Yummy Christmas Cookies

We made these yummy Christmas cookies. They were pretty easy to make too.

Italian Sprinkle Cookies

6 eggs

5 cups all purpose flour

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1 cup shortening

3 teaspoons almond extract

1-1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Glaze:

3-3/4 cups confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup warm milk

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Colored Sprinkles

Using a mixer, beat eggs on high speed until light and foamy, about 5 minutes; set aside in a large mixing bowl.

Combine the flour, confectioners' sugar and baking powder. On low speed, gradually beat in shortening and extracts until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Gradually add beaten eggs (dough will be stiff). Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes (tops of the cookies will not brown, but bottoms should brown slightly).

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the confectioner's sugar, milk and extracts until smooth. As soon as cookies are removed from the oven, quickly dip two or three at a time into glaze. Remove with tongs. Place on wire racks to drain. Immediately top with sprinkles.

Chocolate covered pretzels

We found these Wilton molds at Michael's and made some yummy chocolate covered pretzels. We put some sprinkles in the mold first and then we melted chocolate chips in the microwave and then put the melted chocolate in a ziploc bag. Then we cut one of the bottom corners off and piped it in the mold about one third full and then put the pretzel rod in and covered it with chocolate. Then we popped it in the freezer and waited about 15 minutes...yummy!!

Happy Holidays....

In my kitchen I have 2 frames hanging with a seasonal art project we have completed. Each child has their own frame. This is what we did for winter...the kids really love the snowman felt boards that they play with, so they wanted to frame it. This is our new framed art... This was our fall art. I love the tree handprint and the leaves are their finget prints. Too cute.

Crayon ornaments

Today we used the crayons we made for this project, but you could definitely use old crayons that have lost their appeal :) We used a box grater to shred them and I put them in a cupcake tin. For the shape of the cutout we traced cookie cutters on craft foam (mine is adhesive, but you could just use glue) and then cut out the middle.

I let the kids put whatever colors they wanted in the middle of some wax paper and then I folded the wax paper over, sandwiching the crayon shavings in the middle. Then I put the wax paper in between some cloth napkins and ironed them on medium until melted.

After they cooled and hardened again, We took our foam cut out and put it over the wax paper then we cut the excess around it. Then we placed the same color foam rectangle completely covering the back. Then we used some Fiskars scissors to decorate the edges and a hole puncher to string the ribbon through. We used them as ornaments, but they would also be super cute as gift tags as well.

The kids loved doing this and I had to pry them away from the table in order to get them to stop playing in the crayon shavings :)

supplies needed:

crayons

vegetable peeler or cheese grater

wax paper

iron

cloth to iron on

cookie cutters

foam sheets

decorative scissors such as fiskars

We've been linked...

Our reindeer clip has been linked by a favorite blog of mine...Thanks Make and Takes!!!

A Classic Reindeer

I can remember doing this craft when I was in school 100 years ago, except that I don't think the googley eye had been invented yet. LOL! No Time For Flashcards took me down memory lane and I had to do it with my kids as well. I think it is so cute because you trace your kids' hands and foot. I love that my daughter's is smaller than my son's.

Supplies needed:

construction paper (brown and black)

googley eyes

red pom poms

glue

Stained glass Christmas tree

I saw this on one of my favorite blogs, Make and Takes who got this idea from Alpha+Mom. They were fun to make and my 2 year old even had a very easy time with it since I put glue around the holes and told her to just cover them up.

Supplies needed:
green and brown construction paper or foam
tissue paper
scissors
glue
yellow pom pom for star

On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer...

We don't think that daddy's office is festive enough. Wouldn't his desk look so much more festive with a stack of really important papers put together with this really cute reindeer clip? We think so ;)

Supplies needed:

small googley eyes

red pom pom

clothes pin

brown pipe cleaners

scissors

I CAN'T STOP!!

The kids were taking a nap and I couldn't help but remember we have a stash of plain t-shirts for the kids in the craft closet. I know, I know it is a sickness. I stenciled shirts for the kids. They would look really cute over one of their thermal shirts.

I can't help but wonder what else I can stencil...hmmmmm, the hood of my car would be good. There is all of that space. LOL! Don't stand still too long around here, you may be stenciled. :)

***TIP Don't forget to put a piece of cardboard in the shirt seperating the front and back of the shirt so the paint doesn't bleed through.

Supplies needed:
fabric paint
brushes
stencils or cookie cutters
tape for stencil
shirt

Sweet Dreams...

We love snow over at our house, so we decided to dream about it. We stenciled pillowcases today with fabric paint. I have never seen 2 children so excited to sleep before. They were so sad to hear that the paint needed 36 hours to dry. They were happy to hear that they wouldn't have snowman and mitten tatoos on their face from sleeping on them too early :)

I found these stencils at my favorite store...Michaels. I also stenciled their names underneath (you can see the first letter as the example). You could also use cookie cutters and trace them on cardstock and cut out the shape as well. It was pretty hilarious watching them paint though because I told them that they couldn't brush the paint on. I told them they had to go up and down with the brush so it stayed inside the stencil. So, as we were painting, just heard them saying, "up and down, up and down, up and down."

