The Heart of Christmas

I hope you're enjoying this lovely season so far. I basked in the sunshine outdoors yesterday as we've experienced unseasonably warm temps here in Florida the past few weeks. However, today I'm nursing a head cold that came on last night with lots of hot tea, a box of tissues and some good reading material. :) I'm just glad it's not the flu and better now than during the Christmas holidays.

I've been reflecting lately (as I always do at this time of year) about how commercialized things have become. There are many great festivals and church events in my city which I look forward to that bring a sense of tradition and warm feelings and yet at the same time you cannot turn on your TV in December without being 'sold to' and told what will bring your loved ones joy. I understand that retailers must make a profit to survive and this is the busiest time of year but it's so easy for many to get caught up in the gifts, and often competitiveness with how much was spent on whom and who has the best lights on the street or the prettiest Christmas tree. Sometimes our own busyness prevents us from experiencing the true joy and wonder of this season.

On Friday afternoon I found myself rushing around to make sure all of my international Christmas cards got out on time including looking up a few addresses that I couldn't seem to track down with just minutes before I had to head to the post office. Hubby was trying to catch my attention and take a look at what I had written in some of the cards spread out on the kitchen table but I was telling him I didn't have time and that he could look at the next batch for our U.S. family and friends. Then he commented, "So, where's the joy?"  My heart sank because I knew he was right. Sending our loved ones cards every year is something that I really enjoy from creating the card to writing personal messages in each one, somehow I had let my busyness and lack of organization ruin a nice moment. Still trying to meet my timeline, I apologized, kissed hubby and made my way to the car and when I began driving away a song came on that touched my heart called: 'The Heart of Christmas' by Matthew West. This was no coincidence. The local Christian radio station that I listen to plays Christmas music for the entire month of December and this was just the reminder I needed!

If you've been feeling overwhelmed with all there is to do this month, are at odds with a family member or friend or maybe are stressed by not having as much financially as you would like to give this year, I want to share the same song with you as a reminder.

Above all, today I encourage you to remember, during a season of wish lists filled with 'things' it's important to reflect on the the real gift of this season, in the form of God's only son. He is truly all we need! :)

Speaking of positive messages, is anyone else loving all of the wonderful Hallmark movies this time of year?
Have you had any moments that really spoke to you this season as you prepare for the holidays? Share the with us in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

XO





*all images via

Merry Christmas!

To all of my readers around the world who are celebrating Christmas today (as I am), have a merry and blessed day celebrating His birth filled with love; joy, peace and hope!

EVERY good and perfect gift truly is from above!

Warmly,

Handmade Christmas Gift from Hubby

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I promised you a few days ago, when I shared the 12 Dates of Christmas which was my gift to my husband last year, that I'd also share what he created for me.

If you've been following my blog for a while you probably already know that like me, my husband Paul is an Author, but he's also a great poet as well. I have been the lucky recipient of his beautiful poems for years and especially enjoyed the ones he would mail to me while we were dating.

When we were planning our wedding I thought it would be great to take one of my favorite poems that he wrote for me titled 'Dream Come True' and I had it printed on some gorgeous cardstock for each table in the reception area as another keepsake for our guests. Paul has actually written 18 book now including a 500-page poetry book filled with inspirational poems called Poems that Propel the Planet.

So, it should have come as no surprise that his gift to me was a book of poems, but I had no idea and this wasn't any old book. He took a cute pink flexi binder and filled it with poems affixed to scrapbook pages that he had purchased and then attached some embellishments and stickers to make it a fun, girly book that is now a cherished keepsake. How cute is that? He is such a manly man, but he happens to love pink and can rejoice with the girly things I love. This is just one of the reason's I'm hoping that our future first baby one day will be a girl. ;)

Here are some photos of the lovely book he created for me. These 10 poems were not super sweet, sappy poems, but rather well-thought-out, inspirational poems after a challenging year we both endured in 2008. Such is the life sometimes for us entrepreneurs! I wanted to show you the time he spent on creating this lovely book by sharing each page. I really enjoyed one cute poem in particular called 'Caring and Cleaning' where he shares his appreciation for my domesticity. He usually tells me so regularly, but it was fun to see it incorporated into a poem.

