Do You Elf?

Elf On The Shelf that is...a few years ago I received Elf On The Shelf for my children. The premise is this elf arrives at your house on Thanksgiving to watch everyone and report back to Santa about good and bad behavior. The elf moves from place to place around the house while everyone is sleeping. The set comes with a book that tells the story and they can name their elf. Our elf is named Buddy, here he is hiding in the flowers

My kids decided last year that Mom was the one that was moving Buddy around from place to place, however I will not admit this and Buddy continues to prance about our house while we sleep. You can purchase the set here. It is great for small children, we have had many years of fun and even though mine are 9 and 11 I still have a great time torturing them by believing in our "Buddy".

Blinking Lights

Why do kids love blinking lights? My two are so excited about Christmas they want all the decorations up RIGHT NOW! So we made a "deal" we would decorate outside this weekend and inside next weekend.

So, we put up all sorts of lights on the house, in the bushes, in the trees...hundreds of lights. They have these little controls on them so you can make them blink, chase, fade in and out....you know...the used car lot look.....so I set them all to stay on all the time with no funny stuff.

So I have been wracking my tiny brain as to why every time I go outside they are all doing something different. One string is blinking, one is chasing, one is playing a freakin song.....I fix it and come back later and they are at it again. So, I say to myself, "self, someone is messing with me." So I ask those two innocent Christmas angels:

"Hey guys, why are the lights blinking?"

Boy child: "What lights, Mom?"
Girl child: "Maybe the power is flickering" (insert snicker)

So before we go any further with this, just read those replies again...so typical..the boy denying any knowledge whatsoever that there are even lights present, let alone that he would have an clue as to why they might be blinking. The girl coming up with what might normally be a plausible explanation if it were not so RIDICULOUS!!!!!

So in conclusion, I went out and turned out the lights, giving up the blinking battle for today....I just walked by the window...the lights are back on, and yes, they are blinking. I will never win.

Greetings from Santa

Volusia County Parks & Recreation continues their Holiday tradition this year and will send personalized postcards from Santa to children 10 and under. You can add your child to the mailing list by calling 386-736-5952 from 9am-4pm Mon- Fri or send them a fax at 386-943-7012, you an also email them at elves@volusia.org

Please incude the child's name, address and zip code. Requests will be accepted from November 3rd thru December 5th, so you have a week or so to get it in!

Non-Stop Christmas

Last Christmas I was lucky enough to find KSBJ, this is 89.3 out of Houston, Texas. From Thanksgiving to Christmas they do nonstop Christmas music. You can get it here at KSBJ. You can play it on your PC at work or home. I am sure that we have something similar around here and I will try and find it and add to the site, but in the meantime, check out KSBJ. They are awesome.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Take a minute and think about what you are thankful for. We only do this once a year (although we should do it every day). So make your list....here is mine..

1. My Children
2. My Mom & Dad
3. Rick & Rob - the brothers
4. My dear friends..Leslie, Terri, Amanda, Annie, Kaley, Patty, Betty, Tammy, Rainie, Scott, Karen.
5. Marco, Big Mama, Sadie, Jack and Tank
6. We live in a country that we are free....
7. New Smyrna is a great place to live....

Enjoy your holiday and be safe!

How Do You Like Our New Look?

Many thanks to for designing our new look!

She has some beautiful and creative Christmas & Holiday designs to pick from and gives great personalized service! Let me know what you think!

Support Our Troops

As we hit the Holiday Season, the focus has been on the economy, the job market, the election....we need to remember our troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and our military around the world. Some ways you can make a difference...


Donate an old cell phone. It is free and gives a soldier a chance to call home.



Operation Homefront helps young military families cope with young children, separation, financial issues and all sorts of other issues.



I am a huge reader, my kids are even into this one. Books for soldiers, this is a small thing we can do to make life easier for those who serve.








If you ever wonder where your money, products or time go...check out Charity Navigator. This is a great way to see where your money goes.

Run To The Sun

This Saturday, 11/29 is the Run to the Sun, it is the 4-mile walk/run held each year in Memory of Jefferson H. Ridgdill. The event begins at 8am on Saturday, November 29th at Riverside Park in New Smyrna Beach. Entry is $20 or $25 on the day of the race.

The past two years they have raised over $15,000 for local charities. This years beneficiary is Camp Boggy Creek, a year round camp for seriously ill children.



A Bahamas cruise and hotel for 2 will be awarded to 1st male and female finishers. For more info and to sign up today, visit Run to the Sun's website or call Angi at 904-742-5299.

