Merry Christmas!

Since Christmas is a time of sharing and family, I thought I'd share a picture of my family with you! Aren't they the cutest elves you've ever seen?

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and let you know that my blogging will most likely be sporadic this week as I celebrate Christmas with my family.

If you want to make sure you don't miss anything, please subscribe to Simplified Saving for free updates via email or in a reader.

Giving Up On My Idea of a Perfect Christmas

I had such high hopes for my Christmas this year...and it started with my tree.

Last year I purchased fun and funky ornaments on sale after Christmas. I immediately put them on the tree and they were perfect. It didn't even bother me that it was after Christmas. I still enjoyed those ornaments on that tree.

In March of this year our small town experienced a flood.

Yep, that's our house and the street we live on!

We lost most of the belongings we had in our basement, including our pre-lit Christmas tree. My parents graciously gave us a beautiful tree they had so we wouldn't be without a tree.

On November 1st, we put up our new tree. I wanted to be able to stretch out my perfect Christmas for two months. Unfortunately, our new tree wasn't pre-lit (and we had no lights), so we just left it sitting there undecorated. By November 10th, I had purchased lights and we had a wonderful time decorating our tree...and it looked great. I wish I had taken a picture... I even wrapped tons of presents and put them under the tree.

Although the tree looked great, the rest of my house wasn't looking so impressive. We live in a fixer-upper that still needs a lot of fixin-up. We'd love to get the inside painted, but unfortunately that meant we needed to get the drywall repaired. We scheduled the drywall repair people to come the Monday after Thanksgiving. He quoted that he would only need"8-10" hours of work to get the job done.

So, we undecorated the tree and put most of the presents in the upstairs closet. We moved the tree to a different spot so that it was out of the way of the drywall workers and I told the family we could decorate as soon as the drywall guys finished up.

Look at the beautifully wrapped gifts under the tarp!

Unfortunately, that 8-10 hours that he quoted us is still going on. There have been lots of days they've been unable to come for one reason or another. They've been sick or busy with other jobs. Plus, my hubby was out of town for a few days so they couldn't come then. And the days they are here, they leave more dust than you could possibly imagine. With one week til Christmas, my home looks like this!

This isn't the ideal situation at Christmas time. I want a warm, welcoming home. I want my family to be surrounded by beautiful things, not tarps and drywall dust.

I'm sure that's what Mary wanted on that very first Christmas too. I'm sure that bringing her baby into the world in a dirty cold stable wasn't the ideal situation for her. I'm sure she envisioned things differently. She probably imagined a perfect Christmas. Christ coming into the world in a comfortable room surrounded by beautiful things. Instead, the Messiah was born in a dirty smelly animal enclosure.

And although Christ was born in a dirty place, I don't want him to live in a dirty place.

I want my home to be a place where Jesus would feel welcomed. I want Him to see that my life is not overwhelmed by busyness and the unimportant. I want a heart that is overflowing with love. I want the dirt in me to be scrubbed away by my repentant attitude and the cleansing blood of Jesus. I want the words that flow from my lips to be words seasoned with grace and hope.

I want to remember that the only perfect Christmas was in a stable when Emmanuel came to dwell with us...in us. God with us...Emmanuel...the perfect Christmas!

Join Mary and those who are "Giving Up On a Perfect Christmas" over at Giving Up On Perfect.

This post is linked to Finer Things Friday because there is nothing finer than Emmanuel...God with Us and Photo Story Friday.

Free Lip Product from Bath & Body Works

I was so excited today when I opened my inbox to find a new coupon from Bath & Body Works.

FREE Lip Item (up to $8) with ANY purchase

This is one of my favorite coupons because I love their lip products and it works with any purchase...even on clearance and inexpensive items. If you don't have anything particular in mind, try the foaming hand soap for only $3, the shea infused socks for only $5, or look for a small hand sanitizer or nail file for only a buck or two!

