Preparing For Christmas: In The Kitchen With My Kids

This blog post is written in partnership with and sponsored by Big Lots.

I am learning quickly what it means to be a parent of five children during the holidays. Celebrating, planning, preparing, and organizing everything from food to events to shopping is a very layered process that I have learned quickly to outsource help with. Though I work from home, I am lucky to frequently have my hands in everything the kids do, and I try to be as invested in as much as humanly possible (sometimes to my detriment).

The holidays present new layers of magic, love and a fresh batch of new tasks that I need help with, and I have recently started entrusting my big kids to larger tasks. The best part aside from having help in the kitchen, is spending the time with them doing things that they love and so do I! This year, I began to prepare for this holiday season by heading to Big Lots. I have partnered in the past with Big Lots, and during that time I learned a lot more about the store and company — mostly that so much of what I already buy in grocery and other large stores can be found in Big Lots for a fraction of the price.

I bought a few Turkey Brine Bags, a bunch of the Studio California cooking and baking pans, cookie cutters, sprinkles, sugar, and various other holiday themed towels, trivets and utensils. We all love to cook, and with all of the prep work that goes into these holiday meals, it’s especially exciting for me that I have more than a couple sous chefs that get into the holiday cooking spirit with me.

With our holiday grocery list growing longer by the second, it’s nice to be able to find a few things at a lower price than usual, plus a fun adventure into Big Lots that always has tons of fun stuff-including a huge holiday selection of decorations to look at. The time spent together is the most important thing to me, especially during the holidays, so if I can save time and money while having fun at the same time, we all benefit from it.