Making Our List & Checking It Twice

It's time for all things Christmas! We wait for this time of year with so much anticipation & then it is gone in the blink of an eye. It often feels so overwhelming to fit in all the holiday magic before it's over, but we've found that creating a list can help us cram in all that jolly goodness!

(this has become a tradition of sorts...)

Here's our checklist:

Get a Christmas tree (check!)

Drink hot cocoa with buttloads of marshmallows.

Bake! Lots of baking.

Send out Christmas cards.

Watch Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, The Santa Claus & all the cheesy Hallmark movies.

Have a Christmas themed breakfast.

Go visit Santa Claus (oh. my. gawd. I can't wait)

Have a Christmas music dance party (already had a few...)

Do a Christmas craft (snowflakes, gingerbread house... the possibilities are endless).

Make peanut butter pinecones for all the sweet woodland creatures (I sound so creepy).

Have a picnic under the Christmas tree lights.

Make orange & clove stovetop potpourri.

Read The Night Before Christmas (and all the other adorable Christmas books we plan to buy).

Cuddle up by the fireplace.

Drive around & look at all the pretty Christmas lights.

Make snowman pizza (because why the hell not?)

This list will just continue to get better as Theo gets older. We are so excited to create traditions with him. One thing we really want to show Theo around this season (and really everyday) is to give. We have always loved doing random acts of kindness whether they be small or large & each year we find a cause to donate to. This year we are donating to a local organization that provides gifts to children who suffer from traumatic experiences such as domestic violence, trafficking & mental illness. 

Here are a few we have donated to in recent years:

OXFAM 

Operation Christmas Child

WWF

Books for Africa

Charity Water

Also, this website has a ranking of thousands of charities! Any gifts made today will be triple matched!

Happy Giving Tuesday! :)

Cold Season Essentials

I feel like it's time to start our winter weather cold arsenal. Now that we have Theo I am even more interested in preventing any sort of illness in our home. Besides some minor sniffles, I was able to escape a serious illness or even a real cold last year (and I even had a depleted immune system due to being pregnant... just sayin'). I would absolutely recommend doing your own research for ways to prevent illness in your own home. I simply thought I would share what has worked for my family the last few years.

Astragalus. This is an herbal supplement I have taken for a while now. It works to boost your immune system & helps to fight disease. I whole heartedly believe this works to boost the immune system & would highly recommend it. (This is the brand we have used). Unfortunately, I avoided taking it last year due to my pregnancy & I won't be using it this year because of breastfeeding. It is said to be safe to use, but there just isn't enough research for me to feel comfortable.

Vitamin D. This is my new alternative to astragalus. It supports immune health & helps with mood disorders (SAD in our case). Last Winter Nate & I had a really hard time adjusting to the gloominess in our new new city. It is far less sunny in Western New York in the Winter than any other place we have lived. So, we jumped on the bandwagon & decided to test it out this year. I also recently read a study that suggests Vitamin D cuts the risk of contracting a cold in half! 

Essential oil diffusion. This is a new one for us. I still have so much to learn about essential oils, but from what I've read so far there are so many benefits! I started using them last year when I could no longer take my herbal supplement. I decided on lemon, orange, lavender & eucalyptus to begin with. I diffuse the lemon, orange & eucalyptus throughout the day because of their air purifying qualities, plus they make our home smell so fresh! We use the lavender at night for its calming properties & it worked wonders on our nasal passages anytime we had the sniffles! It also really seems to calm Theo & help him sleep throughout the night.

Disinfect. I can't suggest this enough. I disinfect every surface & door knob each time we clean throughout the whole year, but during the cold and flu season I do it multiple times throughout the week. Since Nate is in the medical profession our chances sort of increase of contracting a cold with all the possible germs he could bring home. We also have hand sanitizer in the nursery, our cars & the stroller so that we always have it on hand!

Fruit juice/fruit. This might sound a little silly, but for as long as I can remember I have had a glass of juice at breakfast. I quite literally can't start my day without it (and of course coffee). I also try to eat as much fruit as I can even though it is increasingly more difficult in the winter months.

Exercise. We do this year round, but we make it more of a priority in the cold months because it is so much harder to be motivated to get up & out! It helps that we have a dog who loves the outdoors, but it is so important to get exercise in even if it's something small. Plus, fresh air can work wonders! 

We also do tea, multivitamins & good ol' chicken noodle soup :) Feel free to share any tricks you have up your sleeve in preventing nasty colds.

Stay healthy!