I used my coupon today and purchased a pair of their super cozy socks with shea butter* for only $5. The socks and lip gloss will be a great addition to one of my daughters' Christmas stocking.

*These Bath & Body works shea infused socks are my all time favorite cozy socks! A lip gloss and a pair of these socks for only $5 is a steal and would make a great gift for any woman on your list!

Bless A Friend and Help Toys for Tots

1-800-flowers.com has a new Secret Santa Facebook Application. You can send a warm fuzzy Secret Santa gift to a friend. It's free and they won't find out who it's from until December 21st. To make this even sweeter, 1-800-flowers.com will donate $5,000 to Toys for Tots if the warm fuzzy Secret Santa gift is sent 10,000 times, so we're trying to get the word out!

Click here to send out your Secret Santa Gift. Plus (as a bonus) you'll get 15% off your order on 1-800-flowers.com.

Don't delay!

Finding Financial Hope in a Season of Spending

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...or so they say. Although Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of the One who brought Hope, when you're struggling with your finances, Christmas can seem like the most hopeless time of the year. As a parent, you feel compelled to not only give great gifts to your children, but also to their teachers, your co-workers, and numerous other people.

Last year at this time, I was buying Christmas presents and praying like crazy that we wouldn't max out all of our credit cards. Things were extremely tight, yet I felt like buying cheap gifts for my friends and family or sharing with them that I couldn't afford to buy Christmas presents {GASP!} would be an admission of my failure as an adult. So I continued on, buying gifts we couldn't afford, buying extra groceries we couldn't afford, and pretending that all was well in our world! Our finances were a disaster!

By the time Christmas came and went, we had no money in our checking account.

On New Years Eve day, my husband Fred headed out to run some errands. He came home with a book (purchased on a credit card) that would rock our world and change our finances. He purchased Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. He started reading it as soon as he got home and then handed it to me and asked me to read the first 4 chapters. Not only did I read the first four chapters, but I finished the entire book in one setting. And I began to feel the stirring of something I hadn't felt in a long time...HOPE.

Hope that we might not be in debt forever.
Hope that we might get our acts together.
Hope that at some point our finances would be in good enough shape that we could adopt again.

When we sat down to figure out where we were financially, I felt extremely torn. I wasn't sure I wanted to know how bad it really was. I knew that our monthly spending exceeded our income, but I wasn't sure what the big picture was. It was REALLY ugly. The reality is that the amount of our debt surpassed a full year of income for my husband and I combined...and that wasn't including our house. There were lots of things that contributed to that amount of debt...our adoption, the house we live in (that ended up needing $30,000 in improvements to make it livable instead of the $10,000 we planned on), and some poor choices in spending (eating out more than we needed to and trying to keep up with the Joneses).

This year, we have worked and planned and saved and been more creative than we have ever been. Was this an easy year for us? No. Our house flooded and we lost over $30,000 in belongings (our insurance for our basement was only $10,000). We had some health issues that came with some major bills. We had some dental issues that came with some more crazy bills. And on top of that, we got a letter from the IRS that due to some incorrect paperwork, we owed a TON of money! If any of this would have happened during the previous year, I'm not sure what we would have done. I just know that it most likely would not have had a happy ending.

Are we where we want to be financially? Not yet, but we now know we WILL be able to get there. Here are a few differences between last year and this year.

• The feeling of hopelessness is gone.
  
• This year's Christmas shopping has been stress-free (partially because I purchased things throughout the year when I found them at rock bottom prices).
  
• We don't need to use credit cards anymore because we are living within our means.
  
• I don't dread opening the mail box because I know that we will be able to pay our bills.
• I am able to stretch my dollars further than I would have thought possible.

If you are feeling the burden of finances this Christmas, I'd like to encourage you that there is hope for you too. Jesus came to bind up the broken-hearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives. I felt broken-hearted and imprisoned by our debt and finances, yet that is not God's desire for us.

On a practical level, there are quite a few things you can do.

