For Christmas or Not For Christmas

This movie comes out next week:

On Tuesday to be exact. We love Veggie Tales movies at our house. They are funny. They teach great morals. They have catchy tunes. If you have never watched a Veggie Tales cartoon or movie with your kids, you should pick one up!

So on October 14th I will be going to the store to pick this up. The dilemma…I really should save it as a Christmas present. I should buy it and put it away. But I haven’t seen it yet. And I want to watch it. And I know my kids want to watch it.

I know a lot of people who start there Christmas shopping early. Months in advance. They budget out money each month. They hide things away. They are finished with their Christmas shopping before December, or before Thanksgiving, or even earlier.

I start my shopping in December. Sometimes not until the second week of December. When I was in college I started when Christmas break started. When I didn’t have to worry about school and homework and finals. I still do that now. Even though Christmas break for my kids actually makes it harder to get the shopping done.

But if I buy something in October it isn’t going to make it until December.

So am I the only one? Are you done with your Christmas shopping? Only 77 days until Christmas!

Halloween Wreath

I have no words to describe how much I love this!

And all you really need is a styrofoam ring and some black ribbon. The directions are here. I am in love. Real love.

Mr. P goes Trick or Treating

I am a HUGE fan of Mr. Potato head. I won’t admit that we have two gigantic storage bins full of Mr. Potato head pieces. You don’t need to know that Mr. P can be a princess or a pirate at our house. Or wear Mickey Mouse ears, or dress up like Spiderman, Darth Vader (Darth Tater actually) or a Spud (Storm) Trooper. So technically Mr. P has a LOT of Halloween costumes. Well now he can be something more traditional for Halloween:


I am sort of in love with the ghost! I think I might have to get Toots this set for her birthday! It doesn’t matter that she will only be one, does it? Check it out here.

Spooky Cookie Jars

If you are a fan of The Nightmare Before Christmas you will love these. Even if you are NOT a fan of the Nightmare Before Christmas you will probably love them anyway!

Here are some places you can buy them online.

Scary bread

I found this on BizzieMommie.com. How great would this be next to a bowl of some sort of scary spinach dip! Now I have to go find a recipe for scary spinach dip. Maybe spinach dip is scary enough on its own!

Halloween Pops

Bakerella has done it again. She has posted more ideas for her cupcake pops. Some of these ideas I am sure we thought of ourselves (the jack-o-lanterns for sure) but some of them I will have to try (the ghosts and the mummy) and others look like a little too much work for my taste (the werewolf…cute, but too much work!!) The witch falls in that category too…but that hat is just so cute that it might talk me into trying it! Maybe.

Shadow Puppets

Etsy seller orangemoontoys has a cute set (and a scary set) of shadow puppets for Halloween.

What a fun Halloween game for the kids. Check out her etsy shop to pick some up, or make some of your own with some construction paper and popsicle sticks. I am pretty sure my daughter could make a mean set of ghosts and jack-o-lanterns.

You could even make a set to act out some of your favorite Halloween poems and songs. Like 5 Little Pumpkins! That is my favorite! You can find some more ideas for songs and poems here.

Photoshop Elements

I am sure there are some people that take beautiful pictures SOOC (straight out of camera) but I am not one of them. They always look a little better Photoshop action. Not to mention that you can use Photoshop for digital scrapbooking (or using digital elements to your traditional scrapbooks).

Photoshop can be a little pricey, so it is always a good idea just to win it for free!

SITS is giving away a copy here. Go check it out.

I could kiss Mathew Mead

Look at these downloads that you can get from his site for FREE!

There are MORE! And they are all fun! Go! Download! Print! Cut! Make something cute! Then come here and post a comment and tell me about it so that I can come and oogle over your cute Halloween creation!

I am going to use the jack-o-lantern faces for my Paperback Pumpkins.

Milkjug Ghosts

So if you are afraid of using the cheese cloth ghosts as luminaries (I am sure my neighbor who is a retired fire fighter would tell me they are a fire hazard…but they are CUTE!) you can make these:
Or you could just use the Christmas lights idea with the cheesecloth ghosts! The choices, the choices!

Those cute spirit jugs are from family fun.com