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FUN/DIY

Drinks/ Featured/ FUN/DIY/ RECIPES/ Seasonal

Homemade Gifts-Peppermint Stick Cocoa

I have seen SO many great homemade gift ideas this year.   I really want to write a post featuring them all, but they are all disorganized and saved in my bookmarks, or starred somewhere on my reader. You would think I would would take the time (2 clicks!) to clip and annotate them to my Circus Ponies Notebook, but….no.  Gotta work on that!

I read so many blogs a day thanks to my Google Reader –I’ll post about this soon for those who don’t know what it is– so I come across many, many great ideas.  My head started to feel spinny whenever I would think about what I wanted to do.  I finally had to just pick one, so Peppermint Stick Cocoa it is.  I thought the layers were pretty, especially the mini-chocolate chips and the crushed peppermint candies.  Plus, I got to use a mason jar!  I like that I can do smaller jars for 1-2 people and larger jars for families.  (if you click on the link, you will see that they put it in a very cool square-ish jar.  I love it and you can buy them at wal-mart, but at almost 3 times the cost of a mason jar.  They are very cool but not THAT cool!:)

Peppermint Stick Cocoa
Layer the ingredients for homemade cocoa in a jar, add a ribbon, embellishment, and a tag, and you have a simple but cute gift.  This mix will fill a 1 quart jar (12 servings), but if your containers are different sizes, just keep the ratio of ingredients constant.  On the back of the tag, write: “Mix contents in a bowl.  For each serving, place 1/3 cup cocoa mix in a mug and stir in one cup boiling water.  Store remaining mix in airtight container.

1 cup powdered milk
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy

Layer powdered milk, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, chocolate chips, and peppermint candy.
Yeild: Makes 1 quart mix or 12 servings hot cocoa.

I used a 16 oz jar (1 pint) and halved the recipe, this serves 6.  I also made 8 oz jars (1/2 pint) and adjusted the measurements, this serves 3.

16 oz jar measurements (1 pint) serves 6
1/2 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/4 cup crushed peppermint candy

8 oz jar measurements (1/2 pint) serves 3
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 cup miniature chocolate chips
1/8 cup crushed peppermint candies

I like giving away homemade gifts to people like co-workers, school teachers, mailman, neighbors, piano teacher, pastor, and friends.  Just a little something to let them know I am thinking of them during the Christmas season.

My oldest daughter and I made these together today, while the younger 2 watched a Christmas movie.  It was the perfect thing to do on a “school’s- out -snow- day!”  It went pretty smoothly, I do wish peppermint candies came pre-crushed!  Beating them with the rolling pin did not work, banging them with the bottom of a mason jar did not work, finally we got out the hammer and with some muscle–it worked!  Those were some hard- headed peppermints!  Once we had the candy crushed and a fun little math lesson with the measurements, we were good to go.  We made an assembly line, and got busy!

We found that with the small 8 oz jar size, we needed to change up the order so that the peppermints would show.  We did sugar, cocoa powder, mini chocolate chips, crushed peppermints, salt and powdered milk.  Much prettier that way.  In the 16 oz jars, we kept the order as stated in the recipe.

After my girls had some igloo fun in the snow, they came in and sipped on some Peppermint Stick Cocoa.  It was very chocolate-y and very good;  so good that I got impatient when I had to say no at least 9 times when they asked for more. (3 times per girl, 3 girls).  I will blame their persistence on the addictive nature of the cocoa drink, because of course, my girls would respect their mothers “no” the first time, so they must have been on a chocolate high. Ha! Um, yea–guess we gotta work on that one!

Ask Anna

 

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Books/ Seasonal

My New Favorite Children’s Christmas Story Book

Well, I shared with you my new favorite Christmas song, so I thought I would continue the theme and tell you about my new favorite Christmas story book called “The Nativity”

We purchase a new Christmas story book every year, and when I found this one at Indigo Bridge bookstore, I just immediately fell in love with it.  It delighted me, made me laugh out loud in the store, and was just a refreshing change from typical.

Janice Harayda gives a great explanation of a few of the delights from this book:

The Nativity has several big advantages over most other picture books about birth of Christ and the arrival of the shepherds and wise men. One of these is that it tells the story through the rich and resonant text of the Gospel of Luke from the King James Version of the Bible, dropping only a phrase or two here and there for clarity or space. (“Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” becomes “Fear not, I bring you tidings of great joy.”) Another advantage of the book is that the characters have no fixed race, so all kinds of families can identify with them. A third is that Vivas provides dynamic but offbeat and deglamorized watercolor illustrations — no gilt halos, no foil star, no flocked sheep. So The Nativity is more accurate than many of the books that have a Jesus, Mary, and Joseph who might have come straight from a DreamWorks casting call.


