However, it’s also a wonderful opportunity to celebrate devotion and fun with our kids. More than just making some cards (though that is certainly fun) it’s also a time to share in some baking, story reading and just plain bonding. So this weekend, get out some books, red food dye, and the glue, red paper, yarn and glitter to create some fun memories of love and affection!

Craft Ideas

Before you get started protect your work area with newspaper and have all your supplies needed laid out. If you already have some crafts in mind to do with your children that call for construction paper, think about using foam paper as an alternative. It’s stronger and more durable.

Heart shaped tote

Supplies Needed:

• Red or Pink Foam Paper
• Scissors
• Hot Glue gun and Hot glue sticks (or you can use a strong craft glue)
• White, pink or red yarn and a needle
• 1-1/2 inch white, pink or red ribbon
• Elmers Glue or a glue stick
• Red or pink glitter

Instructions:

Depending on the size of the tote you would like, cut two sheets of foam paper in the shape of a Heart so that you have two hearts of the same size. Place the hearts together and use your scissors to stab small punctures all around the V portion of the heart, about half an inch from the bottom. The punctures should be about one half inch apart.

Sew the V’s together through the punctures from the right to the left side using a needle (I tied yarn in a tiny knot to a thread and needle, and pulled it though). Once you have completed this use the hot glue gun to glue each tip of the ribbon to each side of the top of the V, from the inside of the tote, so it looks like a purse handle.

Now it’s time for the kids to have fun with their new tote. Give them the glue and glitter to design the front and back with hearts, fireworks and anything else they conjure up with their imaginations. Hang them to dry before use.

You can make small totes and place individually wrapped candies inside to use for school Valentine’s Cards, if desired. If done this way you can use a marker or pen to write sentiments on the front and back of the card.

Baking Fun

With a holiday like Valentine’s, it’s all about pink and red. Think of what you will be serving for the day and how you can integrate these colors into your meals. Many of your dishes can simply have a few drops of red food coloring to make them a holiday delight.

Start the day out with some pink heart-shaped pancakes. You can either squirting a few drops of red food color into your pancake mix, or use strawberries and juice. Use a large heart-shaped cookie cutter, placed on the griddle, to mold the pancakes.

Have your child use the same large cookie cutter to cut out heart-shaped sandwiches. Make pink-lemonade to go with their heart shaped sandwiches, or simply puree some frozen strawberries and add to traditional lemonade.

For deserts, think pink or red rice krispie treats or popcorn balls, red colored cookie dough or colored chocolate for dips. If you are thinking chocolate covered strawberries, for example, purchase pink, white, or red chocolate and have fun with the kids by letting them put some Valentine’s Day sprinkles on the chocolate.

Card Decorating Ideas

You can make Valentine’s cards with your children for school or for family members with these simple steps.

Supplies Needed:

• Red or Pink Foam Paper
• Scissors
• Hot Glue gun and Hot glue sticks
• Individually wrapped Candy (of your choice)
• Pen or marker

Cut your foam paper in half. Trace the shape your child would like to use, maybe a heart or a butterfly, on the half of foam paper you cut.

If you are making hearts you can do a double heart shape by cutting out a smaller heart of a different color and gluing that to the larger heart. For pop-out hearts, simply glue the smaller heart straight down the middle and fold it back.

Allow your child to write some fun Valentine’s Day messages on your card and have your child glue the candy on the top of the card. Allow to dry completely before you hand them out.

Valentine’s Day Stories

Bedtime stories are something we consistently provide for our children on every day of the week. Here is a list of fun Valentine’s stories to share with your children. Many involve characters they already know and cherish:

• Wherever you are: My love will find you by Nancy Tillman
• Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! By Laura Numeroff
• Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine by Barbara Park
• Happy Valentine’s Day, Curious George! By H. A. Ray
• Fancy Nancy – Hear to Heart by Jane O’Connor
• Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz
• Nate the Great and the Mushy Valentine by Marjorie Weiman Sharmat
• Be My Valentine, Amelia Bedelia by Herman Parish
• Berenstain Bears’ Valentine Party by Jan Berenstain
• Roses are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink by Diane de Groat
• Too Many Valentines by Margaret McNamara
• Love, Splat by Rob Scotton
• Valentine Hearts: Holiday Poetry by Lee Bennett Hopkins

Valentine’s Day Movies

Sitting down with popcorn or the valentine snacks you may have made, and a great movie is a perfect way to end a fun-filled day of hearts, Cupids and candies. Below is a list of Valentine’s Day movies that you and your young children will enjoy together.

• Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown
• Elmo Loves you!
• WordWorld: My Fuzzy Valentine
• Mickey & Minnie’s Sweetheart Stories
• Be My Valentine – Love, Barney
• Blue’s Room: It’s Hug Day
• Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Friends – Happy Heartwood Day
• Clifford The Big Red Dog – King Clifford/Be My Big Red Valentine
• Alvin and the Chipmunk Valentine

For teens and tweens:

• The Love Bug
• A Cinderella Story
• Ever After
• High School Musical
• The Princess Bride (My favorite!)
• Paper Heart
• 17 Again
• The Notebook
• Enchanted
• A night to Remember
• Twilight
• Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

Have fun and enjoy this special day with your children and family!

By Chris Molnar, a stay at home Dad with two wonderful preschool children. Valentine’s Day includes lots of cut up paper, glue, stickers and learning how to spell “Love” for a variety of cards for aunts, uncles and grandparents. Pink cupcakes and messy sprinkles usually follow, and the evening will consist of a heart-shaped pizza and watching a movie (Beauty and the Beast last year.) Chris edits a party theme site with lots of ideas for kid’s birthdays and activities.

I would imagine that everyone out there has heard of The Hunger Games, in some fashion. At least “I sure hear a lot about this, but I don’t know what it is.” You might know that the Hunger Games movie releases March 23. You might not know that it’s a wildly popular Young Adult series by Suzanne Collins, that has fans from tweens up through adults. You might not know that it’s dystopian literature. If you don’t know any of this, I’d suggest you brush up, because I think that this movie and these books are going to continue down their path of wild success, and you don’t want to be the last one in the know.

It’s a popular book, and it’s a book that begs to be discussed, or at least thought about. The book The Girl Who Was on Fire (Movie Edition): Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games Series gives you the chance to do just that.

• Are you Team Gale or Team Peeta (or perhaps even Team Katniss?) — you’ll find agreement here no matter what side you are on.
• Did you like the final installment Mockingjay or hate it? That is explored as well.
• Want to explore the political side of the story? Read on.
• Feel like comparing the trilogy to other dystopian plots? You can do it here.
• Ever wonder the subtext in the amazing costumes created for the Games? Terri Clark can tell you.

 
Dawn reviewed The Girl Who Was on Fire at 5 Minutes for Books last Spring, so check out her review for more thoughts on the book. This The Girl Who Was on Fire (Movie Edition) contains 3 additional essays, and if you buy the ebook version or the booster pack (containing only the 3 new essays, and the soon-to-be-released thoughts on the movie), you will also receive each of the essayist’s thoughts on the movie right after it releases on March 23.

I’m happy that we have a copy to give away to one of you. Just leave a comment if you’d like to win, and we’ll announce the winner in our 5 Minutes for Books column here at 5 Minutes for Mom on February 20.

• The winner of The Perfect Name for You is #34 Staci A.

 
Want more YA? The Dystopian Romance prize pack is still open for another week!

I was excited to learn about a website that I had not heard of before. PetFlow is a fantastic site that delivers dog and cat food treats, litter, toys, supplements, among other things right to your front door via FedEx. Petflow carries over 100 brands including the hard to find natural, organic, and grain-free pet foods that are not easy to find in local pet stores. PetFlow allows you to eliminate the chore of going to the pet food. No more wasted gas or back-aches, now you can spend more time with your loved ones and not have to run out to the pet store last minute. Sales tax is only charged in NY, NJ, and NV so if you do not live in those states you can save that way too.

I decided to check out their website and just see how the prices compared to my local places where I purchased the dog food. To my surprise, it was only a few dollars higher. To me, even though the price may be a few dollars higher, it is worth it. I live in a town where a drive to the city takes me 20-30 minutes, so having the pet food delivered to the house is a huge timesaver for me and it means less gas I have to purchase to drive somewhere.

Special Deal

All 5 minutes for mom readers will get $10 off your first auto-delivery from PetFlow.com on orders $40+ and if your order total is more than $59 after the discount, we will ship it for free. If not, all other orders ship for just $4.95. (expires 2/15/12). Special $10 Coupon code: 5m4m

If you have a pet and you are looking for a great resource to help out with the delivery of food and pet products, check out Pet Flow. Tell them that 5 Minutes for Mom sent ya!

This is part of a promotional campaign with Pet Flow. All opinions are our own.

