Making New Year's Eve Special

With kids, it's been several years since Nick and I went out for New Year's Eve. Some times, we had friends over, but most often, we just stay home. We don't do a whole lot, but we do try to enjoy our time together. I usually make up appetizer type snacks for us to munch on through out the night. We play games together with the kids, listen to music, and do a countdown.

Last year, Gillian was getting tired early, so we did two countdowns- one for her at around 10pm, and another one for the rest of us at midnight. I picked up sparkly birthday hats at the dollar store, as well as rolls of streamers to toss in the air.

I'm not sure what we'll do this year. Probably the same, though Raegan might go to a friends house over night. We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. I kind of wouldn't mind having friends out, but aside from our few neighbors, most of our friends live quite a ways away.

What do you do to make New Year's Eve special?

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone is enjoying their day with loved ones, good food, and relaxing!

Treat Day- Christmas Is Almost Here

After a mini-meltdown last night over cleaning, Christmas, and wrapping, I regrouped, and slept. Today, I jumped right into the last of the wrapping, which was for extended family. On Thursday, we'll make the 90 minute trek up to Mount Pleasant for Christmas with Nick's family. On Saturday, we'll make the 70 minute trek over to Sparta for Christmas with my dad & step-mom, then with my step-mom's family.

I had to get everything wrapped and sorted still for all those get togethers, so I turned on a Christmas movie and got to work. As soon as that was done, I tackled Christmas treats. Oh, boy, did I tackle them.

Today,  I made Christmas Crack, Peppermint Crack, and so far, 4 dozen mini-muffin Chocolate Chip Cookies, complete with chocolate melted into the center. I still have Turtle Cookies to make, more chocolate chip cookies, and then, both peanut butter & gingerbread cookies.

 

I love warm gingerbread cookies, all soft and squishy straight from the oven. Oh, so delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night, before my melt down, I made Christmas snowflake coasters, inspired by Jessica's over at Mad in Crafts.  I found the snowflakes in blue, though, not white. Luckily, I had plenty of white glitter felt on hand to use with it.

This morning while I was wrapping, I was trying to decide what to do with them, and decided to turn them back into ornaments by adding blue ribbon loops to each one. From there, I added a small bath & body item to the front, and wrapped them up for the younger girls on Nick's side of the family. He has a younger sister, and 2 girl cousins who are in their early 20's. These made great gifts for them, and were frugal- I had all sorts of samples on hand that I picked up at Bath & Body Works for $.50 each months ago. The ornaments cost about $1.50 to make 6 of them, so each gift cost me less than $1.00!

 

So, while I was in a Christmas funk yesterday, I've decided to just go with the flow. I will finish up what baking I can today, and that's that. It will be enough. What baking I'm doing today will be split up for taking to the various parties, and another small plate to my neighbor across the street. He's such a helpful neighbor- he's used live traps to get animals out of our backyard, he fixes our cars dirt cheap, lends us tools when we need them, and helps when we need help.

I sent over a plate of goodies earlier this month, and he told me it's the only time he gets homemade goodies, when I send them over to him. So, I decided I'd send another plate over there.

Merry Christmas, everyone! May your sanity stay in tact, along with mine!

Cleaning...

I am not a house cleaner. I never have been, and likely never will be. I hate cleaning. Worse yet, I hate cooking in a kitchen that isn't spotless. 3 kids doing chores helps with the cleaning aspect, but man, they really don't "clean" when they clean, if you know what I mean.

So here it is, 9:30pm, and I'm cleaning. I went out to make something, and got just grossed out by food crusted on the stovetop, and clean dishes that weren't clean, or taken care of when they were clean. -sigh-

There's my deep dark secret. I'm a housewife who ignores the house part of the equation. So, the kids are busy sweeping. I'm past counter tops & stoves, and on to gutting and re-organizing cupboards. Plastic has taken over our kitchen. Too much plastic. All the "toss away" but really reusable crap is being bagged up, and dropped at Goodwill tomorrow.

Any lids without a bottom, or vice versa is like wise going to Goodwill. Countless plastic holiday straws, cups, and paraphernalia.So, all my serving dishes, which had a single small shelf, are being moved to the huge corner cupboard that was over taken by plastic containers. No person in the world needs that many plastic containers. We don't use that many at one time. It just seems like whenever we know we'll need some, we pick them up. Well, no more of that!

-sigh-

I hate cleaning. Back to the grind stone.

Christmas Candy

This week, I need to get going in the kitchen a bit. Here are a few of the recipes I'll be making.

Christmas Crack, found via Jessica at Mad in Crafts

You'll Need:
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
a sleeve of saltine crackers
12 oz. chocolate chips

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar in the butter and bring them to a boil.  Boil for three minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil.  Cover the foil with a layer of saltine crackers.

Pour the buttery/sugary mix over the crackers, making sure they are all saturated. Put pan in the oven for 10 minutes.

Take pan out and sprinkle chocolate chips over the crackers. Let sit until chips soften. Spread the chips with a spatula or the back of a spoon.  Freeze for two hours.

Remove the pan from the fridge and peel off the aluminum foil. Crack it up into pieces, whatever size you’d like. Store in an air tight container, or bag.

Peppermint Crack

You'll Need:
a sleeve of Ritz crackers
38 Andes Mint candies (regular packs come 28 to a box, Dollar Store packs come 10 or 12 to a box)
Crushed peppermint candy canes

Bring water to a boil in a pot, then add a smaller pot, or smaller metal bowl on top to create a double boiler. Melt the Andes chocolate in the bowl.

Dip the crackers into the chocolate to cover, then set on waxed paper, and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Let cool, and store in an air tight container, or bag.

Peppermint Bark

You'll Need:
1 bag White Chocolate Chips
1 bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 teaspoons Peppermint Flavor Oil
Crushed peppermint candy canes

Line a jelly roll pan or cake pan with wax paper, very lightly buttered.

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Add 1 teaspoon peppermint oil, and stir. Pour onto the greased wax paper and let harden.

While the chocolate is hardening, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave, again stirring every 30 seconds (to prevent scorched chocolate) until melted. Add 1 teaspoon of peppermint oil, and half the crushed candy, and stir well. Pour the white chocolate onto the semi-sweet chocolate, then sprinkle with the remaining crushed candy canes. You can also add red sprinkles for color. Let harden in a cool spot, then lift the wax paper out, and break the bark up. Store in an air tight container, or bag.

Festive Fudge

You'll Need:
1 bag baking chips, any flavor (Chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, etc)
1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk!)
1 spoonful peanut butter, optional (tastes great with chocolate chips!)
crushed peanuts, optional
crushed peppermint candy canes, optional

Line a Jelly Roll pan or cake pan with wax paper, very lightly buttered.

Melt the baking chips and milk together. If adding peanut butter, stir this in as the chips and milk melt together. Stir often, to prevent scorching.

Once the mix is melted, add any additional ingredients you wish to add, stirring them in well. Pour onto the greased wax paper, and let harden. Lift out of the pan using the wax paper. To cut, use a pizza cutter for super easy, fast cutting.

Enjoy your holiday!!