Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays - Wish list

It has been fun sharing our Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays ideas with you. For kicks and giggles, I thought it would be fun to end this by sharing our wish lists this year.

We took our family Christmas card pictures and sent them off to the printers (Sam's Club baby!). The very next day, my 7 year old finally lost his second top tooth. Yes, the one that has been loose since summer. We had been saying for months that he was sure to loose it in time to say "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." Murphy's Law that he would loose it the day AFTER we took and finalized our pictures.

I have a long wish list on Amazon. Most of the things on my list are baking and cooking books. I have a lot of books on my list that are for Vegan and gluten free since my food allergies are mostly wheat and dairy. The other big collection on my wish list are about raising amazing children. I am always thinking about my parenting issues.

It's a pet...it's a pillow...it's a pillow pet! My kids are crazy over Pillow Pets. They have been asking for them for months now thanks to the commercials;) Legos are always a popular item on their lists. I love that they will spend hours building and creating with them. (And they are Danish!) Nerf guns. Our older sister's boys have every kind of Nerf gun and my boys are really interested in them now. (Thanks Melissa!)

What I am the most excited about is a simple Christmas. The last few years we have scaled back.We pretty much stick to the three gift thing for each of our kids. This year in particular, we really scaled back. I only put up the trees (OK we have two trees up this year), and have a couple of other decorations around the house as well as lights on the house. No trinkets or great table scapes. This is the first year in a long time that I'm not hosting either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Seems strange not to be in charge of one of those celebrations. But it is also nice. I am looking forward to spending the time with my little family of four. I am excited about the time leading up to the new year too. I spend this time planning for the next year!

Anjeanette
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Katrina here:

I have to say that I already got the biggest thing on my list. Last September I took my dog into the vet only to learn she has a serious heart condition. She was literally on her death bed. We have had her for 13 years, almost 14 and I was not ready for her to go. The only thing they could do was put her on heart medications and hope they worked. The outlook was not good and they couldn't even tell me how long she would last. It all depended on how well she responded to the medications. It has been 3 wonderful months with my baby girl. She has responded well and at times has even been able to go out on walks and been a little frisky. All I had wanted back in September was more time with her. What ever I could get. We will have one more Christmas with our girl. I am thankful every day for the gift of time. She has also been spoiled rotten (even more than before) ever since. ;)

I still have other wants on my list like a new cell phone. I would dearly love to get a Mac book pro. Other things I have on my list are things that will encourage me to work out more. We have a Wii and I have been wondering about the "work out" games. The Fit was great for a while but I wouldn't say I was getting a great work out. Oh Yeah....a gift card to a craft store! Nothing like guilt free craft shopping. ;)

As for my family, Legos are on all 3 of my boy's wish list. Even the biggest one , my husband, has pointed out some Lego sets he would like. This year it has been hard to get my boys to tell us what they would like for Christmas. They only had two things on their lists. One wanted the command base from Lego Power Miners and a remote control helicopter. The other wanted the Mine Cart set from Lego Indiana Jones. Though he didn't say it out right, he also would like a remote control helicopter. He wants what his older brother wants. LOL Their answer has never changed. My husband wants a Nerf gun that will shoot a lot of bullets quickly.

Our holiday plans have been altered due to our dog's health. We were suppose to spend two weeks in California. We were going to drive through San Diego and go to Lego Land on the way up to San Jose to spend Christmas with my family. On the way back we were going to stop and go to Sea World or the zoo. This is the first year that we won't be with either family for Christmas. We will be spending it at home and with close friends. Oh and my husband has the next two weeks off with us. YAY! We will have a Staycation! However, you spend your holidays, I hope it is wonderful and full of great memories. I got my miracle and I hope you get yours.

Katrina

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Rebecca here, adding my list a bit late ;)

I feel like Katrina, that I have already gotten what I wanted. I know that it sounds so corny, but if you knew me and my life you would know how much I mean it. I am just thankful for all the time with my children! I have done whatever I had to to be able to stay home with them and I am thankful for every minute I have achieved this goal! Even having this blog has been a fun gift to myself. Who doesn't need a reason to craft more, or at least find some time!? And even better was the extra time it gave me with my sisters (which includes Katrina, because if you saw our whole family you would know she has been one of us from the beginning!). I also have awesome friends that I have been so fortunate to experience some really spectacular time with. This friend gave myself and my children our Christmas gifts early, and we are enjoying it every night!!

For my children there are, of course, many requests. Legos are a big thing in our home (especially since they are something that I LOVE as well!). As are My Twinn doll accessories (they got the dolls last year for Christmas). Webkinz, Build-A-Bears, and Bobbleheads are a non-stop want in this house. They have quite the collection and play with them together every day! So sweet!

I can't wait to spend the next 2 weeks with my children, while they have a break from school! I guess I could add that to my list of things that I want! I hope that everyone else has a great Holiday and enjoys themselves fully!

Rebecca

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The Roots And Wings Co girls are taking a week off from the blog to enjoy our families. We hope you have a lovely Christmas too!

The Elves’ Snickerdoodles

My great friend Pam, of Gingerbread Snowflakes is having a virtual Cookie Exchange all month starting today!  This will be my first cookie that I am linking to her party!  My Mom and I will be baking some other fun cookies this weekend to add to the party!  I hope you will jump over to Gingerbread Snowflakes and join in on the fun!  If you are coming from her post, then "Hi, and welcome!"  This is actually a post from last year but I loved these cookies so much because of the fun name and great taste.  In fact I just made up a double batch yesterday to start off my holiday baking!!

Anjeanette had her annual Cookie Exchange over the weekend. Though, that’s hers to tell and not mine. ;) I can tell you about the cookies I brought. I wanted something new and as soon as I heard the name for these I knew they were the ones. “The Elves’ Snickerdoodles”. So cute, right?
Well, I felt the point of these cookies is to make them colorful…you know, something fun for the Elves! In the picture of my colorful sprinkles notice the red one (on the lower left) is chunkier. I crushed up red hots and added it to the red sugar sprinkles. The red cookies ended up being everyone’s favorites (especially mine…yum-o!). I even used some decorative shaped sprinkles (I have gingerbread, snowflake, and tree shaped sprinkles….I use them as often as I can!).

