Ice Cream Christmas Tree

This is so cute and quite easy for you to serve at your family, work, church or school parties.  Simply use a cookie sheet and cover it with tinfoil. Then scoop large balls of mint chocolate chip ice cream to create a christmas tree.  The top  row will have 1 ball, the second row will have 2 balls.  The third row will have 3 balls, and so on. After you have rows of 5 or 6 ice cream balls (the size of your cookie sheet and the size of the ice cream balls will determine how many you can fit), your tree will be complete.  Then scoop two ice cream balls of chocolate icecream and place them at the bottom of the tree lined up vertically to look like a trunk.

Make sure you keep this in the freezer until you are ready to serve.  Makes a super cute treat and an incredibly easy way to serve ice cream to the crowd quickly! Thank you to our cousin, Cathy, for the cute idea!

Merry Christmas and check out some of our other Christmas ideas while you are here!

Christmas Breakfast Traditions - Sticky Buns {AKA Caramel Bundt Rolls or Monkey Bread} and Papa's Eggs

Every year for Christmas morning, my kids look forward to these recipes.  What I love is that you can prepare them mostly the night before and it takes very little time the day of.  Although we enjoy them for Christmas, they are great any day of the year.  So enjoy!

Caramel Bundt Rolls {Often called Monkey Bread as well!}

18-20 Frozen Rhodes Rolls
1 3 oz. pkg. butterscotch pudding (NOT INSTANT)
1/2 c. margarine
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Optional - pecans or walnuts (add first at the bottom of pan before rolls)

Grease Bundt Pan.  Put in rolls.  Sprinkle with pudding mix (dry).  In a sauce pan, melt margarine and add sugar and cinnamon. Pour this mixture over pudding and rolls.  Set out on the counter overnight (uncovered).  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  When finished, turn the bundt rolls upside down on a large platter.  Cinnamon topping will drizzle down for perfect deliciousness!

Papa's Eggs
1 lb Jimmy Dean Regular Sausage
16 oz. hasbhrowns
2 1/2 c. cheese
12 eggs
Thaw out ingredients.

In a tuppeware, put in hashbrowns, eggs,  and cheese.  Add a little salt/pepper to taste.  Brown sausage in a frying pan while breaking it into small pieces.  After sausage has cooked and cooled, pour sausage in bowl with hashbrowns, cheese and eggs.  Leave in tuppeware overnight.  Cook on the stove in the morning until eggs are fully cooked.

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Fun Tradition for the Little Friend Gifts: Christmas Tea Party

This idea comes from a dear friend of mine who does a Christmas Tea Party each year.  Rather than have her girls give friend gifts, they invite their closest friends over to their house. 

Everything is set up in the fanciest of ways.   And the girls arrive in their best party dresses.

Treats are divine

And they always do a craft.  Some craft ideas would be gingerbread houses, homemade recipe books {where each girl brought a recipe to share}, decorated picture frames or ornaments, etc.

I think it is the sweetest tradition for friends to spend time together.

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Peppermint Dessert

Today, I share with you my husband's absolute favorite dessert!  This a great dessert year round, but seems to be served in our house most over the holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Valentines. It's great for large parties, baby showers, and wedding showers because it's light and you can make it go far if you need to.  Happy December!

 

Peppermint Dessert

1 pkg Nab famous choc. wafers (I usually buy these at Harmons Grocery Stores, if you have one)

½ c. margarine

1 pint whipping cream 
1/2 cup powdered sugar

½ c. peppermint candy (crushed)

¼ c. optional nuts (chopped) 

8 oz. mini marshmallows

4-5 drops red food coloring (mix until it looks like cotton candy)

3 drops peppermint flavoring

Crush wafers and melt margarine.  Combine to form crust (reserving 1/3 cup crumbs for the top).  Press into 9x13 pan.  Whip cream until stiff, add powdered sugar.  Fold in flavoring and food coloring then candy, marshmallows and optional nuts.  Pour marshmallow mix over the cookie crust.  Sprinkle reserve crumbs on top.  Refrigerate.