For those of you with less creative husbands, don't fret. Trust me, this doesn't happen everyday. We made a commitment last year to create homemade gifts and the gift itself could be anything that was made with our own two hands. I had no idea what to expect.

Yes, the blurry text for all of the poems below is intentional. *wink*.

Photo on book cover from our 2007 Caribbean cruise.

Although the others are blurred, here is a Christmas Poem he wrote last year that you all can read. Often times he writes for the masses (as is the case for this poem). I love the message and it's a good reminder to all of us that Christmas is much more than a stressful and chaotic shopping month involving huge expenses.

CHRISTMAS MINUS THE MESS

Christmas minus the mess


Is most glorious

Christ without merchandise


Is elegant and nice


Excessive shopping


Going here, there, and everywhere


Frantically looking and buying


Certainly this rat race


Has nothing to do


With seeking God's face


Neither adoring the Lord


Nor entering His loving embrace


On the contrary


It comes with a bit of distaste


As it drives you furiously


To go with the flow


Be like everyone else


Buy lest someone cry


Yet one thing you've not detected


The most important Person you've neglected


Christmas is about Christ


Have came from heaven to earth


Giving us his life


That we here below


May experience newness of life


Not that we'd consumed by black Friday


Holiday preparations and strife


Worried when finances are tight


Maxed out on credit cards


Borrowing beyond our means


Such things do demean


The very thing for which Christ died


Perhaps we need to reevaluate


And examine our hearts inside


Lest our foot soon slide


And we be overtaken by our sins


Christ came to empower us to win


Victory comes through Christ the King


By His Spirit He makes you to sing


Christ the Lord


Is fun and never bored


The Spirit of Christ


Moves you Godward


Cleanses your heart


From being froward


Baby Jesus was crucified


Nevertheless conquering disappointment


Christ rose from the grave


His life the greatest gift He gave


His sacrifice for souls to save


Christ rose again on the 3rd day


Now than what will you say?


With this Immanuel what will you do


The King of kings and Prince of peace


Who wholeheartedly died for you?

Did you hubby make or plan out something super creative for you as a gift? Tell us about it!Would you ever consider doing a homemade Christmas present exchange with your spouse?

12 Homemade Christmas Gifts and Decor for Under $10

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Shopping for Christmas gifts on a budget can sometimes feel like a downer. Likewise, decorating a home and not knowing how to do it with little cash can make the best of people feel frustrated. I've provided some of my favorite holiday decor and homemade gift ideas. Most of these double as the other so as you are getting your own home ready you can make some extras that will prove to be creative, special presents for your loved ones. Have a blast making each of these fun crafts at a fraction of what you might pay in a store. Enjoy!

1. Berry Votive Holder- Dress up any plain glass votive holder with berries on wire at any Michael's craft store and wind around the holder. Once the circle is formed use some fine craft wire or picture hanging wire from any dollar store and tie the ends together. My favorite colors are gold, silver, burgundy wine, or red. For a fun flair use cream or baby blue. Use these in your own home or wrap them up as a set of four or six in a pretty box with a gorgeous bow for a great gift. The exact same items double as napkin holders too!

2. Festive Napkin Holders- Use plain wooden napkin holders and paint them any color such as red, gold, silver, or white and embellish them with a small bell, snowflake, beads, or simply another paint color with pattern of snowflake, polka dots, stripes etc.

 3. Funky Centerpiece- Fill an inexpensive glass vase (tall cylindrical work best) with all sizes of the same color glass ornaments balls. I like red, green, gold, silver, or blue. Use one color but multiple designs such as stripes, swirls, frosted, shiny etc. With a large enough bowl this can make a great centerpiece. Try hot and spicy red for your dinner table. You can purchase inexpensive balls at dollar stores, discount stores like Ross, Walmart ,Target or try the Salvation Army.

