Free Holiday Events at Cabela's

It all starts this weekend! So, check it out! We are lucky to have one very near us and since I still have one left who is a believer we will be participating in some of these as our schedule allows. The age of my son now is the age my daughter was when she stopped believing, but I got through Christmas and Easter that year. This may very well be the last year. I am not sure how things change for us, but I want to take in all the "magic" I can this year.

Merry Christmas!

Free clipart image from Clipartix

Easy Holiday-Winter Wreath Made with Dollar Store Items

I picked up this red tinsel wreath (plus the other supplies) at Dollar Tree but I didn't think the wreath itself was big enough, so I also bought this much larger plastic snowflake and then pack of snowflake ornaments to layer them together and create a fun winter wreath. The ribbon was something I had leftover at home. For only $3, I think this turned out really cute and is really lightweight and can hang from a suction cup on my door.

I love to make wreaths, check out my other wreath ideas for various holidays and season and made from different materials:

• 3 DIY Holiday Wreaths for Only $6
• No Cost Winter Wreath Design
• Low Cost Christmas Wreath
• Cinnamon Roll Wreath
• Holiday Hand Print Wreath
• Create Your Own Personalized Wreath
• Creepy Feather and Eye Halloween Wreath
• Halloween Stick Wreath
• Star Paper Plate Wreath
• Rag Wreath

A Package from Santa has Arrived! From the North Pole!

This PackagefromSanta.com package arrived today and my son was really surprised. He noticed right away it was from Santa, but before opening it he did take note that the postage on it said it came from the North Pole. I think that attention to detail really helps seal that this is truly from Santa. Earlier this week, we watched the video message from Santa that included an elf that kept falling asleep. My son made sure to look for that elf's name on the Christmas card from the elves (see above) and found it. That card from the elves also included a snowman ornament.

This is the premium package and they sure cover all the bases with this package. In the top picture you also see a nice "Nice List" certificate that has a sticker seal on it. He wanted to know if this means he is always on the Nice List and I was sure to point out that the certificate only said for the 2017 season. It also included a window cling that he was happy to put up.

Some other fun things in the package included a signed photo of Santa, a picture of baby Rudolph (which is adorable!) and a personalized letter. I was able to read through several letters and pick one to personalize. I picked out one I thought my son would relate to the most and then typed in the things to personalize it.

The inside of the box is a whole scene inside the North Pole residence. I can picture my son using this box with some of his lego guys, otherwise it is just a nice looking decorative box. It would have been nice to see a couple of elf plastic toy figures in there for them to play with in the box.

Also, included is a cute little Rudolph velvet bag that had a REALLY nice jingle bell in it (and a message from Rudolph) which is now hanging on my son's mini Christmas tree. Mrs. Claus sent a Sugar Cookie which actually looks better in person because the camera just don't pick up the fine iridescent sprinkles dusted over it. And to round out the treats for the child is also a candy cane from Santa and some of Santa's Hot Cocoa (a mix to make).

 One last thing in there is some reindeer food that is legit animal feed which my son is thinking of saving some of it to see if he can make the calves at grandpa's farm fly. Can you imagine?!?!?! Flying calves?!??!?! Ha! What an Imagination!

This last picture is of my son watching his video message from Santa that included 2 pictures of him (that I uploaded from different times of the year so he knew Santa was always watching!)

This PackagefromSanta.com package also includes a phone call from Santa, which I have not scheduled yet. I am waiting until a little later. This week has been A LOT of Santa, as Wednesday was St. Nicholas Day and Santa dropped off some treats and a FREE PERSONALIZED NICE LIST GUIDE! Yes, this printable is FREE TO EVERYONE. You even get to upload a picture on to it for the child. So, that is really neat!

Order this holiday must-have for your child at https://www.packagefromsanta.com and save 25% OFF your order when you use FAMP17 at checkout.

Homemade Holidays

I wanted to share some pictures of some other things that we made this holiday season. In the top picture you can see some hand-painted plaster ornaments that our family made. We like to make new ornaments every year.

Next is some blocks that say Merry Xmas on one side and then on the other side say Happy fall. I had never gotten around to sharing that craft project I will probably share it another time later on.

And there is some glycerin soaps that my daughter made to give as gifts that have different plants and essential oils in them.

 These are a couple of the yummy treats that we made early on. Sugar cookie cutouts and Rolo Bites.