I fell hard for this book, I think it is a beautiful example of “New Nostalgia.”
The text comes right out of the Old King James version I read, memorized, and fell in love with  as a kid, but the art is a completely different story.  The characters are a bit sloppy and tatty.  The angel gabriel has a ripped wing and is wearing boots that are flopping open with shoe strings untied.  There is a page where Joseph is helping very pregnant Mary onto the donkey, bending down and making a stirrup with his hands for her to step into..my girls think that is so funny.  Another one I love is while the angels tell the shepherd about their Savior, a couple decide to fly down and take a little ride on the sheep.  The illustrator is able to, in my opinion, have a perfect balance of humor, whimsy and genuineness, without ever crossing the line into irreverence. There is a page where baby Jesus is exactly how he came into this world, before he was swaddled.  Nothing that a little sticker couldn’t cover if you so desire.:)
You can browse through some of the pictures by clicking on this link.
A few others we love are:


The First Christmas by Carol Heyer

This Is No Fairy Tale  Dale Tolmasoff


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FUN/DIY/ Seasonal

Homemade Christmas Ornaments/Marbled Christmas Balls

Last year we wanted to change up the tree from warm, fall type colors to shimmery, shiny, black and white, and circle- themed.  I didn’t want to spend much, so we made most of our ornaments and found ribbon for half off!  We have the same tree up this year, and I still love it and the memories of making the ornaments with my girls.

We made Marbled Christmas Balls, Silver Pipe-Cleaner Snowflakes, Circle Paper Ornaments, Glitter Glue Christmas Balls, Simple Mirror Ornaments, and Mini Black Pipe-Cleaner wreaths.

Homemade Christmas Marbled Balls
This is one of my very favorite Christmas crafts we have done together.  I like when a craft ends up looking “professional” instead of “crafty.”  I think it is the satisfaction of having something that looks like it was bought at a pricey store when it was not!  You could use any 2 or 3 colors.  We used black, silver and white.  I’ve seen them done with red and white, they were really pretty and festive.
~Open a clear glass ball ornament.
 ~Squirt one color of paint (acrylic or tempura)
~Swirl.  Let dry for a bit, but not entirely so it will still swirl with the added paint.
~Squirt with another color, swirl.
~Repeat with 3rd color if desired.
~Keep adding paint and swirling until desired look is achieved.
~Let dry upside down, we had quite a bit of excess paint drip out so we dried them over mugs.
~Loop pretty ribbon or wire hanger once dried to hang.

Glitter Glue Christmas Balls
These are pretty straight forward.  Pick ball ornament.  Choose glitter glue color.  Decorate and let dry. My girls loved this one and really did a beautiful job.  I would recommend you seal with modge podge, this year the glitter glue is peeling off because we didn’t.:(

Round Mirror Ornaments
Buy package of small round mirrors at a craft store.  Quite a few come in a package, I only paid a couple bucks for them.  Hot glue ribbon hanger to back.  You could sandwich the ribbon between 2 mirrors and hot glue them together, we didn’t.  These add so much sparkle to the tree.  The tree lights reflect off the mirror.  So pretty!
Pipe Cleaner SnowFlakes
The directions to make these are found here at Martha Stewart Website.

Round Paper Mirrored Ornaments
We took card stock that had a beautiful print on it (this one even had some glitter on the paper), used a circle cutter and cut out a bunch of circles.  We used a circle cutter on just plain black card stock to back the ornaments with.  Sandwich a loop of ribbon between the print card stock circle and the black card stock circles.  We embellished our smaller paper ornaments with a small round mirror glued to the middle of the ornament.
Ready To Decorate!
Black Pipe Cleaner Wreaths
The ribbon we used for these projects was wrapped around spools of cardboard.  As we used the ribbon up, the round wreath shape, of the ends of the cardboard- ribbon spools, (make sense?) inspired me to wrap it with black pipe cleaners and use the pipe cleaner to make a loop for hanging.  We took silver glitter glue to make little silver “berries” on the wreaths.  You could just cut cardboard out into a wreath shape and wrap with pipe cleaner.
Our Tree This Year
Our Tree Last Year
Our Tree 2 Years Ago
**I’m happy to be linking up to these link parties:

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RECIPES/ Seasonal/ Sweets

Christmas Cranberry Recipes/ Christmas Carnival

Today I am participating in “Healthy Holiday Eats and Sweets Carnival”, hosted by “Keeper Of The Home.”(check out this blog, its a good one!  I have learned so much from it!)  I am very excited to find some new, healthy holiday recipes for years to come.  I plan on making a Healthy Holiday Recipe Journal with the carnival recipes, as I know there will be lots of great ones!!

