Recipe for Fun

Once upon a time there was a little old woman and a little old man. The little old woman thought she’d make a gingerbread man. She rolled out the dough, and cut out the shape, and she put raisins for his eyes, and peppermints for his teeth, and put icing on his head for the hair. Then she put him in the oven, and when it smelled good, she opened up the door to take a peek and out jumped the gingerbread man.

Today’s Recipe for Fun is Gingerbread Crayons.

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Start by removing all the paper from the crayons and chop them into small bits. Fill your mould with the crayon pieces and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until wax is melted. You can add more bits of crayon through the melting process so the moulds are completely full. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Then push out the crayons and they are ready to use.  Caution, don’t let them get away until you are ready to surprise some special kids.

“Run, run, as fast as you can,

You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!”

This Recipe for Fun is from Torie Jayne.

How to disguise Gingerbread Men. Turn them upside down and look at the cute Reindeer cookies.

For a change of pace, how about baking up some Nijabread Men?

These Nijabread Men cookie cutters have been a hot item this season. Can you see them also as a Recipe for Fun?

Christmas Wish List

Love these vintage ads!

A Hoover or a Cadillac, which would  have made you happier?

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You can sit at this Hit Parade retro diner set and ponder the question.

How about this 1980′s Jello Jigglers  Gingerbread Man retro recipe could easily be revived today. “There’s always room for Jello ” on any  Christmas Wish List.

4 packages (4-serving size) Jell-O Brand Gelatin or Sugar Free Gelatin, any flavor

2 1/2 cups boiling water or fruit juice

Dissolve gelatin completely in boiling water in a bowl. Pour into 8- or 9-inch square pan.Chill until firm, about 4 hours. Cut with any cookie cutter. Garnish as desired. Cube remaining gelatin.

Christmas Crayons

Angela really wants Christmas cookies for our office party on Thursday and here I am cooking up Christmas soap,  a recipe from  It’s Gravy Baby.

The “recipe” calls for items that you may already have around the  house, plus the process is  easy peasy.

Gather Up:

• a bar of white soap
• food coloring
• water
• cookie cutters or  candy molds

Directions:

• Grate your bar of soap.  Find your kitchen grater, you need approximately one cup of grated soap.
• Divide your grated soap into bowls.  One bowl for each color you want.  About 1/4 cup in each bowl to make 4 colors.
• Add a bit of hot water to each bowl- a little less than a tablespoon per bowl.  Use a spoon or fork to mash it all together until you reach a good consistency and all of the pieces are incorporated.
• Add a few drops of food colors, mixing until you reach your desired color.
• Press soap mixture into cookie cutters or molds and freeze.

Line  a baking pan with waxed paper for easy clean up.  You’ll want to freeze them for at least a few hours or overnight.

Now you have cute stocking stuffers or good clean fun gifts for the little neighbors!

Just in case any of the Christmas Crayons are mistaken for cookies, keep this handy Doctor’s Case close by for an Rx. Wink wink…

Recipe for Fun

Look what we are making this weekend for our preschool friends.

It is not your regular red and white Playdough, but a festive peppermint glitter infused variety.  Artful Parent shows you how to make this fun do together for you and the kiddos. She dresses up canning jars and then adds a cute tag ready to share with your little friends.

The glitter and peppermint scent really says Merry Christmas.

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Back in September we made pumpkin latte playdoh that smelled good enough to eat.

Take a look at Sweet Sugar Belle’s recipe for gingerbread playdoh and  how adorable her packaging  is, complete with a Gingerbread Man cookie cutter!

And then………..       A fox asked, “Would you like a ride?”

Click on Secret Sale to see 50% OFF Melissa & Doug toys for all good little girls & boys!

Message From Santa

You must try this! Santa Claus and his amazing PNP (Portable North Pole) console will be online during the entire holiday season. With just a few clicks, this technological marvel will let your loved ones receive a personalized message from Santa Claus himself, sent directly from his village in the North Pole. It is not only very cute, but FREE. Give it a try, I tested this last year and must say it was a fun little video message that Oliver received from Santa.

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Help Santa out and be sure that he gets cookies at every stop. Share this jar with your friends and neighbors. Make It Do will show you how to craft the cheery covered jar and Bakerellahas the recipe with the ingredients to fill the jar.

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Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer will light the way for Santa. Popsicle sticks and googly eyes are a make together project for you and your little ones,  for your tree or gift away. Expat Mom has the steps, one, two, three.

