Message From Santa Claus

Have you tried 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.

Don’t forget cookies for Santa.  Help him get cookies at every stop;  share a jar with your friends and neighbors. Make It Do will show you how to craft the cheery covered jar and Bakerella has the recipe with the ingredients to fill the jar.

Wordless Wednesday

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…

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

Salt dough ornaments are so very easy to make.  Here is a perfect clay recipe for creating little hand impression ornaments giving you head start on Christmas gifts. We like that it is non-toxic, made of food ingredients therefore safe for kids to play around with and squish, mush and squeeze the dough through their little fingers. It’s great for a quick economical, yet treasured gift for grandparents and other favorite relatives.  There may be a new tradition happening at your house too.

This clay recipe will harden when left out for a day or two and can then be painted and embellished if so desired. In humid climates it may take several days to dry out. The drying time will depend on the humidity and how large your ornament is. To speed up the drying process, you can put it in the oven at 90 degrees for 30 minutes, then shut off the oven for it to cure. Remember to leave it inside the oven with the door closed.  You could also dry it completely in the oven for several hours.

Salt Dough “Recipe for Fun”:

• 1/2 cup of table salt
• 3/4 cup of flour
• 2 tablespoons of mineral oil
• 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup water

Mix all  ingredients together and knead it with your hands. If it is too wet, add a pinch more flour and if it is too dry add a bit of water. For a seasonal scent, add a small amount of cinnamon to the dough mixture.

This recipe yields a good snowball size ball. It is the perfect size for one keepsake hand print ornament. Flatten the ball out and press your little one’s hand into it. Pierce a hole with a drinking straw toward the top of the ornament for a festive ribbon that you will tie through once it has properly dried.

Kellie from This Blessed Nest made these hand prints with her twins.

If you’re not quite ready for Christmas preparations, then, let’s talk turkey.

Turkey Toes if you dare! Tickle the fancy of your Thanksgiving guests with these turkey toes aka what to do with left over Halloween candy corn. This timely idea is provided by Laura Lee Lewis.

Gobble Gobble!

Boxing Day

It’s Boxing Day for our friends to the north of us and on Tuesday for those across the pond.

We received this thoughtful note from a Canadian customer on Christmas Day:

Good morning and Merry Christmas!

I certainly hope no one is reading this email today but I hope someone reads it soon, because in it is glad tidings of joy from a very satisfied customer!

I am writing from Canada, where not only could I not find the bed I wanted, no company could even promise me a Christmas delivery for any bed they had on their websites. The only similar bed I found was from Sears Canada, who didn’t have the colour I wanted, and cost TWICE what I paid from you.

When I ordered the Jordan loft bed, I was not promised Christmas delivery either, but I was hopeful that it would arrive at least in time for New Year’s. I was also worried about customs and duty at the border, but Shawna assured me that no customer had ever called back from Canada to complain about the duty.

You can’t imagine my joy when the bed arrived “sain et sauf” (safe and sound) on December 17th!

But it gets better.

Imagine my joy when I saw the boxes and realized that it was the Pulaski made Build-a-Bear bed from the Sears website and I realized that I had saved OVER 2500 dollars!!!

So, now I know why you ship beds to Canada every day.

Thanks again, great customer service from everyone I spoke to at all levels (I did have to import it and fill out a bunch of forms and deal with a customs broker), and even the delivery guy was most helpful when I asked him to indicate on the freight bill that most of the boxes were indeed damaged (I have not opened all the boxes yet so I don’t know if they are damaged, but I did a quick check and I don’t think they are).

So well done, thank you, and I’ll be back

Louise M Pothier

Montreal

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Boxing Day is a holiday in the United Kingdom and many countries (including Canada) that were once part of the British Empire. The origin of this holiday’s name is not clear. In feudal times in the United Kingdom, the lord of the manor would ‘pay’ people who worked on his land in the past year with boxes practical goods, such as agricultural tools, food and cloth. These were often distributed on the day after Christmas Day. More recently, employers traditionally gave their servants a gift of money or food in a small box on the day after Christmas Day. Some people in Canada still give gifts to people who provide them with services.

Other stories relate to servants being allowed to take a portion of the food left over from the Christmas celebrations in a box to their families and the distribution of alms from the church collection boxes to poor parishioners. These traditions evolved into the Christmas baskets that some employers distribute to their employees during the holiday season at the end of the year.