I asked the kids what treats they for sure wanted me to make this year and my daughter said homemade peanut brittle (I had bought some from a store and she said it wasn't as good as mine.) And my son said peanut butter blossoms. The only time I make gingerbread men is the holidays and after my son brought home the book from school ( then looked on our shelves to find our copy of The Gingerbread Girl), I knew I needed to make some.

LETTER, PACKAGE, CALL & VIDEO from Santa!!! PackagefromSanta.com

Start a new and memorable tradition this Christmas with PackageFromSanta.com, the ONLY Santa memory service that does it ALL! Personalized LETTERS, PACKAGES, CALLS and VIDEOS from SANTA!

Do you want to see your children's face light up in amazement when they get a personalized letter from Santa Claus? Of course you do! This not just a letter from Santa. It's an amazing experience - it's joy, memories, wonder and happiness in a box! You can choose a specific letter theme and then customize it yourself to include details that only Santa would know!

Every package also comes with a FREE personalized CALL and VIDEO FROM SANTA that can be scheduled any time. This techy part of the PackageFromSanta.com was unreal! So surprisingly well done and high-end and my kids LOVED it!

It's such a joy to see my children continue to BELIEVE and PackageFromSanta.com really helped make the magic happen in my household this year! So grateful!

PFS has an A+ Rating with the BBB due to their unmatched high-touch customer service so you can be confident that you are making a wise purchase. They have real people on the phone ready to help answer questions. That's unheard of these days! Such a nice touch.

Click here to see a video to learn more about this very special Santa memory service that will be a part of my family for years to come!

The Platinum Package ($69.95) comes in a red box includes:

Personalized Letter from Santa

BONUS! Personalized Video from Santa (retail $9.99)

BONUS! Personalized Phone Call from Santa to a cell phone OR land line! (retail $9.99)

Personalized Nice List Certificate

Autographed Santa Claus Photo

Autographed Rudolph Photo

Genuine North Pole Stamp

...and so much more!

It also comes with a 60-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Wow! They are THAT confident your child will LOVE it!

There are 3 different packages offered, so you can choose a price point that works with your budget. I will be reviewing the top of the line Platinum package ($69.95).

Order this holiday must-have for your child at https://www.packagefromsanta.com and save 25% OFF your order when you use FAMP17 at checkout.

Rolo Bites

I have shared how to make these before, but why not do it again. They are easy and a crows favorite and take minimal ingredients and minimal time.

Rolo Bites
1 Bag of each: Pretzels, Holiday M&Ms and Rolos (unwrapped)


Directions: A bag of Rolos has about 4 dozen Rolos in in, so you will not need a whole bag of pretzels or M&Ms, unless of course you want to buy more bags of Rolos.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Assemble noses with Rolo inside a circle preztel. Bake for 3 minutes to slightly melt them.

Press an M&M in the top of melted Rolo. Allow to cool. Enjoy!

Fall and Christmas Reversible Blocks

A friend and I had a crafting afternoon and each made our own set of these reversible blocks. We wanted to be able to see the grain so we watered down some acrylic paint and basically made a stain.

We did this to each side in the colors we wanted for each block. When it was dry we used the vinyl letters and images I had created using the silhouette machine. My job was the make the vinyl pieces and she cut out the blacks from leftover 2x4 pieces.

I then covered the edges with duct tape while she chose to sand them down smooth and paint them.

Merry Christmas!

Our DIY Advent Calendar

I made this Advent calendar years ago when my daughter was very little. I had wanted to have something that we could use from year to year and not need to buy those cardboard calendars that have waxy tasting chocolate. I had also come to realize that she would get way more candy trick-or-treating then she needed. So in addition to taking out candy to make our gingerbread house I would also take out another bag of candy with 25 pieces to put into our advent calendar. Now I do that with both kids and have 2 pieces in each date.

The kids actually really like that they have a variety of candy and it isn't chocolate all month long. I made this Buy sewing pieces of fleece onto fleece. And stitching Pockets. I wanted to cover up the stitching so I just glued ribbon over the top of the stitching. I glued the red States onto each pocket and use puffy paint to make the numbers. I have a double running through the top which is what keeps it sturdy and straight. I glued thick ribbon to that using hot glue.

We have been using this for at least a half-dozen years if not more and it is holding up just fine. Maybe next Halloween when you don't want your kids to have so much Halloween candy you would like to try this and put aside some for your Advent calendar and a gingerbread house.

Also - my kids have to tell me a different thing every day that they are thankful for in order to receive their daily candy. I like that and it certainly seems to make them have more gratitude.