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Christmas Train Birthday Party + Cake

Remember our ever popular Thomas the Train Birthday Cake?  Well last year, my son who's birthday is in December wanted a train party, so we decided to change it up to a Christmas train.  We took the family on a Christmas train ride and finished the evening with pizza and this cake.  Santa and the elves all sang Happy Birthday him and we enjoyed a very popular train ride.  If you live in Utah or visit Utah for the ski slopes, you should check out Heber Valley Railroad.  So fun, even if it's not Christmas time!  I have found a lot of joy in having simple family parties when my kids are 1-3 years old.  Another fun toddler party we did was a Zoo Party along this same lines.  However, if you want to spruce it up with some games and activites, check out our Thomas the Train Birthday Party with lots of ideas that could be used for this party as well!

1.  Bake cake in 2 loaf pans.

2.  Cut each loaf in half and cool cakes in freezer to make them easy to frost

3.  Frost each cake and place it on the tray where you would like it to be.  I put the front of the train vertical to give it the height of the engine.  The rest of the loaf halves laid flat.

4.  Place Chips Ahoy cookies on each train for the wheels

5.  Use various candy for the train's cargo.  We used Pull n' Peel licorice, M&Ms, both wrapped and unwrapped Rolos and Candy Canes.

6.  Stick candles in and there you have it!

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Christmas Ideas

Macy's and Writing Letters to Santa

This is the absolute best way to mail letters to Santa Claus in my opinion {Although don't forget I shared some fun ideas for emails from Santa and such last year}!  Macy's Department stores have a Santa Mail Box and cards to write letters on.  For each letter that is mailed in their box, they will donate $1.00(up to a million dollars) to the Make A Wish Foundation.  This is an amazing opportunity to not only support a cause, but to verify that your letters get mailed!

My kids and I had so much fun going to Macy's to participate.  It kicked off our whole holiday season and got us in the holiday mood.  My son, shown above, asked Santa for a machine that makes pennies into dollars.  Don't we all wish for that?  And we even got to see the hilarious Buddy the Elf {from a local production of Elf, The Musical} joining in on the fun too! I hope if you are looking for a new tradition in your family, you'll try this neat cause. Because you are never too old to believe in the magic of Santa Claus. Macy's brings the whole idea of the magic of Christmas to a new level by allowing us to help them serve kids in need.

See some of my favorite Christmas traditions from our 12 Days of Christmas posts last year!

13 Homemade and Creative Mother's Day Gifts for children of ALL ages

Abraham Lincoln once said,

 "All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel Mother" 

What a sweet tribute to his mom.  So, in honor of those very important mothers in our lives, we share 13 homemade and creative gift ideas.  These ideas span the generations giving you ideas for young mothers, empty nester mothers, elderly mothers, and grandparents.  Some are for youngsters to make and others are for adults to make.  We tried to share a variety of gifts that are relatively cheap {some free!}, thoughtful, simple and mostly able to be done last minute! Happy Mother's Day to all the incredible moms in the world!

1. Mother Recognition Kit

Do you remember our Survival Kits for the Military? 

Well we transformed the concept into a Mother Recognition Kit.  Here's what we included in the basket with a rolled up piece of stationary including the below description and tied with a ribbon.  {I love that this is full of practical and useful stuff, but in a very meaningful way}

Mother’s Recognition Kit

Lifesavers because you’re a lifesaver to so many people when they need it most
Lemonheads because when life gives you lemons, you always make lemonade
Gum because when you say you’ll do something, you stick to it
Starbursts because you have always taught us to shoot for the stars!
Popcorn because you give me a listening ear anytime an idea “pops” into my head
Soap because you exemplify someone who is clean and pure
Glue Sticks for your ability to stick by your family, no matter what!
Post-it-notes because you don’t postpone that which matters most
Notecards because you always “note”ice when someone’s had a bad day.
Chocolate for the incredible amount of sweetness you share with everybody
Kleenex to symbolize your compassion for those you love
Smarties for all the smart and wise advice you share with me
 Paperclips because you always keep it all together
Elastics because you’re incredibly flexible to juggle all yours and your family’s activities!
Batteries because you always keep going and going and going and going
Kleenex to symbolize your compassion for those you love 

2. Following in Mother's Footsteps Basket

Credit: Heidi Lawson

I love coming up with themes to center a present around. In future posts, we will share some of our other past "themed" baskets for gift ideas.  But one fun idea is to do a foot theme for moms since kids are always trying to follow in their footsteps.  Your basket could include: A framed picture of the kid's feet, gift certificate for a pedicure, fruit by the foot (fruit rollups), foot massager, nail polish, emery boards, fun socks, foot lotion, etc.

