December 1, 2015 by Krista

Spread Cheer This Holiday Season – $25 PayPal Giveaway & Free Printables

This year, I am simplifying Christmas. Or at least trying to. This year, I’m focusing more on memories than on things. Don’t get me wrong, there is still going to be more than we need under the tree come Christmas morning, but I’m determined not to be the crazy, stressed out mom this holiday season. My Christmas shopping is pretty much complete and I plan to have the gifts I’m making done in the next couple weeks. That way, we can focus on ways to spread cheer to some of our favorite people this month and keep it simple! We kicked off our month of fun with a Mommy-Son Date!

I have a love-hate relationship with having my kids in the kitchen with me. They love it at first, I start out loving it; but, somewhere in the process they get distracted and become uninterested. So, baking cookies with my kids usually starts with everyone helping and ends with me frustrated, shooing them all to a movie and finishing it myself when they stop listening to instructions. But I’ve found a way to make cookies in the time before they lose interest! With a Betty Crocker Cookie Mix!

It cuts down prep time and holds my kids’ attention – Little J even liked helping with my super special cookie scooper spoon this time. He also liked trying to say “super special cookie scooper spoon”. He’d never even seen it before – I bought it 3 years ago. He doesn’t usually stick around long enough to see this part.

Little J and I made these Betty Crocker cookies as a mom-son date. He’s my middle kiddo and sometimes gets cheated out of attention when things more pressing – like homework and dirty diapers – take center stage. So we had a little date while Baby N napped and Big J was at school. We decided to spread cheer to Little J’s buddies. We made cookies from our Betty Crocker Mix that I grabbed at our local Kroger store (save $0.50 with the printable coupon!) and then we packaged them up all cute with a fun color page and printable tags and delivered them to some of his friends. It was fun to get this special time with my Little J and he loved being the center of attention for a little bit. He also loved doorbell ditching his friends… In ten years, I may end up regretting that I taught him this…

We didn’t get all fancy with our cookie recipe this time – Betty Crocker cookie mixes are pretty darn yummy all on their own – and I kept the decorating simple. We melted some peppermint chocolate candies and then drizzled them over the top of some of the cookies. The other cookies we just pressed a candy on top while they were still a little warm. Little J loved making the blossom cookies. Then we bagged them up in little baggies and tied these cute {FREE} tags from Betty Crocker on the bags. There’s also a super cute color page we printed out for Little J’s friends to decorate their own “cookies”.

Then we delivered them. I think this was probably Little J’s favorite part. He was so noisy, I highly doubt that any of his friends were truly surprised, nonetheless he loved it. But, the time we got to spend together was the best part, by far! A huge thank you to Betty Crocker for helping us spread cheer, spend some time together and make some really fun memories.

Wanna win some cash? And make some fun memories of your own? Well, then listen to this! When you make your own Spread Cheer goody basket and deliver it to some of your favorite people, you could win by sharing your fun on social media! Here’s what you gotta do:

Visit the Spread Cheer page at Betty Crocker and check out all the amazing ideas! They have all kinds of stuff – fun recipes, printable color pages, the cute tags I mentioned earlier and don’t forget about your coupon! I found the cookie mixes on sale the other day at our Kroger store for $1.99 so it was only $1.49 for the mix with my coupon. Totally worth it.
Create your own Spread Cheer basket and share an original photo to your social media channels. Use the hashtag #SpreadCheer and nominate (@tag) two of your besties to make their own Spread Cheer baskets!
Come back and let me know who you shared your delicious cookies and spread cheer to AND share your link so I can check it out too! That’s it!

Use the rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway! Good Luck and Happy Holidays! Now, get out there and spread some cheer!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Come enter this Spread Cheer giveaway for a chance to win another $20!

November 23, 2015 by Krista

The Perfect Holiday Dessert

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ShareTheJoyOfPie #CollectiveBias

I love this time of year. The lights, the colors, the music, the movies, the good will and the food. I love holiday food, and my sweet tooth does too. I love the hunt for the perfect holiday dessert.

But the holidays can be stressful too. They are busy, they are bustling and there is always something to do or some where to be. Add in a big family meal with all the traditional fixings and the favorite family recipes. Things can get kinda of hectic and crazy.

My grandma has always made the Thanksgiving pies and they are amazing. Her apple pie has a special little spot in my heart. I love using her recipe and making apple pie from scratch. My mom made pies too, but she had a little help from Marie Callender. And I’ll be honest, baking pies from scratch doesn’t happen often. I just don’t have a lot of time for it.