Simplifying the newborn stage

A new baby brings lots of new things – sleepless nights, diaper duty, feeding and napping routines, as well as lots of rewarding firsts – the first bath, the first smile, the first roll, and the first step. As a new mom, you make every effort to catch these moments, usually on your smartphone, which tends to be the handiest camera available. Since these precious photos accumulate rapidly, what is the easiest way to share baby photos on an on-going basis with your family and close friends?

Imagine taking a photo, sending it to one email address, and having your entire group of friends and family automatically notified of the new photo. Then, they can view the baby photo or the entire baby album in a beautiful service free of ads.

And, they can comment, download, or purchase photo products, too.

Could it really be that easy?

How to Share Baby Photos with One Email

First, create a new album on ZangZing. Add a photo or two to start the album, and name it whatever you’d like. It could be as generic as “Baby Album” or just name it after your child, “Elizabeth’s World.”

In the Create Group & Share step, choose your privacy settings. Your photos can be as public or private as you want. Then, Create a Group and add the email addresses of the group of people that you want to keep up to date with new baby photos. Remember to check the box to automatically update the group whenever new photos or comments are added.

When you finish creating the album, just send photos to the email address of the album which consists of the album name and your username (the format is album-name@username.zangzing.com). Also, ZangZing will send you an email letting you know that your photos have been added to the Baby Album. We recommend that you save the vcard attached to that email in your address book. This way, whenever you get a great baby photo, you can quickly send it to the album email address which was saved in the vcard.

That’s it. Now, when you get a great baby photo with your smartphone, just email it to the Baby Album. As soon as your photo is uploaded, your entire group of family and friends will receive an email with the new photo. Then, they can view the photo or the entire album and make photo comments, download original resolution photos, or purchase photo products for themselves or as gifts. It’s that great combination of easy and fun!

Family and Friends can Share Baby Photos in Your Album, Too

If you want, you can also let your family and friends add photos to your Baby Album. In the Create Group & Share step, just designate them as Contributors.

Then, they can email photos directly to the album, too. Or, they can also add photos over the web from just about anywhere – Facebook, Flickr, Dropbox, Kodak Gallery, Instagram, PhotoBucket, MobileMe, Picasa Web, Shutterfly, and SmugMug – and of course directly from your computer, iPhoto, or Picasa Desktop.

ZangZing is redesigning photo sharing to make life just a little simpler and a lot more fun.

Kathryn Corro is one of the Co-Founders of ZangZing, a company focused on redesigning photo sharing. She was inspired to create ZangZing so that families and friends, that are busier than ever these days, can easily share photos is an beautiful way to stay in touch. To learn more about how to organize and share photos, check out the ZangZing blog or email Kathryn.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, but regardless we think it’s cool enough to share with our readers!

I received a copy of The Perfect Name For You for my 5 year old son, assuming he’d like it, but I wasn’t expecting him to completely fall in love with the book. Like most kids his age he just loves seeing his name on just about anything, and to have it printed on his own picture book is the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

Having read a multitude of alphabet books, many of them using animals for each letter, it’s always refreshing to see a new twist on the genre. To celebrate the child’s birth, each animal brings something for each letter in their name – the moose brings an A for antlers, the lion brings an M for mane, the ant brings a P for picnic. There are multiple animals for each letter, so even though my son’s full name has 5 As in it — first, middle and last are all used — there were no repeats. Adding to the fun is a ladybug that can be found in each picture, and at the end is each letter of the alphabet brought by a different animal. My son loves to go through that list and point out the ones included in his book.

The Perfect Name For You is a wonderful gift for a new baby or preschool-aged child that will be cherished for years.

Birthday Keepsakes is offering a free personalized storybook to 1 winner, US or Canada only. Please leave a comment below and the winner will be announced on in this weekly book giveaway column on Monday February 6.

• The winner of House of Secrets is #26 Christina Gould.

 
Nancy is happy her son loves his name as much as she does. She writes about her 2 boys, books and life in Colorado at Life With My Boys and Books.

Today with so many online connections, including blogging relations, Facebook “friends” from elementary school and beyond, the concept of what a real friend is has evolved to an extent. John Townsend’s How to Be a Best Friend Forever: Making and Keeping Lifetime Relationships examines the role of friendship in our lives and challenges us to make more of these vital relationships — both for our own good and so that we can be better friends.

I underlined and starred and folded so many pages in this book. It’s a pretty slim volume, and it’s completely readable, so for those of you who think “When do I have time to read a book?” don’t worry! This is the kind of book that you can get through by reading a chapter or two here or there, and with each chapter you’ll find at least one nugget to think about and hopefully apply to your life (see a sneak preview at the excerpt Five Best Friendship Rules to Live By over at 5 Minutes for Books).

