For the Chocoholics
So I love chocolate, it’s yummy, melty goodness wins every time. For Christmas my husband got me a Lindt Wafer Bar; Milk Chocolate with a Wafer and Hazelnut Cream Center. To be honest I was a little scared by the hazelnut cream center. I’m more of a caramel girl myself but WOW! SO SO SO very good. I told my husband if he ever needs some extra points in my book he can always get me one of these. DE-licious!
The wafer middle can make for a little mess so I advise breaking the little bars off upside down, it helps keep the wafer intact. 
Go out and buy one, you’ll thank me.
Product Review: Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Mix
Yay for cookies! We my husband isn’t much of a peanut butter fan (like at all) so I don’t make peanut butter stuff much because he doesn’t eat it. But I made this mix and I think it turned out really well. I love peanut butter and chocolate so that’s what I did. I couldn’t find normal Hershey Kisses at the store so I used their all Milk Chocolate Bells – yum – instead.
They turned out great! I do have to warn anyone that if you make these with the bells and you eat the cookies warm… the bells pretty much explode with chocolate gooey-ness all over; so consider yourself warned! Also I advise doing small balls of cookies rather than large so you can get more chocolate per bite! Overall I think this mix is a winner and I suggest it for anyone!
Christmas Traditions
I know tons and tons of people are posting about Christmas traditions but really when else can/should you post them? They are obviously important or you wouldn’t do them every year and they vary so widely that it can be really weird, all you married people know what I mean. That first Christmas with the in laws or with your spouse and all the sudden there are a hundred new rules and traditions to follow. We have to pick and choose which ones to keep and which ones to lose, and hopefully it all ends in a happy compromise although I know that doesn’t always happen, I’m still disappointed that after 4 years we still don’t have a copy of The Muppet Christmas Carol ~AHEM!~
My husband and I had very different childhoods so we’ve had to combine some traditions and some we would like to do but aren’t able to right now. My husband lived by both sets of his grandparents and spent many holidays with extended family whereas my family didn’t live close to any extended family and we did not travel to see them nor did they travel to see us. So growing up we always had a huge Christmas Eve dinner with the Gray’s and they usually invited several families from church so there were a zillion children running around, playing and tiring themselves out – which I’m sure was the parent’s intent. My family also watched The Muppets and once the kids woke up presents were ripped to shreds within minutes and toys and wrapping paper littered the entire living room. Oh yes, we also got to open one gift Christmas Eve from my grandparents which was usually pajamas or clothing of some kind. For several years I would sneak out and sleep under the Christmas Tree so I could catch Santa but somehow I always ended up in bed with no Santa sighting that I could remember.
My husband’s family must watch The Grinch some time after Thanksgiving, they have dinners with grandparents (generally on Christmas day) and open gifts one at a time. They are also generally fully dressed and ready for the day when presents are open – what? Our first Christmas we showed up at my in laws in pajamas and everyone was dressed and ready for the day… awkward. But it’s generally a family day, playing with gifts and big card games and lots of food.
I do like to have a big dinner and with this being our first year away from all family I was planning on inviting some friends over but my little boy has a cold and is coughing and has a runny nose, not something that most people find appetizing or inviting. *Sigh* So I guess we’ll just keep it small with the 3 and 4/5ths of us. We’ll have a yummy turkey dinner with potatoes, gravy, broccoli, rolls, etc. And we love hot chocolate so that will be our drink of choice. My friend Lara says her family drinks eggnog in the morning; yuck. Sorry Lara, you know I love you but… gross!
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and that your day is wonderful!
Picture courtesy of amazon.com
Christmas Craft and a Movie
I have been browsing blogs this morning and found a super cute Rudolf (the red nosed reindeer) Christmas craft from No Time for Flash Cards. It’s super cute and easy to do so check it out.
And while we’re on Christmas I have to put a plug in for my favorite Christmas movie of all time, The Muppet Christmas Carol. I’m not really a Muppet fan but this movie is a favorite in my family and we used to watch it every Christmas Eve growing up… well since it came out in 1992. I have to say that they did a great job combining muppet characters and real people not to mention this was probably the only Christmas Carol movie that didn’t totally scare me or bore me as a child and still entertains me now. You can buy it for $10.49 on Amazon or look around in stores, I’m sure it’s in most stores this week!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
I have been looking for a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread recipe for a while, along with the cookie recipe, etc. I found this on Allrecipes.com and we think it’s delicious! The name on the site is Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread, however I would suggest a few changes, they will be after the ingredient list. Overall a delicious and yummy, moist bread that will be a hit. I actually did mini loaves of bread to give out to friends for the holidays. The original recipe says it makes 3 loaves, and it ended up making 8 minis.
Ingredients
* 3 cups white sugar
* 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2/3 cup water
* 4 eggs
* 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
* 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
I didn’t have mini chocolate chips so I used regular, and did milk chocolate instead of semi sweet. I also put in some extra chips and did not include the walnuts – yuck.
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 1 pound size coffee cans, or three 9×5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil, water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Fill cans 1/2 to 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 1 hour, or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from cans or pans.
I used mini loaf pans that were dark. I kept the temperature at 350 and it took about a half hour for them to cook.
Remembrance Ornaments
I’m calling these “Remembrance Ornaments” because they show what level/age your child is at for their creation and because it’s fun to see how your kid has changed over the years and how ornaments have improved. You can also add as many elements as your child wants. My son had a friend over today and he was excited to do a craft with us. He was much more patient and clean than my son!!
