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Posts Tagged ‘christmas’

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New Year’s Trifle: If I Can Make It, You Can.

Friday, December 30th, 2011

I love food, more specifically dessert. It’s a good thing I’m not very good in the kitchen or else I’d be a life-sized Weeble. As it’s New Year’s Eve Eve, we’re getting ready for our New Year’s Eve family party so I decided to try my hand at making Kraft Canada’s Dulce de Leche Trifle. They sent me some of their Easy Oreo Truffles which I loved so much the kids and I tried making our own as part of our homemade gifts for the teachers this holiday season. The folks at Kraft Canada sent along some of the ingredients for the trifle to encourage me to give the recipe a try. And it worked since I did try making it today.

The hardest part was making the Dulce de Leche. I think I may have overcooked mine but that didn’t stop me from putting the whole thing together. That’s one of my New Year’s resolutions, to not get so easily discouraged and follow-through on a task. The kids helped by grating chocolate on the top. Fingers crossed that it turns out for our party tomorrow (it’s sitting in the refrigerator) but we had fun making it. Kraft might be turning me into a life-sized Weeble after all!

triffle_new_years

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Posted in family, food, fun stuff, just me, raising kids | No Comments »

Is This ‘Best Gift’ a Sign I’m Getting Old?

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

Some women go ga-ga for gems. Some chirp cheerily over chocolate. Although chocolate and jewelry are lovely gifts to receive from your spouse, nothing tops the gift my husband gave me this year. A heated fleece blanket (it sounds much nicer than saying electric blanket).heated_fleece_blanket

Perhaps it’s a sign of my age? If you had told me when I was newly married that I should look forward to heart warming gifts like a vacuum, new appliances or an electric blanket from my new husband, I would have scoffed. But here it is, Christmas, and the gift for me under the tree that has me most excited (besides my Munk Tiki necklace of course) is my Sunbeam, two-controller, 10 heat settings, fleece blanket.

I don’t deny I’m always cold and living in a house full of little furnaces means I wear a lot of layers. My hands are often cold when working for extensive periods of time on my computer. Night time is the worst since our furnace is programmed to a lower temperature after everyone’s gone to bed — great for the hydro bill but not so good since I usually go to bed AFTER the temperature has dropped in the house. It seems no matter how many blankets or how warm my PJs, I’m usually freezing when I go to bed. And being cold makes it hard to fall asleep.

All that has changed with my new heated fleece blanket. I turn the bed on at a 6 an hour before I plan to go to bed and it’s so tasty warm when I get in. I turn it down to 4 when I go to sleep and it shuts off 10 hours later so I don’t need to worry if I forget in the morning rush. My furnace of a husband, who said he would never get me one for fear of making the bed so unbelievably hot, has even admitted to enjoying the new blanket.

So maybe my gift choice has me showing my age. Perhaps orthopaedic shoes and compression socks will be on next year’s gift list? Doesn’t matter. I love my new blanket and the hubby who gave it to me.

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Posted in Christmas gifts, just me | No Comments »

Gifts From Kids You Don’t Want to Give-Up

Friday, December 16th, 2011

Quick note, if on the odd chance my mom is reading this post, stop now. Continuing any further will spoil your Christmas surprise. What, doesn’t you mom read your posts too?

It’s almost one week until Christmas and I’m still getting my gifts together. Actually I’m not doing too bad; I think I have everything done. I just need to package it to send out. Working on my mom’s gift is the hardest. I mean, she doesn’t really need anything and I want the gift to have some meaning. I mean, it’s my mom I’m talking about.

When thinking about what’s important to her, what makes her happy, I remember the time she has hanging out with my kids. The bond between grandkids and their grandparents is special one. It’s like the feeling you as a parent have with your own kids, but without the discipline, tantrums and frustration (most times). It’s all the happy bits. gift_ideas_kidsSince my mom lives far away and doesn’t see us often, I thought a gift from the kids would be nice.

In an article I wrote for EverytihngMom — Gifts from the Heart, Not the Wallet — I suggested recording a story. The original idea was to record a story for the kids but it doesn’t always have to be that way. When my oldest daughter went away to summer camp, my youngest was upset. Recording a story on one of Hallmark’s recordable books made a big difference.

Hallmark sent us a holiday version of one of their recordable books — Santa Claus is Coming to Town — and an idea bloomed. Instead of grandma reading a story to the kids, the kids will read one to her. Each page of the recordable storybook is controlled seperately which means each one of my kids can record their own page, even my youngest. The record/stop buttons make it easy to re-record the page until it turned out great. The opening page also provides a great place for a dedication, so the kids can add their own little audio message and the date.