4. Ornament Wreath- I've seen so many gorgeous ornament wreaths and they can easily be made with marked down ornaments after Christmas for the next year and make a wonderful gift. the one above was made by none other than Martha herself. Here are the directions to make your own!

 5. Create Cool Coasters- Use a (4) 4" ceramic tiles from a hardware store of any color (white works best) and use rub-on stencils with Christmas designs, festive verbiage or even monogram letters to use on each tile. Once finished you can spray with a glaze gloss to seal it. You'll want to put some self-adhesive felt or little rubber feet on the bottom so the coasters won't scratch the table. Walmart is a great place to find the felt material.  

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6. Christmas Art Frame- Use pre-made frames that are fun and fit at least a 4" x 6" picture for holiday words such as JOY, LOVE or PEACE. Use pretty wrapping paper or fonts from your computer then print them out to slide behind the glass instead of a photo. Silver and Gold frames are my favorite for the season. Feel free to use barn board, wood, plastic, whatever you have around the house. These are cute décor gifts for friends and family also.

7. Mini Snow-covered tree- Collect a bunch of twigs long enough to pop out of a decent size vase. Use decoupage glue and white tissue paper to create a neat effect for the vase or leave as clear filled with glass ornaments or whatever you like. Spray paint the twigs white and use fishing wire to dangle tiny ornaments and vintage jewelry for fun effect. Use on a table, at an entry way, or in a bedroom. Feel free to add some basic white indoor lights for a nice evening glow.

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8. Monogrammed Towels- To stay on budget, buy some great basic kitchen towels with a simple stripe at the bottom in red, blue, green or even black. Use a lettered script stencil and some fabric paint to paint their surname initial on the towel. Feel free to make up a set of two with different colors if you can find the kitchen towels at a super discounted price. Alternatively, if you have a sewing machine that will stitch the monogram on, you could use that instead.

9. Holiday Centerpiece- One of the simplest centerpieces is a glass vase filled with water and real cranberries (not frozen, not dried) and a white floating candle. Use an interesting vase with a large opening or a great glass dish. Either way the cranberries and candle will float and look wonderful. Ensure to use a non-scented candle if this will go on your dining table. We wouldn't want the scent to interfere with the wonderful aroma of your home-cooked meal.

10. Home-Made Snow Globe- Use old jam jars to create a winter snow globe. You'll need water, the jam jar, glitter of your choice, epoxy glue, ribbon and a small figurine or a few for the inside. Use the epoxy glue and secure the figurine(s) to the lid on the inside. Then pour some glitter or plastic mini snowflakes inside the jar. Now add distilled water without bacteria and close the jar tightly. Lastly add some ribbon around the bottom of the globe (the lid) to hide it and you are done. Again, gift or your own décor...you decide.

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11. Holiday Dishware- Places such as Ikea and discount stores can provide for a set of 4 bowls and plates that you can paint up with glass paint. Be sure if you are going to eat off of them that the paint is used for that. You can use white ceramic or glass bowls and dishes. For the glass set, use glass etching cream and a stencil for a great effect. Wrap up the set and away you go.

12. Primp those Pillows-Take your existing pillows and make them holiday ready with some simple organza. Take square or rectangular pillows and wrap the sheet of organza around the back until the ties meet the front. Now make a bow. The idea here is to use colors that work. So, if you have red pillows, use some gold organza. If you have plain white pillows, use red or gold etc. If you are handy with the sewing machine you can make some simple square slipcovers for your existing ones so you can change them back when the holiday is over. Using an old knit sweater is another fun cover for them. A neat idea for slip covers is velvet. Use an iron and a stamper. Take the backside of the fabric and place the iron there. On the good side of the velvet is where you'll press the stamper into. After you are done the pattern will be revealed either as one large centered detail or several small ones all over. Use this for chair covers too!

If you enjoyed the DIY projects in this post but don't feel very crafty and you're still looking for a unique gifts for your family, you can get started by checking out these ready made great Christmas gifts for mom.


What lovely decor and homemade gifts have you created this Christmas? I'd love to hear about it!

Want more Christmas-related posts? Click the links below:

12 Dates of Christmas

Party dress inspiration

Gift Cards are the New Fruitcake?