*Oh, and don’t forget to put your child’s name and the year on the back of the ornaments!
Before our friend arrived I prepped the table. Our local newspaper also prints the paper in town. After running the newspaper they have rolls of newspaper paper left over that they recycle. My husband grabbed me a roll and we put it on the table whenever we’re going to paint. I also used painter’s tape to secure the paper.
Materials I used:
Scrapbook paper (or any heavy-weight paper)
Hot Glue
Paint
Glitter
Glitter Glue
Sequins
Ribbon
Felt
*I used what I already had on hand. Feel free to do a lot or do something simple.
First the boys got painting aprons on and rolled up their sleeves then they got painting.
First Ornament:
We did hand prints in paint on red scrapbook paper. Then the boys wanted to use glitter glue. I put the sticks on before they used the glitter glue. My son’s friend was much better at taking directions to try to get glitter on the sticks.
Second Ornament:
They painted on red scrapbook paper again, used glitter glue, and then we used felt instead of sticks for a wreath boarder. Our friend wanted to put bells on his (sorry I forgot to take a picture) and on my son’s (he was finished with the craft by then) I just put red glitter glue on the wreath like berries.
Third Ornament:
Our friend just wanted to keep painting and painting which was great! So I gave him yellow paper, he wanted to use red paint. So he painted it red and then he wanted to put glitter on it. Gold and red. I originally thought this would be a star because the paper was yellow but then decided to make a traditional ornament shaped ornament! I even cut a rectangle out of some of the extra paper to make it look more like a ball ornament.
Heritage Ornament:
Two years ago my husband and our son took four generation pictures with his dad and grandpa and last year I made an ornament for my husband’s grandparents using those pictures. Well I forgot to mail it and dug it out with our Christmas stuff. My son pulled the ribbon out so I had to do some quick repairs on it but it’ll make it into the package for sure this year. This is a two-sided ornament.
Christmas Tree Shapes
I thought I would work on shapes and make a Christmas tree with my toddler. You can apply this to almost every holiday so feel free to adapt!
What you Need:
Construction Paper
Markers/Crayons/Paint
Glue
1. Cut out 3 large triangles, a star, along with any other shape you want to work on. I cut out “J”’s for candy canes, but you can also do circles for ball ornaments, and a rectangle for the bottom of the tree.
2. Let your child color or paint triangles, etc.
3. Glue together to make a tree.
4. Add ornaments.
5. Let dry!
Hiding Presents
Now to be honest I haven’t been a mother long… in the way that some people are. This is my third Christmas as a mother so it hasn’t been hard to hide Christmas presents but it has me worried for the future; where will I hide Christmas presents? Currently my husband’s and child’s presents are in our office closet, which is truly the only place I can think of right now, except our garage mounded with boxes from our move. And I would be tempted to hide gifts out there if I wasn’t pregnant and waddling around.
I have no idea where my dad hid our presents, I think maybe at his office at work. My husband and his brothers were angels, and I mean it. I didn’t know people like them existed. Their parents told them where the presents were and asked them not to look. Did they look? No. Angels… In his family if you even picked up your present it went back to the store. I love to shake my presents; one of the hardest things about our marriage at first was that I couldn’t touch my presents. I did a lot of pouting. In fact the first time I shook a present my husband’s eyes got as big a frying pans and he was completely shocked. That’s when I learned the no touching, no shaking rule; it was a sad day.
So I am interested. Where do you hid your Christmas gifts and what are your rules? Shaking is okay? Open them with a butter knife so the paper isn’t damaged? No touching?
24 Days until Christmas
23 shopping days! Are you freaking out? Are you done? Almost done? Not even started? Well true to my earlier post I plan on being done shopping this Saturday. Then I just have to mail out Christmas cards, and out of town presents, and wrap the gifts I’ve bought. We also already put up our Christmas tree and decorations, granted we don’t have much in the way of decorations yet but what we have is up! We waited until the day after Thanksgiving to put up the tree and pull out the decorations but I was surprised to see how many friends put up trees before Thanksgiving… interesting. I guess because that was not allowed at my house growing up I just assumed the vast majority of people waited but I seem to have a lot of impatient friends!
I am excited for the first day of December, Christmas is coming and I’m getting closer to my due date. I hope you all are excited to read reviews on breast pumps and nursing bras! Just kidding… kind of. But before the baby comes you can look forward to more posts on baked goods, holiday crafts, and reviews. I know you’re excited! If any of you have any request on post topics, or a product I should review feel free to leave a comment and let me know. Or send me an e-mail at: domesticwonder dot gmail dot com!
Turkey Pot Pie
Wondering what to do with all those turkey leftovers? I made turkey pot pie and it was wonderful! A recipe my husband said that I had to write down so we could have it again.
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Filling Ingredients:
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 can milk
2 cups turkey – cut up
1 small can (8oz) corn
1 small can green beans (cut up) (feel free to use your favorite veggies)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese *Note: this is not enough cheese to make the filling taste cheesy but to make the texture creamy and thicker. If you’d like to taste cheese you’ll need to add more.
“Pie” Topping Ingredients:
1 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
(This is actually half the normal pancake recipe on the box)
Mix filling ingredients together in a casserole dish until the milk is stirred in completely. In a separate dish mix pie topping. Pour topping over the filling and bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until the top is golden.
