Nothing brings me more joy than being at Walt Disney World with my family. It only seems fitting that my Christmas wishes for all that celebrate include photos of the parks from last year when we visited. Wishing all of my friends a wonderful and very Merry Christmas. Enjoy the time making magical memories with those that you love.
Be sure to stop by Focused on the Magic by clicking on the button above to join in the Disney magic this week.
While many people host parties during the holiday season, we do not usually have any at our house. Many times I am asked to bake something to bring to another location. This busy time of year often means that I am in a rush and need to make something fun, festive, and delicious in a short amount of time. This time around, I wanted to make some fun wintry snowmen themed items. My plan was to bake something for everyone to have and create a snack activity for the kids to do when we arrived. I went to our local Price Chopper and after I scanned my AdvantEdge card, I made my way to the holiday decorations aisle. There was a wide variety of items, but I immediately focused on an adorable snowman tray that I knew would be perfect for transporting some goodies.
From here, I made my way over to the baking aisle. I immediately was impressed with the huge selection of Betty Crocker items to select from. We enjoy baking with these products because they are quick, easy, you can personalize them, and they are kosher. After looking around for quite a while, I decided to make cupcakes and cookies. The Super Moist White Cake mix reminded me of a white snowman made fresh after a storm. Then the Hershey’s Cookies’n’Crème premium frosting reminded me of snow that gets a little dirty after people walk on it. I knew I wanted to top these cupcakes with a snowman and found some fun Peeps in the holiday area to finish these off.
Next, I knew I wanted a snack for kids to be able to get their hands dirty and keep busy. I could bake the cookies, put them on that cute snowman tray and bring items for them to make faces on top. I selected Snickerdoodle cookie mix first. Then I found the Betty Crocker cookie icing to make it look like a frosty friend. After that, I picked up a few more odds and ends like coconut, candy corn, and decorating gel for the faces.
I made the cupcakes ahead of time. Once they were cool, I put them into my cupcake currier for easy transport to our final destination. I piped the Cookies’n’Crème frosting on top and let my son help me sprinkle the cookie crumble on top. Then I learned a lesson, the Peeps would need to be placed on top at the final destination for the second dozen in the bottom tray. Peeps are too big and thick for my giant case.
The Snickerdoodles were baked just before we had to take them to decorate. Once they were cooled, I placed them on the snowman tray that I purchased and set up the decorating items. Candy corn for the nose, gel for the mouth, chocolate chips for eyes, and coconut to make it look more snow like on top of the white icing.
Here are some of the snowmen that everyone made from the first round of fun.
What is your favorite dessert to make and take to a holiday party? I would love to hear your ideas and whether or not you get the kids involved in the process.
For more information on Price Chopper and to find the store nearest you, visit them online at pricechopper.com, On Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Disclosure: I am a member of Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client. I am a frequent Price Chopper customer and have written about them on my blog in the past.
Tonight, my family will gather around our dining room table to light our menorah and celebrate the Festival of Lights. Yes, it is Chanukah and on Thursday we will also light our candles on Thanksgiving. While we get ready to share the holidays together, I wanted to take a moment to wish all of those that celebrate a wonderful Chanukah.
This year, my boys are extra excited to share their traditions with classmates. NHL and JSL keep talking about Thanksgivukkah and it seems to be getting the attention of a lot of people. While it is a fun experience, we will also be focusing on the meaning of Chanukah and why we celebrate and keep our traditions alive. So while I get ready to bring our our menorahs, get ingredients to make latkes (or buy already prepared ones), I leave you with the new video from the Maccabeats that seems extra fitting heading into the holiday season.
I would love to know how you will be celebrating Chanukah and/or Thanksgiving during this very special week.
BTW – If you are wondering where I made my LEGO family, you can make one here.
So how does one celebrate the Jewish Holidays in our house? In addition to our focus on the delicious items we will prepare, music plays a big part of our family traditions. Since the boys were really little, we have gathered a wide variety of Jewish music to share for Shabbat, Chanukah, Passover, and beyond. Many of our CDs and MP3s feature Mama Doni (Doni Zasloff). When we were asked to review Mama Doni’s Jewish Holiday Party that was just released, we immediately agreed since we are big fans.
Embracing and honoring Jewish tradition with a fresh, new approach, two-time Parents’ Choice winner Mama Doni (Doni Zasloff) sings, dances, and cooks her way through the holidays in a fun and inspirational DVD, Mama Doni’s Jewish Holiday Party, and its companion CD soundtrack, Mama Doni: The Acoustic Jewish Holiday Collection. (DVD: $19.98, includes bonus CD, run time 66 minutes. CD alone: $12.98, run time 43 minutes).
The timing of this DVD is perfect with Chanukah coming early this year. If you have not heard, Jewish families across the United States will be lighting their menorah during Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgivukkah (as many are calling it) has not happened since 1888 and will not happen for another 77,798 years. The DVD features three segments. One is about Chanukah, another features Shabbat, and the last has a focus on Passover. The boys and I focused on the Chanukah one for now. The first thing that we noticed were some familiar songs from Mama Doni’s Chanukah Fever CD (previous post about this) that the kids adore. JSL loved watching the humorous video that goes along with Honey, This Ain’t Money! One of my favorites was the Bluegrass version of Chanukah Oh Chanukah featuring Eric Lindberg. Check it out here so you can see what I am talking about.
In addition to videos, Mama Doni also shares Chanukah traditions. Doni takes us into the kitchen to make potato latkes. She shares the recipe that is included in her book Get Cooking: A Jewish American Family Cookbook
Tuesday Tales is usually about books, but music and holidays are also important. What video is a favorite in your family for the holiday season? As always, Tuesday Tales is all about sharing our love of books. Please let me know what you have read recently. Be sure to link up to your book posts in the comments below. Include something you read on your own, with a child, or someone else.
Disclosure: Waldmania! provided me with a copy of the Mama Doni’s Jewish Holiday Party DVD to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received. As mentioned above, we have done previous reviews of Mama Doni’s CDs, but have also purchased additional titles on our own.
For many years, we never bought pumpkins. I think some of the reason was being frugal and the crops had some issues. One year, the boys and I picked out pumpkins and went to Nana and Papa’s house to carve them in their bigger kitchen. The moment that they reached inside the pumpkins and touched the guts inspired my recent post on Bedtime Math. There is just something special about carving pumpkins, playing with the pumpkin guts, and roasting the seeds. This year, we took the boys out to “pick” some pumpkins at a local gardening store. They spent a lot of time figuring out which pumpkin was perfect. Then this past weekend, it was time to carve them up. Pumpkin guts time was fun as usual.
We quickly learned that JSL’s pumpkin was very ripe and he did not like the strong smell. While NHL made a face at first about the feel of the pumpkin guts, he had a blast playing and experimenting while we got everything ready. Then, each of us designed out pumpkins and TechyDad did the carving.
Of course, when all was said and done, the boys were goofy and had a blast with the entire process. I had to take photos because these are the memories we will cherish years from now.
So to all of the kids and kids at heart dressing up as Harry Potter, Captain America, Doctor Who, and other fun ghosts and goblins – have a safe and wonderful Halloween.