 

 

I attached the following quote:

"There is no velvet so soft as a mother's lap, no rose as lovely as her smile, no path so flowery as that imprinted with her footsteps." - Archibald Thompson

3.  Cupcake Love

 Cupcakes are all the rage right now and here's a fun way to spruce them up.  You can decorate the cupcake anyway you want.  I made flower petals out of starbursts and put a gumdrop in the middle.  Then place the cupcake in solo clear disposable cup.  I wrapped it saran wrap and tied a bow around it and voila!  A cute, simple and cheap gift idea for you or for your kids at home, school, or boy scouts to give moms and grandmas.

4.  Handprint Art

What parent and grandparent doesn't love their children's handprints frozen at a space of time.  Below is a fun idea to make a flower pot of handprints.  The leaves are made from thumbprints.  We added a little note that said, "You are my Sunshine".  You may also like the thumbprint hearts we did at Valentines.

5.  "Thanks for Helping us Grow" Edible Cookies

These are made with flower shortbread cookies (Mother's Cookies makes them, as well as other companies) and gum drops.

1. Place a gumpdrop about 1" down the top of a shish kabob skewer. 

2. Slide cookie on top and then place another gumpdrop on top of the cookie.  

Easy as pie, you have a cute gift.  You can make a whole vase of them with a green leaf that reads, "Thanks for helping us Grow"

6. Homemade Card Pack

Using your scrapbook supplies and stamps, you can make homemade giftcards for various seasons throughout the year.  This makes a great gift for moms and grandmas to be able to pull out at the right time of year.

7.  Meal Planning Frame

We showed this before, a very simple frame with scrapbook paper.  You can change the menu each week with a dry erase marker and may want to include that in your gift! Instructions are described here.

8. Cornbags

One of my grandma's favorite gift items are cornbags!  What a great way to pamper a mom on Mother's Day.  Instructions are found in our previous post here.

9. Photo Books

Rachel shared 5 creative themes to making a photo book for Mother's Day or any other holiday for that matter including Father's Day, Christmas, Birthdays, etc.

10. Coupon Books

  Easy, Last Minute and Fun.  Make coupons to cook dinner, clean your room without complaining, take the dog for a walk, empty the dishwasher, massage mom's back, etc.  A treat for any mom!  And for grandparents, you could include perform a talent for grandma, send grandma a piece of artwork, etc.

11. Homemade Movie

Have an older child or dad interview each child and ask them what they love about mom and record it for a keepsake.  With the ease of cameras on phones now, this could be something he could whip up last minute and still win for most thoughtful gift!

12. Homemade Cards with a Touch of Personal

 like this one we posted at Valentines:

13. Flower Pens in a Terra Cotta Pot

  

Great instructions can be found here on how to make these flower pens.  You can make a whole pot of them in a clay pot or just one in a cute mason jar with pebbles. 

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On the twelfth day of Christmas: Our Christmas Elf!

I can't finish up our contest without spotlighting Bernard, our Christmas Elf, so here's another repost from last year:

 I should probably begin with the story of how Bernard came to visit our family.  But it's a little long, so grab some hot chocolate and sit back and enjoy...

When my girls were quite young, their cousins told them about an elf that visited their family each Christmas.  My girls really wanted to have one of their own, so they wrote a letter to Santa asking for our own personal elf {your kids can too if they want to ask}.  And sure enough, Santa sent us an elf.  We got the book "The Secret of The Elves Elite" by Bill Cakmis to clarify all the rules of having a Christmas elf.

The story tells about how a long time ago, when the world was a smaller place, Santa was able to keep up with all the children and their behavior.  But eventually as towns grew, he needed help.  "So Santa gathered the hardest working elves he could find.  From that group, he selected the best of the best.  Of all the elves at the North Pole, this elite group of elves slept the least, worked the hardest, and produced the finest toys in all of Elfdom.  They were: The Elves Elite."  Santa sent his elves elite to watch the children and see if they deserved toys at Christmas.