I love all things cranberry, especially around the holiday season.  I thought for the carnival, I would share a couple of my favorites with you!

Hot Buttered Cranberry Apple Cider
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup rapadura or brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
pinch of cloves
pinch of salt
cranberry juice
apple cider

In a bowl, cream all ingredients except the juice and cider together.
Place on a piece of waxed paper, wrap up and put in a ziplock bag.
Freeze.  Slice pieces off as needed.

Heat 1/2 cup cranberry juice and 1/2 cup apple cider.  In the bottom of a mug, add at least a Tbls of the spiced butter.  Pour heated juice/cider mixture over the butter, stir and enjoy!

This next recipe is one that is pretty addicting.  I may make a large batch for Christmas gifts this year.  It is a recipe from FamiyFun.com, but I substituted almonds for walnuts.

Tree-Trim Cranberry Trail Mix
8 cups freshly popped corn (see this post for easy popping instructions!)
1 cup almonds
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt
pinch of baking soda
1 cup dried cranberries

Heat the oven to 300 degrees.  Grease a large, rimmed baking sheet.  Mix the popcorn and nuts in a large, well -oiled bowl.  Bring the syrup, cinnamon, and salt to a boil in a small pan on med heat.  Let the mixture boil for 4 minutes, swirling the pan once in awhile.  Turn off heat and add the baking soda, stirring until the mixture is creamy.  Pour the mixture over popcorn and stir well.  Spread the popcorn on the baking sheet and bake until it is dry to the touch, about 15 minutes.  Let the popcorn cool for 20 minutes, then mix in the cranberries and serve or put in jars for yummy gifts!

photo from FamilyFun.com

 

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HOME/ Homemaking/ Seasonal

Christmas Decorating

I wrote a post on fall decorating, so I thought a Christmas one would be fun, too.
Come with me on a tour of our home (if you are so inclined):)
We keep the Christmas cards/newsletters we receive in this tin “Merry Christmas” container.  Of course, the ones with pictures go on the refrigerator.

 

This is the second year we have done a silver, black, white and sparkly Christmas tree.

 

We made the marble looking balls last year (click here for how-to).  We made silver pipe cleaner snowflakes(there is one bottom left corner) and paper circles with mini round mirrors in the center of them (up top by star toward the right).  This tree is a favorite of mine because my girls little hands created most of the ornaments, and because it is so sparkly, especially at night with the lights low.

 

 

The basket of books hold all our children’s Christmas books.  We have a tradition of buying a new one every Christmas.  We try to get through them every year, usually grabbing one to read as a family after dinner, if we have time.  I have a favorite this year, click here, it is a must see!

 

This is a broken bookshelf that I now use as a magazine holder.  I had some extra Christmas balls so I thought they would look merry hanging on the top.  I think they are happy, do you?

 

My sister in law (the same one who made this journal for me) bought me the 2 candles and middle center piece for my birthday this year.  Does she know how to pick the best gifts or what??  She knows I love circles, my eyes did a little dance when I took the polka dot candles out of the gift bag.  I  just love them.  The glass holder has Christmas balls in it.  She gave me the extra balls which were fun using in other parts of my house (like the magazine rack above).  The 2 trees I found at a garage sale.  My table is set for a Christmas ladies lunch, which I will write about soon.

 

We do not have a mantle, so the windows are our stockings home.  These are fun, fuzzy cream ones.  I am concerned for them, after 4 years they are looking a bit dingy.  I am not sure how to wash them, any suggestions?  This chair is usually in the living room corner where the tree is now.  I have to say I love it here, and use it more often.  I sit in it at night, covered in my cozy blanket with hot tea and a book.

 

Here is where I used some of the extra balls from my birthday gift.  Ha!  My same sis-in-law bought me those shiny red ball candle holders, too!!  Ok, she really rocks.

 

I don’t really like what I did here, but I am too lazy to think about it and change it.  I do love the little nativity snow globe.  My daughter collects snow globes, and we could not pass this one up last year when we saw it.  It plays the song “Away In A Manger”

 

The nativity set on the lower shelf is one we have had a long time.  It is falling apart, but we still put it out every year.:)  It still very special and my girls love it.

 

If you look closely, there are 3 mason:) jars behind my peace sign.  We use them for a behavior/reward system we use for our girls.  Again, a future post!

 

On to the kitchen.  Pretty simple in here.  There is my favorite Christmas mug from my Carma friend.  It came with a coffee gift card in it.  Perfect gift in my opinion! I’m spoiled.