Marie Callender’s® Dessert Pies are already a part of my childhood and I love the go to option of Marie Callender’s® Dessert Pies. You get delicious pies, quality ingredients and the hot-from-the-oven satisfaction without the prep work. You can find them in almost any grocery store and I grabbed a few favorites last time I was at Walmart and some Reddi-Wip® to help put together the perfect holiday dessert.

MARIE CALLENDER’S PIE BAR BUFFET

The beauty of the pie buffet is that everyone gets the dessert they want without you spending hours and hours in the kitchen. There’s a great selection of Marie Callender’s® Dessert Pies so everyone is sure to find something they like. Add some delicious toppings and you’ve done it: the perfect holiday dessert. Check out how you can put together your own pie bar.

Ingredients:

Marie Callender’s frozen pies. Choose your favorite flavors.
Assortment of toppings. See my list below for ideas.

Directions:

Bake the pies according to the directions on their box. Depending on what kind you choose, baking times and temperatures will vary.
Put your toppings in easy to serve dishes so your guests can top their pies just the way they want. You may consider labeling the toppings so there is no confusion. I just explained the options verbally.
Let the pies cool as directed, slice and set out. You will want the pies on one end of your serving area and the toppings on the other end.

Let your guests serve themselves. They can choose how much pie they want and what, if anything, to put on it. Everyone gets just what they want.

PIE BAR TOPPING IDEAS

Reddi-Wip® topping
Caramel syrup
Lemon glaze
Orange glaze
Cranberry glaze
Cinnamon sugar
Mini marshmallows
Chocolate chips or shavings
Ice cream
Nutmeg clove sugar
Citrus zest

MARIE CALLENDER’S PIE BAR BINGO

Want to have a little more fun and encourage your guests to try more than one type of pie? Do people really need to be encouraged to eat more pie…? Anyway, here is a fun printable game similar to bingo. The winner is the one with the most boxes checked off and combinations of pie tried. Right click, save and print!

See what a completed game board might look like below.

So, simplify your holidays and choose Marie Callender’s® Dessert Pies and enjoy stress-free, delicious sweets to accompany your holiday meal: the perfect holiday dessert. Grab yours at Walmart today! And check out more amazing ways to use Marie Callender’s® Dessert Pies this holiday season!

November 16, 2015 by Krista

Star Wars Christmas Tree

Not so long ago in a galaxy not so far away, the day my husband has been anxiously awaiting finally arrived. No, the kids aren’t all potty trained – I WISH! No, we decided it was finally time to share Star Wars with our boys. My brother has always loved Star Wars and it was a big part of my childhood, so I was excited to share it with them almost as much as Mr Napping. The polling is complete and the results are in: my boys LOVE Star Wars, big surprise. It’s been the only thing to compete with superheroes lately. When Mr Napping and I found these Star Wars IttyBittys at our Hallmark Gold Crown store, we knew what we needed to do with them to make Christmas extra galactic!

STAR WARS CHRISTMAS TREE

Now, the IttyBittys aren’t actual ornaments so I attached ribbons to each of them (which I will give you the details on in just a moment) and then we surprised our boys with an early Christmas present and a fun Christmas activity. We decided to make the IttyBittys into ornaments with the hope that my boys will play with that Christmas tree and not our big tree that will go up in December. They can pull off all the ornaments they want, decorate the tree again and again. If they want to play with the IttyBittys, it’s not a big deal and they won’t break them. Want to make your own ornaments? Here’s the how to:

Materials:
– IttyBitties available at Hallmark. Not so into Star Wars? That’s ok, Hallmark has lots of IttyBittys to choose from. There are nativity set IttyBittys, superheroes, Frozen, Rainbow Brite, winter-themed, Disney Princesses, Peanuts, Wizard of Oz, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Monsters, Inc., and more – there’s something for everyone. Not all stores carry all the IttyBittys, see the Hallmark site for the complete selection.

– Skinny ribbon.
– Needle and thread
– Scissors

Directions:
– Cut off a 3-inch length of ribbon.
– Loop the ribbon with the ends together and tie a knot in the ends. Trim the ends, but not too close. I trimmed a couple too close and my boys ended up pulling the knots out and I had to re-attach them to the IttyBittys.

– Thread the needle and tie a knot in the end of the thread. I actually used the thread doubled over for a little more strength.
– Attach the loop of ribbon to the top of the IttyBittys with the thread. I just stitched around the ribbon a few times and tied a knot. Trim the thread ends.

– Repeat until all IttyBittys have ribbons attached to them.

