Activity Advent Calendar Day 18 - Crazy Christmas Photos

This is a bit of tradition each year, to take funny photos in front of the Christmas tree.  I downloaded the awesome photo props from here.

And I really just couldn't help myself.

Activity Advent Calendar Day 16 - Santa Bread

You know when you see something really awesome on Pinterest, and you make it, and it looks nothing like the really awesome image you saw on Pinterest?  Yup.  Santa Bread.

OK, it actually didn't turn out that bad.  The children were a bit miffed about the whole activity as it was more mummy hands on than them, but it does taste great and they enjoyed eating Santa. Next time though I think just making a batch of dough and letting them shape their own creations would of been more successful.

Original link and instructions here.  I am sure you can figure out which photo is the Pinterest one and which is mine?

Before cooking he looked pretty awesome though.

Actually, while we are on the subject of Pinterest fails, here is another one from earlier in the month.

Ahem ... yup, nailed it .....

Tis the Season for Giving All Things Good

The last two weeks have been packed full of kindy and playgroup breakups, school finishing, neighbourhood Christmas BBQ's, work and client Christmas parties and early family Christmas get togethers.  Its been fun but pretty full on, as each function has required a small token of appreciation to be taken along.

When the energy and time is right, I like to take along something homemade.  This year I have made batches of star shaped shortbread and packaged them in mason jars with lace and buttons as adornments.

These photos were taken off my phone.  Just too busy to take 'real' photos I guess!

When the time has been short Donovans Chocolates have come to my rescue.  I was lucky enough to receive a sample of their Dark Chocolate Caramels and Dark Chocolate Peppermint Delight.  I can never ever say no to chocolate.  Especially not Donovans.  Their cafe in Hamilton is not that far from home, its rather dangerous for me.  Especially the Chocolate Wheel - its a thing of dreams for a chocolate addict like me.

The hubby and I sampled one of the Dark Chocolate Caramels each before taking a photo, and we ate the whole lot in one go.  Opps.  They were amazing.  Dark chocolate salty chewy caramel goodness.  Easy to say I was sold, and have been buying them to take as gifts ever since.  

I am sampling the Peppermint Delights as I type this.  They have a jelly square centre, and the texture is so nice to sink your teeth into I just can't stop.  Or I am just a chocolate addict.  

I'll be off to New World again tomorrow as have 6 hampers to put together for our clients, and they will be definitely featuring Donovans Chocolates.  

I find I really just can't turn up empty handed to anything at this time of year.  I love to give small tokens of appreciation and spread cheer.  And to me, chocolate is cheer. 

Elf on the Shelf has Landed

We welcomed Spick to our household on 4th December.  If you do not know the story of Elf on the Shelf yet, check out the Elf on the Shelf official website and read The Tradition at the bottom on the page.

He so far has been reasonably tame.  In all honesty ... confession time here ... I often forget to move him.  Sigh.  And its a mad dash out of bed at 11pm to shove him somewhere else.  One night I did forget and had to tell the kids the reason Spick hadn't moved was because they were being naughty on bedtime the night before.....

Nothing we have done so far has been original.  Its also been meaning that Sprat has been getting out of bed each morning at 6am to be the first one to find Spick.  Sprat.  Spick.  Not to be confused with each other.  But still alot of fun, and surprisingly The Girl hasn't touched him yet, so he thankfully still has his 'magic'.

His adventures so far.

Looking forward to the next 11 days, and hopefully a few more creative (stolen off Pinterest) ideas.

Activity Advent Calendar Day 10 - Decorate Christmas TShirts

Today we got to decorate TShirts to wear on Christmas Day.  I picked up some fabric pens from Smiggle when they were having a big sale, and cheap singlets from The Warehouse when they had 30% off clothing.

Another simple project where the results were 3 children very proud of their creations.  The Christmas Spirit is truly thriving in our house.

Activity Advent Calendar Day 9 - Paper Christmas Tree Collage

Nice and simple activity today, decorating paper Christmas trees.  I have tacked these to the wall up the stairway.  The children are quite proud and so far have dragged two sets of visitors to the stairs to see them.

The Girl has informed me that Santa is going to leave a present under her tree, so I will have to have a chat to the man in red and ensure that happens.

Activity Advent Calendar Day 6 - Making Chocolate

The children's activity today was to make their own Christmas shaped chocolate.  The photos pretty much speak for themselves.  This was such an easy activity, and the children loved the end product.

Advent Activity Calendar Day 5 - Window Decorating

The activity for today was to decorate their bedroom windows.  I gave them liquid chalk and window crayons, and supervised closely.

The Girl, at 2, found it fun for about 5 minutes, before she realised there were scissors and scores of paper to cut into teeny tiny pieces.  Her latest obsession, and not much can keep her away from her scissors.

I had a turn on The Girls window.  There is definitely not an artist in me screaming to get out.

The hubby couldn't help himself and had to have a go as well.  What is it about liquid chalk that is so irresistible?

I love their concentration.

And the finished masterpiece.

Advent Activity Calendar Day 4 - Gingerbread Houses

Our activity for today was to decorate Gingerbread Houses.  I brought the mini kits from KMart and they were perfect for the kids, although I did add some extra lollies in to decorate with.

Its been raining all day long, so this ended up being the perfect stuck inside afternoon activity.

The ratio of lollies given to the ratio of lollies that actually made it on the houses was majorly in deficit.  There was a lot of excited hyper activity in our house after this!

I notice tonight as I walked past the dining room table that we obviously have mice. Well maybe just one mouse.  A large one.  Called the hubby.  My gingerbread house is missing half its roof ... ah well, it had to be eaten right?