With the book done, I have had a hard time wrapping it. I’ve been listening to the story over and over again. Hearing their voices saved for all time makes my eyes fill with tears. I think my mom will love this gift. But now I think I need to get another recordable book from Hallmark to have the kids record for me. Is it too late to put my note in to Santa?

Note: Hallmark did send me a copy of their recordable Santa Claus is Coming to Town book as part of their holiday package without any expectation of writing about it. This post is based purely on a personal experience that developed from using their product.

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Posted in crafts and hobbies, getting ready for Christmas, raising kids | 1 Comment »

Christmas Decor - Inspired by Our Members

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

I love Christmas; I think it’s my favourite time of year. I love listening the the music and watching the movies and eating the goodies, oh and decorating. I love filing the house with lights and evergreen and Santa. This year I received a little inspiration after clicking through our 3M Deck the Halls holiday decor gallery.

Jen F’s crafty snowflake DIY project was great but her Santa wall won my heart, mainly because we have our own Santa wall. Each year we get photos of our kids sitting with Santa. Instead of just displaying the current year, we have a corner of our room that’s devoted to these photos. We even bought a holiday Tim Biskip print to go in the center and are in the process of adding Santa photos from both my husband’s and my own childhood. I love looking at these photos even when Christmas has passed. I also love the mix of frames, sizes and placements. I’m not into symmetries with this wall.

christmas_decor_santa_photos

We have a wood burning fireplace with a mantle we actually moved from our old home. Seeing Stephanie’s holiday mantle inspired me to deck out ours. Our mantel extends up the wall so we don’t have wall space to hang holiday inspired art but I love the idea of draping it with garland. Since our mantle is old wood I’d never hammer nails into it so the 3M hooks came in handy, adding them to the top to secure the garland. And knowing they’ll come off when the holiday’s are over, without marring the wood is reassuring.

christmas_decor_mantle

We have two french doors that go from our front hall into our living room. In the past I’ve just decorated them with snowflakes but after viewing Melissa’s idea, with wreaths hanging on her dining room window, I thought I’d try something similar. Instead of buying wreaths to hang, instead I made some from extra garland (I had a whole bunch of the cheap garland unopened from the previous year). Taking the garland, I just wrapped it around in a circle, just like wrapping up a garden hose. Every once in a while, I’d twist to branches together, to hold the whole wreath together. It didn’t turn out to bad for a quick 5-minute project. And the 3M decorative hooks worked well, adhering right to the window.

christmas_decor_doorschristmas_decor_french_door

I also added a nicer (thicker) garland and lights to the banister in the hallway. Instead of wrapping it around the banister itself, which uses up a lot of the garland, plus makes it hard to use the banister, I used small, clear 3M hooks to hold the loops in place. When we moved from traditional lights to these LED lights, I was left with a lot of light covers. These make great items to adorn garland. Plus they add a little more to the garland during the day, when the lights aren’t actually on.

chrismtas_decorations_banister

I was also inspired by this great vintage paper chain DIY tree garland. It reminded me of how fun garlands can be (and it gave me an excuse to use those crafty cutting edge scissors that never seem to get used). One night the kids and I spent a few hours cutting and making a colourful paper chain to string across the dining room. I looks great and the kids love to see it hanging over their heads during meals.

christmas_decor_garland

A member’s blog post also brought on a childhood crafting memory. You know, those wreaths we made in school using garbage bags? Yup, so my kids and I made one of those too and hung it on our front door.

So I may not be done my Christmas shopping and the cards are still sitting unaddressed in a pile, but our home looks festive. That’s good right?

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Posted in christmas, christmas craft, crafts and hobbies, everythingmom.com, fun stuff, getting ready for Christmas | No Comments »

DIY Christmas Wreath - Childhood Flashback

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

I was reading through our member blog posts and came across Julia’s tutorial on a making a wreath with her kids. It was a total flashback to my childhood, except we did ours in school using garbage bags instead of fabric strips.

christmas_wreath_bag_craft2

So with Christmas music humming in my head and new found crafty inspiration, I decided to plunge my own kids into my youth. We made a garbage bag wreath for our front door. I love this craft for a few reasons:

1. It uses items you have at home.

With a wire coat hanger bent into shape, it took just 3 white kitchen garbage bags cut into strips varying from 4 to 6 inches. You can add a finishing touch by adding ornaments or ribbon you have from your holiday wrapping.