Whether you know you need to strengthen your friendships or you feel overwhelmed about maintaining the ones you have, you will find advice and encouragement in this book. There’s even a study guide at the back of the book with questions about each chapter to help you pinpoint who your best friends really are and how you can be a better friend to them.

I’m excited that we have a copy to give away, thanks to the publisher (U.S. and Canadian shipping only). Leave a comment here if you’d like to win (and see below for more chances to win). We’ll announce the winner in this weekly book giveaway column on Monday January 30.

I’ve reprinted the Five Best Friendship Rules to Live By over at 5 Minutes for Books. Read them to get a sample of what you’ll find in this book. If you leave a comment over there, it will give you an extra chance to win. I’ve also shared what friendship means to me over at my personal blog Snapshot, and you can also earn an extra entry for commenting over there as well. I’d love to hear what your friends mean to you!

The winner of One Moment, One Morning is #30 Tia.

Original review by 5 Minutes for Books Managing Editor Jennifer Donovan, who loves exploring the themes of friendship at her Snapshot blog.

You know when your kids are big enough to be out of a high chair or a restaurant booster seat, but they still could use a “boost”?

The Sitting Taller Booster seat is a mom designed lightweight, portable booster seat that kids can carry themselves as a backpack.

These unique boosters are made from recycled rice bags and have a furniture grade foam lift inside.

Your child carries it like a backpack and then lays the entire backpack flat on any chair for a 4 inch boost. It’s convenient for movies, restaurants and even at home. My girls use theirs all the time at our kitchen table.

When my girls use their booster seats at home, they remove the seat cushion from the backpack and use the backpack for their toys.

We first had just one of these booster seats sent to us for review and my girls would not stop fighting over it. So we had to get a second seat. Now both 4 year old Sophia and 6 year old Julia have their own and the fighting had stopped… until cousin Olivia came to visit. Now it looks like we might have to order a third!

Here at 5 Minutes for Mom we love supporting mom run businesses and we encourage you to shop first with mom-owned stores and spread the word about mom-made items such as Sitting Taller Booster seats.

We were very happy to hear that the Sitting Taller Backpacks are made by the wonderful women at Nomi Network.

The mission of the Nomi Network is to “eradicate sex trafficking through the marketplace, which means the money they raise goes to giving rescued girls scholarships, and they also teach trades (like making the backpacks) to allow women to earn their own money (they pay living wages) and become independent.”

You can find out more at http://www.sittingtallerkids.com and on Like them on Facebook.

Disclosure: We received two booster seats for review.

Written by Susan Carraretto, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom
I answer to the name Mommy Blogger, but prefer the term Mom Blogger.
Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
Pin with me at http://pinterest.com/5minutesformom/

Here are some of the top deals we’ve mentioned this week over at 5 Minutes for Deals:

1. If you hurry, you might still be able to score a FREE 12-pack of Cafe Escapes Hot Chocolate K-Cups!
2. You can save 20% on your highest priced item at Brylane Home online.
3. There are some great health & fitness magazines you can get new subscriptions to very inexpensively by using these coupon codes!
4. Don’t miss our Tuesdays for Tots each week, compiled by our contributor at Spoiled But Not Rotten.
5. Save at the grocery store without needing to clip or print coupons. We share some newly released CellFire digital coupons that can be loaded to your store’s loyalty card!

This is just a small sample of the money-saving tips & deals we’ve mentioned this week at 5 Minutes for Deals.

Be sure to “Like” 5 Minutes for Deals on Facebook, and “Follow” us on Twitter, so you don’t miss a single deal!

Written by 5 Minutes for Deals Editor Ann-Marie, who also blogs at Chaos Is Bliss, where she shares money-saving deals to help families save all around the house.

I recently received a shipment from SparkBoxToys. My 15 month old grandson was here and he knows most things that come are for him. He doesn’t get too excited but he likes to look in the boxes, pick everything up, check it out, and toss it aside to move on to something else.

When he looked in the box and started pulling everything out, he was getting very excited. He handed everything to his Poppy and stood semi-patiently waiting for the toy to be removed from its package. He played with every one of them and when he came the next day, those were the first he pulled out.

I’m a spoiler and I will pay top dollar if it’s for my prince but that doesn’t mean I don’t look for deals.