I’ll give you the recipe at the end of this post. With their name, how pretty they were, and some added bling for the presentation…I did not even care how they tasted.
But Oh My Gosh! They were delicious! I think it’s the lemon zest, sour cream, and red hots that make them fantastic!
The last couple of years my presentation for the cookies has kind of lacked. So, this year I had to make them cuter. I added the holly and mistletoe name tags to the top, some sparkly Christmas ribbon and “boxed” them up in champagne glasses. That way you could see the cookies pretty colors through the whole packaging.

Notice on the bottom of the glasses…I added shrinky dink wine charms that I had already made. Love these.
I found the recipe at the Family Fun website. This is from there:
Being one of Santa's elves requires a lot of qualities we admire: industriousness, cooperation, attention to detail, and perhaps most of all, a sense of humor. Says one elf we spoke to: "We work hard all year long. The hours are long, so morale is important. The baker elves (the ones assigned to kitchen duty) know that one sure way to keep their crew happy throughout the holiday season is by serving plenty of these sparkly sugar-topped Snickerdoodles. The name alone just gives us the giggles."

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 tablespoons soft butter

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Colored sugar or edible glitter

Instructions

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the shortening and butter. Gradually mix in the sugar. Beat in the egg until blended, then the sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
2. With a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture half at a time, until evenly mixed. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 30 to 60 minutes.
3. Shortly before baking heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease one or two large cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper. Put the decorative sugar into small bowls.
4. With lightly floured hands, shape the dough into 1-1/2-inch-thick balls. Roll the balls in the colored sugar and place them on the prepared baking sheets spaced about 3 inches apart. Bake the cookies on the center oven rack for 15 to 18 minutes, until they're a light golden brown. Cool the cookies on the sheet for 2 to 3 minutes. Then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Makes about 24 cookies.

My addition to these would be to double the lemon zest (thank you Mother for the fresh lemons!). Also, add crushed red hots to your red sprinkles. So super Yummy!

Rebecca

Come join the fun over at: Remodelaholic, ByStpehanieLynn,

Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays - Remember to capture it in pictures

Today I wanted to remind you to take pictures.

If you are anything like me, you don't like having your picture taken when you aren't looking your best. I can't stand pictures in my house when it isn't tidy and forget about pictures of me without my hair fixed (at least). I did this for a few years and noticed that I was missing from the whole time between Thanksgiving until after the New Year! Missing from every picture or video.

One day, I was sitting with my son, going through pictures. He asked me why I wasn't in any of the pictures. Hmmm. Because I didn't think I looked good. In retrospect, I was 30 pounds lighter and had fewer wrinkles. I allowed myself to be removed from those celebrations.

Since then, I have allowed other people to take pictures of me even if I didn't look perfect. I allowed pictures of my arms in tank tops (I know!) and I allowed myself to remain in our memories of the celebrations for years to come.

At some time during this hustle and bustle, please let someone take your picture. Heck, ask someone to take your picture. Take pictures of your kids doing fun things even if your house isn't perfect. Take pictures. Take lots of pictures. Take a video of your family talking about whatever is important to you right now.

This is a great time to set aside time to make sure to get a family picture. This year, we had great intentions to take pictures at a nice park outside. Every time we planned to go, it was raining. So instead, we sat in front of our tree and took a picture. We used a tripod and the self timer button.

Don't let another year go by without capturing you and your family.

Anjeanette

Rebecca here adding to the thought of pictures being important. I think all of us has fallen into the habit of not wanting pictures taken of us, at one time or another. I could not agree more with Anjeanette that this might not be the best way to act.

I found that even after I got over that problem, I still wasn't showing up in pictures. This is because I am the photographer for my little family. I have had one of those same moments with my child. The one where they asked me where I was during all those fun events. My problem was not that I was missing from the pictures because I chose to be. I was just always the photographer. I used to find it uncomfortable to ask someone else to take a picture with me in it. Many times I just did not even think about it. It is so easy to hand your camera off to someone else to take pictures. In this day of digital cameras and cameras that take such beautiful pictures for you, you don't even have to worry about what kind of a photographer the person is. Just have them take a slew of pictures, one is sure to turn out!

I also found that many moments were not being captured that I wanted. Either my batteries died out on me, or my memory card was full! How disappointing. I now have a battery charged up all the time, and clear my memory card every time I use my camera. This way, my camera is always ready to go. There are so many spontaneous moments that are missed because of those things, for me. Many times I had my camera and it was all ready to go, and I failed to take pictures anyways.

I sometimes felt that because no one else was taking pictures, that I couldn't either. Not any more. In fact, at the last Christmas concert for my oldest daughter, my youngest daughter video taped the whole thing. She walked right to the front of the auditorium to get a better shot of her sister. I saw her do it, and I did not stop her. The way the auditorium is set up, she could not be in anyone's way. I am so pleased to have a video where we can actually see which dot is my child! I also walked up to the teacher and asked to take a picture of my daughter with the teacher, even though no other parents were even approaching the teacher to talk, let alone take pictures. I have found people to be quite gracious about this request and have never found it to be a problem. What was I worried about before?

Think about what shots you want taken. Think about what parts of something that you want to be remembered. I can assure you that I want my children to have pictures of me, in all my glory (no shower, no makeup and all) documenting that I was there too. But even more then just holding my place in the moment, it is also an accurate picture for my children of what their Mother really looked like, when they were 5 years old. Years later, they can laugh with their children about my highlighted hair (that is so 2009!), or what other styles that will become so funny to them. One of my favorite pictures of my siblings is of them on a horse. It is not even about the moment of that memory. It is about how 70's that picture was! They were all rocking the brown leather sandals (with socks) and 70's clothes and hair!

