Christmas Food "Hacks"

I hope that you all had and awesome Thanksgiving yesterday with your family and loved ones! I know we sure did at our house. I'm still cleaning up from it! :)

However, it's officially Christmas time!!! I adore this time of year! Everyone is always so cheerful and nice and the weather is wonderful (in my opinion) and then don't get me started on all the Christmas decorations that we get to put up and see!! I love it! Along with all those wonderful things comes a busy, busy few weeks as well... Especially for moms. We are constantly planning and prepping and cleaning and cooking and entertaining and wrapping and the list goes on. 

So, to make lives a smidgen easier this holiday season I've found some pretty creative hacks to share with you all! Some of these we've all seen before and some of them I've never even thought of doing! (And those that I haven't thought of before, were pretty spectacular in my opinion.)

Here you freeze chocolate into tree shapes and then add some icing to the backs and place them on a flat white cake to make it shine a little!

Fill empty condiments bottles with icing for decorating sugar cookies with the kids!

Dip cookie cutters in flour first to help the sugar cookies retain their shapes!

Look at this simple center piece! White candles and peppermints! Love it!

These are frozen dollops of coolwip/whipped cream to put in your mugs of hot cocoa! Such a great idea!

Three small candy canes glued together makes the perfect place card holders for your holiday tables!

Use the bottom of a crystal glass to make a unique design in your sugar cookies.

These were just a sampling of the hacks that I found on Buzzfeed! 

You can check out the rest of them over here: 38 Christmas Hacks

I hope that some of these come in handy throughout your busy holiday season this year and help you cut some corners!

-Stephanie

Be Thankful

I discoverd a link on Pinterest just a few days ago... Did the normal thing, you know, Pin it and decided to read it later on, then keep scrolling. Well, I gave it a look through "later on."

It was a Pin on Thanksgiving mason jar crafts. Some of them were very neat, some of them not so much. I did, however find one that struck me! :)

A "Count your Blessings jar!" This is so awesome! (In my opinion.) I LOVE the Thanksgiving holiday! I don't think people give it enough time or credit anymore... I mean really!! Black Friday sales at Walmart last year kicked off around 8PM where I live.

Nobody gives this amazing holiday any time anymore... It's so sad! My family and I tend to go big for this holiday, too... tons of amazing, traditional, foods and lots of laughter around our table is how my night goes!

(I'm bad here, y'all.... I did go to the BF sale that started at 8. I know, I know. BUT who can resist all those sweet, sweet deals??? Especially with children involved! And the sad thing is, is that I'll likely go again this year at an early time in the evening.)

Anyway, THIS fun idea is something really great that I think could make your holiday so much more special this year. Take a jar, past a sheet of paper on it with instructions, have some card stock cut out for your family to write on, and you're done!

This jar is to be set out somewhere in your holiday atmosphere and have the cards next to it for everyone there to write on them something or some things that they are thankful for! Then you get the joy of reading the allowed at the dinner table over your fabulous feast with your family!

I'm so making this happen! It might even happen every year from now on! :)

Here is the link for where I found it, it also has the decorative printable for the mason jar for you! 

Blessings Jar

I hope that you find this fun holiday craft inspiring and motivates you to make your own for your families this year! We need to pay more attention to what we're thankful for, and to this wondrous holiday, that is upon us!

-Stephanie

All Smiles

Here's something absolutely adorable that you could do with your kiddos to celebrate fall/Thanksgiving, courtesy of: The Kids Activity Blog!!

Aren't these guys just too cute!!! And all you need are some festive looking leaves, a marker, some googly eyes, and some glue! You could so easily make these as Thanksgiving decorations for the kids tables or to leave around the house for your guests to admire and for you kids to brag to them about! :)

-Stephanie