Santa's Cookies

Our family has been making these cookies for Santa for years. They are his favorite and I bet you will enjoy them as well!

I got the original recipe from Paul Deen YEARS ago and have changed some of the ingredients to work for our family.

Ingredients Needed

1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

3 1/2 hard white whole grain flour

2 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla 

2 large eggs 

1 cup honey granules

1 cup sucanat

1/2 cup butter, softened 

16oz maraschino cherries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  

2. Using your electric mixer, place butter, honey granules, and sucanat together in bowl and mix until light and fluffy.  

3. Add eggs and vanilla, then mixture aside.  

4. Sift together flour, soda, and salt.  

5. Add milk to butter mixture then add your flour, soda, and salt to butter mixture.  

6. In another bowl, combine chopped nuts, cherries and white chocolate chips.  

7. Then add to mixture, stirring only to blend.  

8. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.  

9. Bake for approximately 11-13 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Give a little Jesus

I love wrapping gifts with not only a bow but adding just a little extra on the outside.  Sometimes that is in the form of something as simple as raffia bow with a cute tag or an ornament for Christmas.  This is a little baby Jesus.  It makes a cute accessory to your gift wrap presents or make one to hang on your tree as an ornament.  It is a simple and very flexible craft! Think outside the box, always!

Gather supplies: (I got everything from Michael's)
small wood stars
wood boy game pieces (if you cant find these you could just use the round ball heads)
craft paint
wire (I used 20 gauge)
small bird nest
felt
sharpie
glue gun

1.  Start by painting your star and the head of your boy game piece.

2.  As that dries, twist end of wire to connect to bird's nest.  Then wrap wire around end of pencil or I used my paint brush.

3.  Hot glue star to wire.

4.  Now is time to wrap the baby with felt.  I cut felt in half, then half again, one more time.  Put two dots of hot glue on neck and fold felt.

5.  Fold one side over and glue, then fold other side over and glue.

6.  Fold up bottom piece of felt hanging down, hot glue in place in the nest.

7.  Lastly tuck in those side pieces sticking out.  Use the sharpie and add two dots for the little eyes.  I added a string so it can be tied onto a gift, then later used as an ornament.  I also added some glitter to the star to give it a little pop.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Ornaments

My girls and I made these cinnamon ornaments this weekend.  The house smelled wonderful while they baked.  We will be tying them to gifts for our family and friends this year.

Start by gathering supplies:

3/4 cups applesauce
1 bottle ground cinnamon (about 4 ounces)
cookie cutters of your choice
straw
ribbon

1.  Start by mixing cinnamon and applesauce together till it forms a dough ball.  You might have to start with a spoon to mix, then get in there with your hands to continue to mix it up.

2. Take about 1/3 of the "dough" and roll out between 2 pieces of plastic wrap till about 1/4" thickness.

3. Take off top plastic wrap and cut with your cookie cutters.

4. Use the straw to make the hole for the ribbon.

5. Carefully place on baking pan and bake for 2 1/2 hours on 200F.

6. Let them completely cool for 1-2 days then they are ready to be used for gifts! Enjoy!

DIY Christmas Ornaments

Did you know Christmas is 42 days away?! WOW! Christmas is coming!

With that knowledge, I decided to make a few new ornaments for my tree.  These are very easy to make.  These ornaments could even make a very fun craft afternoon for you and your kids, might be better for older children though.  

All these supplies I got at Michael's!  I'll show you 5 ornaments I created.  Feel free to come up with some new ideas based off these.  There are a lot of possibilities!

Gather your supplies:

The first ornament I cut strips from pages of an old book and stuffed them into the glass ball.  Done!

Next one is little bit more challenge.  Find the small bottle pipe trees, place a dot of hot glue on bottom of tree, then use tweezers to place in ornament quickly before glue drys.  Then fill with fake snow. Done again!

Third one is just as easy as the first, just fill with feathers. Done!

Fourth ornament, use any glitter color of your choice.  

First, fill empty glass ornament with a little bit of Pledge Multi`Surface Floor Cleaner and swirl all around the inside of ornament.  Pour excess cleaner back into bottle.  

Place ornament upside down to allow excess to drain out.  

Next funnel a good bit of glitter into the glass ball and roll around to coat inside with glitter.  Turn ornament upside down and tap gently to shake out excess glitter.