Here are a few examples of preserving the "time" as well as the moment!

This is our lovely Mother. Notice the poodle hair-do? (Sorry, Mom, but it is!) Yeah...well, all of us girls were Rocking that hairstyle right then! It is so much fun for me to look back at pictures of my Mom and to see how much she kept up with the times. While I was looking for these pictures I found ones of my Mom in the 70's, totally rocking the Farrah Fawcett-do! Priceless! Other noteables about this picture are that my Mom is making Pizzels. Yes, the same ones that Anjeanette just posted about! How cool is it to not just know you have traditions, but to see them in pictures from way back when! She even still has that same pizzel maker. Cool, hu!?

So sorry to do this to you, girls. However it had to be done. The above picture is another moment where not just the moment, but the "time" was captured. Yes, getting pictures of us making awesome candy cane cookies (see we keep telling you that we have just grown up with crafting, baking, and doing it all together with traditions!) is totally cool. However, having us in our awesome attire is just icing on the cake, don't ya think!? Fluffy bangs, and a tied-at-the waist-hanging-off-the-shoulder shirt could not have told the "time" any better! Love it!

Hope you guys get a kick out of these oldie pictures. I'm not sure my Sisters will love me showing them off! ;) I know they'll get over it, and they just showed my point better then I can just write it.

Katrina Here:

The girls have got this one covered but I thought I would add something. For years every time I took the camera to my son's pre-school to capture and event, either my batteries would die or my card would be full. I fixed that problem by getting a 4 gb memory card and I always carry an extra set of batteries in my purse. I never take them out and have them with me all the time. This way I don't have to try to remember to bring batteries. This year it paid off for another parent. His batteries died just before the Halloween parade for our Kindergarteners. I happily volunteered two of my batteries to him so he could capture his child in action. Just saying it is always the memory card or the batteries that go when you don't have extras on hand. Most of the time I don't need those batteries anymore. LOL They stopped dieing during those kinds of events. Go figure!

Happy Holidays and remember to jump into a picture. I did that with a family vacation picture. I heard my husband getting the boys to pose for the picture so I stopped what I was doing in the cabin (making dinner) and jumped into the picture.

Guilt Free Candy Canes-Perfect For Your Tree

These candy canes are great for everyone’s diet! They are completely guilt free: No Fat, milk, sugar, whey, carbs, calories, gluten, etc! I think these candy canes look great in an empty box of real candy canes! My children and I have had so much fun coming up with different things that candy canes can be made out of!

Pom poms! Awesome. Just string a thin wire through them to be able to bend them to the candy cane shape. I love how fluffy these are. These were using medium size pom poms.

Oh, beads. So quick and easy for the kids. I just had the kids string the beads on to pipe cleaners.

I had to make a beaded one with some of my prettier beads, too!

As always, I had to use Polymer Clay, because I love it so!

Even straight up paper ones are quite fun.

What is easier than twisting 2 pipe cleaners together?

Oh even sparkly ones in this box! Notice the 4th one from the left? Yup, crocheted! Betcha didn’t know I could pull that off. I made it up as I went along. I first just made a chain stitch with red yarn. Then, added the green one, twisting the red chain as I went along. I did have to then thread a pipe cleaner through the center, to make it hold it’s shape.

These are making their way to a special kid on my list who has to go completely without sweets! This way he can still have his own candy canes!

We always hang our candy canes on our Christmas Tree. Whenever people come over, we give them out. I made a few batches of this type of candy canes. Again, we did hand out one set of them, with another getting ready to go as well. We did keep some of them for our tree as well!

I am not showing my whole tree, as it probably looks like most everyone else's who let their kids decorate it! But I do like showing off parts of my tree. My other favorite parts of my tree are my garland, my homemade retro mice ornaments, and I'm dying to make some silhouette ornaments like Anjeanettes. Another favorite tree, however, isn't the kind to put gifts under. It is Anjeanette's Fabric Card Holder Tree, or even her fabric tree advent calendar!

Rebecca

We linked this post to a linky party on Christmas Trees, here, here, and here! Enjoy!

One Seam Flying Geese Christmas Card Holder

I have been thinking about this one for years. I get lovely Christmas cards every year. I never have a nice way to display them.

Are you familiar with the one seam flying geese technique? I saw it a year or so ago on Quilt in a day and have been thinking about this project ever since. There are so many great tutorials out there about it. The Quilt show has a video that is super easy to understand. You basically start with two squares and a rectangle. The rectangle is folded and sandwiched between the right sides of the squares and you sew a seam down the side.

You open it up and Voila! You have a single seam goose. Ha! I made up some with green and red to be like a Christmas tree.

I did a block with red squares and a narrow brown rectangle and sewed just the side of the square to make the trunk in a similar way to the geese.

Although it isn’t a goose, it is a trunk.

I pulled out some cards and decided how big I wanted my geese and went with that. I made three trees out of them, threw on some polka dot sashing and a binding and called it a day. Really I was a slacker and this took me three days playing with it. I could have finished it in a jiffy if I was serious about it.

Each triangle is a pocket where you can put your cards. I just love it! I always say that, don’t I? I can’t help it, I really do. I am on a huge red and white kick and I just love Michael Miller. I have been keeping this fabric for a long time dreaming up the stuff I wanted to make with it. I think a huge part of a project is the materials you choose. I am slowly learning that if you use inexpensive (cheap) materials to make your projects, they just don’t last. I really want my time spent on each project to be worth my time and money. I am always happy when I choose quality over price when I purchase anything going into my projects. I don’t mean just fabric, but any kind of item I use to make something…I like it to be a good quality item. Just my two cents.

I threw a few cards in it to show you just how cute it is all done up! Did I say I love it yet? I do. It is almost too cute to put cards in it.