2. It’s easy to do.

Cutting the strips is easy. With a garbage bag you can just slide your scissors along; no real cutting is needed. The length of strips can vary too. We used strips from 4 to 8 in length. It doesn’t matter if the strips aren’t cut straight or the length varies since it’s suppose to be organic looking. Adding the strips to the wire coat hanger (once bent into a circular shape) just needs to be tied in. No fancy knots or bows needed; just wrap around and tie once and you’re good. This makes it ideal for young kids too.

3. It’s a craft everyone can work on.

I find with my own kids, they’re enthusiastic about doing a craft but sometimes their attention span wanes. The whole family worked on this wreath. Each of us tied some strips on when we wanted to. The whole thing just sat at the end of our table and within a day it was done (people adding a few strips at a time).

This project would look great with any type of bag, such as blue recycle bags, green outdoor bags, even printed grocery bags (I think the later would look kind of cool). We just added a few gift tag items around the wreath to break-up the white and add some fun. And now it hangs on our door and can even be put away for next year.

christmas_wreath_bag_craft

Merry Christmas!

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Posted in christmas craft, getting ready for Christmas, just me, raising kids | No Comments »

Getting Ready for Christmas - My Top 5 Hallmark Dream Book Oranments

Monday, November 7th, 2011

It’s true I love Christmas. I love the music. I love the treats. I love the decorations. Each year we pick up new ornaments for our trees. (yes i said trees; we have 6 in total). I love picking up Hallmark’s Dream Book and going through it, cover-to-cover, picking out what I’d love to add to our trees this year.

Saturday we had a chance to attend the grand opening celebration of a new Gold Crown store design. The new store concept hopes to energize shoppers and inspire them to find more ways to connect with loved ones beyond the holidays. Of course I love to visit Hallmark for holiday goodies, like the Hocus Pocus Treat Presenter that was a big hit at Halloween. But Hallmark also enables me to remember those everyday moments, like bringing my oldest daughter closer to her little sister when she was away at camp or making my husband teary from remembering family moments.

But now it’s about Christmas for my family and our visit to the Hallmark store for the grand opening meant I could grab this year’s copy of the Dream Book. I love ornaments that are interactive with a purpose or have a Santa theme (one of our trees displays Santa ornaments we’ve collected over the years). Having perused this year’s catalog, my top five ornament picks are as follows:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town ($59.99). This ornament not only fits the Santa theme but also shares that whole Christmas mall experience of taking the kids to visit Santa. I love the train that moves around the tree and Santa who sort of wobbles as he talks to the child, all while hearing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas” playing in the background. Getting photos with Santa is a big tradition in our family and this ornament captures that feeling wonderfully.

hallmark_ornament_1

‘Twas the Month Before Christmas Countdown ($39.99). In my mind, the best part of Christmas is the days that lead up to it. I love doing things with my kids and family to get ready such as decorating the house, making cookies, and watching festive movies. This ornament is a great way to count down the days. Each day you turn the base toward whatever day in December it is and Santa shares a message on how he’s getting ready. I have a few countdown ornaments actually but this is the fist with updates directly from Santa if you know what I mean.

hallmark_ornament_2

The Story of Christmas Advent Countdown ($38.99). Similarly to the Christmas Countdown ornament above, this advent countdown shares a little bit of the nativity story as you turn the base of the ornament. We celebrate Santa visiting our house but the real reason behind Christmas for us is the birth of Christ and this is a wonderful way to incorporate the story each day up until Christmas.

hallmark_ornament_3

A Snowy Surprise ($19.99) This ornament doesn’t do anything fancy but I love the look of it. The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favourite holiday movies, something we watch before Halloween and all they up until Christmas. I love the story and the animation is amazing. The scene of Jack discovering Christmas Town with all it’s colours is wonderful (who wouldn’t want to live in Christmas Town) and Jack in the snowman, as a way to blend into the background, is right from that scene.

hallmark_ornament_4

Letters to Santa ($14.99). A tradition from my husband’s childhood and one we’ve passed down to our own kids is the Elf Tree. During the month of December, Santa’s elves visit our house when the kids are asleep to check-in on them, to see how they’re behaving, and report back to Santa. If they feel the kids have been good, they leave little treats for them in the Elf Tree (usually Chocolate). On Christmas Eve, the Elves leave the kids a small gift. This is usually something to keep the kids busy for an hour (or maybe 10 minutes) before they drag us out of bed to visit the tree downstairs. This ornament would be a perfect place for the Elves to leave their little treats and gifts and little notes on each visit. I love that the candy cane arm goes up when a delivery has been made. Of course with three kids it means I’ll have to get three of these.

hallmark_ornament_5

Although I would love to get all of these, I’ll probably have to pick just one to add to our trees. Now I’m ready to pull out the decorations and get busy. Do you collect ornaments too?

