A Christmas Tradition & Holiday Books

One of my favorite family Christmas traditions occurs on Christmas Eve.

Every December 24th, usually in the afternoon, Santa’s elves deliver a holiday book (or two) and leave it at our door.

Once everyone has showered and put on pajamas we get into bed and read the book.

The kids love receiving the book and I’m pretty sure Santa loves giving it just as much.

Over the years we have built up quite a collection of holiday books.

Here’s a peek at some of our favorites:

The Berenstain Bears Christmas by Stan & Jan Berenstain

The Berenstain Bears’ Christmas Tree by Stan & Jan Berenstain

 Santa Claus by Rod Green

This is an amazing book, just gorgeous illustrations and just magical for kids 5 – 10 yrs old.

Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma WilsonSanta’s Reindeer by Rod Green

Another unbelievable Christmas book. Tells all about Santa’s reindeer, where they sleep, how they fly, and more. This one will not disappoint.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

 Cajun Night Before Christmas by “Trosclair”

Just a few lines of the beginning to give you the gist of this favorite of mine – lay on a thick french/country accent as you read it 🙂

‘Twas the night before Christmas

An’ all t’ru de house

Dey don’t a t’ing pass

Not even a mouse.

De chirren been nezzle

Good snug on de flo’

An’ Mama pass de pepper

T’ru de crack on de do’.

 Do you have any family traditions or holiday books that are special to you?

Weekend Bloggy Reading

Artichoke Pesto Pinwheels by Act Fast Chef

Since I am the world’s worst cook you don’t find a lot of recipes on this blog…unless they have chocolate chips, and then I am all over it. So I thought it would be fun to find someone else to share a delicious recipe with you…and Elizabeth from Act Fast Chef is just the person.

Hi there!  I’m Elizabeth from Act Fast Chef.  Thanks so much Jennifer for letting me guest post!

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a busy mom of a toddler, wife to the Husband and I also work full time outside of the house.  And, of course, I blog!  I started Act Fast Chef this year as a creative outlet for myself.  Also, I found myself becoming addicted to blogs, so I figured I should join in on the fun.  Act Fast Chef focuses mainly on meals that you can get to the table really quickly.  Or meals that you can prepare quickly, but then take care of your family or work while the meal cooks.

I am always looking for new meals.  I am inspired by bloggers, magazines, and Martha (of course).  For this particular recipe, I was inspired by a Pepperidge Farm advertisement and my chicken and artichoke pizza.  Seriously!  An ad inspired me. The ad had these puff pastry spiral things that I knew I could stuff with the toppings from my pizza.  I was excited!  So I made them for lunch one day – and they were gone before I could even get them off the baking tray.  So yummy!

Artichoke Pesto Pinwheels
Ingredients:
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 package of dry pesto sauce mix
2 cooked chicken breasts,chopped
3-4 canned artichoke hearts, chopped
4-5 pieces well done bacon, crumbled
about 1 C shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg white

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 F

Unfold puff pastry on clean floured surface, or unfold on parchment paper.  Follow directions on pesto sauce mix to make a pesto rub (mix the pesto with about 2 T of olive oil).  AFC note: Don’t make the pesto sauce since it will be too runny and will cause the puff pastry to get soggy!

Spread the pesto rub onto the puff pastry and then layer on the chicken, artichoke and bacon.  Top the layers with the mozzarella cheese.

Starting with a short side of the pastry, slowly roll it up to form your pinwheels.  After forming the roll, brush the entire thing with a light brushing of egg white.

Using a sharp chef’s knife, slice the pastry into about 12 slices.  Place the slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush the exposed sides with a light brushing of egg white.

Place baking sheet in oven and bake for about 15-20 mins or until brown.

Enjoy!

Thank you so much Elizabeth! Go ahead and check out her Act Fast Chef blog and the many recipes she shares – her Breakfast Frittata, Creole Dirty Rice, and Harvest Stew all look scrumptious to me. Have cooking everyone!

The Slide

“This is going to be so exciting kids.”

“Let’s race, Mom.”

“OK, but this is just for fun.”

Here we go….

I’m ahead right now, yes!

Nice tactic Alex but leaning will get you no where when you’re racing me. You might as well pack it in right now suckas’.

Man, I’ve got skills – I might have been a professional luger had we lived in the right climate.

Ha! They are slowing down and my body keeps going – God knew what he was doing when he created this winning machine.

Oh, oh, oh, my legs are clearly across first.

Yes! I AM THE WINNER!

I mean, wasn’t that so much fun kids.

 

Our Little Elf

In our family we get to decorate the Christmas tree everyday.

You see, we have an elf.

This little person likes to shop our tree, complete with her very own shopping bag.

She’s very methodical hitting only the areas she can reach.

At least that used to be the case.

Now our elf  has taken to climbing at higher elevations to reach her prize.

The reward seems to be satisfying every time.

It’s questionable whether Santa would consider her a helper.

Either way, she’s out little elf.

Running for Pie

If you’ve read my blog anytime in the last 3 months you know I’m training for a half marathon and pretty much hating every step of it.

Regardless of this dislike, I am committed and will push on for two more weeks.

