When Cody and I started dating, I moved to Utah where all of his family is from. I’m an only child so I loved getting to marry into Cody’s huge family! I know sometimes mothers-in-law get a bad rap, but I love Cody’s mom and am thankful for how sweet and supportive she is! I’ve learned a lot from her and today I wanted to share 6 things my mother-in-law has taught me:

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Lesson 1. Laugh at yourself, and don’t take things too seriously. Her boys are always playing jokes and pranks on each other and that attitude, to be quick to laugh, is so contagious!

Lesson 2. Family is everything. She has 8 kids. 8!! She’s a great example of how to put first things first – and number one is always family. She is always making sure everyone gets together and she looks forward to family time more than anything!

Lesson 3. How to make the best homemade cinnamon rolls. Ok well I haven’t totally mastered it yet, but she taught Cody how to make them so I still get to reap the benefits! Her cinnamon rolls are magic and she makes them on special family occasions, but always every Christmas morning.

Lesson 4. Don’t be afraid to say what you want or speak your mind. Luedeen is never afraid to speak her mind, and I love that about her!

Lesson 5. Start your Christmas shopping early! She has over 40 people in the family (just kids and grandkids – not including extended family) and she buys gifts for every single one of them. Her secret is to start months in advance so when the holidays come around, she can really enjoy time with the family instead of stressing about gifts. It’s such a great idea, so even though I’m a procrastinator at heart I try to follow her lead. I love browsing the aisles to find the best stocking stuffers. I always end up grabbing this Burt’s Bees Essentials Kit at Walmart – everyone always needs travel sized everything. The hand salve is a life saver, and you can never have enough chapsticks! We also bet foot massages on pretty much everything, so the foot cream comes in handy too. 😜 (Also with the chaos of the holidays it’s sometimes easier to pick up whatever you need for your holiday shopping online.)

Lesson 6. Gift bags are your best friend. When you are getting gifts for lots of people, you can save a lot of time by using (and reusing) gift bags instead of taking time to individually wrap everything.

XX, Christine

*In collaboration with Burt’s Bees at Walmart and Walmart.com.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Burt’s Bees. The opinions and text are all mine.