Sunday Stumble

The Daily Puppy - way too cute.

Just Maps - this site is great, not only has flags and maps of every country you can think of but it also provides a snapshot of the country's facts.

Mail Order Husbands - ok this is hysterical, they can't be serious.

Newseum - Check out the front page on 510 newspapers.

Flight Delay Information - traveling this week, get the delays right from the FAA

Check out Books for Soldiers:






Enjoy the short Holiday Week!

Holiday Charity Ball

Don't forget the Charity Ball tonight at Brannon Center. From 7pm-midnight. Proceeds to benefit Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, and CAPS.

There will be a silent auction, cheer basket raffle, gourmet food by area restaurants, free valet parking, dancing, and an open bar. The event is $50.00 per person. Tickets available at the Brannon Center, 105 Riverside Drive (386) 424-2186.

Who Has The Best Pizza?

Who has the best pizza? In my ongoing effort to ONLY support locally owned business I am trying to find the best pizza. So in that effort I called Mikey's Pizza, beachside tonight. The very nice lady who answered asked if it was pickup or delivery, so I asked her if they took credit cards over the phone, she said no, we are cash only. So I ordered a large pepperoni pizza, it was 11.20 cents. She told me to pick it up in 20 minutes. I usually hop online, order from Pizza Hut or Papa Johns, pay with a debit card and they bring it to my door. Tonight I had no cash on hand so I hopped in the car, hit the ATM and picked up our pizza. It was almost ready when I got there so I had a nice chat with the same lady who answered the phone, she was also making the pizza, actually hand tossing it and loading it up with fresh vegetables and cheese. It seemed like a lot of effort to actually go pick up a pizza, (if I had cash they would have delivered)but let me tell you it was worth it. The pizza was fresh, hot and delicious.

Mikey's is located at 808 3rd Ave, New Smyrna Beach, call them at (386) 423-6854. They are open Sun-Thu 3pm-9pm and Fri & Sat 11am-10pm.

Who has your favorite pizza?

Gifts of Love

Most of us have had economic issues at one time or another. I myself have had a rough two years. I and my family have made alot of sacrifices for the good of my children. I can tell you about my brother meeting me at a gas station with his credit card to fill my gas tank so my son can get to baseball practice, or showing up at my house with bags of groceries and dog food, or my other brother in another state sending me cash to pay bills....We won't even talk about the money my parents have spent in order to keep my children safe and happy. Things are now looking up for us, but that is not the case for many other people in our community. There are too many people right here in New Smyrna and Edgewater that are not lucky enough to have a good support system and are one step away from not being able to feed their family.

That is where Gifts of Love comes in, they are a non-profit organization headquartered in Edgewater, primarily known as a Food Pantry, they also donate school supplies and shoes to local children. They are located at 820 W. Park Ave., directly east of the Elks Lodge. The organization receives no federal, state or local funding and is dependent on the generosity of private enterprise, churches and individuals for all the food and supplies they distribute.

Donations 0f food, personal items, paper products etc. can be taken to the office, 820 W. Park Ave., Tues. and Thurs., 9:30 am-2:30 pm. They are also open during those hours for those that need help to get it. No questions asked.

So...while you are shopping this week, fill an extra bag with paper products or canned goods and drop it off, they will appreciate it and you will be helping someone right here in your community.

Gifts of Love can be contacted at (386) 423-5257.

Who Is Cooking?

If you don't feel like cooking Thanksgiving Dinner you have a lot of options this year.

Chases on the Beach will serve a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner from 12-4pm.

Pub 44 is serving Thanksgiving Dinner from 11am-9pm

Norwood's is open from 11:30am - 10pm

Stella's Skyline Cafe is open 11am-6pm on Thansgiving, with Turkey and all the trimmings.

Manny's Beachside will be open for breakfast on Thanksgiving from 630am-12noon. I checked with the Beacon on Flagler and they are closed Thanksgiving so Manny's it is for Breakfast.

If you want to eat in but don't want to cook, Publix will fix you a great meal in a box at a reasonable price. Lil' Neal's BBQ located on Canal Street will smoke you a turkey and provide 2 side orders. Call them at 428-2864 to order. If you have not had their BBQ you should check it out.

Whether you are eating out or staying in have a safe and happy holiday!