I am so excited to finally have a way to show off all the Christmas cards I get. Now I just need to work on taking a family picture and sending my own Christmas cards out. Yikes! If this inspires you to make a single seam flying geese Christmas card holder, please share a picture with us on our flickr group. We have a lot of readers and not a lot of comments. Sometimes I’m not sure if you are reading this because I have a booger hanging out of my nose and you think it is funny to watch, or if you really like what you see. It is nice to know you are getting something useful out of what we are sharing…. Particularly when what we share is as cute as this;)

Anjeanette

Technorati Tags: christmas,card holder,one seam flying goose,michael miller,fabric,sewing,wall hanging

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Katrina here,

Oh Anjeanette!!!!!! It turned out great! I LOVE IT! I have been waiting a month to see how this turned out. She taunted me with the fabrics and the design idea about a month ago and I have been dying to see it. Some days I have to wait till she posts to see the final project (because we live 2.5 hours away).

To join in some fun we are linking this to other parties here. and here and here:

Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays- Service Gifts

It is my turn to make a video on my own. Anjeanette worked like crazy to make the first videos work. You have no idea just how long it takes to make a video. Probably about 50 takes to get it just right (with out tripping over your words or making some sort of strange facial expression you never knew you did). When I suggested we do videos for this, I had no idea that it would be anything other than simple. It is so hard not to look stiff while basically talking to yourself. Forget when somebody else is in the video! The bouts of spontaneous laughter make the process take twice as long. Not to mention laughing at ourselves over the finished videos.

I know that my boys are fairly typical in that other kids their age (5&7) think Christmas is about what they will get FOR Christmas. It is really important to me that they learn that Christmas is more than that, it is about giving and good will and so much more. I want them to grow up to be giving and caring men. I want to teach them that there is more to gifts than the kind you buy from a store. Service gifts are a great way to teach this concept during the Holiday season.

This year they will pick out a toy each for a toy drive. They will take them to their school toy drive so they can feel good about giving. We also plan to do something similar for a food drive. The boys will be the ones to hand over the donation so that it can be something we do as a family and not just something my husband and I do.

Some ideas for Family and Friends: As part of your gift give them a coupon for something like:
-An outing for a day at the zoo, a day at the park complete with picnic lunch, going out to lunch, a movie together, ice skating, or a trip to a store to pick something out. Something they would enjoy doing with you.
-for baby sitting so parents can go out on a date
- for making a meal
-teaching a skill (sewing, crochet, knitting, a sport, cooking, building something, making something, music lessons, art lessons) anything that the person would enjoy (give them something they need for the activity with a card stating your intentions.
-Instead of just a gift certificate, add in that you will take them to spend it. Perhaps plan on getting a drink (like hot chocolate) or bite to eat while out.
-for a day of help doing what ever. (cleaning, fixing something, remodeling something, yard work, painting, etc)
- for nieces and nephews and really good friends you can invite them over for a sleep over complete with an activity in mind. Years and years ago when Erika was little we would have her over for the weekend after Thanksgiving. She and I would spend the weekend crafting and making gifts to give to the family. I enjoyed those weekends, I think she did too.
-for older nephews consider a day of computer gaming, play a game that can be networked with two computers or on a video console. For more involved adventure games why not plan a game day one day a month till you both get tired of the game or till you complete all the levels. This is especially good for nephews that may not have their father in their lives. On line games are especially good if you don't live near by. Not into video games, why not get together to play a sport together.

The big theme is to not just give them a gift but to give them the gift of your time. So much of the time we have no time to stop and bond with extended family members. We get so caught up in the day to day that we forget that we have an opportunity to help mold other children in our lives. We can be mentors and help give them a more rounded education on what family is really all about. If you give a service gift make sure it is something that you will keep your word on. As soon as possible sit down with the person and mark a date on your calendar. It should be something that you can start or fulfill with in the next month. The only problem with gifts like this is that you can't say you will do it and not schedule a date because it is likely it will never happen. Perhaps you can feel out what the person's schedule is like ahead of time and even choose a date to put on the card/coupon. This is something that can easily be done with kid's gifts because you can ask their parents what a good date will be and get it on the calendar. With adults it is a little harder. If you are offering a day of help, it may be best to give them 3 or 4 dates to choose from that are good for you. If you are making a meal for some one, you should consider making something that can be frozen and baked when they need it or that will reheat well. Meals are great for new parents because often times they are getting use to a new schedule (even if it isn't their first child). A prepared meal can be heaven sent when new parents are just too tired to cook or go out to get something.

For the Community/neighborhood:
-Doing little things for neighbors you know are having a hard time.
-If you know they are tight on money you could....give them a gift certificate so they can get a few things from Christmas, I gave a gift certificate for a pet store to someone who has lots of animals.
-Helping an elderly couple with yard work, putting up Christmas Decorations and such things.
-Visiting a nursing home, have the kids read them a Christmas book.
-Do little things like take a plastic shopping bag with you when you go for a walk. Pick up trash you see as you walk.
-Talk to your neighbors about doing a block party.

No deed is too small. The idea is to think of what you can do to make the season a little brighter for others. It does not have to cost you anything but time and a little tough. Some times all it takes is to slow down half a second and give somebody the right of way on the road. If somebody is lifting something heavy, why not help? The best way to teach our children is by example.

Happy Holidays,
Katrina

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Anjeanette jumping in! I LOVE this subject! Seriously, I think it is so important for my boys to learn about service and thinking of others. When my 1st son was born, we started choosing a tag from an Angel Tree, usually at the mall. We look and look for a tag for a child the same age as our sons and pick out things our kids would LOVE to have. We talk about why we are giving a gift to other children. We talk about how fortunate we are to have the things we have, our house, our family etc.

Our siblings this year have decided that the gifts we give to our nieces and nephews are going to be service gifts. Erika gave Rebecca's daughter a coupon for a day of baking together for my niece's birthday. We all thought that was such a great gift that we decided that is what we are going to do this year. The gift of time is a much better gift in my eyes than another toy. Hopefully we will also be building great relationships and memories with our sibling's children.