SparkBoxToys.com gives you high quality learning toys selected by experts and personalized for your child’s development. When you are done, simply send them back for more.

How it Works

• Tell SparkboxToys about your child
• They personalize your box and send it to you
• Your child plays with it for 4 weeks or more

When Bailee’s father asks the girls to come to their summer home for an announcement, Bailee heads to Washington state to meet her family. Bailee’s dad shares a surprise with the girls, but their response shocks him. As the secrets and pain from the past come out, the tenuous threads holding the family together unravel. In a moment of distress, Bailee calls Mark, who drops everything and heads to Washington to offer support during the confusing and traumatic time. Bailee must deal with the past and work on the present crisis before she can deal with any thoughts of the future. With Mark’s support, and God’s love, Bailee works to find healing and hope.

House of Secrets is a touching and dramatic story. At its core, House of Secrets exposes the difficult challenges that families face when a loved one is suffering from mental illness. Although mental illness ranges in severity, I don’t know many families who have not dealt with the pain and devastating effects related to mental illness in some way. Author Tracie Peterson does an excellent job of portraying the suffering, the anger, the challenges, and even the guilt that family members face. While the details of Bailee’s story are extreme, the story resonates easily with anyone who has been touched by these difficulties.

House of Secrets is a moving, fast-paced novel that is difficult to put down. The emotions are real and raw, and I grieved for the loss and struggles experienced by the three sisters. Tracie Peterson has crafted a well-written story that exposes the realities of mental illness, while offering hope for healing. I recommend it to all of you.

Thanks to Bethany House, we have one copy of House of Secrets to giveaway (U.S. shipping address only). Please leave a comment on this post. We’ll announce the winner in our book review column here on January 23.

• The winner of the Mr. Popper’s Penguins ebook is #11 Sue Borowiak.
• Our giveaway for the women’s fiction novel One Moment, One Morning is still open another week.
• Check out all our current book giveaways at 5 Minutes for Books right now!

Original review by 5 Minutes for Books staff reviewer: Lauren is a wife, mother of two, and an avid reader. She blogs at Baseballs and Bows.

Enter Teddy Bear Gift Baskets.

The Serious Teddy Bear Company is a way to show someone you care with a unique gift that will definitely bring a smile to their face. When I came home from vacation there was an ordinary box on my front step waiting for me. But when I opened it, I discovered a beautifully packaged gift box containing the softest bear I have ever touched, a box of candy, The Hug Therapy book and a small “you have been hugged” token. My bear came with a customized “just because’ note as well. After a long drive I was delighted to find this happy little guy waiting for me! (I got the vanilla bear)

Serious Teddy Bear gifts can be customized for just about any occasion such as Valentine’s Day teddy bears. The bears come in two sizes (20 inches and 14 inches) and three colors (Midnight, Amber and Vanilla). You can choose from one of the many ready to ship packages or create your own. Prices start at $39.95 and go up from there depending on the additions you may choose.

I have to admit that this is probably not the type of gift I would have considered sending to someone in the past, but after having opened my adorable bear I have a totally new perspective!

Enter to Win

5 Minutes for Mom is giving one lucky reader their very own Serious Teddy Bear! To enter, leave a comment here telling us who you would love to send one of these adorable “hugs” to!

This giveaway ends January 14th and a winner will be chosen by random.org and announced Sunday in the weekly Around The Blogosphere. Please see our site’s terms and conditions for more information.

Disclosure: I received a bear kit in order to write my review. All opinions are my own.

Written by 5 Minutes for Mom Contributor, Andrea Updyke. You can find me blogging at Lil-Kid-Things and tweeting at @AndreaUpdyke.

(And don’t worry that I’m giving away the plot. This all happens in the first chapter).

This one event ties these women together. It also causes them to examine their lives in the wake of Simon’s death. Lou is struggling with coming out to her friends and family and realizes that hiding is hurting her. Anna is in her early 40′s and in a destructive relationship. Karen is reeling, but the tragedy makes her keenly aware of everything that she does have in her life.

This piece of light women’s fiction deals with the unthinkable — the sudden death of a spouse — which is a fear that most of us have, but it’s worth reading for the hope and strength that Karen finds as her friends and family help her survive. Rayner’s descriptions of each of these 3 women’s inner life is right on. She manages to help the reader immerse herself into this situation by experiencing a week or so in their lives, in a way that isn’t too cavalier, yet doesn’t end up being depressing either.

The interesting London setting also elevates this novel to something worth losing yourself in for a few days.

