New Year Games

I love making New Year Resolutions, although I tend to go overboard and have way too many. This looks like a fun game to play though, and guess who wrote what.
Or for little kids, this Bubble Wrap Stomp idea looks like so much fun!

Give

I know that Christmas is over, but I just saw this video today and really loved it. I hope it prolongs your feeling of the spirit of Christmas into the next year.

New Year Party Hats

I am not usually into party hats, but these would be so fun to make when my babe is older and can decorate it for himself! Of course for him, there wouldn't be any pink or glitter...just saying. :) Find the instructions here and here.

New Years Appetizer

I remember eating cheese puffs as a kid at a family Christmas party. And I loved them. I have always thought of them fondly but it wasn't until I saw a post by Pioneer Woman that I ever thought about making them! You can find the recipe for easy Cheese puffs here. It would be fun to try for a New Years Eve party!

Blessings

I woke up around 5 this morning with my babe, and haven't been able to fall back to sleep after he did. This song pretty much sums up my thoughts since last night. Plus it's my favorite part in this movie. :) I wish it had the whole scene in this clip though!

CHRISTmas

Yesterday at church, a sister in our ward told the following experience that happened to her on Saturday. The lesson was on a talk given at General Conference about virtues, and this story made the lesson real to me and I realized that I am lacking in some of the "ity" virtues. I wrote it from a first person perspective, trying to remember exactly what she said but it isn't exact. I hope she doesn't mind!

I had a spiritual experience yesterday in the mall, in the dressing room.
I got a gift card for Christmas and was in the dressing room trying on some clothes when three different times I overheard "Did you have a good Christmas? Did you get everything you wanted?" My sister, I love her, but she is selfish. She texted me saying "Christmas just isn't the same without a new piece of clothing to wear :( :("
What was Christmas about again? What did we just celebrate?
I have enough. I had to get out of there, I put the clothes back and left.

Grateful

Today I am grateful for my blessings. I have loved the past few days of being all day with my husband and son both, mostly at home. I wish I could capture in words the feeling of cuddling on the couch as we watch movies or stare at the Christmas lights on our tree as we read a story by candlelight.
I am grateful for the recognition of blessings I didn't even realize before.
I apologize for being so selfish lately. I feel like my selfishness has shown on this blog with all my posts of things I want for Christmas or endless lists of recipes to try.
What was Christmas really all about? Not baking or presents or new clothes or any of that.
I have enough.

Homemade Waffles

This recipe looks delicious...I hope I get to try it soon!

Grandmas Homemade Raspberry Topping

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Frozen Raspberry's
• 1 ½ Cups Sugar
• 2 Cups Water
• 3 Tablespoons Cornstarch
• ½ Cup Cold Water
• 1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Method:

In a medium sized sauce pan, place frozen raspberries, sugar and 2 cups water; bring to a boil.

Add ½ cup cold water to cornstarch and stir until cornstarch is dissolved. Add cornstarch to boiling raspberry mixture to thicken, stirring continually.

Remove thickened raspberry mixture from heat and stir in lemon juice.

Return raspberry topping to medium heat for 1 minute while continuing to stir, remove homemade raspberry topping from heat.

Old Fashion Waffles

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Baking Powder
• ¾ teaspoon Salt
• 2 Cups Milk
• 2 Eggs
• ¼ Cup Oil

Method:

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt - mix together lightly. Mix milk, eggs and oil together.

Add dry ingredients to milk mixture and stir together gently - do not over mix.

Pour ½ cup - ¾ cup waffle batter into greased waffle iron, cook.

Top waffle with butter, Grandma's Homemade Raspberry Topping, sliced bananas and whipped cream. ENJOY!

One week!

I can't believe there is only one WEEK until Christmas!! Where did the time go? Aah! There are so many things I have wanted to do that just will not get done until another time. Here are a couple of recipes that I would love to make but probably won' t be made until sometime after Christmas, but maybe you will have time to try them!

For the delicious cookies above, go here. Thank you Pioneer Woman!

For an English Toffee recipe that looks very easy but very yummy...

English Toffee
1 cup sugar
1/2 lb (2 cubes) butter or margarine
2 T. water
1/2 bag milk chocolate chips or 5 Hershey bars
finely chopped walnuts, optional

Cook sugar, butter, and water over medium-high heat stirring constantly until golden brown (this happens very quickly so keep your eye on it). If butter separates just keep going, it will go back together. Part butter and part margarine separates less than all butter. Pour quickly onto an ungreased cookie sheet. While hot, sprinkle chocolate on top of candy. Wait a minute or two for the chocolate to soften then spread evenly with a knife. Top with nuts, if desired. When cool break into small pieces and eat like crazy!