Activity Advent Calendar

The 1st of December is looming.  My favourite time of year.  I played Christmas Carols today. Loud.  Very loud in fact.  And while I sang out of tune in my happy place, I worked out our activities for our Advent Calender.  This worked so well for us last year and I am excited to get started again.

I'll be using the same labels as last year - found here.

So in date order, our list goes:

1. Put up the Christmas Tree
2. Read the Christmas Story from Luke 2
3. Donate cat and dog food to the SPCA
4. Decorate Mini Gingerbread Houses
5. Decorate your bedroom windows
6. Make Christmas Chocolate
7. Watch a Christmas movie
8. Go to the Hamilton Santa Parade
9. Decorate Paper Christmas Trees
10. Decorate T.Shirts to wear on Christmas Day
11. Make Reindeer Food (instructions and free printable here)
12. Make a purchase for the KMart Wishing Tree
13. Make Peppermint Playdough (recipe here)
14. Go for a drive to see the Christmas lights
15. Visit Santa and get a photo
16. Make Santa bread - instructions here
17. Go and visit Great Grandma
18. Take funny photos in our homemade Christmas Photo Booth
19. Bless Daddy Night (will interview the children about Dad, cook him a special dinner and thank him for being such an awesome Daddy)
20. Go see the Christmas Drive-In Movie (in Hamilton only - details here)
21. Go see Trees at the Meteor (again Hamilton only - details here)
22. Make cookies and deliver to the neighbours
23. Go Candy Cane Gifting (idea from here - kids are going to bomb people with Christmas cheer)
24. Put out milk, cookies and Reindeer food

Hurry up already December!

Making Marshmallows

Marshmallows are the only 'sweet' that I can make.  Anything that requires soft ball, hard ball stages etc just seem to be a no go zone for me.  I have never successfully made fudge, unless its a microwave version, and have nearly burnt my house down trying to make toffee.  I even have a special sugar thermometer.  It doesn't seem to help me much.

But I have mastered marshmallows.  And they are good.   I couldn't not share as with Christmas just around the corner, these marshmallows with peppermint essence added and rolled in toasted coconut would make the sweetest gift.


2 Tablespoons edible gelatin
2 cups caster sugar (I used normal sugar this time as had no caster sugar and it turned out fine)
Essence and/or food colouring of choice

Sprinkle the gelatin over half a cup of water in a bowl and set aside.

Combine the caster sugar with 1 cup of water in a large saucepan and stir constantly over a low heat until all the sugar is dissolved.  Add the thickened gelatin mix to the saucepan and mix until combined.

Increase to a medium heat, bring to the boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes without stirring.

Remove from the heat and transfer to a heat proof bowl.  Leave to cool until just warm, add any essences at this stage if using them, and then beat for 10 minutes until very thick and peaks form. I use my Kenwood on high, and just walk away to leave it to do its thing.

Add any food colouring and beat to combine.  Pour into a lined 18 x 26 cm slice pan and chill until set. The easiest way to cut this is to use a wet knife.  You can then roll the cut squares into toasted coconut or just eat it as it is.

Clay Christmas Decorations

I want to incorporate more white decorations on our tree this year, without paying a fortune for a half dozen ornaments mass produced in China.  I've seen some great ideas on Pinterest using Salt Dough, but to be honest, I just have bad memories of soggy Salt Dough from when I was a child and just didn't really want to go there again.

A quick trip to Spotlight and I was home with air drying Jovi Clay.  It promised to be really easy to use, not too sticky, not strong smelling and should only take 24 hours to dry.  Perfect.

I am by no means a sculptor, so simple was the way to go.  Cue the cookie cutters, rubber stamps, ink, a drinking straw and a rolling pin.

I am stoked with how they turned out, especially the deer.  I only brought a small packet of Jovi, so am definitely going to get more and do some mass producing of my favourite designs.  Especially now I am the proud owner of a deluxe, worthy of a heart attack when I saw the price tag, huge 7ft Christmas tree that my darling hubby brought me the other night.  This baby can be filled with a heap of decorations.

I did let the kids, hubby and a friend have a turn.

I have to admit I may of turned into one of those scary growly possessive of my craft, type people at this point.  But I got through it without too much snarky behavior.  I think.  I didn't share my rolling pin though.

Can't wait to see these strung up on the tree.  Ohhh, love the festive season.

Sharpie Pen Plate Decorating

Stuck for a last minute gift idea?  These are so easy to make, they need no step by step instructions.

I brought 4 white mugs from the Dollar Value Store.  Decorated them with a sharpie pen and then baked them in the oven at 150 degrees for half an hour. 

Great idea for an under $10 gift, or for that person who has everything.  I love them.

Activity Advent Calander - Day 17

Today we decorated plates as gifts.  They will go to the hubby.  I brought the plates from Dollar Value for $2 each and the kids decorated with Sharpie pens.  They then went into the oven for half an hour at 150 degrees.  Nice easy present!

Sprat was determined to get a helicopter, aeroplane and a tractor on his plate. 

Danger Mouse surprised me.  He is drawing forms of cars and tractors, and I thought that's what he would go for.  But instead he drew a 'Circle Rainbow'.

And The Girl of course drew scribbles ... all over the plate, herself and the bench top!  Next time I must put newspaper down - this stuff is hard to remove from the bench top.

Activity Advent Calandar - Day 13

The activity today was to decorate ice cream cone Christmas trees.  What a sugar high after they ate them.  Good fun though, and totally worth the mad behaviour afterwards!

I made a simple buttercream icing and tinted it green.

I 'glued' an ice cream cone to a plain biscuit using the buttercream, and then covered the cone in icing.

I provided the kids with a small bowl each filled with a selection of sprinkles and small pebbles and let them go for it.

The boys were quite focused on their decorating.



The Girl not so much.

Then the eating and sugar high began.  Good fun.