Quick tidy up tips

Humble & Merry Christmas

To Re-Gift or not to Re-gift?

I Won a Christmas Blog Giveaway

Re-gifting Etiquette

Thanks for reading!

XO

Gift Cards Are the New Fruitcake?

If you're thinking of giving a gift card this year, you might want to rethink your idea. It turns out that they may not be the gift that keeps on giving or the best choice for that hard-to-shop-for person after all.  

Last year I discovered that not all gift cards are created equally. While many of us believe gift cards will never expire and are as good as the cash value they're denoted with, it may not be so.


I came across a great article about the negative aspects of the gift card and thought these highlights might be worth a read before selecting them for your gift recipient this Christmas.


THE UGLY SIDE OF GIFT CARDS


1. Infinity and Beyond?- Many believe that gift cards are good forever, and most stores do operate this way and honor that policy. On the other hand, some do not and have expiry dates unbeknownst to the purchaser and the recipient. This is generally not the case with a major credit card gift card such as Visa or Amex, however some smaller stores often do implement such a restriction. If you are the recipient of such a card, it is best to mark the expiry date on your calendar and use the card up as quickly as you can.


2. Fees, Fees, Fees- Did you know that many gift cards issued by credit card companies will actually start deducting from the balance of the card if it hasn't been used in a particular timeframe? Some cards may start deducting as much as $2.50 per month after the first year! Many of these cards involve a fee to obtain them to begin with so they can be quite pricey all around. This doesn't wish you or the gift recipient a very Merry Christmas.


3. Left High and Dry- With the plethora of stores that are going bankrupt, they leave gift card recipients without a place to use their card, thus it goes to waste. A friend of mine purchased a prepaid gift card for herself to a prepared dinner club where frozen, homemade meals can be purchased, only to find out they had gone under and she had barely put a dent in her card. She found this out by dropping by and seeing a sign in the window. She called and tried to get her money back but they were unable to help her out. Before buying a gift card for anyone make sure you know the financial status of the company.


4. Some Restrictions Apply- Many retailers with online stores will not allow their gift cards to be used on the web such as CVS. These restrictions can be quite frustrating in general, especially for men who typically don't frequent stores and aren't generally interested in shopping in busy stores. Another common issue is cards purchased in say the U.S and mailed to Canada. I found this out the hard way with a $200 Potterybarn gift card that some colleagues' had purchased for my bridal shower. When I went to shop online or redeem after I had moved to the U.S., the card was only good in Canada. I had to wait until I was back in my good old home town to make my purchase.


5. He's Just Not that Interested!- Sometimes our best intentions to provide a useful gift such as a gift card may not be well received. Perhaps the recipient isn't interested in the particular store that the gift card was purchased from. Worse than this are those that ldamage or ose their cards or misplace them in a shuffle of paperwork or they are stolen, etc. Most times these cannot be replaced, but there are some companies that will help you out. If you are the recipient of a card for a store you loathe, you can sell or trade yours on http://www.plasticjungle.com/ or http://www.giftcardsagain.com/


 It's been reported that a whopping $5 Billion of the money spent on giftcards in the U.S. will NEVER be used! Shocking, isn't it? This actually happens to be the exact reason why store gift cards are so heavily promoted. Many stores recognize that many will never be redeemed AND if they ever are, the recipient will usually purchase something for beyond the amount that the card is valued at, so it is a win-win for them. Another common scenario are shoppers that make purchases with their gift card and wind up with $3.42 for example as a remaining balance. Many will never make the trip back to a particualar store just to redeem that amount so it is money lost.
Here is the original article.
 
In spite of this new found data, I will gladly accept a Potterybarn (despite my previous experience), Ikea, Whole Foods or Starbuck's giftcard any day of the week. They are solid stores that always have what I love!


How about you-have you ever had one of the above situations happen while attempting to use a gift card?

A Humble AND Merry Christmas!