MomAgenda

Matt, over at Unscrambled Eggs asked for some more information and pictures on these great planners. Yes, they are a great Christmas Gift. I have the All-In-One in Ocean Blue. Here is is:



















Here is an example of one of the pre-printed pages for phone and contact information. The best part is if you want you can pull these off the momAgenda website in .pdf. Type in your information, print and put in the page protector. Of course if you can just write on the ones that come with it too. I keep not only school and sports schedules in these pages but take out menus, coupons, grocery lists, phone numbers, birthdays, insurance information. All sorts of "stuff" I use all the time. It has helped me tame the paper clutter so easily.





Here is the calendar, big squares with room for each adult and kids schedules. They also have some fun and useful Holiday Printables on their website. If you want to see more of their great products click momAgenda or on the banner at the top of the post.

What's Going On?

New Smyrna Beach is a hotbed of activity from now thru the Holidays. Some great events this weekend:

This weekend The New Smyrna Beach Garden Club will be holding their annual Holiday Festival of Trees, hours are November 21 from 9:00 - 3:00 and Saturday November 22 from 9:00am to 1:00pm. Admission is free and refreshments will be served.

Saturday, November 22, the 11th Annual Holiday Charity Ball is 7pm to midnight at the Brannon Center. Proceeds to benefit Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, and CAPS. There will be a silent auction, cheer basket raffle, gourmet food by area restaurants, free valet parking, dancing, and an open bar. The event is $50.00 per person. Formal or semi-formal attire. Tickets available at the Brannon Center, 105 Riverside Drive (386) 424-2186.

Holiday Art Walk 11/22 - Art Walk on Flagler Avenue, will be celebrating"Christmas Village" Nov. 22 to get everyone into a festive holiday mood (Santa should be there). Special activities are planned, the popular event features painting, jewelry, ceramics, glass blowing,sculpture, fabric arts and more; free children's activities at Artwood Forest, entertainment, refreshments at several galleries from 3-5 p.m. Check out the Gallery Group for more information.

Saturday, November 11/22 - there will be a Child Safety & Bully Buster Course and Workshop This FREE event is taking place at 323 North Orange Street from 11am-12:30pm. This is sponsored by American Martial Arts, call them at 386-428-1316 for more information.

Enjoy!

Flagler Ave Coffee House

I visited the Flagler Avenue Coffee House twice in the last week. One day I just wandered in and got a cup of chocolate almond coffee, it was one of the days special flavors. It was excellent!

Then today I dropped in with a friend and we split a sandwich. The food was good and the coffee was great.

They are on winter hours right now from 6am-2pm and I understand if you are a minute past 2pm you are out of luck. Nice atmosphere and friendly staff make it worth a stop.

My New Favorite Thing

In my ongoing effort to get organized I thought I would share my new favorite tool. I received the All In One Folio from momAgenda. This thing is great, it has a calendar with big squares to right on, page protectors for school calendars, sports schedules, great preprinted phone lists, home information. It has it all. MomAgenda has all sorts of great planner products that combine great colors and style with real functionality. I have everything together in one place, no more searching for random post-it-notes and scraps of paper. Check out momAgenda for all your life-planning needs.

Sunday Stumble

My goal is to be organized..... (I can hear my mother laughing as she reads this.) So in that effort we focus on Organization this week:

Orgjunkie - my favorite.....

Virtually Organized - a close second.....

1-2-3 Get Organized - this woman makes sense, check her out

Organizing Bags - love these.

The Lazy Organizer - this is me....really I want to be her.

Enjoy and share your favorite site for organization!

Too Old For Barbie?

Today my 9 year old daughter brought me a bag full of Barbie's. Something like 20 Barbie's. Most were in good shape, hair combed, dressed, accessorized nicely. There was one headless Barbie, and one torso Barbie who had unfortunately lost her arms and legs, but most were quite lovely.

Anyway, she informed me that I could give them away on Freecycle. I was shocked and just stared at her. She said, "Mommy, don't you think it is weird that I am 9 and still like to play with Barbie's."

WHAT?????? Are you kidding me????

So I told her I did not think it was weird that she should play with them as long as it was fun. She informed me that it was fun but she was "too old."

So, I let it go and told her to go find all the clothes and shoes and stuff to give away too. She went away and came back a few minutes later and asked me if I had listed them yet. I told her no, she said, can I think about it?

OF COURSE YOU CAN!!! I told her don't be in a hurry, you are never to old to play, come back when you are ready and we will list them.

Last I looked she was serving dinner to 18 perfectly dressed Barbies, one headless Barbie and one torso Barbie.

Hopefully the crisis has passed and my baby is not going to grow out of Barbie today!

Back....