Excited!

Have you heard about the show Sing-Off? It's only one week long--starting tonight! I'm really excited, I can't wait! This weekend I remembered how much I love singing, with two opportunities to sing in public. I haven't had the chance to do that in a very long time and I had forgotten how much I really love singing. I sure hope American Idol comes back to Utah before I'm too old...or maybe I'll get a karaoke machine for Christmas...haha. :)

Night Divine

We went to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert featuring Natalie Cole on Saturday--it was fabulous. My favorite song from the night was the Tabernacle Choir singing "O Holy Night." It was amazing--I felt the music just wash over me and oh wow, it was so powerful! I tried to find a recording on youtube, but this is the only one I could find. Unfortunately it is nothing like the amazingness of the full choir...but it's still nice. :)

Time Out

Recently I have been very stressed about different things--a dinner and program I was in charge of for our Relief Society, my husband's insane schedule of finals, papers, projects and student teaching lessons, not to mention the seemingly endless list of people we are required to give gifts to when we can hardly afford to give gifts to each other. I really liked this video, it helped me realize how when all is said and done, what is most important. Family and Christ: The Real Gift of Christmas

Problem

I can't decide which color I like the best! There are even more than what is pictured above. I am in love with these lovely, darling, and fun earrings. I would love to find them in my stocking on Christmas morning! They are pretty inexpensive too. Find them here and here.

Fab Hair

I just heard about this--the Babyliss Pro Steam Straightener. It's supposed to both straighten and curl hair. I have always wanted to know how to do the loose curls look that all the famous women have... It would be possible with this straightener. I think I know what I want for Christmas!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Our furnace pretty much died early this morning. It started with some weird and pretty loud squeaky noises. Then it started smelling like burnt rubber. Definately not a good sign. This furnace has worried me since we moved here last year because it is so old. The fire inside the furnace has always been very huge--larger than normal, and recently I've been thinking we should really get a carbon monoxide detector. HowEVER that all changed today, when the nice Mexican man named Perez (he pronounced it Paris--haha!) who has worked with furnaces for 15 years was shocked to see that our furnace still works. He looked at it and said it needed a whole new motor but he wasn't sure if they even made them anymore since it was so old. He came later to tell me that the new motor would cost $500 to replace, and one of the parts you can't get anymore. So, thankfully our landlord just decided to buy a whole new furnace! But it doesn't get here until tomorrow. Perez left us with two space heaters, but when you aren't within close proximity to the heaters, it's a little chilly in our house. So I'm making homemade pizza for dinner, so the oven can hopefully warm up our house even more. But what I really wanted to make was these cookies pictured above. They are delicious. However, my husband requested brownies. But if you ever want a warm treat on a cold night, you might consider cinnamon crackle cookies.

Love This

I know I'm probably behind on the most popular music, but I just discovered this song and love it. So I had to share it! :) I hope you like it too!

Visit to Santa

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

I think this is so cute, but possibly a little weird at the same time. At least for Santa--he kind of looks like the 5th wheel. What do you think?

Giant Snowflake

I should have posted this in the Snowflake post yesterday! Here is a giant snowflake. Or I wonder if you could possibly turn it into a star? Either way, it is so simple but looks amazing! I would like to make these. Here's the written instructions.

Giant Paper Snow Flake

(Each snowflake measures 16" from tip to tip!)

Materials needed:
• Six sheets of 6" scrapbooking paper
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• pencil
• Glitter

Instructions:
1. Cut a 6" square of paper and fold it in half. Then fold in half again.

2. On the side that has the two folded edges, make marks 1/2" apart.

3. Cut starting at each mark, parallel to the hypotenuse (the long edge of the triangle.)

4. Open out your folds.

5. Take the innermost cut points and bring them around to meet each other so that you can glue the tips together. Use a low temperature hot glue gun and pencil to curl tips together. (The first one is the trickiest.)

6. Then, flip over to the other side and do the same thing with the next set of points.

7. Keep flipping and gluing your points together until you have done each point.

8. Want only one ornament? STOP here.

*Want a big snowflake? Make five more small ornaments. Attach them together in sets of three, then the sets of three to each other using hot gun to adhere the center points, and a little glue where they touch each other on the edges.