At Casa Davis, this Christmas will be a humble and frugal one and I'm excited about it! It forces me to be even more creative.  During the past 3 years that we've been married we've kept everything pretty low-key with the focus being on Christ and family time together instead of presents under the tree and a whole lot of hoopla. This year in particular we have decided to forgo buying Christmas presents for each other. We truly do not need any more 'stuff'. And really, don't we all just have too much stuff? Not only does it help us keep our home clutter-free but it also saves us money too.

One thing we really enjoy doing is making each other gifts and using our talents and getting creative instead of heading to the mall or surfing endlessly online. More on that in my next post where I'll share with you exactly what we made for each other last year! We DO like to fill up little stockings so our budget is basically $20 and under. It's those little things that you feel guilty buying for yourself like a $10 starbucks gift card or a pretty new lipgloss.

We do not in any way feel deprived and do not have any expectations from other family members either. In fact, we've all decided to do a very casual Christmas exchange with our parents and inlaws. There are no children in the family so it is easy peasy and we have a small, set budget for the 5 people we'll be buying for.

I love to decorate so the fun for me has been decorating the tree and the the front porch, making some homemade Christmas decor on a budget, mulling apple cider in the evenings and curling up with some DVD's from the library or listening to a festive CD. Because we live in a high tourist area, Hubby and I also love to go to the biggest, grandest hotels and check out their holiday decor, it's always so beautiful and perfect for photo opps. We usually try to dress up and snap a few pictures. Last year our Christmas card included a fun photo of us in front of some gorgeous holiday scenery and the best part is it's free, no studio sitting fee. 

Classy women know their budget and stay within it. They don't feel the need to go into debt so they can provide flashy gifts on Christmas morning or to impress anyone so they'll feel like a success. A $100 gift today could translate into thousands down the road in compounded interest if your credit card cannot be paid off in a timely manner. I've seen this happen so many times and when January comes they are the very women who are panicking and not sure how they'll pay their rent and then get even deeper into debt. It's important to remember that your family and friends will love you no matter how inexpensive their gifts are.  In their hearts I'm sure time with you will be considered far more valuable.

How about you? What have you and your families decided to do this Christmas. Do you go all out or draw names so each family member buys for just one person? There are so many great ideas among families to ease the burden of gift giving. I'd love to hear yours so leave a comment. :)

Rewards Points = FREE Gifts!

Do you have any credit cards with reward point options? If you don't believe you do, you may want to look into it anyway, you might be surprised at what you find!

So, last week I happened to log into my online banking account to check my balances as I do regularly to ensure that everything was being paid on time. I happened to see an interesting bit of information on my account page. It was a message reminding everyone to redeem their rewards points before they expired. I started wondering if I in fact had some and hadn't realized it yet and wondered how I could earn them.

I looked at the front of both my debit and credit card from my bank and they both had the word 'REWARDS' written one the front. How had I never thought about this until now?  I made a quick call and discovered I had earned just under 12,000 points in the past few months. Without knowning what could be earned with those rewards I decided to sign in and create my account to see what I could get. It turns out there were a whole lot of great items and gift cards available. Without using up all of my points I was able to score $75 dollars worth of Target giftcards that arrived this morning! I am so excited. Just weeks before my discovery I had prayed that God would show me money in unexpected places (as money has been tight with the slowing of mine and hubby's businesses) and that He did! We are loved by such an awesome and powerful God!

With Christmas in just 25 days, you would have a chance of redeeming your points and getting something you can use as a gift or giftcards that will translate into gifts for your family to help save you money this season!

Another area that gets forgotten about is gift cards. I like to keep mine together in a little pouch in my wallet so I always have them on hand to use as cash, but I know many of you might have some in your wallet, some in a dresser drawer, etc. This is another wonderful way to use resources you already have to save yourself money on gift purchases this season. Don't forget about airmiles! If you are planning to visit family in the coming weeks, be sure to look into your airmiles balance to see if you can redeem them for a free flight.

Click HERE to see how I discovered free money in my other bank account and you can too!

Let me know what you find. My hope is that this post will encourage you to find hidden money in  unexpected places! Don't forget to check your unworn coat pockets from last year. ;)