77 days til Reindl Christmas - Annual Newsletter

This isn't something that many people do, mainly because of the rise of social media and the decline of actually being social. I'm guilty of it too! I can update my Facebook status three times a day (with pictures) of what I'm doing yet I'd be lucky to call grandma twice a year. So this year I plan to start an annual Reindl newsletter - to tell all my family, especially those interstate, about our lives over the previous year.

I first read up on this actually being a thing in 2014 from a blog called "Honeysuckle". I planned to do one that year but was pregnant that Christmas, lazy the next, pregnant the Christmas after that, and well- I'm trying not to be lazy this Christmas. Honeysuckle's newsletter looks amazing and it's such a fun way to include out of town family in yours and your families lives. 

My first attempt at a "year in review" started with Becky Higgins 'Project life' app. To be honest I loved it, the app is $4.49 from the App Store but I've had it downloaded for quite some time. I added the Christmas selection to my card designs I'm able to use ($1.49) and that has already and will continue to come in use on my social media platforms and on my blog with this current Christmas series. It's seriously been my favourite collage app for the past 18 months!

When compiling my piece, I added one family pic, one of each of the three kids and one of the happy couple. I added a few sweet words and then a quick sentence or two about what we've each been up to individually. This is very similar to what most of the examples that I've seen on Pinterest include. Only problem is; I want to brag a bit more. 

Our family has had an excellent year. Individually we've each had quite a bit going on, not to mention our big trip to Bali. So I saved the original design, scrapped it and then started over. This time I started out with the 'Big W photos' app. I normally order photo books automatically through the photos I've uploaded to Instagram - once I've uploaded 60, I get a prompt to edit the book before it is automatically sent to print then shipped to me. Get a free photo book by following my link here. http://invite.chatbooks.com/danniellebull4pn

I made a 22 page photo book via Big W with the photo books being on special for $6.00 instead of the usual $10.00 and opted to pick up in store rather than paying for postage. I added in 25 of my favourite photos of the kids, the Reindl man and me from over the past year and ordered enough copies for my 'long distance' family members. 

Next step was to quiz the kids! Often kids, especially at Lexi's age (9), feel very grown up and get very frustrated when they are treated like the children that they are. A small way to combat this is to consciously make a point of including them in organising family activities. What better way than to put real emphasis on asking how their year has been so you can tell all the family about how grown up they are. For obvious reasons I coaxed the three year old and didn't even bother to ask the one year old. 

Perhaps even interrogate your partner about their favourite part of the year... it may not be the promotion he got, as you first thought, but rather his AFL team winning the grand final this year. You really want this letter to be not only about your whole family, but also FROM you all too - after all, unity is what family is all about. 

Writing the letter should now be easy. You have all the components you need - just let it all flow onto paper, or the screen, and edit until you are happy. You can then put it onto a pretty bordered paper or simply jazz it up with some stickers, pretty pens and glitter. Make it to suit your family! I'm so happy with how ours turned out! I'll put mine in an envelope with the photo books once they're printed, add a Christmas card (after I've written all those out) and hopefully have them all mailed off at/before the beginning of December!

Christmas is right around the corner... even in September 🎄😉

Christmas has started in our house. I went to target the other day and they had started to put their seasonal stock out. Well long story short, I had to buy something so I plotted a way to get the kids thinking about Christmas. I like to make Christmas go for as long as humanly possible haha. As they say, 🎵 "It's the most wonderful time of the year" 🎵. Anyway I made my purchase and managed to leave the shop with one Christmas item and a pack of minions tic tacs (Ivy is crazy about minions, pepper pig and spongebob, oh and nemo/dory). The next day after a family trip to Bunnings everyone fell asleep in the car so I left the engine running and ducked inside to stage my great idea.

'You beta watch out, you beta not cry, you beta not powt, I'm telling you why. 90 days

Til Santa comes. Love jingle and candy xoxo'

 Candy has been our scout elf for the past two years but Lexi had no idea who jingle was."maybe it's candys cousin that belongs to one of our cousins" she suggested. Close Lexi, but no cigar... 

Also in the last week during out library visit I got Ivy two Christmas board books and the wiggles Christmas cd. In the space of three days Ivy has learned 'jingle bells'. Plus Lexi is having a ball reading the lyrics that come on the inside sleeve in a pamphlet. It really is 🎵 "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" 🎵
 

Happy New Year

So with Christmas all but packed away the next “event” in the Reindl house was to ring in the New Year. This included resolutions, party celebrations and preparing for the year ahead. One of my big things for 2016 is that I want to get back on top of is my dear blog. With a baby due in just two months, a very demanding and temperamental toddler that will be turning two in April, my big girl to start 2^nd grade and the Reindl man (hopefully) to return to work in Feb after over two months off mending broken bones, this year is going to be a big one and I’m sure to be pushed to my limits.

My new year’s resolution isn’t “A” resolution but many relating to each aspect of my life so here’s my list;

The 2016 reading challenge I've chosen to do i found on the pop sugar website;

Party Celebrations this year have taken a back seat in comparison to previous years due to a decrease in income over the holiday period as well as an increase in parental ‘cant-be-bothered-ness’. We are celebrating once the New Year is upon us as opposed to doing a big new years eve. Our plans for the New Year include doing some goal setting and reflection with my big Lexx, a midnight kiss with my one and only Reindl man and a family bbq and a dip in the pool at Reindl Nanna’s house on New Year’s Day.

Preparation for the year ahead involves packing away Christmas, sending my big Lexx for a week with my family in Kojonup, getting ready for back to school and then awaiting the arrival of the newest Reindl. I think packing away Christmas will be the cause of a lot of man hours, as I coil and box the 30 odd sets of lights and all the decorations that go with them. The arrival of baby Reindl will consume the next largest portion of my time as I move Ivy into her own room and retrieve all of the baby items from storage, but the one item on my 2016 “To Do” list that I’m looking forward to most is back to school. This is not only because I love the fun that the learning and organisation of a new school year brings but also that my house may be left a little more intact than it is currently with Lexx home from school as well as the Reindl man being off from work.

So tell me what does a new year bring for your household?

Christmas Post - Countdown to Christmas

So now that Halloween is over I can finally look forward to my favourite time of the year... Christmas!!! To celebrate our own family count down and begin our festive season we've made a giant paper chain link.

Last year I found a pack similar to the one pictured at red dot or reject shop or one of those low cost retail stores and we decorated the space around the Christmas tree with long chains but still had heaps of paper strips left over so I put them in the basket with all the paper scraps. Well I pulled them out today. Lexi wrote numbers on them (1-50) while I just stapled them together in sequential order.

Once they were all linked together i just grabbed a push pin from the study and pinned the number '1' link to the ceiling where we normally put the Christmas tree. Each morning at breakfast I allow Lexi to go and rip off the last link of the chain and tell me how many sleeps there are left til Christmas.











Its one of those small, inexpensive ways to help bring the magic of Christmas. As a rule in our house the tree doesn't go up til December 1st, otherwise it would possibly be set up in July ha ha. So to introduce Christmas to our household and to give me a little more than 24 days to be 'Christmassy' I like to do little things to introduce the festive season a little earlier than most homes.

How is your family getting ready for the coming festive season?