Another thing we do to help our kids think of others has to do with the red buckets that are everywhere right now. I normally don't carry any money on me. But I try to keep some small bills on me from November through December. My kids get very excited about putting money into those buckets. I give them each a little bit to put in with their own hands. They really think that is neat. It is particularly cute to me because often they have to really reach their little hands to get to the bucket. (We do that other times of the year too. Particularly when it is the Veterans. And when it is a Veteran, I also have taught my kids to say "Thank YOU!" to them.)

And my last service gift is something my Mom did with us when we were small. At church one year, they made some wood mangers. They were about a foot long and pretty good sized. Mom had a stack of hay next to it. When any of us saw another family member doing something nice for another person, we got to put a piece of hay in the manger. The idea was to have the manger full of hay in time for Christmas Day (for the arrival of Jesus of course). This was fun and we all tried to *catch* someone else doing something nice so we could put more straw in the manger. I think it is a great way for small children to think of something outside of them self.

Thanks Katrina for such an idea packed post! I love the topic and got a bunch of good ideas too;)

I would love to know what you do as gifts of service during the holiday season?

Anjeanette

Rugelach oh how I love you!

First, I just want to keep it real. Sometimes our little blog may make it appear like we have it together differently than we really do. I mean, we aren't Martha Stewart. I was helping with a PTSO lunchoen today and had promised to make pies and these rugelach for the lunchoen. True to form, my 3 year old was sick all week. Last week my 7 year old was sick. Someone in the house has been sick for the last 6 weeks. I'm not kidding. So I had yesterday set aside to bake for the luncheon. I took more breaks than maybe I should have. I had a PTSO meeting I attended yesterday after my son's school got out. I baked through the night until 3 this morning. While I was at it, I figured why not make extra pies for us and a few reserves in the freezer for later. That is what you all do too, right? My day was carefully planned out almost to the minute. It took some creativity to get it all mapped out and lined up. I dropped off my 2nd grader and ran to Rebecca's house. Our sons go to preschool together. My little one has missed two weeks of preschool. today he was going to go back! At Rebeccas house, my son threw up! It was just lovely. Not only did I gross out my sister, my whole day was off. I'm so lucky I have my mom and two other sisters nearby. I was able to drop off the sick one with Erika and took in 3 French Pear Tarts, 2 Caramel Pumpkin pies (both of which looked like poop, but tasted wonderful) and a plate of Rugelach. I stained my one dressy shirt with grease because all my treats are packed with butter. I did save one of each pies for us too. I have to run everything by my taste-tester husband before I serve it up for anyone else. Thanks honey for sacrificing for me;) I missed helping out AT the luncheon and cleaning up. sigh. Just so you know that we have normal lives too.

Now on to my post...

Really I should be singing the praises to Dorie Greenspan. I adore her so. She is a skinny baker and I don’t normally think you should trust a skinny…well anything really;) I mean Mario Batali I trust his recipes because you can tell that man likes to eat what he makes. And who doesn’t love a man with neon crocs? But Dorie Greenspan is skinny and she bakes and she writes recipes in books.

Let me just tell you…trust her recipes. Trust them. They are almost no fail. And they are to die for. I’m not talking about your marshmallow puff, and processed boxed mix treats that every housewife around knows how to bake either. I’m talking about a real baker with real ingredients and real steps and real yummy treats.

I was participating in an online baking group Tuesdays with Dorie for a while. But then I started getting sick from dairy and wheat. Couple that with my son’s EE and there weren’t a whole lot of people I could bake for in my house anymore. Not REAL baking anyway. With the holidays here, I finally have an excuse to bake for real again. I went to my trusty book Baking from my Home to Yours from Dorie. You can check here for the recipe.

Of course I made a few modifications. I chopped up the chocolate and nuts a bit so they were smaller. I also added the currants and orange cranberries to the warming jelly. I wanted to plump them up and soften them a little. I used orange marmalade as the jelly. Oh my! It was wonderful!

Another really good tip is to roll the dough out between waxed paper. Put it back in the fridge to firm up before you do anything else. Then spread your jelly mix, add your nuts and chocolate. Roll them up and sprinkle with some nice chunky sugar like Turbinado sugar. Oh yah! That is what I am talking about!

Anjeanette

Fun Garlands For Your Christmas Tree

I grew up with a Christmas tree that had scandinavian decorations on it. Even if this wasn’t my heritage (which it is) I would still love these kinds of decorations because they were a part of my childhood. I remember cute straw ornaments with red accents. Even more than those, I remember garlands made out of Danish flags. They are called Flagranker. Oh, how I love those garlands. The other year Anjeanette and her family visited Solvang in California which is a cute Danish themed town. They bought those awesome Danish flag garlands for each of us! She bought them at Jule Haus. I put them on my Christmas tree and was oh so happy. Such a little thing, but I swear they put such a great smile on my face whenever I see them! Well, the other side of my kids heritage was not seen on the tree. As soon as this was brought to my attention I immediately whipped up a garland made out of Scottish flags. Makes me even happier. I do not know what it is about the Holidays, but it makes me think of my heritage. I love hearing stories of where my family came from (especially because my Dad is such a great story teller!). Having these decorations on my tree is a great conversation starter for my children. They always ask what things are and why we have them. So, it opens up a whole conversation about where all the different people in our family come from. I am so lucky to know of my family’s rich heritage. I love that my parents celebrated Holidays from other countries! It is also one way to prolong the celebrating (which is always a good thing, in my book….I believe you don’t just have a Birth-Day, but instead a Birth-Week….get where I’m going here?)!

Not all flags are as easy as Denmark’s and Scotland’s. However, I think you can still come up with ways to incorporate parts of your heritage into your celebrating or decorating.

