Making Christmas Personal

14795877_10209199648502570_771307121_o
Thank you so much to Kodak Moments for supporting our family and sponsoring this post. And especially for the promo code down to share with everyone!

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think it used to be a lot easier to buy Christmas presents for people. And I don’t mean five decades ago: I mean more like five years.

An hour at the local shopping centre and you’d have CDs, books, DVDs or something. Nowadays all these things are apps or files people can download for free or a few coins onto their smartphones. There’s gift cards, of course, but nothing says ‘I gave this almost no thought at all’ like they do.

So what’s left which won’t cut too heavily into your Christmas holiday budget?

There’s the bottle-oh, of course, but the grandkids probably shouldn’t see what Grandma’s like after she’s downed a couple of cans of rum.

No, I’m gonna go traditional here – the ideal Christmas gift is to give people is what they can never get enough of: their own family.

With that in mind, I sent away through Kodak Moments for two coffee mugs with a photo of our beautiful family plastered on the side of them. One, I’ll present to The Dragonlady herself (Tracey’s Mum) and the other will be my contribution to my family’s Secret Santa present swapsies, which is my favourite form of gift giving on Christmas day.

Each adult attending Christmas buys one present to a set budget of $20 or $30, wraps it and puts it on a table in the middle of the group, then numbers are pulled out of a hat for the order you pick a present. Whoever gets number one has a huge advantage because they also go last after all the presents are unwrapped and have the option of swapping one last time. I never ever get number one, so I’ve had to work on other strategies.

When it’s your go you have the choice of either picking a wrapped present from the middle or taking an unwrapped gift off someone who went before you if you think they’re holding something that’s a bit of alright.

This is where my strategy kicks in. I suspect the mug I ordered will be considered hot property with one lady in particular: my darling mother. Every year I wrap a photo frame with a family picture in it and every year she fights for it. Not hard or anything, because no one else wants it, but she thinks she’s winning if she ends up with it.

Conniving? That’s only the half of it. Tracey and I work as a pack. She usually buys a box of chocolates, which is like catnip to the women and therefore the men who love them. This then gives us two chances to pick the eyes out of everything else. Usually a bottle of plonk one of the teatottlers has picked up as an unwanted birthday gift during the year.

You’re probably thinking this is sounding a little mercenary, but it is Christmas after all.

Tracey also did a photo book up for Miss4’s Santa Sack, but I’ve decided to give it early so I can video it for this post (it’s at the bottom of this post) and you can check out how great it is. As you see, Miss4 is the star of the book because it’s made up of lovely shots of her doing things. She got such a thrill out of reading it to herself.

em-book-2

em-book-1

The beauty of having the Kodak Moments app for this is most of us take our photos on our phones these days, so the shots we need are right there ready to be used. There’s other options besides various sorts of cups and photo books too – canvases and prints and photo blocks. You know, the usual stuff.

But for me, it’s all about the mugs because it’ll remind whoever ends up with them of our beautiful family every single time they have a cuppa.

Well, sorta.

kodak-moments-big-family-little-income-7
Now they’ll here I’m thinking I should have ordered one for me as well. They’re brilliant!
thumbnail
A beautiful photo to remind Nanny and Grandma of our beautiful family every time they have a cuppa. 

Unfortunately the photo I had in mind didn’t quite fit so I had to crop it a bit. Not a problem. Improves it even. I think Tracey’s Mum, especially, is gonna love it.

YOUR PROMO CODE

Now I can’t order everyone a mug like this – I sense your collective sigh of disappointment – but I can give you a promo code so you can get $10 off your home delivery order when you spend $20 or more, including freight: FAMILY10  This code expires 31st December, although remember if you want it delivered by Christmas you’ll have to order on or before 11th December. To give you an idea, the mugs I ordered were $17 each and Tracey’s photo book was $18.15, including postage. A bargain, I say.

Download the app on Google Play Store and Apple Store.

She’s a speed reader. 

em-book-12

em-book-20

em-book-7

em-book-19

em-book-13

kodak-moments-big-family-little-income-6

kodak-moments-big-family-little-income-5

kodak-moments-big-family-little-income-4

kodak-moments-big-family-little-income-3

kodak-moments-big-family-little-income-1
She LOVES it!

Download the app on Google Play Store and Apple Store.

Raising a family on little more than laughs

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.