The BIG Christmas Wish List

It is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas already!

The Little Billies here at HQ already have a list going ready for Santa. To be honest, Santa has found it hard to keep up with the ever changing list, plus that list is getting awfully BIG! Poor Santa, hope he gets a Christmas Bonus :)

In order to help Santa keep track of the list, and also to keep a limit to the length of the list, we have come up with a magnetic, personalised Christmas Wish List.

The Christmas Wish Lists are available in 4 different designs.

• Fairy
• Elf
• Reindeer
• Angel

The wish lists are full A5 sized magnets and finished in a dry-erase vinyl. Your Little Billies will be able to keep up dating their Wish List for Santa right up to Christmas Eve.... yikes, better give an earlier cut off time for poor old Santa!

Lunch Punch

The Little Billies and I have always had a bit of fun making funny shaped sandwiches. We use to use cookie cutters to make dog, doll, letters, balls etc etc etc....

Then one day I stumbled upon Lunch Punch at Monkey Caboose and immediately ordered some!

I LOVE LOVE these lunch punches! They are the perfect size for sandwiches, which minimises the waste (from our previous method). Now the only part of the bread that is going in the bin is the crust, which they didn't eat anyway (much to my frustration!). The puzzle shaped ones are definitely my favourite though, for a bit of game fun before lunch (should I be encouraging the kids to play with their food?).

We have also had a bit of fun with eggs in toast. Are you familiar with the concept? Cut a circle out of the centre of a piece of toast, pop it in the fry pan, cook one side, flip and then pop an egg in the cut out. There you have it, egg in toast! Billy Girl had a dog egg in toast on the weekend and it was such a hit she asked for a second one!

If you are looking to add a bit of fun to the ordinary sandwich, give it a go, your Little Billlies will love it!!

Do you have any other great gadgets for spicing up lunches?

Meaningful chats with the kids

The average parent spends 38.5 minutes per week in

meaningful conversation with their children.

(A.C. Nielsen Co.)

I have been really challenged by this. Now, I don't know whether this is actually true at Little Billies HQ. I know my kids talk AT me for most of the time that they are awake.... however whether it is meaningful.... well???

Each night before the kids get tucked into bed, we do a devotional time, prayers and a brief chat, however I found as the kids got too tired at the end of the day that the brief chat time would get skipped. That chat time use to give me some great insights into my Little Billies lives. They loved this chat time and often used it as a stall tactic to avoid saying goodnight!

This week, after reading this fact about meaningful conversation I decided to make this a priority.

At dinner time we now ask everyone at the table three questions.....

1. What was your favourite part of the day?
2. Did you have any sad moments today?
3. Did you get a chance to do something kind for someone else today?

The conversations we have had from these three questions has been amazing and given us some really great insights into our kids lives.

Ok, I agree the conversations are contrived at the moment, but my hope is that this becomes the norm. That when you come to dinner at our house, it is just part of the family culture. I love that all of us are sharing! They even remember to ask mum and dad for their answers!!

I love the care and concern they are showing for each other. They are celebrating triumphs together and being empathetic over the not so good stuff.

Billy Boy was very excited to share today, that his favourite part of the day was 'making friends with Thomas', this was a boy that he had previously been tormented by. The most beautiful part of this is that he initiated the friendship with Thomas, and he was so excited to have played with him all day. Billy Boy now believes he can turn anyone into a friend, and I hope it remains true for a long time for him and his precious heart.

So in the future, my hope is that this small practice over a family meal will foster a close family that will ensure that no barriers to communication are put up.

Do you actively try to engage in meaningful conversations with your kids or is this already happening for you? Would love to know how you get the conversations rolling!!