One big hurdle in getting to race day is over for one of my sisters and me.

On Thanksgiving we ran 9 miles. Definitely an accomplishment for us.

We ran 4 miles before a 5 mile Turkey Day run.

I use run loosely for myself but Kelly truly rocked it on the run.

7 AM before our run, about fifty degrees outside, apparently Kelly had some dribble issues that morning

Since we were running on Thanksgiving morning I felt I had a built in dangling carrot.

Mile one, I was running for turkey.

Mile two, I was running for stuffing.

Mile three, I was running for gravy.

Mile four, I was running for mashed potatoes.

And mile five, I was running for PIE!

My strategy worked for awhile but around mile four (really mile eight for us) is quite working. Right along with my Ipod. Now, I could hear my huffing and puffing along with everyone who was passing me by. Instead of mashed potatoes and pie I thought about pain and more pain.

Despite my negativity, I finished the race. I might add that I finished immediately ahead of a woman pushing a triple stroller containing two year old triplets.  Some would be ashamed of that fact but I’m focusing on the AHEAD OF A WOMAN part.

It took me just under one hour and two minutes to complete the race while Kelly finished right at one hour. What can I say, her entire five miles were devoted to wine.

Semi-homemade Gifts

This was originally posted over at Sunny Vanilla a few weeks ago when Jennifer asked me to be a part of her Homemade for the Holidays week. Enjoy!

When Jennifer asked me to participate in the Homemade for the Holidays series I was honestly a little worried.

You see, I’m more like semi-homemade. In fact, I’m the crafting equivalent of Sandra Lee.

I get mistaken for her all the time.

Notice the resemblance?

No? Huh. Must be a setting off on your computer.

Wait. Let me give it one more try.

See? I told you. We’re practically related. In fact, maybe “Sandra Lee & Me” should be my new blog title.

I love to create homemade gifts but don’t always have the skills to implement my big ideas so I do what I can and learn a little more each time. Hopefully one of these days I’ll move away from my Sandra Lee tendencies.

Today I’m going to share with you two crafts I will use as part of my Christmas gifts.

Both projects I’m going to share would be great used as ornaments, wine adornments, or gift tags.

The first ornament involves layering pieces of felt to create a desired shape.

It’s relatively simple and uses only a few materials.

Here are the materials needed: felt, objects to trace circles, scissors, a piece of wire, a Sharpie, and a glue gun.

Trace the circles onto the felt.

You end up with various size circles depending on the jar circumference used. Pardon the different colors shown as I dropped my camera after the picture below was taken and needed to take new pictures).

Stack your circles once they are cut into the desired shape.

Individually fold each circle and cut a small slice in the middle of it. This creates a hole for the wire to pass through.

Bend the bottom of the wired ninety degrees so the felt circle has a place to “sit.”

Take the circle you would like on the bottom of your ornament and slide it down the wire.

Place some glue on the bent wire and attach another felt circle to the glue. This new circle becomes the new bottom and the curved part of the wire should no longer be seen.

Stack the desired number of felt piece by simply sliding each felt circle down your wire.

Continue layering felt pieces into the shape you desire.

Glue on embelllishments in order to complete your ornament.

The shape and color combinations are endless. Adding wooden beads between layers gives the ornament a more rustic look.

Christmas tree, ornament, snowman, modern design

Since personalized gifts are always a hit, I created custom ornaments. The one below is for my father-in-law who is a proud Canadian.

Cut out a design using your scissors and felt.

I free handed the letter “a” but cut out the maple leaf using an image I printed out and placed on top of the felt. I then cut around the paper.

Glue all of the front pieces together.

Using the twine, glue a loop onto the back of the ornament. Next, glue a matching piece of fabric to cover the glue.

Add some fun and personalization to a tin of cookies…

… or use them as wine gift tag

This tag is for my sister Amanda and her husband Ben and it includes an image of their home states.

What about….A lively gift tag for the music teacher or the Saints football fan in your life? Really, the possibilities are endless.

In addition to brightening up a gift, they will look great on their Christmas tree.

Hope you’ve seen something that inspires you to create something handmade (or semi-handmade for some of us) for someone you love.

 

Have you been making any of your Christmas gifts?

The 36th Avenue

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Car Trip Survival

Here’s how to successfully complete a 10 hour car ride with your 3 children.

Yes. Let them watch movies. Lots and lots of movies.

In my opinion, Redbox movies and their kiosks are perhaps one of the greatest inventions ever. 

Now I am not a person who advocates letting your children watch tv all day but for car trips I make an exception.

Over Thanksgiving I drove my kids to visit my parents for the week. My husband flew in Thanksgiving morning to make a guest appearance.

Typically, people describe a road trip by the weather, the traffic, or the snacks consumed.

Our trip, however, can be summed up by one word – movies.

I present to you the first journey of our trip…

…and because the first trip was so successful, here’s our return trip.

Happiness, contentment, and serenity (there was a moment of screaming from our two year old when my son put in “The History of Space” DVD but I’ve completely erased it from my memory).

All for the low low price of $10.44 round trip.

It may be $10.44 to Redbox but to me it was priceless.