Photos: All images were taken from the Dream Book catalog found on Hallmark.ca

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Posted in christmas, crafts and hobbies, getting ready for Christmas, holidays, home | No Comments »

Trying not to forget

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

In December the family took a trip to Disney World and planned to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Unfortunately my two youngest were sick so that just left my oldest and myself heading out to the party. Even with the rain we had a lot of fun, maybe too much fun. Since those attending the party could enter the park before it closed, party goers were given armbands. We went to the party the first night we arrived but my daughter continued to wear her party arm band for the rest of the trip.

We arrived back home and she heads back to school, still wearing her party arm band. Christmas comes and goes and my daughter still wears her arm band. You can see it on her arm during our breakfast with Santa. I was only able to convince her to remove it today. Now it sits on her dressor, so she can daydream about the next time she head’s out to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (hopefully without the rain and with her brother and sister in tow).

disneychristmas

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Posted in fun stuff, just me, those darn kids, traveling | No Comments »

A Christmas tradition: Sibling Sleepover

Monday, December 28th, 2009

When we had kids we started developing some Christmas traditions: attending the Santa Clause parade, writing letters to Santa, eating Christmas Eve dinner in Chinatown, the elf tree, but if asked I think my kids would say their favourite tradition is the Sibling Sleepover.

Let me explain. We’re fortunate to have a house large enough that all three of my kids have their own room. I think everyone needs personal space at home (if you can afford it that is). But during Christmas break things change. During the two weeks my kids don’t go to school and therefore are up later and sleep in longer (though not much longer it seems), all three of my kids camp out in their brother’s room. Thus the Sibling Sleepover. My son sleeps in his raised bed and we blow-up two air mattresses for under the bed and on the floor for the two girls. They tell stories and jokes, make plans for the next day, talk about what they did today and just have fun, sometimes for hours after bedtime. And the surprising thing, no fighting.

Let the chatting commence!

Let the chatting commence!

Of course weening the kids from Sibling Sleepover won’t be a lot of fun, but at least they’ll have two fun-filled weeks of silliness. What are some of your Christmas traditions?

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Posted in fun stuff, those darn kids | No Comments »

Holiday Cheer: Food & Wine pairings 2009

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

A nice glass of wine can really add to a meal but sometimes what’s nice with one meal isn’t as delightful with another. I’ve attended a wine and meal pairing dinner and it really can make a difference having the right wine with your roast or fish or chocolates. It’s just a matter of trying to figure out the pairings at home.

Then the answer appeared in my email yesterday. Jaren(a Sommelier who’s a friend of a friend of a friend) sent out her 2009 Food and Wine pairing list for the holiday season and now I’m here to share it with you (with her permission of course):

Food Wine/Grape Producer/Year Region Price
Light fish and meat dishes. Salmon, trout, smoked meats, salads, lightly seasonedstir-fries Riesling (white) Pierre Sparr “Extreme” 2008 Alsace $14.95
Riesling (white) Wolf Blass “Yellow Label” 2008 Australia $14.95
Dry Riesling (white) Vineland Estates 2007 Ontario, Niagara $13.95
Seafood and shellfish Sauvignon Blanc (white) Stoneleigh 2008 New Zealand $14.95
Sauvignon Blanc (white) Villa Maria 2009 New Zealand $14.95
Sauvignon Blanc (white) Jackson Triggs 2008 Ontario, Niagara $13.95
Rich lobster, shell fish dishes, white fish (halibut & turbot) and chicken dishes Chardonnay (non-oaked) (white) Henry of Pelham 2007 Ontario, Niagara $12.95
Chardonnay (white) Prospect Winery “The Census Count” 2006 Okanagan, B.C. $14.95
Pinot Grigio (white) Beringer “California Collecton”, 2008 California $9.95
Turkey, duck and pork dishes Chardonnay (white) Wyndham Estates, “Bin 222”, 2007 Australia $12.95
Chardonnay (white) Nugan Estate “Cookoothama” 2007 Australia $13.95
Pinot Gris (white) Leon Beyer 2007 Alsace, France $16.15
Light pastas with a seafood or light tomato sauce or creamy sauce or with pesto.gnocchi, risotto, salad Chardonnay/ Reisling/ Gewürztraminer (white) Malivoire, “White” 2008 Ontario, Niagara $14.95
Pinot Grigio/ Verduzzo (white) Masi “Masianco” 2008 Italy $14.95
Chardonnay (white) Robert Mondavi “Private Selection” 2007 California $17.95
Cold and cured meats simply grilled chicken, pork and veal. Robustly seasoned and BBQ’d fish dishes Pinot Noir (red) Inniskillin “Varietal Series” 2007 Ontario, Niagara $14.95
Sangiovese (red) Tommasi Valpolicella 2008 Italy $14.00
Gamay (red) Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages 2008 France $12.25
Most types of meat, beef and especially plainly cooked lamb and homey dishes like Shepherd’s pie and sausages Cabernet Flanc (red) Chateau des Charmes 2007 Ontario, Niagara $13.95
Melbec (red) Concha Y Toro, “Casillero Del Diablo” 2008 Chile $12.95
Merlot (red) McWilliams, “Hanwood” 2007 France $14.95
Char-grilled steaks, casseroles, spicy meats, vegetarian dishes such as goulash Cabernet Sauvignon (red) De Loach “California Series” 2006 California $14.95
Syrah (red) Cline 2007 California $14.95
Shiraz (red) Rosemount “Diamond Label” 2007 Australia $15.95
Cabernet Sauvignon(red) KWV “Cathedral Cellar” 2006 South Africa $16.95

