Gingerbread House Party in a Box

Last weekend my littles decorated our traditional gingerbread house we always do as part of our Advent calendar. It's always lots of fun and good memories. And I love to see how the houses are evolving as they get older and another set of hands can help create them!

This year, I decided to gift a few of our friends with their own little Gingerbread House Party in a Box!  I thought it would be fun to give them a little something to do on one of our cold, snowy midwest winter afternoons...that get dark a whole lot earlier than any of us mommas would like.

These kits are so easy to make! Just grab a few basic house constructing supplies, graham crackers and a can of white frosting, and then add in your choice of fun and festive candies for decorations. I even added in a few packets of hot cocoa mix and stripey straws to keep the little architects bellies warm while creating :-)

I included starlight mints, gumballs, red hots, holiday sprees, holiday tic tacs, and holiday gumdrops along with a bunch of miniature candy canes which would also go great with the hot cocoa mix!

I wrapped the can of frosting in scrapbook paper to make it a bit more festive and called it "Cement". I even added a small muslin drawstring bag with a bottlebrush tree and a little deer to stand outside the gingerbread homes...it's the little things that make it more fun!

And there you go! A sweet holiday surprise to give to your friends or family. PS. how fun would this be to open on Christmas Eve or even to do on Christmas day!

Merry Christmas to you!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

A Christmas-ing We Go!

Last weekend we thought we should take advantage of the warmer temps (yes, that would be 40 degree weather folks...this past weekend we were lucky to hit the 20's and that's without windchill!) and go cut down our Christmas tree!

We found a new to us tree farm and I think this one might be my new favorite place to go every year! It was family run, very mom and pop, and so cozy and cute.

We road this pretty red tractor out to the trees...

{The biggest and the littlest of the family}

We ended up narrowing it down to 3 trees fairly quickly...and then finally THE one, it's amazing how good our kids are becoming at picking out just the right tree :-)

Once we cut our tree down we headed to their fire pit to warm up with some hot chocolate. I love that they had such a fun place to go while you waited for your tree to get shook and netted.

Then we paid up at their adorable life-sized gingerbread house...how fun is this! I sorta kinda want one in my backyard!

And then off to home we went...until next year!

PS...we finally, finally, finally have the lights on and the ornaments hung! It only took us 5 days after the fact!!

XOXO,

XOXO,

Snapshots of December

I realized I haven't posted any pictures from all the holiday fun we have been having so far this month so here is a post to save the day!  I know you have all been wondering just what we have been up to ;-)

The first weekend in December we headed out with some of our wonderful friends and their children on one of the best weekends this winter to find our Christmas tree (We went here this year!)  Usually in Chicago we have cold weather and snow when we do this but this year it was 50 degrees! It was perfect for letting the kids run free and walking aimlessly for hours finding our perfect tree.  I guess I would say I definitely prefer warmer weather than the picturesque snowy weather for this activity especially with all the kids we had in tow.  I think I might be spoiled for next year!

Mr. Smashed Peas used all his manly muscles and tied our pretty tree to the roof of our car like a pro.  It made it home safe and sound, good job Clif!

This year we changed the location of where our tree will be in our home.  It just felt right to have it in our family room this year (as opposed to our living room). Since this room has carpeting we opted to put it in a galvanized steel bucket so we wouldn't need our huge tree skirt taking up floor space. Can I just tell you how much I am loving this look!

On December 1st, our Elf on the Shelf (named Stocking) arrived.  He brought the kids their traditional Christmas ornaments one night while hiding in our galvanized bucket...sneaky little elf!

The kids also received their traditional Christmas pj's one evening before bed.  Can I just say how shocked I am that I was able to find matching pajamas for the ages of 6 months-6 years! That is an amazing feat of its own, am I right mommas?

We have been advent calendar-ing (the chocolate variety and the experience variety from this post here!)

Holiday Cornflake Wreath make-ing (minus the cornflakes and add in the Cheerios!) Recipe found here, it's awesome. Try it right now I beg of you.

 And Gingerbread House build-ing!