 

These are usually filled with Christmas candy, but I thought these decorative balls
 would be a bit more healthy!

 

Saying hello from our throne room.  The little star ornament was handmade from Nepal
and given to me by my aunt who works with Tiny Hands International.  If you have not yet, check out this post about the awesomeness of this ministry.

 

This is hanging above the throne.

 

The sunroom.

 

We got snow today!

 

Isn’t this pillow happy?  A gift from my mom.  She knows about my round obsession.

 

This is our “Jesse Tree.”  It is a new thing we are trying this year.  The kids are loving it.
I will tell you about it soon!

 

This year we put our family/memory tree upstairs.  Usually it is in the basement.  We had such a fun family night decorating this tree.
Every ornament on this tree has a special memory connected to it.  I will post about that coming up soon, too!  (Boy, I got a lot of blogging to do!)
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Christmas/ Kids/Family/ Seasonal

The Nativity Story /Family Movie Night

Above is a preview of the movie “The Nativity Story.” We watched this as a family (minus our youngest who was 5 last year, because of the “murder of all firstborn sons” scene) last December.  It is a beautiful movie, and it really made an impression on my older girls (they were 7 and 9), they are both so visual, it really helped bring the story to life for them.  I would like to make a tradition of watching it every year, so I plan on making some homemade popcorn and some fudgy buttons so we can snack, snuggle and watch it together on a near- future family movie night!

Most Friday nights you will find us at home, in the basement with popped corn, cozying up on the couch and watching either recored tv or a movie as a family.

During the summer months and during the month of December, (summer break and winter break) we buy the Blockbuster Monthly Movie pass. (it is called the Blockbuster total access in-store subscription)  It allows 2 movies out at a time, unlimited amount of time, for 30 days, one fee.  This is our little family splurge, it replaces going to the movie theatre as a family, so really, it is quite inexpensive comparably.  We usually get the deal that allows us to rent wii games, too, so that is super fun when the cousins are over for summer/winter break sleepovers.  The best part is NO late fees!!

I love it.  We are able to catch up on the movies we missed throughout the year.  Todd and I have had many fun date nights watching a movie in our basement once the kids go to bed.  Who needs a movie theater?

When we don’t have the pass, we watch recorded tv as a family, like “Amazing Race” or “American Idol,” on the weekends.  As you can tell, we are a family who likes our tv!

Christmas/ RECIPES/ Seasonal/ Sweets

Sugar Frustrations & Andes Mint Cookies!

I am looking forward to January.  Why? Since Halloween, I feel like sugar and processed foods just keep hanging around at the Bowman house! I have yet to figure out how to do the holidays in a balanced way.   It is important to me that my kids experience candy treats and seasonal goodies, some of our best memories and traditions are made from these goodies, but it is starting to drive me nuts seeing all the junk hanging around here!
Before this quadruple- whammy sugar season (Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years) I was able to keep our home pretty much sugar free with very little processed foods, so when we would go to a party or a family function, I was at peace letting my girls eat whatever their little hearts desired, because I knew they were getting what their bodies needed at home.  But then, boatloads of Halloween candy came into our home, Thanksgiving and all its pies and yummy leftovers were in our home, and now and all our yearly, traditional Christmas recipes are merrily making their way into our home!  Agghhh!

For now, I am going to just embrace the season, try to remember that we have come a long way in our eating habits, and know that January is coming!

I would like to be more purposeful about creating a recipe box full healthy treat ideas for the years to come, so I am excited to be participating in a “Healthy Holiday Eats And Sweets” blog carnival coming up on December 8th.  I think I will get some great recipes that still make the holidays special and yummy, but do it using whole foods that are real and nourishing.

Until then, here is one that is not!:)  This cookie recipe is one that I make every year at Christmastime.   It is so easy, and has 2 of my favorite holiday flavors, chocolate and mint!  They are simple, pretty and oh so yum.   I double the batch, make a bunch of balls and freeze them until needed.

Andes Chocolate Mint Cookies
1 box Devils Food Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
Andes mints, unwrapped and cut in half

~Dump all but Andes mints into a large bowl, beat until combined.
~Roll into one inch balls.  (I just use a pampered chef small scoop and skip the rolling)
~Bake @ 350 for 6-7 minutes. (Don’t over bake, you want them soft.)
~Immediately, push an andes mint gently down in the center of each cookie.
~Wait a minute or so, then take a toothpick or tip of a knife and swirl the melted mint into a circle, creating swirly beauty. (my girls love doing this part)
~Let cool so the chocolate will set before putting on a platter.

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