The floor cleaner will harden and seal the glitter. Done!

Last ornament!  Fill with paint color of your choice and roll it around.  Use as few or as many colors as you would like. 

Allow ornament to dry upside down for about 20-30 minutes between colors. Then you are done with your final ornament!

Enjoy!

Don't look Momma till after Mother's Day

Mother's Day is just around the corner, Sunday May 12th to be exact.  A day to celebrate all those hard working mother's.  Just think of the rears wiped, children bathed, homework and projects finished by the due dates, hot meals cooked, tears shed, laughs shared, hugs that will warm your souls given, lunches packed, lessons taught and learned, all from the blessing of caring for a child.

How do I know its a blessing, for the Bible tells me so!  (Did you catch that tune?!)

Children are a blessing and a gift from the Lord. ~Psalm 127:3

Some days this verse rings true, from my head down to my toes, I can feel the blessing and the happiness that comes from being a mother.  Other days not so much.  When I feel myself looking at my kids as burdens or interruptions, I close my eyes and pray for the Lord to change my thoughts and actions toward them.  I pray, "Lord you say in your word children are a blessing. It doesn't say only well behaved, healthy, obedient, happy, smart, athletic, artistic, loving, or fun children.  It refers to all children. So even though my child is acting very undeserving in this moment, please give me your grace and mercy so that I can share the same love with grace and mercy you share with me with them and open my eyes to see them as you see them, blessings."

Who can find a virtuous woman? She is far more precious than jewels... 
Strength and honor are her clothing, and she can laugh at the time to come. 
She opens her mouth with wisdom, and loving instruction is on her tongue. 
She watches over the activities of her household and is never idle. 
Her sons rise up and call her blessed. 
He husband also praises her: 
Many women are capable, but you surpass them all! 
Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised. ~Proverbs 31:10, 25-30

My kids are still young but I think about what we have endured together as a family and it is HUGE! I think that is what bonds a family, riding the roller coaster of life.  It has it's highs and lows, but in the end I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!!!!

Makes me think on my own mother.  The love she has shown me and I know she draws her love for me from God.  That's the only way she would have been able to put with me.  heehee

The Lord is really the only way you can truly, unconditionally love someone forever.  We have the perfect example of how to be a mother through Jesus.  Just read His word daily and He will show you.  He will give you the strength and courage to endure each day and to become the mother He has called you to be to His children He has gifted you with.

Love is patient; love is kind. Love is not jealous; is not proud; is not conceited; does not act foolishly; is not selfish; is not easily provoked to anger; keeps no record of wrongs; takes no pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. ~I Corinthians 13:4-7

Still looking for the perfect gift for Mother's Day?

I have a FREEBIE for you! This is part of my gift to my own mother and want to share with all of you!

You can download your own bible verse print here!

Just print as a 5x7 and place in a frame of your choice. (I got this frame from Hobby Lobby, all those that are interested.)  Perfect gift for the special mother in your life!

St. Patty's Day Shake

Ooooowwwwweeee! I love ice cream! BUT Ooooowwwwweeee it is not good for my rear.

I was very happy to come across Dashing Dish.  She has the most amazing shake idea, to use cottage cheese! It is incredible and the shake is so thick and creamy like ice cream! Perfect!

Thank you Dashing Dish!!!

I followed her recipe for the Shamrock Shake with some tweaks, which is compared with McDonald's Seasonal "Shamrock Shake." Although I haven't tried the shake from McDonald's I have tried other milkshakes and this recipe is GREAT!

I left out the protein powder and xantham gum.  If you don't like pistachio flavor pudding mix, you could use white chocolate or even vanilla. Sky is the limit on these shakes!

For an extra treat blend in 2 oreo cookies! YUM!

Ingredients
1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese
1/8 tsp mint extract
1 packet Sweet Leaf stevia
5 ice cubes
1/2 cup water
handful of spinach
2 tbs sugar free instant pistachio pudding mix

I mean, just check out how much protein is found in cottage cheese, 15g! Cool huh! I had no idea.

Gather your ingredients.

Put in blender, then blend it well.  It may take about a minute or two to get a real creamy texture, depending on your blender.

Enjoy a nice treat for St. Patty's Day!