1. Write down (or track online) everything you spend for one month. It will make you think twice about buying frivolous purchases and it will enable you to see areas where you can improve on your spending.
2. Use coupons. Don't go crazy, just try to reduce your spending by 10%. If you don't have time to figure out where the good deals are, consider subscribing to The Grocery Game. They have a list each week that matches up that week's best deals with coupons to give you the rock bottom prices. You can get a 4-week trial for only $1. (I wouldn't bother with the CVS or Walgreens subscriptions as there are tons of blogs that provide the best deals on these stores each week).
   
3. Come up with a plan. I am quite partial to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. His advice is practical and biblical! {He's also doing giveaways on his site every day between now and Christmas}.
   
4. Stick with your plan (see number 4)! Facing your finances is tough, but it's so worth it!
5. Find someone who will encourage and support you. If you're married, you and your spouse can hold each other accountable. If you're single, find a friend you can confide in.
   

I hope you will begin the journey to get your finances in order. If you need encouragement or some suggestions, please feel free to email me. I'd love to help in any way and I'd be honored to pray for you. I don't have it all together, but this is what works for me!

This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday over at We are THAT Family.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About How We Celebrate Christmas

With as busy as the Christmas season is and with my husband out of town this week, I was feeling a little overwhelmed. I thought I'd do something a little different today that didn't require as much effort as my normal blogging. I was inspired by Jo-Lynne over at Musings of A Housewife.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely hot chocolate...with lots and lots of whip cream (or marshmallows!)

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? It really depends. Santa tries to get lots of presents wrapped and under the tree early, but there is inevitably a few gifts that are carted in by Santa in an oversized shopping bag while we're opening gifts. It's a family tradition and I kind of like it like that!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White...and only white. One of these days I'm going to get some lights up on the outside of my house to, but for now, the lights are limited to my cute little tree inside the house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope, but I really like mistletoe...A LOT!

5. When do you put your decorations up? This year, I put the tree up on November 1st. I didn't add decorations to it for a few weeks since life got a little crazy.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Grandma's jello salad...it is sooo yummy!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? It's so hard to narrow it down to one. My family always made holidays special!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What do you mean? I still believe in Santa.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Usually it's more than a gift. We open all of our gifts on Christmas Eve and I love it that way! The only thing we open on Christmas morning is our stockings. Plus, we all get to sleep in. If that isn't a great gift, I don't know what is!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights, very fun and funky red and lime green ornaments, and some red and green pompom garland.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? If it's going to be freezing, there might as well be snow. Plus, snow makes Christmas feel more magical.

12. Can you ice skate? Yep...and I think I'm pretty darn good!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I got a really cool leather jacket in seventh grade. It looked awesome with my big bangs.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Remembering God's awesome gift and spending time with my family.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I like Christmas cookies and anything chocolate and peanut butter...or to be really honest, anything chocolate that I don't have to make!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Decorating Christmas cookies as a family and playing games on Christmas eve.

17. What tops your tree? Nada...I haven't figured out what would look great on the top.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? It is more blessed to give than receive...so with that being said, I'd rather you be blessed.

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yuck, unless they are the fruit flavored ones.

20 Favorite Christmas Show? Muppet's Christmas Carol is quite possibly the best movie ever. I also like Jingle All The Way.

21. Saddest Christmas Song? All I Really Want by Steven Curtis Chapman (I dedicated a whole post to it here)

22. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Picking a favorite Christmas song is like picking a favorite child...it's impossible. Here are a few that I love.
Hallelujah (Light Has Come) by Barlow Girl, You Gotta Get Up by Rich Mullins, Little Town by Amy Grant (or actually any Christmas song by Amy Grant), Sending You A Little Christmas by Jim Brickman

$8 for a $50 Snowboarding Game and a $25 Restaurant.com Certificate

UPDATE: Deal is dead. You can still receive 70% off Restaurant.com gift certificates, but there will no longer be a free Red Envelope Gift Card.

