Christmas Pancakes

Every year I try to make my kids a fun Christmas pancake for Christmas morning. 

Here  is what I did a last year.

Santa's hat is the juice from cherry pie filling and cool whip, eyes are bananas with a chocolate chip in the middle, nose is a cherry, ears are bananas and the beard is more cool whip.  Rudolph: the antlers are french toast sticks, eyes are chocolate chips and the nose is a cherry. 

Anyone have a good idea for me to make this year?? 

Cinnamon Sugar Snowflakes

Fun snow project. Fold a tortilla in 1/2 and in 1/2 again. Let your child use clean kid's scissors to cut the tortilla like a snow flake. Brush with melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, and back at 350 for approximately 10 minutes. YUM!

Trimming the Tree

If you can't tell, Christmas is my favorite holiday, for many reasons.  Those of you who are scrapbookers, and extreme saps, will appreciate this.  Those of you who are very into decorating, symetry, and style, perhaps not.  But......I share.

When I was trimming the tree this year, I realized that I"m rubbing off on the kids.  Each of the kids have their own trees, with their own special ornaments.  Every ornament we pulled out to trim the tree with, the kids would remember where and when and why we got/received the ornament.  The ornaments they didn't recognize, they would ask, "mom, where did this ornament come from?"

My ornaments are like a scrapbook.  Every year we open the boxes, pull out the ornaments and remember a story.  This is a carved gord my hubby bought me on our honeymoon in New Mexicon.

This ornament was from my second grade teacher, Ms. Roche.  Her mom crocheted one for me and each of my class mates.  She was my favorite teacher.

My friend, Eileen brings me an ornament a lot from places they go.  This is one of my favorites.  She knows I used to life guard in high school.  This is a life guard stand from a vacation she took several years ago.

I bought this ornament last year when I went on a 40th Birthday Vacation with my sister and my friend, Megan. 

  I bought this pink tennis shoe in Breckenridge, Colorado, with my friend, Cara, when we finished walking the Avon 39 Mile Breast Cancer walk.

I could go on and on.  So, if you look at a goofy ornament at the store, and think who would ever put THAT on their tree, it might just signify something special to someone.

Merry Christmas!

Snowman Stir Sticks

Okay, I am the first to admit to stealing ideas.....this idea came from my friend, Amy, with Life is Sweet.  This is such a fabulous idea, and the kids, and Grandpa, had a great time creating them.

First, you start with 8 inch lollipop sticks.  You can find these at Wal-mart, Hobby Lobby, or Michaels.

You stack 3 large (not campfire sized) marshmallows.

The scarves are fruit roll-ups cut into strips.  (That was Grandpa's job)  He figured out that if you cut them while the wrappers are still on, they don't stick together.

Wrap the roll-up around the "neck" of the marshmallow snowman.

These are AWESOME!!  They are Betty Crocker Easy Writer food coloring markers!

They are perfect to design your snowman's eyes, buttons, carrot nose, and mouth. 

Package your snowman stir stick with a packet of cocoa in a cellophane bag.  Voila!  A perfect, inexpensive gift for neighbor kids, teachers, and friends.

Left-overs turned.....Waffle Fries

With the holidays upon us, many of you will have a traditional ham or turkey dinner with the trimmings.  Perhaps you will have mashed potatoes....

I don't know about you, but in the evening after a really large meal, our family eats "light".  This year for Thanksgiving we decided to get creative.  You've most likely made potato pancakes with leftover mashed potatoes, but what about waffle fries?  This was a huge hit with the kids.

My daughter, Carolyn, decided she needed a little ketchup with hers.  I decided I would try it with stuffing.  It was perfect!  I put turkey on top of it, and it was like an open faced turkey sandwich.  Yum.

Get creative with your leftovers.  The possibilities are endless.

Christmas Book Advent Calendar

Every year I add a new Christmas book or two to our collection.  The kids love to read these books we only pull out once a year.  The other day I heard a lady talking about a tradition she has.  Instead of an advent calendar, she wraps up all of their Christmas books, she has 24, and lets the kids open a new one each day.  Even though they are their books that they have had for years, it is always exciting to open it and read it over and over until Christmas.

 

If you don't have quite that extensive of a collection, you can always pick them up at the Dollar Tree, Target's Dollar Spot, or even Goodwill and the 1/2 Price Book Store.

 

This year the book I added to our collection is The Little Red Elf.  It is a take on The Little Red Hen.  The illustrations are beautiful!  They are available at mommyshop in Overland Park, Kansas, or online from http://www.kidztales.com/. 

 

Another VERY favorite book of ours is Max Lucado's The Crippled Lamb.  It is the story of Jesus' Birth from a little lamb's perspective.  It is absolutely adorable and a fabulous message.

 

Amy

Yearly Scrapbook Ornament

I started this last year...I found these cute chipboard albums.  They consist of 5 different circles, so I chose 10 pictures of each of my kiddos.  It is a fun way to grab 10 photos of the current year to preserve year after year. It took no time.  This year I found some at Michael's shaped like Christmas bulbs. 

This is how I displayed them last year among the greenery in the entry way.  This year I think I'll try the fireplace mantle.