Many of you know that my husband is in his last year of residency (no, we aren't done. We still have a year of fellowship after resodency). We have been married for 10 years. During that time, we both graduated from college in Utah (GO UTES), he went to medical school in Omaha, internship in Spokane, BACK to Omaha for Residency, and soon we will be off to Scottsdale for fellowship. That is an awful lot of cross country moves in 10 years, but we are happy to go on new adventures. AND one of my favorite things about moving is discovering all the new things unique to the places we live. And as we have actually lived 7 of our 10 years married here in Omaha so far, we have had lots of time to discover great hidden gems around our city.As with all cities, the holiday season brings lots of fun activities. and I am a SUCKER for a free family event! (I am also a fan of inexpensive ones!!) Visit Omaha has a great list of activities you can do over the holiday season and in fact has a site it launches just for the Holidays. This site covers events for families, kids, adults, well...for everyone! Free as well as costly and all kinds of options for fun! I was sent a few of the free and inexpensive upcoming activities to share with you (These are just ones coming up this week--near Thanksgiving. There are more I will share in an upcoming post!):

Holiday Lights Festival – The festival lights up Omaha’s downtown and has been an Omaha tradition for over 10 years. The Festival kicks off with a special lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving evening, November 24th at 6 pm. For more information on the Holiday Lights Festival, visit www.holidaylightsfestival.org.

***Cost Information: This event is free.

After the Thanksgiving lighting ceremony, you can go to the Nebraska Wind Symphony Concert at the Holland Center. This free concert – part of the Holiday Lights Festival - features more than 85 local musicians. The concert takes place on November 24th at 7 pm. To learn more, visit www.nebraskawindsymphony.com .

***Cost Information: This event is free.

***Cost Information: This event is free with membership and free to non-members on Sundays. For non-members, admission is $6 for adults, $3 for children between the ages of 3-12, and free to children under 3.

The Tree Lighting Ceremony kicks off Christmas at Union Station (at the Durham Museum). This event takes place on November 25th from 4-7 pm. A highlight of this year’s celebration will be a performance by jazz singer Camille Metoyer Moten, who will perform along with a Christmas carol sing along, cookie decorating, holiday crafts for kids and visits with Santa Claus. To learn more, visit: http://durhammuseum.org/about/whats-new/details.aspx?ID=230 .

***Cost Information: This event is free with museum membership. For non-members, admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and $5 for children between the ages of 3 and 12. Children under 3 are free.

Please go check out the Visit Omaha holiday site to see the other fun upcoming events. Oh, and go check out The Visit Omaha Facebook page where you can enter a contest called the “Happier Holiday’s Giftaway.” The winner gets a two night “stay and play” at Midtown Crossing!!! That is awesome!! If I don't win it, one of you should!

I know I have told you often how much I love Swagbucks, and this Holiday season there is even more to love!! If you have not signed up yet, you will really want to now!! It is the perfect time to do so because if you sign up through my referral link between now and November 23, and use the Registration code SBPAYSFORME, you will start your account with 110 Swagbucks (usually you start with 30)!!! WOW-it is only 450 Swagbucks so get a $5 Amazon Gift card! You are about a fourth of the way there already just by signing up!

That is not the only exciting thing they have going on right now though! They are also in the midst of their "Swagbucks Pays for your Holidays" promotion! Through this promotion one person will have the opportunity to have Swagbucks pay for your holidays! Until Monday, November 28th you’ll have opportunities every day to earn entries for their grand prize drawing – a grand prize of $2500 in Amazon Gift Cards!! NICE! All you have to do is fill out a qualifying wish list and you have your first entry! (All the details can be found on this Swagbucks Blog post)

SWEET!
For one week only, Mixbook is goving away 15 FREE cards to kick off the holiday season. You can personalize them with your best photos and writing.

To get the cards, you just need to enter coupon code FREECARDS4U to redeem your discount by Wednesday, November 16, 2011. Click here to get started!

Here is the fine print: This offer is only valid with coupon code FREECARDS4U and applies only to classic coated, 5x7 flat and 7x5 flat cards. This offer cannot be combined with other coupons, vouchers, Groupons, or applied after an order has been placed. Offer expires 11/16/2011 (11:59 pm PST).

I will be ordering mine today!!

I just wanted to make sure you are all wearing the green today-and if not, I am sending pinches across the Internet! :) Hope you have a happy fun (and SAFE) holiday!

For our family, we will be eating a green dinner, I am sure. It seems that no matter what I cook on St Patrick's Day, those darn leprechauns get into it and turn it green. Tonight we have a jello salad, stir fry with rice, cute kid sodas, and cupcakes. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures of whatever the leprechauns do to it all...

My kids LOVE Chuck E Cheese, and I LOVE the deals and freebies they send me! Right now you can print out Valentines Cards for your kids to give to their friends (or save for themselves) that are not only cute cards, but each one entitles the child to 5 free tokens! Boo-yeah! We did these a couple years ago for my daughter's class and she was one popular girl! (We just printed them on card stock and they were super cute and well loved!)

Click here to print yours!!

First can I just say that I cannot believe it is Groundhog day already?! All this snow on the ground makes me feel like it is barely into winter, but as you probably all know, Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog predicts whether Spring will come early or we will have 6 more weeks on winter. Great news, Punxsutawney Phil has tweeted the following this morning:

No shadow! My prediction: an early spring! Forget science. Ignore common sense. This groundhog would never lie.

Well, looking outside I have a hard time believing him, but I am feeling optimistic today so I am going with it! YEAH for an early Spring!!

My family and I are celebrating Easter today and I will likely be away from the computer all day celebrating! I want to thank you all for being my readers and for bearing with me this week as I am so in and out! I appreciate your continued support and understanding! I hope you are all able to enjoy some family time this weekend as well!