Rebecca

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Garlands,Flags,Scotland,Denmark

Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays Christmas Day

Today I am continuing our videos for our Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays. Anjeanette has been the one posting the videos for us up until now. So this is my first try posting one on my own. Pretend that my mouth is moving at the same time as the video...k? My family always calls me motor mouth. Watching this video with the audio out of sync to the video, I can see why they may call me that! ;) And, apparently when I make a video by myself...I also over accentuate facial gestures. Let's just pretend I'm keeping my kiddos occupied while trying to film the video. So the exaggerated gestures are for them! Or if it keeps you amused, that works as well! It's a short video with a few ideas for keeping Christmas Day heartfelt.

For those of you who made it through that video without laughing, thank you. For those who laughed...so did I!

I will be assessing my Christmas Day, as I do each of the holidays. I will think about what parts of it are important to me or for my children. The rest I will leave out. I will also notice in what ways I can complete the mood for the day. I will make sure to have all the senses accounted for when I can.

I'd love to hear some of your Christmas Day traditions or what you feel your priorities are, on Christmas Day. How do you handle wrapping and unwrapping of the presents? Can't wait to hear from you.

Rebecca

~~Oh Rebecca! I'm thrilled your video doesn't sync either! It is much harder than I imagined too. Apparently, you and I are very expressive with our faces. I think it is fun to let our readers see us.

I love Christmas morning!! I am usually the one rounding up everyone in the morning. Even when I first got married, I would be up early and just dying to wake my husband up. I remember trying really hard to wake him up sometime around 5:00 am, saying "Let's see what Santa brought us..." I'm sure he thought I was nuts. Hopefully, this year, my kids will wake up earlier than I will.

I always start my morning with cinnamon rolls in the oven while we open gifts. I need to find a good wheat and dairy free recipe this year;) I bet that doesn't really exist. (Let me know if you have one to share.) And I need to figure how to make something for my 3 year old out of rice, rice milk and sugar;) I guess he will get my rice only rice krispy treats for Christmas breakfast.

My oldest son loves to hand out the presents. He reads the names from the gifts and sets up piles next to each of us. Then we take turns opening gifts. One person opens a gift while the others watch. I hate for the gifts to get rushed through and not getting to see their faces as they open their new thing.

This is the first year that I won't be doing Christmas Eve dinner. We usually spend Christmas day eating leftovers. I'll have to come up with something fun for food on Christmas Day.

The best part of our celebration is that our 92 year old Maternal Grandmother is staying with us. We grew up with our grandparents sleeping over on Christmas Eve. They have always been there on Christmas morning to watch the kids open their gifts. Last year, Grandma didn't come to stay with us. This year she is with us again! My kids adore her and she is looking forward to watching my children open their gifts on Christmas morning! She said she was glad to be "home" for Christmas this year.

I too would love to know what you do.