The book told us that "just as the last ornament is placed on the Christmas tree each year, your elf is sent by Santa to find out where you live and to watch over you."  It goes on to further explain that "The Elves Elite are special because they are filled with the mystery of Christmas.  When one is touched, the mystery is lost." Therefore, the elves are not to be touched.

For 9 or so years now, we've had an elf visit. 

Bernard visits us each day starting when the last ornament is on the tree.  He watches to see if we are being good and it keeps my kids on their toes!  Each morning, he is in a different location, peeking down on us to make sure we are being good.  This makes each day a new excitement to find out where he is hiding.  The kids favorite spot is when he hides in the refrigerator, since it's cold like the North Pole.    {He is also very good at taking letters to Santa for us, which is handy!}

What a wonderful tradition it has been.  So if you haven't yet got your elf elite, write to Santa Claus right away!

In more recent years, the book, "The Elf on the Shelf" has served a similar purpose and it is very popular right now!
 

 

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On the eleventh day of Christmas: Homemade Guess Who?

Here I share a Christmas gift I made a few years back.  We bought the typical Guess Who by Hasbro and then printed family pictures in the same size of the photos from the game.  I pulled the originals out and popped in my family photos.  I also laminated the photos for safe keeping.  In the above version of Guess who, there are also the same pictures as playing cards, so I actually printed 2 of each picture.  Amazon now sells a slightly different version of Guess Who, which you would want to adapt to.  The grandparents loved it and the grandkids love to play it too!  Perfect chance to get the two to play together :)  A little personal touch is always my favorite!

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On the tenth day of Christmas: Grandpa Time Tickets!

Last year I posted about our homemade Christmas and it was hands down the most meaningful Christmas we have ever had.  In fact, ever since then, my kids come up with very creative homemade gifts for each other intermingled with store-bought gifts.

Last year, my uncle passed away and when I was over at their house after the funeral, I saw this wonderful homemade Christmas present idea hanging on tree.  Intrigued, I asked about it.  Every year, he gave each grandkid a "grandpa time" ticket.  They got to spend one-on-one time with him doing an activity.  

As I thought about it shortly after the funeral, I thought how those times were much more precious than any present could be a substitute for.

What a great idea for grandparents or parents!

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On the ninth day of Christmas: An ornament a year for the Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree dilemma I have all the time stems from a tradition I grew up with and love.  You know the amazing Christmas trees out there - the ones that used to only be the fancy department stores or at the town ice skating rink?  The perfectly lit up ones with matching decorations that fit a theme.  I LOVE looking at them.  I love seeing them at our local Festival of Trees and what creativity people have used.  However, over the years, those trees have become more the norm around me and I see less and less homemade ornaments, popcorn strands and classic trees.  So my dilemma lies in loving the idea of a beautiful dressed tree and wanting to celebrate the simplicity of Christmas and my children.  Last year, I finally gave in.  I had all the fixings for a GORGEOUS tree and we kept all of our homemade decorations in their boxes and proceeded to decorate the fanciest tree we'd ever had.  When it was all done, something was missing.  And we all knew it.  It wasn't our tree.  It didn't hold our ornaments that we had collected over the years and the love that those ornaments represented.  SO.. we actually pulled everything down and re-decorated our traditional tree and it was magical.

In this post I'll share another tradition I grew up with -- I know Christmas has evolved into glorious trees and fancy decorations.  But my parents had a tree that was a little different than the rest down the street.  Our tree had every branch heavily weighed down with ornaments of all sorts, sizes, and styles.  What made this tree so special was that every ornament had a story behind it. Below is their tree.  But growing up, this had 200 more ornaments!

 Each year, the children got one new ornament.  An ornament that represented a passion, talent or activity they had been a part of that year.  It may have been from a family vacation.  One year I got a piano for my passion of music and another year, I got a constitution because we were studying U.S history in school.

 Here is perhaps the oldest ornament on the tree, one my mom received from my grandma growing up.

 And this reflects my dad's love for The Wizard of Oz since he remembers this classic film coming out.

I adore this ornament because my aunt who passed away hand made them for our family when I was younger.  What a treasure!

We each had a notecard that we kept a list of the ornaments, what year we got them and what they represented.  Each child kept their ornaments in their own tote to pull out and decorate each December.

