10 Things I Learned Over the Holidays
by Jenners • 12/30/2008 • Blog Design, Blogging Tips, Lessons Learned • 20 Comments
1. I am completely lame. My favorite Christmas gift was a Bissell Steam Mop
2. Ice skating is painful. We took the Little One ice skating for the first (and probably last) time over the holidays. I hadn’t been ice skating in years — and now I remember why. My ankles were killing me about 5 minutes in, and I had to stop and massage my feet back to life about every 10 minutes. I thought the Little One would be freaked out and we wouldn’t be there very long…but I was wrong, wrong, wrong. He couldn’t get enough of it. I could…I would have quit after 5 minutes if I had been able to.
3. The Muppets Christmas specials are hilarious. We taped two Muppet Christmas specials for the Little One, and I think I enjoyed them more than he did. I remember the Muppets fondly, but I don’t remember them being this geared to adults (perhaps the jokes just went over my head as a child). There is a new (to me) Muppet called Pepe that is just hilarious!
4. Not all Nerf footballs are soft. The Little One had asked for a soft football after getting bonked in the face by a real football earlier in the year. Well, I thought all Nerf footballs were the same. I was wrong. I (um, I mean Santa) had gotten a Weather Blitz Nerf football, which was a little too hard for the Little One. Especially when Mommy threw it poorly and it hit him in the face. At least I got off the hook on this one as the Little One said: “Santa didn’t get the softness right.”
5. Thin cutout cookies taste better than thick ones.
6. I can eat about 35 cutout cookies in 7 minutes.
7. I can no longer eat whatever I want and not gain weight.
8. The Little One calls it likes he sees it. The Little One’s school was open the day after Christmas so we sent him as we really really needed a break after the Christmas toy playing marathon. So we got him to school only to find that there were so few kids (I guess not all parents wanted a break from their children) that everyone was in one room. The kids were younger than the Little One and the classroom being used was for the 2 and 3 year olds. My son took one look and started screaming and crying “I don’t want to be with those frickin‘ babies.” Needless to say, we left. But I felt a perverse sense of pride in my son that I know is wrong.
9. Five days of family togetherness is way too much.
10. Remaking a blog is fun but also tedious. If you are a regular visitor, you’ve probably noticed my blog makeover, which I undertook on both this blog and my book blog over the holidays. If you are interested, here is some of what I learned during this fun but sometimes painful experience and some of the resources I used.
Blog Makeover Tips/Resources
- Before beginning anything, back up your blog. If you don’t have it already, you can download a free Blogger BackUp program. Jay at Halftime Lessons has a post about it here. I followed his instructions and had no problems downloading or using the program. Addendum: If you are on WordPress, here is a backup program for you too! (Thanks Mandy for helping inspire me to find this!)
- Although the Blogger Backup Utility will backup your posts and your comments, it will not save any widgets, gadgets or blogroll stuff you already have. I made the mistake of trying to back this stuff up using Blogger and it didn’t go well. I had to end up recreating most of the stuff myself. I got smart on the second blog I did and copied all the links from my blogroll and the Javascript stuff for various buttons and gadgets into separate documents in Notepad before starting so I could easily cut and paste them in if they got lost. (Use Notepad and NOT Microsoft Word or other program as it doesn’t translate well back into Blogger. Trust me, I know.)
- If you are interested in switching to a 3-column template like my new one, I got mine for free at Webtalks. Be sure to pay attention to this little bit of advice on the site as I had problems with this while working on my blogs.
XML Errors
Instead of copy-pasting the code,try downloading it and then uploading. For downloading Right click on the template link you wish to download and select “Save Target As” in IE or “Save Link As” in Firefox.Then upload it from Edit HTML section of the Layout Tab.
- You can still use the cute backgrounds at the Cutest Little Blog on the Block with a 3 column template. Just be sure to pick the Minima White template from WebTalks.
- If you want to add menu links to the top of your blog like I did, follow these instructions from Jay at Halftime Lessons.
- If you like to use photos in your posts like I do, you probably shouldn’t just download them Google images (like I have been doing). I was able to find a free photo download site called EveryStockPhoto that has a ton of great photos you can use. I got the photos for the headers on both my blogs from this site.