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Totally Kids fun furniture and toys – for boxing day – Bozo Bop Bag.

Sad Face Santa

Oliver, age 8 months is not too thrilled sitting on Santa’s lap.

Big brother Myles age 7 comforts his little brother Kyle age 2 as they sit in Santa’s big  green chair.

Any other pictures of sad faces with Santa, send them on over to kayrocks@gmail.com

Longest Night of the Year

This Tuesday morning an extremely rare event occurred. The shortest day of the year known as the winter solstice in astronomical circles and a lunar eclipse both happened on the very same day. The last time it occurred was more than 400 years ago and will probably take that long again before it happens again. It was rare,  it was special… and here in Minneapolis a blizzard blocked the night skies. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Moon In My Room

Moon in My Room brings the beauty and wonder of this celestial body right into your child’s bedroom. This remote controlled, glow-in-the-dark “mini moon” is contoured and textured to feature an authentically detailed lunar moonscape. A built in light-sensor illuminates a room when it gets dark and shows 12 phases of the moon. The phases can be controlled manually or set to rotate on an automatic function to change every five second, so that kids can follow the moon in the sky with the moon in their room.

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So, what fun things did you do on the longest night of the year? We had a jolly old time making Reindeer Root Beer for friends and neighbors.

All it takes is googly eyes, red pom pom attached with a hot glue gun and dark brown pipe cleaners to twist on top of the bottle. Then we enclose a message: with a message: We’re “rootn” that you have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!”

We could not resist dressing the winter ale bottles for a party Wednesday night.

 

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Candy Contest

The winner will be the person that guesses the exact or closest number of peppermint candy in the jar. Leave your guess on our Facebook page and we will announce the winner December 30st.  You will receive a $25.00 Totally Gift Card! Good Luck!

Up On The Housetop

Reindeer Pause……

Chocolate lovers at your house will not pause long before going for these Reindeer created by Betty Crocker Wannabe. She has very clear cut how to instructions for you.

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Reindeer need food and you can make this magic surprise.

It was a busy day for us making Magic Reindeer Food. We have it ready for all the good little girls and boys visiting Totally Kids before Christmas.

Sprinkle on the lawn at night
The moon will make it sparkle bright.
As Santa’s reindeer fly and roam.
This will guide them to your home.

Eco-friendly Reindeer Food requires no cooking and only 2 ingredients.

Ingredients per bag:

1/4 cup uncooked oatmeal

2 T red or green sugar crystals (cookie decorating sprinkles)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Parents love stairway bunk beds so much you’d think the stairs went straight past the top bunk and all the  way to heaven. Not only do they save space like standard bunks, but the stairs provide additional safety and for top bunk sleepers plus…additional storage is tucked under the stairs.

Tucked into this stairway bed, listen closely for the Reindeer, then in the morning, go out side and see how the Reindeer enjoyed the Magic Reindeer Food.

Racing Around Too Much?

If you find that you are racing around too much this time of year you are not alone. But, but, but…… It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right? Do you buy that, or are you really frantically buying a pile of presents?

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year, a time to spend with family and friends and a time to celebrate all that is good and wonderful in our lives.

After you make it to December 25, try to remember that Christmas was not meant to be packed into a day according to the song. There are  “Twelve Days of Christmas” which are December 24-January 6. If you can believe that, sing along with the song and enjoy those bonus days after Christmas when the worst of the stress will be less.

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This nostalgic 50′s styled child size retro race track themed table and chair set features hand stitched vinyl upholstery on the chairs and brushed metal legs on the table and chairs.

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Can You See The Light?

Watch the retro 1950′s race cars of this hand-painted lamp  go round and round the base when you flip on the light. Know that racing round and round feeling all to well?

 

 

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Ramp Racer

It’s an exciting game of speed for one or two players! Choose the police car or the taxi, then individually release the starting levers and watch the wooden cars race through colorful cityscapes and down the five brightly-colored, wooden ramps. Who will win the race?

 

 

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Slow down no need to move so fast as you drive your vehicles around on this rug. Along with its bright colors and fun details this 100% nylon machine made rug is durable and very easy to clean and is a non-skid rug for additional safety.

 

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No, you can’t get away from the race quite yet. Feature edible race cars at your table a racy idea from Just Jen.

 

 

 

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There’s always room for Jello and the Food Librarian wows us with Christmas Broken Glass Jello. How does she do that?

 

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