Anjeanette
~~~~~~
Katrina Here:

One thing I like to do is have all the gifts from "Santa" be wrapped in special paper. I am VERY CAREFUL not to ever wrap something from Santa in paper we have used for other gifts. I even hide it at the bottom of a drawer where the boys will never see it. It always has Santa on it. Even the ribbon I use has something to do with Santa on it.

In my family, when I was growing up, we always opened gifts from each other on Christmas Eve after dinner. All of the dinner dishes and leftovers had to be cleaned up. It was the one time that more than one of us were washing dishes so that we could get to opening presents faster. Thinking back to my childhood the opening of gifts felt a little frenzied but I know that we each took turns opening a gift. I remember watching to see what everyone got. This is definitely something I want to emphasize for my own children. The gifts that we opened on Christmas day were just the presents from Santa.

Another thing that I remember from my childhood is the tradition of adding and orange to the items in the stocking. I have read about similar traditions where an apple was placed in the toe of the stocking for good luck,an orange in the heal if you were good, a nut for fun, salt for good luck and a piece of coal to keep you warm in the new year. I could easily see adding a candle or a flashlight instead of the coal and the meaning would be to guide your way. Another thing that my mother always did for our stocking was to go to a world market that had specialty candies from all over. We would always get little tins of hard candies and a chocolate orange. They were items we didn't get any other time of year. They were not the standard candies that you can buy and any store (though they are in more store now than they use to be). It was fun to get some candies that are sold in other parts of the world. Oh how I wish that they made those chocolate oranges gluten and dairy free. That way I could pass on that tradition to my boys. To this day I look forward to my chocolate orange on Christmas.

Katrina

Make Science Kit Gifts

Last year I made some science kits for a niece and a nephew as Christmas gifts. Over the previous year my boys and I had an explosion of fun with science experiments and I wanted to share our favorites with their cousins. The kits you buy in the store aren’t all that complicated. You are mostly paying for the written experiments themselves. The supplies included aren’t all that expensive to get and some of them are household items. You can put together a $20 kit for less than $10 and have money left over to add some items to make a really amazing kit.

I purchased a $1.00 plastic shoe box container to hold everything.

I then added:

Color mixing Trays for color experiments. Use primary colored water to make 24 different colors! Just go buy some bath color tablets. You can find them with the bubble bath at places like Walmart and Target. I like the ones by Crayola. You can cut the tablet in half or even fourths for your experiments.

Pipettes are great for most experiments like color mixing. You can use them to squirt the vinegar onto the baking soda in your volcano. My boys love any reason to use them.

These test tubes are the coolest. I will tell you why. They are soda bottles before they are expanded. That is why they are called “Baby Soda Bottle Test Tubes.” I believe the gumbo test tubes are the 2 liter size soda bottles. So not only are they great for a science kit they are also a cool thing to point out to your kids. Let them compare the test tubes to an actual soda bottle. Encourage them to think about how they get from point A to point B. Think about it. If a Soda company wants to order bottles for packaging, wouldn’t it be better to receive them in their pre expanded form? Think of all the wasted cardboard if they got them shipped in the final size! Seriously cool fact. Ok I know my geek is showing.

Look in the dollar section of your craft store for Insta Snow tubes. I found some last year at my Local Michaels store. You can find these for around $1.00. I highly recommend that you try it. A little goes a long way so don’t use the whole tube at once. I suggest this be used outside. It is basically tiny water gel crystals so it won’t harm your grass. In fact it will help keep your grass hydrated and it will eventually break down.

Add a cube of polymer clay so the kids can make their own reusable volcano. If you want to get fancy then give them a cube of brown and a cube of red so they can make lava flowing down their volcano. Basically they make a mountain with a well in the middle for the baking soda and the vinegar to go in. Then their parents can bake the volcano and it is ready to be used over and over and over. To “erupt” their volcano all they need to do is pour some vinegar (with red coloring if desired) in the well of their volcano and drop in a small amount of baking soda. Be sure to place the volcano in a container or on a plate to catch the “lava flow”.

Supply Elmer’s school glue and a small container of Borax along with a science experiment sheet that tells them how to make their own slime. Get the directions here. (they called it glacier gak but it is the recipe for traditional home made slime). Beware that children with texture issues may actually throw up when kneading the the slime just after it is poured into the borax solution. Once it is kneaded it will be less like lightly cooked egg whites. (We have video of my little guy gagging every time he put his hand in the mixture to knead. Like good parents we have played the clip for all that we know and still get a big laugh out of it.)

Other items you can add are:

Pick up a Tornado Tube and then go to the experiments tab and click on weather experiments.

I love the Steve Spangler Science web site because you can get individual test tube experiments like these or these. What ever concept you want to teach they have fun products. You can get items for individual experiments or buy an entire classroom kit. So much fun.

You can find so many gift ideas from this one site it is hard to choose. If you don’t want to build a science kit from scratch they have lots of Kits in a bag that come with a rack of 6 test tubes all with a different experiment in each tube. If you clicked the link I provided you will see so much more than the test tube racks. I had done a search to give you a link to all their test tube racks and came up with a ton of kits that range from inexpensive to not so inexpensive depending on your budget.

Don’t for get to go to their science experiments tab to print out some very cool experiments. There are tons that use every day house hold products. Each one not only tells you the “how to” but the “why it works” behind the experiment. I would suggest going through them and printing out the ones you like and then purchase any “Lab Supplies” that aren’t easily found around the house. Some of them have video clips showing the experiments. Steve Spangler’s enthusiasm for science is contagious. He makes science fun!

Here are a list of some of the ones I printed out for the kits I made for Anjeanette’s and Rebecca’s children. All of them use every day items and you probably already have around the house.

Density column experiment using house hold liquids.

Pop Rocks experiment

Film canister Rocket This one says to use Alka Seltzer but you can use baking soda and vinegar. Go to a photo developing place and ask them if they have any empty film cans. I got a ton from Walgreens. The ones that work the best are the see through ones with the lids that fit inside the lip of the canister. I found the type that the lid fits over the top lip are harder to get together in time. Give them a piece of fun foam so they can hot glue fins on the sides. They can use half a mini easter egg as the nose for their rocket (or half a small styrofoam ball). Give them stickers to decorate their rockets (use stickers that won't come apart when wet).

Lava Lamp Tube

Color Changing Milk

Color mixing tray experiment

Cloud in a Bottle

Ketchup packet Diver a version of the Cartesian Diver experiment.

Poke a Straw through a Potato Trick

Do Not Open Bottle Prank

I printed out these experiments and put them in a presentation folder with a cover letter explaining the kit. I included a summary of all the fun experiments they could do with their kits. I also typed up a few pages for color mixing suggestions.

Put a primary color in each of 3 test tubes and put the caps on. Then band them together with a rubber band. Hold them up to the light and look through them. Turn the test tubes and watch the colors change as you look through two colors at once.

If you have water gel crystals, soak some crystals in each of the 3 primary colors. Layer the colored crystals in a test tube. Watch as the colors create a rainbow in a tube. Where two colors touch it will make a third color. Eventually all the colors will mix and the crystals will all be brown.

I have talked about these crystals Here and Here

Some of these experiments would be great for science fairs….. The kids can pick a concept like density and demonstrate a couple of experiments and then elaborate on how they are related and how they show the concept.

I hope you get around to making one of these kits for a gift. They are fun and educational all at the same time and they don’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.

Katrina

Technorati Tags: science experiments,gifts,kits

Letter To Santa

Around this time of year my children start mentioning items that they want (thank you commercials!). I always tell them to ask Santa for it. Then after a few times I start telling them to just add it to their list (meaning list to Santa). I finally got smart after a few years of trying to keep this “list” in my head and totally forgetting items. Then, we’d hurriedly write a list one day (which is really only what they could think of that moment and not what they really wanted), to mail off to Santa. How I got smart was to finally make up a cute blank list to print up and hang on the fridge for my kids to add to their list when inspiration strikes. I thought I would share it with you. We have already printed ours out and have our lists on the fridge. This is also helpful for when friends and family ask what my kids would like.

Just so you know, when it is closer to Christmas I actually print another one out and have the kids write their actual Letter To Santa on this. Always remember to have the kids also add the date and their age to these letters. You think you will remember, but I never can remember which year that letter went with exactly!

Rebecca

Technorati Tags: christmas,wish list,printable

Heartfelt and Handmade Holidays Creating Traditions

This week Katrina and I got together to make our video. I know it is riveting screen time to watch our little videos. Katrina and I laughed most of the evening. I think our final take was at 1:00 am. I hope you take a look at the fruits of our labors;) It is a quickie.

Last week I talked about embracing the traditions associated with our heritage. Those certainly are traditions. The kind of tradition I am talking about this week are the ones that make the holiday season special for your family, not necessarily based on your heritage. They don't have to cost money either.

Most of the traditions I am going to mention below started when we were kids, but my little family also has recent traditions that I didn't grow up with.

A few of our traditions are:

*Something that is huge for us is putting the angel on the tree. It is the last thing to go on our tree and we make a big deal out of it. My husband gets the honors...I think because he is the only one tall enough to reach;)

*My little family of 4 loves to drive around the neighborhood listening to Christmas music looking at lights. We rate the houses based on a scale of 1 to 2. Ha! We are tough critics;) We say what we think would have made each house perfect. It is a lot of fun. (I know other families that do this with hot chocolate. This doesn't fit in with our food allergies so we don't do it.)

*Our maternal Grandparents have spent the night on Christmas Eve with our family since we were kids. There have only been a few years they missed. Grandpa died a few years ago, and our 92 year old Grandma didn't come to Arizona at all last year. It just feels wrong without her with us on Christmas morning. We are lucky that she just came back and is staying with my little family for the next few months. She is just in time to spend the holidays with us! My kids get to share in the tradition now!!

*Singing carols as our Dad plays the piano is another tradition we love. This tradition started because our oldest sister's birthday is December 20th. For her birthday parties we would always carol to our neighbors. Before we went we choose the songs we would sing and then we would do a quick practice with Dad at the piano. Our neighbors knew we would be coming and they had cookies and hot chocolate ready for us. How sweet was that?

*Becky has 25 Christmas stories, and she reads one to her children every night.

* Going to the Tempe Light Parade is a huge event the family has done almost every year since we moved here.

*Christmas pillowcases come out on December 1st and we use them for the whole month.

*We always make "Grandpa's Christmas Caramels" with the extended family. I have seen similar recipes forever and they may be exact. But to us, these will always be Grandpa's Christmas Caramels because once they were cooled in the pan, he was always the one to cut them up. We talk about Grandpa when we make these. And they are delish!!

1 C butter

1 C brown sugar

1 C white sugar

1 C light corn syrup

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

dash of salt

Combine ingredients in heavy pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Keep at rolling boil and cook until soft ball forms in cold water (about 15 minutes). Pour into buttered 7 x 11 pan. Cool, then cut into squares and wrap each piece in wax paper.

This year I thought it would be fun to try to dip these in chocolate. Why, I don't know, but a chocolate coating with some coarse salt sprinkled on top sounds delish to me;)

I'd love to know what you have as solid traditions in your family that you do year after year. And is there something new you are trying this year?

Anjeanette