Where Did We Go Wednesday? Christmas at the Mall of America

Last week I met up with a friend at the Mall of America to spend some holiday time together. The mall was beautifully decorated throughout with various assortment of holiday decorations. Throughout Nickelodeon Universe there were large Christmas bulbs in SpongeBob SquarePants characters.

The Rotunda was decorated with two enormous trees and had a stage setup where different school groups would sing or perform band concerts. There were also a couple other areas with large hanging displays of ornaments and snowflakes, two different displays.

The other performance stage area was surrounded by large nutcrackers like the one you see in the picture. There were a lot of people stopping and taking their picture in front of these nutcrackers that were enormous.

And of course, Santa was there. We saw him from the second floor but if you are walking by on the first floor you would not see him because he is guarded by all of the decorated trees.

The decorations were very pretty and help to add to the holiday feel at the mall.

#ad Review: Crabpot Christmas Trees

Guess what finally showed up on my doorstep, after telling you about them 7 weeks ago. I was supposed to have received it five or six weeks ago so I could review it and tell you about it so you could order it if you want it for this Christmas but now you just get to read about it and think about it for next year I guess.

The Crabpot Christmas Tree I received has white lights but they also have it in multicolor. The lights come in either regular Christmas lights or LED. This one is a 3 foot tree. It comes folded up in a triangle and you just easily unfold it in a circle and secure it with the green twist ties they have on it. It sets up in a matter of seconds.

The plug on it is very short so you have to have an extension cord to plug it into or some other kind of Christmas lights. It does come with Stakes so you can secure it into the ground if you like but since I receive this so late the ground is frozen and I will not be able to use those this year. I just put it on the porch and plugged it into a set of Christmas lights around the railing.

It looks nice and sets up very easy. I like that it stores flat because it will be easier to pack away when I take everything down in a week.

$ave 30% Off Pre-Lit #Christmas #Trees that fold flat & sparkle from every angle .@crabpottrees .@usfg http://crabpottrees.com/promo Code:USFG16

Mexican Egg Nog

My husband came up with this idea. It is super tasty (this is coming from someone who doesn't typically like Whiskey).

Mexican Egg Nog
Large Jigger (1.5 oz) of Rum Chata
1/2 Small Jigger of Fireball

Stir together and serve over ice! Simple, quick and tasty!

Delicious!

If you are looking for some other holiday drinks ideas, check these out:

• Gingerbread Martini
• Jingle Juice Martini
• Sangria
• Christmas in a Rusty Sleigh
• Santa's Helper Hot Cocoa
• Rum Butter Cider

Gingerbread House Fun

Making a gingerbread house has been a tradition in our home since having kids. This year it was the easiest gingerbread house to make that we have ever made. It may be that the kids are another year older or perhaps it has to do with the kit I bought.

We have made kits other years and I often find that they do not include enough I see or the icing isn't as pliable as it needs to be. And often they show gingerbread houses decorated with more candy than what is provided.

I usually Reserve a good half gallon bag of Halloween candy that is brightly colored so that the kids have more candy options to decorate with and make it more colorful. In the past we have relied on this Halloween candy 2 make it look even somewhat close to what is on the picture of the kit. But this year I bought a kit at Aldi's for  about $6 and was surprised that it included plenty of icing to make the house and to frost the yard. It also had a nice platform to build the house on which we did.

We still used some Halloween candy but it actually had all of the candy in the amounts pictured on the box. We just chose to not use as much of that candy and use some of our other stuff, plus they also wanted to eat some of the Gummy Trees.

The icing was pliable enough and dried relatively quickly and held tight so we did not have any collapsing walls or roof on our gingerbread house which made it for a much pleasing experience. I will definitely look at buying this kit again next year.

I have tried making gingerbread our cells but it never seems to back up quite as easily as you get in the kids and that leads to a more frustrating experience. We have also tried using graham crackers to make them but they are not quite as 30 + armoire brittle so kids have been the way to go for us. At least for now.

DIY Puffy Paint Christmas Table Runner

 This was a fun and easy project that the kids and I did at our cabin 2 decorate our kitchen table and have some seasonal decorations at our cabin.

Our inspiration came from having this exact size piece of blue dyed burlap left over from a different project I did. It seemed to be the right size for a table runner and because it is burlap it wasn't a sewing project at all just cut and decorate.

I have done puffy paint projects with the kids in the past but didn't have a whole lot of the colors we needed left over so I did have to go bye some more coffee paint. It is pretty inexpensive and you can pick it up at Walmart for about a dollar a tube.