Restaurant.com has a smoking deal available now through December 8th. You can use the promo code PRESENT to score 70% off a $25 Restaurant.com Gift Certificate + you'll get a free $15 gift promo code from Red Envelope.

To get in on this deal, go here and add a $25 gift certificate to your cart. At checkout type in promo code PRESENT --which will deduct 70%--making the gift certificate just $3! Your RedEnvelope promotion code will appear on the purchase confirmation page after you place your order and will be sent to you by Restaurant.com in an email that you will you receive within 24 hours. The promotion code will also be available in the My Account section of Restaurant.com.

To redeem the RedEnvelope $15 gift code, enter the promotion code at checkout. To enter it in the correct box at checkout--Make sure to get to the page where you enter your payment info. On this page, UNDER the "Payment info" box, is a spot you can click on to enter the gift code. After entering the gift code, click next and then it will give you your final total (after the $15 deduction) and let you enter your credit card info. Please keep in mind the gift code DOES NOT go in the promotional code boxes. I didn't realize this at first and got very confused!

The best part about this $15 gift code is that it covers shipping! I purchased this Snowboard Video Game (which is regularly $49.95) for $9.99 plus shipping. My total after the gift code was only $4.98. Not too shabby for a great gift for my kids and a night out for my hubby and I!

Thanks It's Hip 2 Save!

All I Really Want For Christmas

First Day of School 2009 for my daughters

I am passionate about adoption. Adoption is such a great picture of God's relationship with us. You may not be aware that both of my daughters are adopted. We adopted our girls from Ukraine when they were 9 and 11. Never in our lives have we seen God's hand and provision so clearly. We have watched God do incredible things in the hearts of our girls. We have watched them grow and learn and adjust to family life.

Although November was National Adoption Month (and I never got around to posting about it), I can't help but think of how many children there are without families at Christmas. How sad to watch the merriment of Christmas while wishing for someone to share it with. I love the words of the Steven Curtis Chapman song, "All I Want". Although they always make me cry, they remind me that there is so much more I can be doing.

Well I don’t know if you remember me or not
I’m one of the kids they brought in from the home
I was the red-haired boy in an old green flannel shirt
You may not have seen me – I was standing off alone
I didn’t come and talk to you, ‘cause that’s never worked before
And you’ll prob’ly never see this letter anyway
But just in case there’s something you can do to help me out
I’ll ask you one more time

All I really want for Christmas
Is someone to tuck me in
A shoulder to cry on if I lose
Shoulders to ride on if I win
There’s so much I could ask for
But there’s just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family

Well I guess I should go ahead and tell you now
If it’s really true about that list you have
Somehow I always seem to end up in a fight
But I’m really trying hard not to be bad
But maybe if I had a brother or a dad to wrestle with
Well, maybe they could teach me how to get along
And from everything I’ve heard
Sounds like the greatest gift on earth would be a mom

All I really want for Christmas
Is someone to tuck me in
A shoulder to cry on if I lose
Shoulders to ride on if I win
There’s so much I could ask for
But there’s just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas

Is someone who’ll be there
To sing me “Happy Birthday”
For the next 100 years
And it’s OK if they’re not perfect
Well, even if they’re a little broken, that’s alright
‘Cause so am I

Well, I guess I should go
It’s almost time for bed
And maybe next time I write you
I’ll be at home

‘Cause all I really want for Christmas
Is someone to tuck me in
Tell me I’ll never be alone
Someone whose love will never end
Of all that I could ask for
Well, there’s just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas
All I really want for Christmas is a family

Just a family

That’s all I really need

See what I mean. They are quite moving. Over the next few days, I am going to be posting facts and statistics as well as things you can do to make a difference in the lives of orphans here and overseas. I pray that you will open your hearts to whatever God is calling you to do.

This post is linked to Finer Things Friday hosted by Amy's Finer Things because being a mom and caring for orphans truly is a finer thing!