~~~~~~~~

Katrina here,

Some thing I always remember from my childhood is that we would all decorate the tree together. Some time during December my just older brother (he is 5 years older than I am) and I would sit in front of the tree with a very old book my mother had, singing the Christmas carols from it. We would turn the lights off and just have the lights from the tree. We always opened up with O’ Christmas Tree and we always sang the German version next. My mother is a German immigrant. We would work our way through all the songs in the book.

I carry on the tradition of decorating the tree with my own family. My husband started the tradition of making sure Christmas music is playing in the background. I usually buy some Egg Nog or have hot chocolate for us to drink. The first thing we do is put up our tree. I too remember the days of my Dad putting the angel on top of the tree at the very end. She is beautiful and old. I never found an angel I like as much as her so we have a beaded snowflake for the top of our tree. Unfortunately it is too heavy for the not so strong branches at the top of our artificial tree. So I always put it on first so I can rig it to stay upright. It goes on before the top of the tree is added to the base. If we had a fireplace we would have a fire burning. I dearly miss having a live tree but it isn’t the “green” thing to do so I usually find a candle or something that has a bit of pine scent and light it. Your senses can trigger a memory of things from your past. I like to involve all 5 for this event. It is something that I remember from my childhood. I don’t think my parents did it with a purpose and until now I had not thought about it that way.

Something that my oldest son insists on is that when we wrap gifts, I tie a nice ribbon on to each one. He does not like it when I use those premade bows. He reminds me as I wrap gifts for others. It is that little extra something. I always buy wrapping paper and ribbon at the after Christmas sales for the following year. The first year I did this was to add some decorations by putting bows on pretty boxes. They were empty and I planned to put them on top of a wall to dress it up. He insisted that they belonged under the tree.

Of course we have new traditions that seem to start up every year to go along with the old. I wonder if my oldest will draw up a song book and want to go caroling like last year. Oh my heavens it was so freaking cute to hear my boys version of Jingle Bells. I wish I had thought to video tape it. If your children want to go caroling you MUST remember to get it on video if you can.

Another must is setting up the Christmas village. We have a plant shelf high up next to our vaulted ceiling where we set ours up. I confess that last year it never got taken down. ;) So I guess this year the task will be to dust if off. LOL

One final thing I would like to add is a recipe for Orange Cranberry bread that I LOVE to make this time of year. I mean I LOVE it and will eat half a loaf before it has even cooled. You might say it had become a tradition for me to make it at least once during the holidays.

Orange Cranberry Bread

Grate the rind of 1 orange

3/4 orange juice

2 Tbsp butter or margarine

1 egg

1 cup sugar

1 cup cranberries, chopped (I like the cut in half)

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional if you don’t like nuts)

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Heat 3/4 cups of orange juice (You can use the juice from the orange you zested plus an additional orange). Add the grated rind and butter. Stir to melt the butter.

In another bowl combine the egg and sugar. Beat well to combine. Stir into the orange mixture. Add cranberries and walnuts.

In another bowl sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Stir into your wet mixture. Spoon into a greased loaf pan (9x5”). Bake for 1 hour.

Eat warm…Ok so this isn’t required unless you are me. ;)

There are so many things we do during the holiday season that we don’t even realize are traditions. As you go through this holiday season pay attention and I think you will be surprised by how many traditions you have that you don’t even think about. Think about how each event makes you feel. Consider starting traditions that will evoke fond memories for you and your children in the future. When they have families of their own (a long long long long long time from now cause I am no where near ready to think about it ;) they will want to make similar memories for their children. Think, is this something that I want carried down for generations? How do I want them to look back on this time of year? Whether you realize it or not, it is some thing that stays with your children. Like my wrapped empty boxes, it does not have to cost a lot to make great memories.

Katrina

Technorati Tags: Christmas,traditions,recipe,caramel,orange cranberry bread

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