After I attached the ribbons to the IttyBittys, I put them in a fun gift bag (also from Hallmark) and told my boys we had a surprise for them. We let them open the bag and then we set up our small Christmas tree and let the boys decorate their hearts out. They had almost as much fun decorating the tree as they did just playing with the IttyBittys. I don’t know how many times that tree has been redecorated since Saturday.

We were still missing one thing though. Every Christmas tree needs a topper. And what kind of star tops a Star Wars tree? Why the Death Star, of course. I spent a good chunk of today bouncing between kiddos and making a Death Star to top our tree.

We are still adding to our Star Wars tree and we probably will keep adding to it until we take it down. My boys love to play with the IttyBittys and this was such a fun activity to do together as a family. They are still breaking out in the Imperial March every time they see the tree. Mr Napping likes to start humming and then bask in the resounding chorus of three boys.

SAVE TIME WITH HALLMARK THIS SEASON

Want to save some time this holiday season? Make Hallmark your one stop shop for your holiday shopping. Check out Hallmark’s new Crafters & Co. line of luxury soaps, teas and candles for decadent gifts to spoil the special people in your life. this holiday season.

There are lots of great ornaments perfect for gift giving. Home decor elements are my go-to gifts for my favorite girlfriends and Hallmark has some awesome options. They’ve got you covered for all your gift wrap needs too! We seriously debated the Star Wars wrap, but went with the cute bag instead because well it’s just easier to wrap in a bag… And, of course, Hallmark has a fantastic selection of cards for your Holiday gifting. There are even Star Wars cards my boys would be crazy for.

November 13, 2015 by Krista

There is Always Something to be Grateful for {FREE Gratitude Printable}

I have been on a digital design kick lately. I had gotten so busy that I hadn’t done much lately and I’d forgotten how much I enjoy it. So, I’ve been catching up. The good news is that it will be super simple to add some great extras to your Thanksgiving decor and this print would look lovely as part of your Thanksgiving Day dinner. Or really for any time of the year. Because there is always something to be thankful for.

I will be putting this in our living room when I get around to decorating that… Some day. When my kids are running rampant and my house looks like a natural disaster zone, some times I need a gratitude reminder. This gratitude printable will hopefully help me remember what I have, not focus on what I’m lacking. It might be a while before it gets up permanently – I’ve got a whole slew of other projects on my to-do list right now. I might have to give it a temporary home for now.

Okay, want your own copy of this gratitude printable? It will open a new window where you can download the high resolution, watermark-free version of the image and save it to your computer. After that, you can print it on your home computer. Feel free to make as many copies as you like, but please direct friends and family back to this webpage to get their own copies. It helps me analyze what kind of printables are the most popular so I can make sure to create more of them! This image is for personal use only. No variations, edits or changes may be made. Thanks, you are amazing!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

The laurel embellishments on the image are courtesy Oh So Nifty Vintage Graphics.

November 9, 2015 by Krista

Thankful for My Many Blessings ABC Printable

I am trying to get Little J to learn his letters. But it’s been… challenging. He has absolutely no interest in letters or numbers or learning, in general. I tried to get him to watch a Leap Frog movie the other (that Big J still loves to watch) and you would have thought I was torturing the poor boy. Like pulling fingernails kind of torture, hard core stuff. So, I’m trying to figure out more ways to engage him in learning without him realizing that’s what I’m doing. It’s Ninja Mom to the rescue…

Since it’s also November and I’m trying to remind my kids that it’s the season of gratitude, we’ve been doing a few activities that focus on what we have instead of what we want. Today, we tried this printable activity. I asked Little J what are some of the things he was thankful for and then we wrote them in the right spot with the letter it started with. Little J will also be helping me teach the rest of the family what it means to be thankful and what some of his blessing are. The rest of the family will then fill out their own ABC printable – kind of like Scattegories, but all the letters will be played at once. We will compare and see if we can get the entire alphabet filled out together.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

If you’d like to try and fill out your own alphabet of blessings, you can print your own high resolution copy of the Thankful for My Many Blessings ABC Printable when you click on the photo above. A download window will open and you can save the file to your computer. After you save it, you can print it on your home printer. And here’s the legal shtuff: Feel free to print as many copies as you like, but please pin the image on this page and give your friends and families this link address – not the download page. This image is free for personal, classroom or group use. No commercial use for profit is allowed. Do not change or modify this image in part or in whole. Use it, don’t abuse it. Thanks!

What are you thankful for?

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MARIE CALLENDER’S PIE BAR BUFFET

PIE BAR TOPPING IDEAS

MARIE CALLENDER’S PIE BAR BINGO

STAR WARS CHRISTMAS TREE

SAVE TIME WITH HALLMARK THIS SEASON

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