Ginger Cookies and Butterfinger Truffles.

6. DO use your cherished family photos to send holiday cards to those you love.

From the previous post "K thinks Santa needs to get out of town."

7. DON'T buy special holiday address and return address labels for your Christmas cards, unsuccessfully mail merge your contacts spreadsheet multiple times, forcing you to enter 100 addresses manually onto the labels, and then forget to put Christmas cards in some of those envelopes. Yes, I did that, too.

Sorry, Aunt Marian...

8. DO have twenty family members over for dinner on Christmas Eve, organize a delicious menu and then delegate the making of most of the dishes to others.