Thanks to the publisher, I have a copy to give to one of you (U.S. or Canadian shipping addresses are eligible). Leave a comment if you’d like to win.

Did you get an ereader for Christmas? Stock it up by entering to win a Mr. Popper’s Penguins ebook.

The winner of Hot (Sweaty) Mamas: Five Secrets to Being a Fit Mom is #82 Kim Smith.

LIKE BOOKS? Subscribe to our 5 Minutes for Books feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook. Check out our current giveaways.

Once you get that ereader, you need to stock it up with titles. The beauty of my Kindle is that I will never run out of books to read! What’s more, I make sure that there are titles on there for my kids as well. I keep a good eye out for sales (I bought several titles for me, and each of my 2 kids, for less than $4 a few months ago), and I’m always watching the Kindle Free bestsellers, which include small press and self-published books as you’d expect, but also has backlist titles from authors you love.

Today I’m proud to feature a wonderful ebook title from Open Road Media. I love the versions of books that I’ve read from them, including Pat Conroy‘s The Prince of Tides (they have published most of his backlist), and the Boxcar Children books by Gertrude Chandler.

Mr. Popper’s Penguins is one of their newest releases. This is a great movie (sharing very little with the movie except the heart and the name). My son read it last summer before we saw the movie, and enjoyed it. He’s a young, high-level reader, so it was perfect for him (a challenge, but no inappropriate content). I’d recommend this book for readers on the 4th – 6th grade levels, but I remember reading it aloud to my older daughter when she was much younger (5, I think).

This book also comes with enhanced features (available on a PC or a tablet that supports this format): extended, illustrated biography of the authors, photos, and two videos from Fox Entertainment: the first is the charming story of how Mr. Popper’s Penguins became a book, told partly by the Atwaters’ grandchildren, and the second is a trailer of the feature film.

One of you will win a free download of the enhanced version of the Newbery-Award winning Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Leave a comment, and we’ll announce the winner right here in our weekly book giveaway column on Monday January 9.

• The winner of the Family Storybook Treasury is #14 Liz.

We are all obsessed with iPhotography. (Earlier today, I posted about InstaPrint — a photo booth to print Instagram photos!) Really, I don’t think I know any mom bloggers who don’t love to frame their worlds with their mobile phones and then share them with their social networks. I am sure all of our children would raise their hands when asked if their mothers were constantly documenting their childhoods with their phones.

So, what better way to indulge our Instagram obsession than with Instagram photo gift ideas?

I know — it just can’t get much better.

Check out my Top 7 Instagram Photo Gifts — CONTINUE READING at MOMCRUNCH…

Written by Janice Croze, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom.

We want to get to know you better — Tweet with us: @5minutesformom, find us on Facebook: Facebook.com/5minutesformom, or join our newsletter list.

Get ready to feel sorry for me… Not only have I not started to wrap, I haven’t finished shopping yet! And I am still at my desk working. This is going to be tight.

One thing that seems to get me every year at 12am on December 23rd, as I pull out the wrapping paper and presents to settle down for my last minute Christmas present wrapping frenzy, is running out of holiday gift tags. For some reason, I always forget to buy them.

So, this year, in case any of you forgot to pick up holiday gift tags — or if you want to save some money and print your own holiday gift tags — I thought I would give you the links to some fun free holiday gift tag templates from Microsoft.

Yes, Office.com has tons of free templates and labels waiting for you.

I have to tell you, I use Office.com all the time for their free resources. I actually use a ton of Office’s free stock photos here at 5 Minutes for Mom. If you haven’t been using Microsoft Office.com for templates, labels, stock photos, etc. you are missing out.

Now — I better get back to work so I can wrap those gifts. Well, first I need to decorate my tree. I KNOW! I told you, I am in really bad shape this year.

Hope the holiday gift tag templates help you out with your last minute wrapping.

If you found this post helpful, we would love it if you gave it a Stumble, Tweet or Facebook Like. Thanks so much! We really appreciate your support of 5 Minutes for Mom.

Written by Janice Croze, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom.

We want to get to know you better — Tweet with us: @5minutesformom, find us on Facebook: Facebook.com/5minutesformom, or join our newsletter list.

* Just so y’all know, I am a Windows Champion blogger. Windows Champions are bloggers who are hand-selected to work with the Microsoft Windows Team. As part of this arrangement, I have been loaned a Windows 7 PC for the course of year and been given the opportunity to learn about Windows and Microsoft products. No worries — I wasn’t financially compensated or required to post. My opinions and posts are always 100% my own.