  Ingredients:
Your favorite cookie recipe -- I used Martha Stewart's gingerbread cookie recipe Chocolate covered pretzels Red jelly beans Chocolate chips Instructions: Prepare cookie dough as directed. Roll into balls, flatten and gently pinch the shape into a rounded triangle. Bake as directed -- I baked mine about 11 minutes on 350 degrees. While still warm, press the antlers, nose and eyes into the cookies. Let cool on pan until set, about 2 minutes. Remove to cooling rack and let cool completely.
0 Comments
*** Update: New calendar uploaded. Download our Dec 2013 calendar (Word) *** Original Post: November 10, 2012: An Advent calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Some calendars are strictly religious, whereas others are secular in content. Despite the name, most commercially available Advent calendars begin on December 1, regardless of when Advent begins, which can be as early as November 27 and as late as December 3. Many take the form of a large rectangular card with "windows" of which there are often 24; one for each day of December leading up to Christmas Day. One is opened every day during Advent. This year, I started this tradition in our family with our 2 year old daughter, Zoe. We focused more on activities with family and the family tradition of thinking of others. And, since we have multiple families to visit, we extended the calendar to include a few days after advent. Download advent present labels below. They are sized to fit Avery® 22807 Easy Peel® Print-to-the-Edge in White Round Labels, Glossy, 2" Diameter. The EPS can also be reformatted to fit Worldlabel WL-5375. For holiday presents, I'm going mostly homemade this year. Here are the projects I plan to gift to friends and family:
1. Dinner in a box 2. Music CDs 3. Body scrubs 4. Cookie mix in a jar 5. Photo coasters 6. Alphabet blocks 7, Bath salt 8. Rosemary olive oil  Ingredients: 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup & leveled 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup cooking oats 1/2 cup m&ms (I used the red and green ones I got from www.amazon.com) 1/2 cup chocolate chips 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup chopped pecans 1-quart jar, with lid Instructions: Layer the ingredients in the jar in this order: 1. flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt 2. oats 3. m&ms and chocolate chips 4. brown sugar 5. white sugar 6. chopped pecans Pack each level down really tightly or else it won’t all fit -- trust me on this one! The ingredients should be flush to the top of the lid when you seal it up. Include these instructions with your gift: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir dry ingredients in a large bowl and add: 1/2 cup (almost melted) butter, 1 slightly beaten egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract,. Combine thoroughly. Roll into 1 1/2 inch balls & bake for 10 minutes. You're welcome to use the labels I made for packaging. They are sized to fit Avery® 22807 Easy Peel® Print-to-the-Edge in White Round Labels, Glossy, 2" Diameter. 
Wake Up Foot Scrub1 cup sugar (white, brown, cane) 5 T. coffee grounds 1/4 cup oil (veggie oil, almond oil, extra virgin olive oil, baby oil…) 2 tsp peppermint extract Mix sugar and coffee. Add oil and extract. Mix well. If you find it a little watery from the oil, just add more sugar and/or coffee. Vanilla Almond Sugar Scrub Mix 3 parts white sugar and 1 part honey. Add 2 Tablespoons of safflower oil. Add vanilla and almond extract to suit your intensity preference. The consistency should be somewhere between A) Not oily runny everywhere, like the honey won't mix all the way in, and B) not breaking apart and lumpy like there is too much sugar. .See more Christmas projects here.
Everyone has nights where they don't know how they are going to get dinner on the table. A lovely gift for busy families is this dinner-in-a-box idea.
Minestrone Soup in a JarIngredients: ¼ cup red lentils ¼ cup green split peas ¼ cup barley 1/3 cup vegetable bouillon powder 2 tbsp. parsley flakes 3 tbsp. onion flakes 1/3 tsp. dried thyme 1/3 tsp. pepper 1 tsp. dried basil ¼ cup ditalini pasta 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes 1 can of sliced carrots 8-10 oz jar with lid In the jar, layer from the bottom in the order given, from lentils to pasta. Seal jar. Attach gift card with instructions. Give with cans of tomatoes and carrots. Include these instructions with your gift: In a very large saucepan combine 8 cups of water, a 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes, a can of sliced carrots and soup mix. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for one hour or until peas are tender. Fluffy Cornbread Muffin MixThe trick to making cornbread that is fluffier, less grainy, and doesn’t have the bitter aftertaste is to add yellow cake mix to your cornbread mix.
Ingredients: 1 box Jiffy cornbread mix 1 box Jiffy yellow cake mix 8 x 8 disposable baking pan Combine cornbread mix and cake mix. Seal container. Combine with soup mix, baking pan, carrots, tomatoes, and dish towel for a lovely gift. Include these instructions with your gift: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 8 pan. Combine cornbread mix with 1/2 c. water, 1/2 cup milk, 2 eggs, and 1/4 c. oil. Bake 30 minutes. The cornbread is ready when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  This is ridulously easy to make, and once you make your own, you'll never turn back. Rosemary olive oil is great for sautéing, dressings, and marinades. It also makes an inspiring base for white bean dip.
Ingredients: 2 cups olive oil 2-3 sprigs rosemary Instructions: Wash the rosemary with a slightly damp washcloth and set them aside to dry. Make sure the sprigs are completely dry before combining them with the oil. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan; heat on low until warm—not hot, as you want to retain the olive oil’s healthful properties. Place rosemary sprigs into the bottle and carefully pour the warm olive oil inside. Seal the bottle with a lid or cork, and place on a window sill that receives indirect sunlight. Let the rosemary infuse into the oil for about a week. We have so much lavender and rosemary growing in our front yard, and I've been hatching a plan all fall to use these plants for Christmas gifts. Making homemade bath salt is easy, and once you make it, you'll never buy store bought bath salts again.
 If you decide to use fresh herbs as I did, you will want to first dry the herbs for this recipe. To dry rosemary and lavender, first strip the needles from the rosemary stems. Place the rosemary needles and lavendar blooms on a sheet pan in an oven set to 225 degrees F. and heat for approximately 2 hours, or until the herbs are completely dried. Ingredients:
3/4 cup Epsom salt 1/2 cup Dead Sea salt 1 tablespoon dried rosemary 1 tablespoon dried lavender buds 1 tablespoons safflower oil 1/8 teaspoon Vitamin E oil 8 to 10 drops of lavender essential oil Yield: 12 oz. Instructions: Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Transfer to an airtight container, and allow it to rest for a couple of days. This will give the herbs time to infuse the salts with their aroma. Add a handful of bath salts to warm bath water. Relax and enjoy!  These are great, easy Christmas presents! I had 4 x 4 tiles left over from my shower installation, so hooray for repurposing. The process is almost idential to the Alphabet Blocks, with an added step of finishing the project with a spray polyurethane varnish that makes the coasters waterproof.
Supply list: Photos cut 1/4 less wide and tall than your tiles Tiles Scissors or cutting board Small foam brush Mod Podge glue -- matte or glossy Sandpaper Mod Podge sealent -- matte or glossy Spray polyurethane Felt pads Instructions: Cut photos to fit tiles, leaving an 1/8 inch border on each side. Use a foam brush to apply a thin layer of Modge Podge glue to the tile and adhere the photo. Let dry. Sand the edges of the tiles if they are rough. Lightly spray each block with Mod Podge sealent. Apply 4 thin coats of sealent, allowing to dry between coats. Apply 2 thin coats to the top and sides of the coaster, allowing to dry between coats. Add felt pads on each corner to protect surfaces. See more Christmas projects |
|
RSS Feed