We are back! After a couple of days of being frustrated by our new hosting service it appears we are back up, look for more changes to our format and looks next week.

We walked across the street last night and watched a beautiful shuttle launch. The NASA video is below. It is very interesting to listen to them talking back and forth.

Veterans Day Information

Sunday Stumble

This week we have interesting blogs and sites with a Thanksgiving Theme. Enjoy!

Tip Junkie - she has a day by day planner. I usually fail to plan but it is fun to read.

Thanksgiving for All - this one is from last year but the information is great!

Thanksgiving Recipes - they are all here.

The History Of Thanksgiving - the name says it all.

Fun Stuff For Thanksgiving all sorts of things here, crafts, kids stuff, games, recipes.

Hope Reins at Marcody Ranch

There is a great therapeutic riding program at Marcody Ranch in Samsula. Therapeutic riding uses horse-related activities such as grooming and riding to positively impact the physical, cognitive and emotional well being of people with disabilities. Here is a great article on the program from the News Journal.

My family boards two horses with Marcody Ranch and my daughter takes lessons there. She has many great programs at the ranch, summer camps, day camps when school is out and fun horse shows. She will even put on a pony birthday party for your child.

Drop by and check it out. They are located at 3804 Pioneer Trail.

Upcoming Local Youth Sports.

Going forward the local youth sports organizations will not be allowed to send home fliers with the children of Volusia County Schools, I was speaking to Doris Mills over at the Police Athletic League yesterday and she told me the school will be implementing a web page that will feature all the local fliers. The reason I was speaking to Doris was because I missed the deadline for the PAL basketball league (never saw a flier). She graciously put him on a waitlist.

So.....here are a few upcoming deadlines for sports that are coming up:

The NSB Parks & Rec Basketball Training League for 5,6 & 7 year olds deadline is December 12th. Here is the information and registration form.

Parks & Rec also offers Flag Football, my son played this last year and had a blast. Registration Deadline for that one is Wed, November 26th. Here is the information and registration form.

Correction: The Edgewater YMCA also has basketball programs, their registration is until November 26th. Go to the YMCA on Turgot Ave in Edgewater to register, it is $45.00 for non YMCA members and $15.00 for Members. Their phone number is 386-409-9622.

Once that sports page is added to the schools site we will link to it for you.

Flamingo Follies

The Holiday Season has begun, whether we like it or not, right after Halloween everyone starts thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas. This weekend is the REAL start of the Holidays in New Smyrna Beach.

The annual Holiday Art show is this Saturday & Sunday from 9am-5pm. Sponsored by the Merchants of Flagler Ave and The Gallery Group this event is great fun! There is food, entertainment, great arts and crafts.

Last year I decided to buy all Christmas gifts locally in New Smyrna Beach. I urge you to do the same this year. There is a wealth of great merchants here in our community that need our business.

Be creative and buy local this holiday season!

.....and yes those pathetic flamingos are in my backyard, I guess I need to do some weeding!

Finally

The never-ending campaign is over.

We have a new president.

Locally we have a new member of Congress, Suzanne Kosmos. This is a good thing. Tom Feeney was soundly trounced by Kosmos, makes you smile.

John McCain's speech was good, probably the best one he has given.

Now let's see what they do.

It is kind of funny to watch Joe Lieberman trying to get back in with his party, he is kind of like one of those Jr. High kids who has a friend of the month. Whoever can help him the most he likes today.

I thought the President elect's speech was very good, I watched it on MSNBC, I could have done without Jesse Jackson crying in the crowd, he annoys the heck out of me.

In any event, everyone should move forward and support our new leadership.

Vote

Enter your zip code to the left and check your polling place. All you need is your precinct number off your Voter Registration Card and your Zip Code.

Here is some interesting reading from Andrew Sullivan, who writes for the Atlantic, he is a Conservative.

The Daily Dish

For New Smyrna Beach, we urge you to support Suzanne Kosmos

Whoever you support be sure and vote your conscience and get out and vote!

Sunday Stumble

Here are some interesting sites for this week:

Electoral Vote - this one compiles all the poll data to show what is what with this never ending presidential campaign.

Fact Check - Still trying to decide who to vote for? Check your facts here!

Enough politics, on to the fun stuff!

Hot Crash Potatoes - great recipes on this site

Online Converter - I love this.

Gizmos - all sorts of freeware, we love free stuff!

Country Reports - this is great for students.

Photos that Changed the World - some of these are disturbing, but they are history.

Price Grabber - the name says it all!

Enjoy and have a great Monday.