Christmas Craftiness

Lexie, Rachel and I gave the wreath a try!  We switched it up a little bit and added silver.  If you want to use gold, there are fancier balls to use as accents.  We all really like how it turned out.

Singingtime Fun

This works great at church, preschool, normal school choir - anywhere you have kids under the age of 12 who are singing!

Bubble-Blowing Billy
Take a full size poster board and draw a cute face and draw the mouth like he is whistling or blowing kisses. Cut a hole in the center of the mouth. Have another adult stand behind the poster board and put a balloon through the hole in the mouth. Tell the kids that the size of the bubble Billy blows will depend upon how well they sing. As the song is louder and the words are clear, the bubble grows. The kids will not see the adult, they will just see the cute face on the poster board with a bubble coming out of his mouth.

For older kids, you can blow the bubble until it pops. Cool factor for you.....and the kids get a big kick out of the loud pop!

Giving back during the holidays

We are always looking for experiences where my girls can give back. I saw this one the other day and thought it was really cool:

"On Thanksgiving, our family decides on a set amount of money to put aside, then we secretly spend it in a random, kindhearted way. Each of us has until Christmas Eve to complete the task. Then, we get together as a family and reveal what we did to the rest of the family."

The author returned to the nursing home where her Grandfather had spent the last years of his life and gave small gifts to the residents who didn't have families. Her Grandmother was thrilled on Christmas to learn of her random act of kindness.

I'm not sure what we're going to do this year - I'll keep you posted!!

Danish Christmas Tradition

Grandma Janice found this tradition to share - Her Mom's family is from Denmark.

Prior to the Christmas dinner, the family gathers around a bowl of "Grod." This is a cinnamon-laced rice pudding. A "magic" almond is hidden inside the Grod. Each family member takes turns eating a spoonful of the pudding. The person who finds the almond receives a prize.

Christmas Wreath

Check this out - LOVE IT!!

Styrofoam Wreath

Hot Glue

Cheap Christmas Balls

I think I can do it for under $20. I'll let you know how it turns out!!

Super yummy chicken casserole!

Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole

1 lb. baby red potatoes, cut into chunks
1 lb. chicken tenders
1 bag broccoli florets
1 can cream of chicken
8 oz. cooked ham, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 cup shredded swiss cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp. chopped parsley leaves
1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350.
In microwave safe bowl, place potatoes and 2 tbsp. water. Cover bowl with paper towel and microwave 3-4 minutes until potatoes are fork-tender.
Add chicken and all remaining ingredients to potatoes and mix well. Transfer mixture into 13x9 casserole. Bake 50-55 minutes uncovered or until chicken loses its pink color and the cheese begins to brown.

Cornbread muffins

Here is a recipe for really good cornbread muffins. They are a little more cake-y and my kids love them. They are wonderful with soup!


Sweet Cornbread Muffins

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cups yellow corn meal
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups milk
2 large eggs, beaten
3 tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Grease or paper-line 18 muffin cups.
Combine flour, sugar, corn meal, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Combine milk, eggs, vegetable oil and butter into small bowl. Add to flour mixture stir just until blended. Pour into muffin cups.
Bake for 18-20 mins.

Oplatki

Here is the tradition - I really dig this one:

Oplatki begins with simple wafers (flour and water - think of the wafers used during a Catholic Mass).  The wafers are etched with Christmas images - The Nativity, Christmas Star, etc.

The family gathers at the table for the meal on Christmas Eve.  The eldest family member present starts by taking a wafer.  That person breaks off a piece of the wafer and passes the remaining piece to someone else at the table with a blessing, a simple expression of what you desire for that person in the coming year.  It can be any type of blessing - health, love, happiness, good grades, successful marriage, faith to overcome a current difficulty, forgiveness for negative feelings or words during the past year, etc.  You continue until everyone at the table has offered a blessing to someone.

I don't think I'm going to be etching a Nativity into a Oplatki anytime soon!  So, I'm thinking.....red and green vanilla mini-wafers and instead of passing the broken wafer, you just pass the small bowl and each person takes a wafer and offers the blessing.  

If you have found anything else that sounds cool - post it!!

Holiday Traditions

I like to try different things around the holidays with the girls, and it is a great opportunity to learn about another culture or way of celebrating. Last year, I found a cool box game from England.

Anyone have any traditions to share? Maybe from living in another country, or learning about your heritage, or even marrying into a new family and picking up on something new?

Recipes

Anyone have a good recipe for cornbread?

I'm still looking for better things to do with chicken too!!

Thumbelina

So at six years old and 37 pounds.....Megan is quite the girl!! She is usually the most social one, but school has been interesting lately. Some of the girls have started calling her Thumbelina because she is so small. We keep talking to her - ignore them, walk away, let it go! I don't think she has any idea how to do any of that. So, she keeps mouthing off.....and they keep calling her Thumbelina. See the cycle of fun? Ideas?

Moving Day

Okay, we're not really moving. However, they did realign our ward boundaries and we are among the 10-12 families that have been bumped to the other ward. It took us MONTHS to get over the move to Texas and into the new ward. My girls had a rough day yesterday.....with thoughts of having to make new friends and start over. Needless to say, I don't think we could be one of those families who move every two years. We like structure and consistancy WAY TOO MUCH!! Any ideas?