- I created the new headers for my blogs in Photoshop. It had been a long time since I used Photoshop and it took me forever as I had forgotten just about everything I used to know. I would only recommend doing this if you have some basic experience using a graphic design program. It is fun though!
- I decided to try Google AdSense as it doesn’t really cost anything and I thought if I could somehow make money blogging, my husband would be even more supportive. I suspect that I may only earn enough to buy a candy bar by the end of the year though.
I plan to make more changes during the coming year but this was more than enough for now! For me, part of the fun of blogging is personalizing the blog and learning some new computer things. If you have any questions about any of these resources, I will do my best to answer them. Hope you find them helpful if you are doing your own blog redesigning.
And be sure to check back in the beginning of January when I embark on a Mr. Linky adventure and begin a fun new feature called Fun and Games. I hope you will join me and play along!
I am just glad that there is a backup out there for WP! Thanks for all of your help with that and thanks for the link!
I learned a bunch of that too.
Wish I knew where my skates were though cuz I’d really like to go. 
You’re blog’s looking good.
Again… so much to comment on:
1-I, too, must be lame, because I would love a Bissell Steam mop.
2-My great-grandfather’s name was Kermit and people used to call him and ask to speak to Miss Piggy. He didn’t get it.
3-I match your cut-out cookie eating, and possibly surpass it.
4-When my youngest niece wasn’t allowed to follow her older sister on the school bus on the first day of school, her response was: That’s not frickin’ fair to ME!
5-Too much family togetherness is why I always volunteer to work the day after Christmas.
6-HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thanks for the blog layout tips….I will certainly be trying to update my look at some point. Also, #8 was a riot! I totally understand the need for a break!
Ooooo *jealous* I need a steam mop!
Of course, the husband would use it, not me!
I am with you on five days of family. I just dropped my mom off at the airport only to learn an hour later that she may boomerang back due to poor weather.
M
I got a real good chuckle out of the things you learned this year…thanks for that! “frickin babies” is gonna make me laugh all day…thank the little one for that. And your blog looks beautiful and I admire your courage to give it an overhaul yourself. I would be SOOOOO afraid! I hope you and your family have a marvelous 2009. I hope nothing but happiness is coming your way…and I look forward to watching it happen here on your blog!
I like your blog make over. I hope the new template works out.
I also feel pride in my son when I probably shouldn’t. I hope I’m not accidently encouraging bad behavior sometimes.
Happy New Year.
My goodness what an informative holiday season you have had. Thanks for sharing.
I literally LOL’d at #6 and #8!!!!
Jenners, First I love the new look. Second, I have to saw that comment about eating 35 cutout cookies in 7 minutes made me laugh out loud! Glad to hear that you had a great Christmas and I’m totally jealous that you have your tree down already. Mine is mocking me as we speak. LOL
This looks great. I don’t think some of the backup programs you were referring to would work with my wordpress account. I suppose it is worth researching! Thanks for the tips!
I love your new design, and I, too, am enjoying my lame gift of a vacuum, and I couldn’t be more excited about it!
Wow! A learning experience all round! Thanks for the blogs tips too.
Hey Jenner! Your blog makeover is wonderful, It really looks great! But I agree with Diane above, sounds too involved for me at this point. I’ll stick with my basic template for a bit longer I think.
Your lessons learned are so funny, I love the “I wanted this my whole life1″ comment, hilarious!
“Santa didn’t get the softness right” made me crack up. Cool kid. Bad mommy for hitting him in the face
And thanks for convincing me not to bother changing my Blogger ready-made template for something more ‘custom’. Too much work. OR… I’ll give my password to my friend Mel (who changes hers regularly), tell her the new look I want, and ‘let’ her do it. Yeah… methinks that’s the way to go.
I love the new blog look, too..
Free Download Games And Software
I love the new blog look. Good work! It looks like you learned some valuable holiday lessons too (haha)! Wow–5 days of family togetherness–I wouldn’t last that long.
Thanks for all of the tips. When I’m not pressed for a deadline at work, as I am now, I’ll try those out!
The things you learned this season were PRICELESS!! Thanks for sharing!
Great post. All your hard work really paid off, Your blog is beautiful and so professional-looking. Loved the comment about the steam mop, too. Isn’t it sad when something so practical brings tremendous joy?
I’m with you, girl.
I am on the fence about the kindle.. I am afraid I will miss my paper books and my bookshelves!