The wines Jaren pairs in this chart can be found in the LCBO’s General list versus the Vintages section. This means they are available in most LCBOstores. All the wines paired in this chart have been highly rated by Billy Munnelly, author of Billy’s Best Bottles. Wines for 2010, and Wine Educator David Lawrason. And if that wasn’t good enough, all the wines are listed below $16.00 Cdn.

I should also point out that in her email Jaren mentioned that all these wines are on the shelves now but that does not mean they will be there the rest of the year.  So enjoy some new wines or interesting pairings this holiday season.

Cheers. And thank you Jaren for making my holiday season a little more festive.

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Posted in food, fun stuff | No Comments »

5 Reasons to celebrate Christmas in Disney World

Monday, December 21st, 2009

disney-ornamentI love Christmas. I love that my kids have time off from school and my husband time off from work (notice how I don’t indicate my time off). I love having the excuse to have a drink and eat rich foods. I love hanging around doing nothing but eating and drinking and watching Christmas movies. I love that the season makes everyone, well most people, a little nicer. I love Christmas for all these reasons.

But I don’t think I need to have Christmas at home to experience all of this. This year I wish we weren’t having a standard Christmas with turkey and gift giving. And that has nothing to do with being so unprepared, well, maybe just a little. This year I wish the family was celebrating Christmas in Disney World.

Was that a gasp I heard? Are you shaking your head in dismay? Really the idea of having Christmas in Disney World isn’t as crazy sounding as you might thing. It’s not just a good idea, b ut a great idea and here are five reasons why:

No gift exchange. I haven’t really been in the gift giving/receiving/buying mood this year. I mean I don’t really need anything; the whole family doesn’t really NEED anything. Celebrating in Disney World would mean no gift exchange. I guess you could say the trip itself would be the gift. And really that’s all we would need, some time together as a family.

No chores. As the guest I wouldn’t have to clean the house in preparation for visitors or make the beds before watching tv or do the laundry to ensure I had clean towels. At Disney World they have someone who does all that for me. Plus I wouldn’t have to cook Christmas dinner. I’m sure in Disney World I could find  a restaurant serving Christmas dinner. Or I could choose to have something else, like Polynesian or German. And I wouldn’t have to wash the dishes after.

No long faces. Forget the unhelpful sales clerks and the grumpy last minute shoppers and the cranky, over tired kids. Instead take a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth! And it’s not just a slogan, most of the staff we’ve met are very pleasant and happy. They’re paid to be happy! A Christmas surrounded by happy, smiling faces (the staff and my family’s) is my kind of Christmas.

No visitors. That means no in-laws, no neighbours, no friends. Don’t get me wrong, I love these people, most of the time, but having them over usually means more work and more stress. Entertaining people, making sure they’re happy, avoiding arguments, can be a lot of work. And let’s not for get the preparation before people come over and the clean-up afterward. We wouldn’t know anyone at Disney World so there would be no worries about drop-in visitors.

No winter clothing. I always thought it’s just not Christmas without snow. But most years we don’t get snow for Christmas anyway. All we end up with is a cold, gray day and boots and puffy jackets and mittens and hats. And no one likes to wear them. A holiday gift would be no winter wear.

Yes, I can see it now, a big Christmas Party with fireworks, maybe a dip in the pool, some rides, eating out and lots of time with just the family. That sounds like my ideal Christmas. Hopefully I can convince my husband the same thing before next Christmas comes.

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Posted in fun stuff, just me, traveling | No Comments »

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