When we got married, we each took our collection of ornaments with us to start our own tree with. My kids LOVE looking at my ornaments and asking the stories behind them.  And I love glancing over at our tree and seeing the handmade ornaments and stories we have made of our own.

Now perhaps you can't part with your beautiful decorated trees, and I can see why not.  They are so visibly appealing.  If that's the case, I suggest possibly having a second tree.  It can even be a smaller kid's tree that the kid's keep in their own room. The kids can have ownership to their tree and their season by placing their ornaments up and enjoying their childhood joys as well.  And if you don't want the undertaking of an ornament a year, undoubtedly you will collect ornaments over the years that children make at school or receive as gifts. 

I promise, it will mean the world to your kids!

Some of our homemade ornaments are here and here.

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On the Eighth Day of Christmas--Christmas Cookie Recipes and Cookie Exchange

We love making (and eating) Christmas cookies this time of year! One of our favorite traditions with friends is an annual cookie exchange.

For a cookie exchange, a group of people each make a certain number of cookies (usually several dozen, depending on how many cookies you want to take home). If you have a small group, you can coordinate to make sure no two people bring the same type of cookie. With a larger group, people can just bring whatever type of cookies they want and you will probably have a good enough variety. Then, you get together at a party... you can have other treats or fun activities at the party as well. We have sometimes paired this with a white elephant game or a yummy Christmas breakfast. Then, before you leave, you take home as many plates of others' cookies as you brought. For example, if each person brought 6 dozen cookies, then each person takes home 6 dozen different cookies that others brought. You can keep these cookies for your family, but what we usually do is redistribute most of these cookies among plates to deliver to other friends or neighbors. (I make sure to sample at least one of every type of cookie, though!) We take our kids out and if we are brave we do a little caroling, too, as we deliver cookies. One elderly neighbor last year was blown away. "In all my years, I've never been caroled to before," she said. It was fun to see her delight at the cookies and the simple rendition of Jingle Bells that my kids sang for her.

So, below are a few of our favorite cookie recipes that we have made for our cookie exchanges and for delivering to neighbors (and eating ourselves):

Gingerbread Cookies
(You can cut these into the shapes of gingerbread men if you want!)

Ingredients:

1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. molasses
1 slightly beaten egg
1/2 c. softened butter

2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground allspice

Instructions:
1. Mix brown sugar, molasses, egg and butter in a large mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, stir together remaining dry ingredients. Then, add dry ingredients to the other mixing bowl and blend. Dough will be very stiff, so you may need to use your hands.
3. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
5. Roll dough to 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes with a cookie cutter. Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven.
7. If you desire, you can frost and decorate these, just as you would frost and decorate sugar cookies (see below for icing recipe).

Sugar Cookies

You can't forget our all-time favorite sugar cookies! Pull out those Christmas cookie cutters and try out this delicious and easy sugar cookie recipe.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies
(Rolo cookies)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 t. baking soda
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter, softened
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
30-36 Rolos
2 T. sugar

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add sugar, brown sugar, butter, eggs, and vanilla. Mix together until well blended.
3. Add flour, cocoa, and baking soda, and mix well.
4. Refrigerate and chill dough for 30 minutes.
5. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place 1 Rolo in the center of each dough ball.
6. Form the dough ball around the majority of the Rolo.
7. Roll each dough ball in sugar.
8. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 7-10 minutes.
9. Let cool on pan for 1 minute then take off and place on cookie cooling rack.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 c. pumpkin
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Instructions:
1. Blend shortening, sugar, pumpkin, egg and vanilla.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, & salt.
3. Add dry ingredients to blended mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees

Icing:
Boil together 3 T. melted butter, 3 T. milk, and 1/2 c. brown sugar for 2 minutes. Add enough powdered sugar to make icing easy to spread. Spread on cookies immediately.


Chocolate-dipped Oreos

Ingredients:

Oreos
Chocolate chips
Crushed candy canes

Directions:
Melt chocolate chips over a low heat, as in a fondue pot. Dip oreos in melted chocolate. Top with crushed candy canes.

Variations:
If you buy double-stuff oreos, you can put sucker sticks in the middle to make them oreo pops. You can also add different embellishments on top, such as sprinkles, or drizzled white chocolate or icing in a contrasting color.

What other types of cookies and treats do YOU like to make this time of year? I'd love to hear your comments!

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