Hot Cocoa Party

Have you ever been to a Hot Cocoa Party? I haven't. But it sure sounds like fun! Wouldn't that be so fun as a family tradition? For some ideas and hot cocoa recipes, look here.

Cinnamon Rolls with a Twist

I love cinnamon rolls...growing up my family would always have my Mom's homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning. Well, I came across a recipe for pumpkin cinnamon rolls on Good Things Utah that I tried out last night with leftover pumpkin from Thanksgiving. They are so good! I might possibly like them a little bit more than some other ones I've had before. Maybe.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel frosting

Ingredients:

• 2 T. yeast
• 1/2c. warm water
• 1/2 c. canned pumpkin
• 2/3 c. sugar
• ½ t. salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¼ c. melted, butter
• 1/4 t. ground cloves
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 4-5 c. bread flour
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• 2 T. cinnamon
• 2 T. melted butter

Method:

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Wait 5 minutes. Add pumpkin, egg, sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon and cloves and mix well. Slowly add flour one cup at a time. Scrape down sides of bowl after each addition of flour. Turn into lightly greased bowl, cover and set in warm place until double in bulk. Punch down dough and let rest for 5 more minutes. Roll dough out into a rectangle.
Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle the dough with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Starting with long side of dough, roll up jellyroll style. Pinch seams to seal. With sharp serrated knife cut roll into 12 1 in. pieces. Place rolls, cut side up in greased 9*13 pan. Cover and let rise until double, 30 to 45 minutes.
Bake rolls at 350 degrees about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Drizzle with caramel frosting as soon as they come out of the oven. Let cool until warm, add the rest of the frosting. Enjoy!

Caramel Frosting

• ¼ c. butter
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• 2 T. milk
• ¼ t. vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• ½ c. to ¾ c. sifted powder sugar

In a small saucepan, heat butter until melted. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Cook over med. Low heat 1 minute. Transfer to small bowl and cool mixture. Stir in vanilla, salt, and powder sugar. Beat with Electric mixer until well blended. If necessary, add more sugar for desired consistency.

Christmas Wreaths

Ever since I've been married, I have really wanted a Christmas wreath to hang on our door. This is one that I would love to make...hit the dollar stores or after Christmas sales and it would be pretty inexpensive too! You can find the tutorial here.
Or if you want an evergreen wreath, check out some wreath making tips from Martha Stewart here! I think I might try this! It would be a fun date night with my husband and it seems like it would be pretty inexpensive too! You could make a trip to the mountains and bring back a few branches to make a beautiful, fragrant Christmas wreath!

Snowflakes!

I love these cute little snowflakes, you could make them and hang them on your tree. Or give them as gifts to your friends. Or attach them to your gift tags. Anyway, you can find the patterns for them here.

I am totally in LOVE with this garland! I want to make it so bad! We'll see if I can find the time this year!

Now Playing!

If you are wondering what to do this time of year, you could go see the Nutcracker, or It's a Wonderful Life, or go to a Christmas concert... Find it all here at Now Playing Utah!
I just discovered this website and it is pretty interesting. You can search by what you want to do--sporting activity, dance, music, etc. You can search by a certain area, or even a date. So if you live in Utah, or are going to visit, you might want to check it out!

Life-Proof

I have a ceramic nativity that I treasure and love. I have had it since before I got married, and lovingly take it out each year. When it's not in use, it is wrapped in paper and stored in a safe place because I really don't want it to break. I used to have the perfect place to put it each year--on the mantel of the fireplace before I got married, and after getting married on top of our entertainment center. Well since we moved last year and had to buy our own furniture...I don't have a place that I can put my nativity. Add to that an active babe who would break it in a matter of minutes. So I put it on top of our computer desk...which is a little rickety. But I thought it would be fine. Until my husband bumped it last night and tipped over several pieces, successfully breaking off the ear of a cow. Sigh.
So now I want this nativity. It would be perfect for our family. It is made by Little People...so it would be child proof and bump proof and whatever else. Plus it's cute and I think my babe would love it!

I forgot!