They turned out really well.

Supplies needed:

plain pillow case

fabric paint

brushes

stencils or cookie cutters

tape for stencils

cardboard (to put inside the pillowcase)

Painting glass ornaments

Such a trusting mother I am. "Put this glass ornament on your finger to paint it, but don't drop it!" HA! Only one ornament was broken during craft time today. LOL

I bought a pack of glass ornaments from Michael's and we painted them with acrylic paints. Once they dried, I put my kids' initials on the one they made and attached a ribbon around the loop.

Notice our creative drying method :)

Jingle Bells part 2

The kids loved making noise with the jingle bell bracelets that I couldn't deny them a necklace that was equally noisy. :)

As I type this, it sounds as if my house has been attacked by little elves. Too funny.

O' Christmas Tree

We put up all of our Christmas decorations yesterday and decorated our Christmas tree. Today my husband put the Christmas lights on the outside of the house. SOmethng seemed to be missing from the middle of our kitchen table, until I came across this.

This was a lot of fun to make!! It took about an hour (not including the 20 minutes it took me to run to Michael's to get the styrofoam cones). :)

I took 3 different sizes of styrofoam cones and covered them in felt. I didn't even glue it because I was using pins to put the "ornaments" on. I used glittery pipe cleaners as garland and used pins to keep them on the tree at the beginning and end of the garland. Then we (my daughter and I) decorated one tree with pom poms, one with sequins and the other with buttons. Lastly, we used yellow foam and a toothpicks to put the star on the top of the tree. Then in my craziness, I covered a plate with batting and set the trees on it so it looked like snow TA DA!! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE this season???

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

I must say, not that it was really possible, but this craft put me more in the holiday spirit so far. We used pipe cleaners, pony beads and jingle bells to make these cute bracelets. Nothing sounded better to me than 7 kids running around with jingle bell bracelets on.

Snowflake Ornaments

I planned a few crafts for the kids on Thanksgiving and they did a great job! I had glued 3 craft sticks togetehr to look like a snowflake earlier this week and my husband drilled holes in the top of one of the sticks so that we could string it and hang it on the tree. We used, markers, buttons, sequins, and pom poms to decorate them. They all turned out really well and just like real snowflakes, not one looked the same. :)

Snowman Craft!

As flurries keep passing through today, we decided to make some snowmen out of craft sticks. We used acrylic paint, googley eyes and foam to decorate the face. The kids were very excited to paint and always enjoy wearing one of daddy's shirts so that they don't get paint on their clothes. They loved putting his face together too. They have had lots of practice with snowmen faces by using their felt board snowmen.

Beaded candy canes craft

Ever since we saw candy canes at Target, the kids have mentioned them several times since, so I decided we would make our own. It is a little too early for me to buy them, so tonight we worked on our patterns. I am actually amazed at how well my 2 year old did. We used pony beads and pipe cleaners. They look great and we can't wait to put them on the Christmas tree at the end of the week! I hope my husband reads this post and realizes that we WILL be putting the tree up this weekend. :) It is one of my favorite things to do with my kids.

Ladybug apples!

I saw these online at this great site. I thought they were super cute especially since my daughter loves all things ladybugs. In fact, that is my nickname for her. The chocolate chips are stuck on there with peanut butter. It should be no surprise that the chocolate chips were the first things to be eaten.

Buckeye Candy!

Go Bucks!!! Finally something buckeye I can root for. :)

I am not a huge Buckeye fan even though I have lived here most of my life. I AM a big Fan of Buckeye Candy though. :)

Everyone in my family loves anything peanut butter and chocolate. This may be why we still have a ton of Halloween candy left over that has been picked free of all things Reeses.

We made these today and they are VERY yummy. I have 2 bits of advice for you though if you choose to make this recipe.

1. Do not use reduced fat creamy peanut butter (that is what we used). It makes the peanut butter a little crumbly.

2. When you are following the recipe directions, put the peanut butter balls in the freezer like it says. Don't think to yourself, "These look fine and it should be easy to cover in chocolate without putting in the freezer." I didn't put mine in the freezer and I think they would have been a lot easier to cover in chocolate if they had been slightly frozen. :)

Cinnamon Dough Ornaments

We made some yummy smelling ornaments for our Christmas tree this morning. They were super easy to make as well. All you need is apple sauce, cinnamon, glue, cookie cutters and a straw. I got the directions from Kaboose Crafts. Check it out! The kids had a great time making them. I had to stress several times WE DON'T EAT THESE. :) I can't wait until they are all dry in a few days so I can string them on the red ribbon. They will be too cute.