Recipe for Fun

How about whipping up these adorable ornaments with the kids this weekend. They would not make it to a tree at our house.

Here is the Recipe for Fun.

Recipe:

1/4 C. butter + extra for your hands (you’ll need for shaping the Rice Krispy treats into a balls)
1 10-oz. package marshmallows
1 tsp. vanilla
6 C. Kellogg’s Rice Krispies
Holiday-colored sugar sprinkles
Rolo candy
Toothpicks

Instructions:

Melt butter in a large saucepan.  Add marshmallows and stir constantly until well-combined. Add vanilla, and stir again.  Add the Rice Krispies cereal.  Mix until all of the cereal is coated with the marshmallow mixture.

Butter your hands well, then and shape the cereal into six balls.  Make sure they’re packed tightly.  Acting quickly, roll the balls in colored sugar or holiday-colored  sprinkles until coated.

For the top of the ornament, stick a toothpick into one end of a Rolo candy.  The other end of the toothpick long goes into the Rice Krispy ornament.

The Writing’s on the Wall

or if you prefer, maybe contain it to an easel.

There’s no better way to inspire your young artist, whether it’s on paper, or if you dare,  on the wall.

Benjamin Moore has a tutorial if you would like a DIY  chalkboard wall for your home.

Many folks however like this generously sized  easel with a chalk board on one side and a dry erase board on the other side. Either is perfect for art projects large and small. There are clips for attaching a roll of paper when that is medium of choice the day.

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Drawing and painting can be used to understand what children are feeling. Often times you can learn what is going on in their lives from the colors they choose or things that they draw. It is a great way to spark conversation with young children.

Turn off the TV!

Upstairs for Reading

Do you remember when you were a child and picked up a chapter book for the first time, one that you just couldn’t put down?  There were  books that transported us to magical places and ones with mysteries to be solved solve.

Which books were your childhood favorites? Were authors like Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, C.S. Lewis, or titles like Charlotte’s Web, Harriet the Spy, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, A Wrinkle in Time ones you may have enjoyed.

Our Illustory allows kids to  write their own stories  about whatever they have in their heads waiting to be told. Once completed, you send it in and have it published for all to read.

This is actually a favorite gift for people of all ages actually. Grandparents, aunts and uncles can write their memoirs and illustrate wherever their creativity will take them.

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If you are looking for 50% OFF  toys deals,

with new ones added everyday… click on the Secret Sale!

Recipe for Fun

Reindeer Noses that require no cooking and we think they are an ideal Recipe for Fun with the kiddos.

They  are packaged 8 brown and then the 1 red one; Rudolph’s nose! Can you name the other Reindeer? The brown noses are Malted Milk Balls, and unfortunately, some of them might not pass quality control so you may have to eat them. The red  nose is bubblegum.

 

 

 

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Sweet Paperie makes these bags of all red Rudolph noses. Best of all they offer with the instructions, the colorful printable header.

Last year we made Reindeer Poop for our friends, not enemies.

Green Christmas Countdown

A favorite Christmas Countdown that is so green you hopefully will love it as much as we do.

If you are a hoarder, I mean saver, like some folks not to be named here, you can use wrapping paper that you tucked away  from Christmases way past.

Last year Betsy introduced us to her own eco-friendly BoBo wrapping concept, but first let’s talk about this wonderful  Christmas Countdown idea from Katherine Marie.

Round up  24 Christmas books that you already own. Keep it green, there is no need to go out and buy new books, as we all know half the fun is in the opening of a package.

Then each day as you countdown, your little ones get to choose a present  that will be read that day.

Betsy’s  worms eat her garbage and her Christmas gifts are BoBo or Bojagi wrapped. Now who loves Mother Earth and lives it?

Bohagi is a fabric wrapping tradition that originated centuries ago in Korea and Japan, as a way to wrap and transport items before the widespread use of paper and plastic.

Betsy chooses colorful pieces of colorful fabric for her BoBo that can be used over again for gift wrapping or up-cycled into a quilting or sewing project.

According to the Clean Air Council, in the United States alone, an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the winter holidays.  Four million tons of this waste is attributed to wrapping paper, shopping and gift bags.

The Stanford University Recycling Center states, “if every American family wrapped just three presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover nearly 50k football fields.”

Please share any earth friendly gift wrapping solutions that you may have.

Photos by KatherineMaries.com