There are few little people on our list who will be getting our weekend DIY project this Christmas. It is an idea from Natalme and looks oh so easy to create.
We have a couple of jigsaw puzzles of the United Staates that will be perfect. Next step is attaching pieces of magnetic tape to each state. That’s it, back in the puzzle box and what fun they’ll have putting the states on their fridges.
The United States has a vast variety in the traditions, however, most comes in the taste of the Christmas feast:
- New England has Lumberjack Pie ( a mashed potato crust, filled with meats, onion and cinnamon.)
- Pennsylvania Dutch serve Sand Tarts (thing, crisp sugar cookies)
- North Carolina features Moravian Love-Feast Buns (faintly sweet bread of flour and mashed potatoes.)
- Baltimore serves Sauerkraut with their Turkey (which includes apples, onions and carrots.)
- Virginia gives us oyster and ham pie.
- Southern states have Hominy Grits Soufflé and Whiskey Cake (with one cup of 100-proof whiskey.)
- Louisiana’s treat is Creole Gumbo. It can include ham, veal, chicken, shrimp, oysters and crabmeat.
- New Mexico has the Empanaditas–little beef pies with applesauce pine nuts and raisins.
- Hawaii blesses us with Turkey Teriyaki marinated and cooked over an outdoor pit. What is your favorite Christmas meal? Is it a traditional meal that you grew up with?
While you’re out doing your last minute shopping, try this time saving Crock Pot Baked Potato idea from Skip to My Lou.
How simple is this? Just wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil, place in a crock-pot set on low for about 8 hours.
Load them up with your favorite toppings, serve with a big salad and you have dinner.
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One Potato – Two Potato have fun playing musical Hot Potato! It’s a fun game for all ages to play together. Toss the tater back and forth, up high, down low, around and around! Don’t get caught holding the spud when the music stops!
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…
Chanukah is probably one of the best known Jewish holidays. The Jewish festival of rededication, also known as the festival of lights, is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, which is the third month of the Jewish calendar, and occurs sometime in December of the Gregorian calendar. The Hanukkah holiday lasts eight successive days during which eight candles are lit, beginning with one on the first night, two on the second night, three on the third night, and so on.
Jewish Year 5772: sunset December 20, 2011 – nightfall December 28, 2011 (first candle: night of 12/20 last candle: night of 12/28)
Celebrate the holidays with our wooden Chanuka set! Kids can role play safely with our wooden menorah and 9 colorful wooden candles, dreidel, coins, potato latkes, spatula, pan and storage bag.
_______________________________This puzzle, many more toys plus other Judica toys are available at Totally Kids fun furniture & toys.
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Martha Stewart shows you how to make marshmallow dreidels.
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Bright Ideas…Menorah Cupcakes would be a special edition to any celebration.
…Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Good night cow jumping over the moon
Goodnight light
And the red balloon, but before you head to bed be sure to set your alarm.
Tonight it’s not just a red balloon, but a real red moon.
A total lunar eclipse early Saturday morning (Dec. 10) is expected to offer lucky skywatchers stunning views of a bright red, supersized moon. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, casting the moon completely in shadow. The eclipse will start at around 7:45 a.m. EST (4:45 a.m. PST, 1245 GMT), when the shadow of the moon inches across the lunar disk.
If you are lucky, you may view the moon fully engulfed in a glow that could range from light orange to blood red.
For folks farther east, the skywatching website Slooh will be broadcasting a free, real-time feed of the total lunar eclipse from Australia, Asia and Hawaii beginning at 8:00 a.m. EST (5:00 a.m. PST, 1300 GMT). Slooh’s three-hour broadcast will allow interested skywatchers to watch online as the total lunar eclipse unfolds in real time.
“Not only will the moon be beautifully red, it will also be inflated by the moon illusion,” NASA scientists explained. “For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, building and other foreground objects.”
Courtesy of Denise Chow
With Moon In My Room the moon will be close to you in your room every night. The moon is the perfect foray into astronomy. Its phases teach us about the forces of our universe, its features tell us about the origin of our planet, and it’s just plain cool to look at. 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. In order to save on batteries, the light shuts off after an hour.
Good night moon!