After my sons first birthday party his shirt was destroyed by blueberries, blackberries, and red icing. The poor shirt didn’t stand a chance. I was a little sad because the shirt was made especially for him with a little gnome on it that had been hand pieces out of felt. It seemed a shame to throw it out.

After some thought I decided I would cut out the gnome and give the poor guy a second chance. This year I also made my boys Christmas stockings. So I decided the gnome would be perfect for his stocking. I added some trees and snow to make a winter scene. To attach it all to the stocking I used fabric glue. The stocking turned out great and I couldn’t be happier for that little gnome who will be part of our family holiday traditions for years to come.

Remember my Wednesday night turkey from a few blogs back? Well it’s made several transformations since then. Most recently a pulled turkey BBQ sandwich.

There’s no real trick to pulling meat it’s just a matter of putting in the time and muscle. To pull your turkey you first have to take the meat off the bone. Then use two forks one to hold the meat in place the other to shred or pull the meat. When you finish just pour on your favorite BBQ sauce and enjoy hot or cold on a bun, between two slices of bread or eat it with a fork. My BBQ sauce of choice Dinosaur BBQ, they’re local, they’re gluten free, and they’re sauces are all delicious.

I found a great template for making holiday paper chains. These are great fun for the kids and they are a great way to decorate the house or even holiday gifts. You can also use your children’s artwork for the paper. Its a great way to repurpose all their great art and share it with friends and family. I did these tonight with my son he had so much fun picking out the papers and the designs and then playing with them afterwards. If you’re interested in getting the templates to make them yourself you can check it out at craftjr.com.

http://www.craftjr.com/christmas-paper-chains

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When my sons preschool sent out an invite and sign up sheet for a holiday party I just knew I had to sign up to bring the craft. After a lot of thought and a brief conference with my three year old it was decided that I would bring a make your own snowman craft. My son was excited and so was I.

Here’s the breakdown of what I made ahead, what we bought and how it went. First I bought plain white plates in two sizes. The larger plate I cut just a little on one edge so that the smaller plate fit in. I hot glued the two plates together. Then I cut hats and noses out of construction paper. Then I made scarves and mittens out of scraps of felt. I cut pipe cleaners in half and hot glued one mitten to an end of each pipe cleaner. The things I bought and brought with me were buttons, pom poms, and googley eyes. I also provided the kids with glue, tape, ribbon, hole punches, and scissors.

The kids had a blast. The parents and teachers were all impressed and best of all my son loves his snowman. Plus I have plenty of extras we can make more at home or with friends and family over the holidays.

So I came across this recipe on Pinterest for “healthy” cookie dough. When I saw the list of ingredients I just HAD to try it. I mean how on earth could garbanzo beans ever taste like cookie dough? I don’t know how it works it just does. It was so good I made it for my sons preschool holiday party and it got rave reviews and several requests for the recipe. I changed the original recipe which included peanut butter and milk because the preschool is nut free and you never know what other food allergies people may have. So here it is a vegan, gluten free, dairy free, nut free cookie dough dip recipe.

1 can of garbanzo beans
1/4 cup of sugar
1.5 teaspoons of vanilla
3 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1/4 cup of water
mini chocolate chips (dairy free)

Add all the ingredients to your blender or food processor except for the chocolate chips. Start with half the water add more as needed. Blend everything together until smooth. Add chocolate chips and enjoy! I served mine with gluten free/dairy free animal crackers, ginger snaps. and pretzel sticks.

Let’s face it. Life changes when you have kids. I don’t have time or the energy to wrap and unwrap box after box of holiday decorations that are most likely going to end up broken or sticky. But I love decorating for the holidays. So this year I took pine cones that were left over from my sons first birthday party and combined them with plastic ornaments I bought in the dollar section of my local Target and made myself a festive little kid friendly Christmas. So easy and so cheap! Here’s a few pictures of what I was able to do with minimal effort and cost.

Sometimes in the middle of the week it’s good to mix things up a little. So last night I decided to roast a turkey. We usually end up with a free turkey after Thanksgiving from our local grocery store who awards them to customers who spend over a certain amount the month before Thanksgiving. The Wednesday night turkey is the perfect solution to free up freezer space and get a whole lot of meals for a little effort.

I have been asked more than once how to roast a turkey so here it is. First if you’re dealing with a frozen turkey you want to pull it out of the freezer 3 to 5 days ahead depending on the size. If you want to speed up the thawing process you can give your bird a warm bath in the sink. It’s best to use cold to luke warm water for this. If the water is too hot you can actually start cooking the meat a little and you definitely don’t want to do that.

Once you’re turkey is thawed you need to prep it. I take my rack from my roasting pan and put it in the sink so that I can prep my turkey on the rack and simply lift it to my roasting pan when I’m done. Unwrap your turkey, remove all the packaging, be sure to reach in and grab out the neck and giblets that are usually stuffed inside the turkey. I rinse my turkey off with a little cold water.

Everyone likes a tender turkey and I like my skin to be golden and a little crispy. Here’s my secret, butter, Paula Dean would be so proud. There’s a few ways to butter a bird. You can massage the butter into the skin. You can melt your butter and pour it over or baste it on. You can inject your turkey with melted butter in which case I’d baste the skin a little too to make it crispy. Finally you could just lift the skin and slide some butter underneath. All are good options. I usually just apply my butter to the skin because I don’t want add to much extra fat to my meat. I stuff my turkey with apples and pears to keep my meat moist and to help my turkey cook evenly.

Now it’s time to roast. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Remember the golden rule 20 minutes for every pound of meat. So for a 10lb bird that’s 200 minutes or 2 hours and 40 minutes. I cook my bird uncovered for the first half to start my skin crisping and to get a nice brown color. Halfway through you want to either start basting or cover your turkey with foil to keep the juice in. If you choose the basting method you’ll want to bast every 20 to 30 minutes.

When you’re turkey is done take it out of the oven and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before carving.

The best part about the Wednesday night turkey is the leftovers AND meals for the rest of the week are halfway done.

Pine cones and ribbon make a beautiful holiday decoration for the front door. Use hot glue to attach the ribbon to the pine cones. I wrapped the ribbon around the stems. Once you have attached your first pine cone cut the ribbon a foot and a half to two feet long then attach a pine cone to the other end. I made four of these then tied them together at the top leaving a loop of ribbon to act as the hook. Then simply attach the bow to the top.

So much fun for toddlers to decorate and redecorate. First start by folding your green felt in half then mark and cut your triangle for the tree. Next cut a long rectangle out of brown felt for the tree trunk. Finally cut a three or four inch strip of ribbon. Now get out your hot glue gun. Glue your trunk to the back of your tree. Fold over and glue the sides of the trunk to make a pocket for all your ornaments. Take your ribbon and make a loop, glue the ends to the back of your tree. Now get creative and make ornaments out of different colors of felt. To hang my felt tree I bought a reusable hook. I also use a bit of double sided tape on the back of my tree to help it lay flat against the wall. My kids love their new tree so much I’m thinking about making more of these as Christmas gifts.