When I was writing my previous post, I completely forgot another funny thing about that song! That song reminds me of this story.
This is a story that happened to me my second year at BYU. I had a scheduled final the very last day of finals, which was like the 22 of December. My roommates had both left to go home for Christmas and so I was home alone for one night. I didn't think it would be a big deal...but I was pretty terrified. I've never been good alone at night anyway...and pretty much everyone around me was gone--almost no neighbors even. It sure gets dark on winter nights too! I had finished studying for my final and even though it was midnight, I was too nervous to sleep. So I tried to occupy myself by packing my stuff to go home the next day and I turned the radio on (we didn't have a TV or computer) to a station that was playing all Christmas music. Well everything was going fine until someone KNOCKED on my door! I was really terrified, it was midnight a few days before Christmas. This part of town was pretty much deserted with all the students going home...who would be knocking on the door? Plus, I had all the lights on so whoever it was KNEW someone was there. I went and looked through the peephole and all I could see was a dark figure. I could tell it was a male, with a dark coat on. I couldn't make out a face. And then the man put HIS EYE UP TO THE PEEPHOLE! It was just like being in a scary movie! After that he kept knocking, harder. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to go away. I was so afraid, I didn't know what to do. I grabbed my cell phone and thought...if I answered the door and he had wanted to try to kidnap me or something, maybe he would see my phone and change his mind because I could call someone? I actually think that I called my mom and told her what was happening, but I can't remember now. I also remembered that upstairs there were two brothers who hadn't left to go home for Christmas yet, and maybe they would hear me scream if I needed to. So...I answered the door. And it was a guy in my ward. Oh boy, a huge wave of relief washed over me when I saw him. I wanted to hug him and let him steady my nerves. He had had been visiting another girl in my ward but then had to leave at midnight because of the Honor Code at BYU. He saw the lights on in our apartment and thought he would see why someone was up late, so we talked for a few minutes through the doorway until he got too cold. I think he even told me he could call me if I got scared during the night, but I'm not sure about that either. Anyway, it's a fun story. And the Louis Armstrong song reminds me of this experience if you listen to the words. :)

Spooky Christmas Song?

If you are a reader of my private blog, you might have heard this song on my playlist. But if not, you might not even know this song! My husband came across this song last Christmas, and I love it! It's so funny--it's almost like a scary Christmas song. It always makes me want to swing dance and long for the days when Mister and I took classes together. I also love it because it makes me think of our Babe's first Christmas and those special first few weeks of life. What are some of your favorite holiday songs and why?

Popcorn Mania

My new favorite baking/recipe blog Our Best Bites has a plethora of amazing popcorn recipes! I first fell in love with their Cinna Bun Popcorn recipe, and now they have posted a recipe that I have been trying to find for awhile: Jello popcorn. They also have a Peppermint Bark Popcorn recipe that is calling my name.
However, they don't just do popcorn...you really should check out their blog, they have some amazing recipes!
So, here is the Jello Popcorn recipe.
Fruity Candy Popcorn {AKA Jello Popcorn}

8 cups popped popcorn
1/4 C real butter (that's half a stick)
3 T light corn syrup
1/2 C sugar
1 3.5oz box jello, any flavor (not the sugar free kind)

Preheat oven to 300°F. Line a jelly roll pan with foil or parchment. If using foil, spray lightly with non-stick spray and set aside. Place popcorn in an extra large mixing bowl.

Place butter and syrup in a sauce pan on medium heat. Stir until butter is melted. Add sugar and Jello and stir to combine.

Increase heat and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat so it just simmers. Continue simmering for 5 minutes. You'll start off with a mixture that's sometimes thick (depending on the flavor, see note at end) and as it cooks the sugar will dissolve and it will become a little more liquid-ish.

After the sugar mixture simmers for 5 minutes, immediately pour over popcorn in bowl. Be careful, it's super hot!! Mix right away and keep stirring so everything gets well coated. Spread mixture onto prepared pan and spread out evenly.

Pop in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. I've noticed that some flavors of jello have more mix than others (kind of like my discovery about different brands/flavors of cake mix noted in this post). For example, the strawberry is usually much thicker than the lime. If you notice this, you might want to bake the mixture for a few minutes longer to make sure it gets cooked all the way.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool to room temp. Then break into pieces and enjoy! You can certainly eat this un-baked as well and it's just soft and gooey, but definitely bake it if you're going to pack it up for giving, or serve it as party food so it will be light and crunchy.

My favorite containers for goodies like this come from the dollar section at Target. Check out the supply at your store next time you're there- they always have cute ones!

Pictures like this

...make me want to try my hand at sugar cookie decorating. I even found a whole blog about cookie decorating with tips and everything! And a website where you can buy everything you could ever possibly need to be a successful cookie decorator! I just don't know. I finally found what I think is the perfect sugar cookie recipe and don't want to ruin it by stressing about decorating and using a different icing recipe. But regardless, these cookies are works of art and I would enjoy every bite.