I’ve got big plans for New Year’s Eve… last year, my nieces (age 4 and 5 at the time) and I filled out a time capsule questionnaire and stamped it “DO NOT OPEN UNTIL 12/31/2009″ so tonight we get to open it!
Hopefully, they’ll be excited about their answers from last year. I remember that they weren’t too excited about answering the questions (they liked tracing their hands and feet, and LOVED decorating the envelope we put everything in).
Unfortunately, I didn’t save the questionnaire but I was able to recreate it. If you’d like to use it, you can download it here!
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My 6 year old niece picked these notecards out just for me – aren’t they adorable? Definitely my favorite gift of 2009 (and I can say that because Chris’ gift hasn’t arrived yet)
My nephew will be 3 years old in February and I had a hard time figuring out what to get him for Christmas this year. Fortunately, he loves everything Thomas the Tank Engine. The best part about his present though was that I wrapped his present 6 times with 3 different papers… it was pretty funny watching him unwrap it…
My nieces are 5 and 6 years old – and can be very difficult to shop for! I always want to give them something they’ll be excited about, but I don’t want to contribute to the mass of toys in their playrooms (and I know the girls won’t remember who gave them what anyway). This year, I decided a new dress would be fun… and then decided if I could somehow give them a dress they each designed, that would be even more fun!
What I ended up giving them was a package with these dress outlines and some colored pencils. I told them to use the colored pencils to design their own dresses, and we’ll pick out the best one to turn into a real dress they can wear. I used the dress options for two Butterick dress patterns (B4906 and B4842), cleaned the drawings up in Illustrator and placed the images into a “Design Your Dress” frame.
I figure I’ll defintely have to take the girls fabric shopping and eventually I’ll have the seamstress who turned my vintage dress into a sweater jacket make the dresses for me (my sewing skills just aren’t that cool yet!). I’ll keep you posted!
My new favorite Christmas tree tip: if you want your home to smell like a Christmas tree, grab a toothpick or pin and pull back the branches to expose the tree trunk. Using the toothpick or pin, puncture a few bumps on the trunk. These bumps are filled with sap and if you do this every couple days your house will be filled with Christmas tree smell!
Original source here.
I made these and brought them to a Christmas Cookie exchange (they were Christmas-y in a funny way) recently. These no-bake cookies are super yummy and can be bundled together for a fun gift to give to kids.
Reindeer Poop Cookie Recipe
Original recipe found here
Dry Ingredients
3 cups oats (quaker oats)
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 1/2 ounces flaked coconut
Liquid Ingredients
1/4 lb butter (not margarine)
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk (not skim milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla
- Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, stir together well.
- In a large pot, bring the liquid to a boil.
- Then take off the stove and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
- Pour the liquid ingredients INTO the DRY ingredients and mix well until everything is wet.
- Use a teaspoon to spoon the cookies onto waxed paper.
- Let them cool and they will harden somewhat–that’s it!
A dear friend of my mom’s hosts a gingerbread house party most years (not every year because it’s a lot of work!). He starts in OCTOBER, making gingerbread houses for his guests to decorate. Each house has candy windows and he provides a little light that goes in the house through a hole in the bottom of the house base.
He also provides tons of candy!
All the kids (and adults) carefully “glue” all the candy onto the houses with frosting (also provided by John) and turn the basic house structures John provides into their own creation. John also gave each child a stocking embroidered with his or her name and stuffed with goodies. Oh, and everyone needs to wear either a Santa hat or an Elf hat (the whole time) and everyone brings a homemade dish to share.
John would really like the tradition to continue, so maybe next year I’ll be his gingerbread house mentor.
This is what the water tray in my refrigerator door looked like after I cleaned it with soap and water. Sooooooo gross.
But they can get clean! The trick to getting these clean is to use vinegar! Pour a little vinegar in the tray and let it soak for a minute. You can scrub it a bit with a toothbrush or cotton swab.
Ta-da!
I have to bring a dish to a potluck tomorrow and decided on my all-time crowd-pleasing baked ziti recipe. I went on my lunch break at work to get all the ingredients so I could go straight home after work and get started… baked ziti can be time consuming and I didn’t want to be up until midnight. I cooked the noodles and browned the beef, and was starting to layer the ingredients. When I opened the *brand new* package of provolone cheese (that I had purchased *that day*), it was moldy. Usually such things don’t get me worked up, but I was pissed! I had to stop everything, turn off the oven, and drive back to Ralph’s (passed 3 other grocery stores since Ralph’s isn’t the closest one to me). I decided on the way there that I wasn’t going to settle for less than my money back and a replacement package of provolone cheese. I went to the return desk:
Me: I need to make a return – this provolone cheese I bought today is covered in mold.
Ralphs Lady: Would you just like to get another one or would you like your money back?
Me: I would like to get another one *and* get my money back. (Politely, but firmly – and I was fully prepared to raise a fit)
Ralph’s Lady: OK
Right on Ralphs! Made my night… now, back to the baked ziti!
This is the same recipe as on allrecipes.com, but I changed the directions a bit. This freezes really well (if you’re going to freeze it, stop after step 4) and the leftovers are great too!
Baked Ziti
Original recipe found here
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 pound lean ground beef
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
1 1/2 cups sour cream (sometimes I use cottage cheese instead!)
6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
- While waiting for the water to boil, brown onion and ground beef in a large skillet over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
- Butter a 9×13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: a little sauce (just enough to cover the bottom), 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.
Aren’t the lights in downtown San Diego pretty? We took Joe for a stroll late tonight and soaked it all in.
I created a little map of a typical downtown walk for Joe here:
View Joe’s Walk around Downtown San Diego in a larger map