I hot-glued a whole village of these one night for a Gingerbread House Decorating party we had with our sweet friends!

 Sugar coma, anyone?

 The frosting was intense.

Santa mugs make for the best tasting hot chocolate, bar none!

And last, but not least, I am over the moon excited that I can finally buy matching ornaments for my whole family without having to feel guilty that the last child would get left out!  Hooray!  It's the little things, right? 

And no, the B does not stand for "baby" but for our last name!  Our family is complete and we couldn't be happier :-)  

PS. Oliver just turned 6 months old!  Ugh, stop growing up please!

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO,

Unplugging.

Since Christmas is in just a few short days, I think I'm going to unplug from the internet world for a little bit.  I'll be back next week sometime, promise.  But before I go let me wish each of you a very Merry Christmas (and a Happy Hannukah as that is occurring right now too!) surrounded by those that you love and hopefully some good food too!  

My three little elves have opened their Christmas PJ's, our family tradition every year, and are breaking them in nicely for Sunday :-)  Noah was über excited about this year's pajamas as he thinks they are real "Elf" pajamas...I guess they do look like elf clothing ;-)

They tore off their clothing and were racing to put them on the night we gave them as part of our Christmas Advent.  I love Eloise's belly in this shot, she really is our little 'Ellie Belly'!

I still can't believe we are only days away from completing the kids' Nativity with the Birthday Boy.   I still need to wrap him up and get him under the tree on Saturday night after my littles are snug in their beds.  Oooh, things to do!

Well, I hope you have all your holiday shopping done, your handmade gifts finished, everything wrapped and ready to place under the tree and if you don't you still have a few days left...ahhh, it's almost time. 

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!!!

XOXO,

Holiday Cornflake Wreaths-RECIPE

One of my favorite holiday treats to make (and eat!) this time of year are Holiday Cornflake Wreaths.  Maybe you make them too?  Oh man, they are so good.  We made these every Christmas when I was little and now I make them with my littles :-)  Making them is a great activity for the preschool set too as they can help you pour the cereal, count out the marshmallows and of course lick the spoon and bowl when you are done...every kids favorite part, am I right!

I always drop mine by the spoonful into individual mini wreaths because they are easier to add to our cookie trays we hand out every year but my momma always made one giant circular cornflake wreath for our family to enjoy.  

Holiday Cornflake Wreaths

30 large marshmallows

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp green food coloring

4 cups cornflake cereal

red decorating sprinkles or sanding sugar

Place the marshmallows and butter in a large microwavable-safe bowl and heat for 1 minute in the microwave.  Stir until butter and marshmallows are completely melted.  Add in vanilla and green food coloring and stir until the color is mixed throughout.  Add in 4 cups of cornflakes and stir until completely coated.  Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased sheet of wax paper.  While still warm, add red sprinkles or sanding sugar for the holly berries.  Enjoy!

Grab yourself a bag of large marshmallows and count out 30 little puffs of happiness. 

Place them in a microwave-safe bowl with 1/4 cup butter and microwave on high for 1 minute.  The marshmallows should puff up pretty big when done.  Grab a spoon and stir them until the marshmallows and butter are nice and melted.  

Then add in 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 2 tsp of green food coloring and stir until the food coloring is nicely incorporated.  Yup, as you can see I ran out of green coloring, hrmph!  I ended up using 1 teaspoon of yellow food coloring and 1 teaspoon of blue food coloring for this batch instead...yeah, we've been making these a lot this week :-)

Then add in four cups of cornflake cereal.  

Stir it up until the cornflakes are well coated...nice and GREEN!  Then drop by spoonfuls onto a greased piece of waxed paper...Mmmm!  Now just to warn your this is only slightly a sticky mess, well okay, it's a huge sticky mess but a good one none-the-less.

Then grab some festive red (and/or green) jimmies, holly bits or sanding sugar and lightly sprinkle them over top of each wreath.

Just perfect, I say!

Make yourself a whole bunch of them and then have at those babies if your being naughty.

Or share if you're begin nice!

Merry Christmas to all!

XOXO,