Christmas Wassail

When living in Mississippi the town we lived in had a Wassail Festival every Christmas.  The stores stayed open late and each store made their own version of wassail.  I fell in love with Wassail then.  It took a couple years, but I perfected my own recipe.  I served up a crock pot full at our Christmas Eve Eve party.  So yummy!

Kristen's Wassail
4 cups apple juice
2 cups orange juice
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup powdered sugar
4-5 cinnamon sticks (or a couple Tablespoons if you don't have sticks)
1 Tablespoon nutmeg

In a large pot over low heat, combine all of the above ingredients.  Let come to a simmer.

If you’re making this for a party, you could add all of the above ingredients to a crockpot a few hours before guests arrive.

The caramel from the hot chocolate bar would go great in the Wassail as well.  I also brought out my cinnamon and sugar grinder as a nice compliment to the wassail.

I actually didn't use a pin for this one!

Hot Chocolate Bar

I made a hot chocolate bar for our Christmas Eve Eve party.  We had things for kids and grown ups.

I made Polar Express Hot Chocolate - soooooo rich and sooooo good!  And this recipe makes 1 crock pot full.

Polar Express Hot Chocolate
1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
2 cups of milk chocolate chips
6 cups of milk (I use 2%)
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a large pot over low heat, combine all of the above ingredients.  Stir regularly for 30-40 minutes until chocolate is fully melted and incorporated with other ingredients.  

If you’re making this for a party, you could add all of the above ingredients to a crockpot a few hours before guests arrive.

At the bar, I had mini marshmallows, caramel sauce (I'm addicted to salted caramel mochas from Starbucks) and candy cane marshmallows for the kids.  For the adults, I had peppermint schnapps, Kahlua and Bailey's.  Yummy!

Pins I used:

Source: honeyandfitz.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Source: jam-0.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Freddy helps us get ready for the party

Freddy knew we were having a party so he decided to help us get ready. 

Christmas Tree Game

At my daughters Christmas party we had an opportunity to get parents involved.  The kids thought this was so funny!

We divided the kids into 4 teams.  They had 10 minutes to make "ornaments" out of construction paper.  Then it was time to make the trees.  Each team had 1 roll of green crepe paper and started wrapping their trees.  They had 15 minutes to decorate their grown up and tape on ornaments.  Very fun game and I would do it again.  Only next time I think the kids should wrap themselves!!

Making their ornaments

Time to wrap!

The final trees!

Original pin for inspiration:

Source: lewislearninglibrary.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Freddy leaves magic beans

Freddy left us magic beans with instructions.  The kids followed the instructions to a "t" and were rewarded for it.

The instructions say to put the seeds in the rice, blow a kiss and then sprinkle the magic red sprinkles over the seeds and see what grows over night.  

The kids woke up in the morning to see what grew:

Original Pin:

Source: enzasbargains.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Teacher gifts this year - jar of Christmas smells

I decided to make jars of Christmas smell for teachers this year. 

I bought mason jars on sale at Hobby Lobby for $1.00/each.  In the mason jar, I put oranges, lemons, limes, cranberries, bay leaf, 5-6 cinnamon sticks (they were the best price at Trader Joe's) and a palm full of cloves (also a good buy at Trader Joe's).  I then filled the jar to the top with water.  I made the sticker you see in the photo and that was it.  I used mine 4-5 times (storing it in the jar in the fridge in between uses).  I got so many compliments.  I gave these with some fudge and Christmas crack as well.  It seemed like a great gift.

Christmas Card Display

I have never actually had a place to display my Christmas cards.  I saw this pin using ribbon (which I have a ton of).  I had a hard time finding clothes pins so I used paper clips.  It seemed to work well and I love being able to see the cards everyone sent this year!

Pin used:

Source: iheartorganizing.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Freddy's in my car

Every morning the first thing my daughter does is find Freddy.  She couldn't find him this morning and was devastated.  Tears and everything!!!!  While she was putting on her shoes, my car alarm when off (panic button).  Strange.  We are walking towards the car to get to school and we see this red thing by my rear view mirror.  She was soooooo excited!!!  We decided Freddy must have gotten a late start from the North Pole and couldn't make it into the house in time.  I told her I felt I had to drive extra perfect since Freddy was watching me all day!!!

Freddy took care of our pictures

I guess Freddy couldn't stand that our pictures were out of date, so he took care of it...

Original Pin:

Source: designdazzle.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Freddy made faces

Freddy got a hold of a dry erase marker and drew funny faces on our pictures.  He also made reference to the fact I have not updated the pictures in over a year.  Freddy did this last year to our photos as well.

Original Pin:

Source: flickr.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Freddy Toilet Papered our Tree

Looks like Freddy learned a couple tricks while he was spending the off time in the North Pole. We found our tree wrapped with toilet paper and Freddy at the top of the tree with the toilet paper roll on his arm. 

Original Pin:

Source: designdazzle.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest

Freddy switched our stockings

Silly Freddy.  He found 1 of each of our socks and had our stockings on the floor.

Snowman pizza party

My daughter had a few friends over for some ornament making party.  My highlight from the party was lunch.  The girls made individual snowman pizzas.

I went to Trader Joe's and bought 3 packages of their pizza dough for 6 girls.  I divided 1 package into 4 pieces.  The 2nd in half.  I took one half and divided it into 2 pieces so I had 6 "large" balls for the base of the snowmen.  I took the other half of the 2nd pack and divided it into 6 "small" balls to make the tops of the snowman.  I divided the 3rd package into 6 "medium" balls for the middle of the snowman.

I then set up the flow of the pizza making.  Each girl grabbed a non-stick foil lined plate and then grabbed a small, medium and large size ball and made their snowman. They then went over to the sauce and topping area.  Once they were done adding topping I wrote their name on the foil and put it on a cookie sheet.  I followed the directions on the packaging for baking times and temperatures.  The snowmen seemed to be a hit!

Small, Medium and Large dough balls

Topping selection

A couple of the pizzas ready for the oven

One of the finished snowmen

Pin I used for inspiration:

Source: deliacreates.blogspot.com via Kristen on Pinterest