The nice thing about using the puffy paint on burlap is that it doesn't soak through like it does on other Fabrics. With a little puffy paint and time we made a fun and easy table runner for about $5 and the kids can look at it and know that they helped create something

Low Cost Christmas Wreath

One of the easiest way to keep costs down is to use things you already own. You would think that would go without saying, but often times people need a reminder to look around and see what they have. This wreath used to have different Barry and ribbons Onnit what they had seen better days. The rest of the reef looks nice still so I removed everything to get down to just a basic green wreath.

From there I decided to check out what kind of Christmas crafting supplies and wrapping supplies and decorations I had leftover from other projects. What I found was some bulbs that I did buy from the Dollar Tree last year. We had used some of the bulbs in the pack to make our own personalized ornaments but did not use them all. The ribbon was left over from Christmas wrapping from years past and worked well to drape it and hot glue it into place. And the boat was one that was left over in a pack of other bows from a different crafting project in years past. So all and all I paid nothing to make this and half a new roof on the porch this season.

Where Did We Go Wednesday? Aitkin Fish House Parade

This is our third year going to the Aitkin fish house parade. It is always held the Friday after Thanksgiving. It is a full day of events in the community. We usually kick off our time there by going to visit Santa and Mrs .Claus. Then we head over to the movie theater in town and they have a FREE showings of a kids movie. This year we watched Ice Age Collision Course and we fill up on popcorn and pop that we purchased. Before heading into the movie though we set up our chairs outside so when we come out we are all set and have spots for the parade. We also bring our snow pants and everything inside to the movies with us so the kids can put them on as soon as they are finished watching. Then we get to watch the parade which usually last 30 to 40 minutes and has a variety of interesting floats that many of them are some type of fish house or a trailer that has been decorated with some type of fish house. Ice fishing is a big thing up north in Minnesota in the winter so it is fun to see what people can come up with. They do have competitions to see what float is the best in three different categories. The parade ends with Santa and Mrs. Claus followed by a trailer that shoots colored ping pong balls. Those ping pong balls correspond with different discounts at local businesses so everyone is trying to get as many as they can. We ended up with 1 this year and it didn't save us a whole ton of money but every little bit helps.
Other things going on in town include a reception at the Art Center there and a 5K race and a soup and chili feed at an area restaurant, as well as a talent show in the evening at the high school.

15 Ideas for Week Day Holiday Fun in the Twin Cities

So, it was just in November that I wrote a post that was a long time in the making of 100 Places that Adults Want To Go in the Twin Cities and while it is a great list to find stuff to do at any time of the year it doesn't encapsulate any holiday specific fun, which is what I went in search of for December to plan a get together with a friend.

Sure there are lots of plays and musicals and craft shows to go to on weekends, but finding stuff to do on a week day can be a bit more challenging. The good news is that most of these items are also available on the weekends, as well as during the week day.

I decided since I had spent quite a bit of time looking up items, I might as well share them with my readers and then have them to reference next December when I am planning our get together.

1. Bachman's Holiday Idea House
2. Holidays at Flyover America
3. Holiday Music Festival at the Mall of America
4. Songs for the Season Courtroom Concert
5. A Christmas Carol (one man show by great-great grandson of Charles Dickens)
6. Weekday Matinees of A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie (currently sold out for weekday matinees, they advised calling a week or less before the show to see if anything opened up)
7. Nordic Holidays Exhibition at the American Swedish Institute
8. Ballet Tuesday "Clara's Dream" Excerpts at Landmark Center
9. Holiday Flower Show at Como Park Conservatory
10. Wells Fargo Winterskate
11. Various Holiday Events at the James J. Hill House
12. A Victorian Christmas at the Ramsey House
13. Holidays at the Mill Performances at Mill City Museum
14. "A Day In the Life of an Elf" at Macy's Santaland
15. Holidazzle Village (Th-Sun)

FREE Kids Build Workshop at Home Depot:Gingerbread Man Candy Dish

This might be a fun gift idea that your child can make or something they put up for a holiday decor. Whatever they use it for they are sure to have fun building this for free at Home Depot.

SIGN UP HERE!

Holiday Rice Krispie Treats

I am not sure if Aldis will sell these kits again this year but these are holiday Rice Krispie treats that I made with the kids last Christmas season.

The kits came with molds to make the trees and the snowman. So we will be able to make these again this year if we wanted to. It was a fun little project to do with them.

The pictures will help give you an idea of something that you could try to create on your phone even if you don't have the mold. I think these could easily be shaped by hand or with other cookie cutters.