Turning Over a New Leaf

Well, I had an epiphany last week!  My son said that it is very meaningful to him, when he "creates" something, that his Granny's "play" with him and try out his creations.  He has been watching You Tube for weeks and learning how to make paper guns, ammo, swords, and knives....your typical boy things.   

After he said that, it started my thinking about his comments.  I don't know about you and your situation, but I am home with my son and grandson to raise them, teach them things about life, and help mold them into decent, responsible human beings that will eventually contribute to society in big ways! 

With all of my memories recently of MY grandmothers, I realized that they stopped and took time to play - play games, teach us crafts, teach us to cook, make root beer floats, etc.  They didn't work the entire time we visited and spent the night with them.  THEY TOOK TIME -- to love us, hold us, teach us things about life, and help to mold us into the adults we are today (the "we" is my brother, Stacy, and my sister, Billie, and myself).  

I want to be the Mimi that Brayden tells cool stories about when he grows up.  I want Connor and Stephanie to be able to say that I actually taught them something special!

So, last Thursday night, Brayden and I started making Christmas candy.  You must know that he loves to scrapbook with "Mimi" and he also enjoys setting up the classroom for all of my classes.  He is a great helper!  I want to teach him some other fun things in his little life too.  I know that all too soon he will be busy with sports, scouts, etc, and won't really care about such things.

We started off with simple candy and made "Rolo Cookies".  They are really easy to make.  Brayden unwrapped all the rolos and placed them on the pretzels.  We asked Connor to help and he told us that he didn't want to do it until he saw how much fun we were having.  Then he jumped right in and helped (he wouldn't let me take his picture!).

We baked them for 4 minutes at 350 degrees.

The final step is to add a pecan halve by gently pressing the pecan into the warm chocolate.   Let cool and they

are ready to enjoy. 

We also made Graham Cracker Toffee....thanks to Anna who gave us the recipe!  It is a new favorite around our house.  That was a little tricky because the caramel sauce has to be cooked on the stove top.  I stood Brayden in a chair and he helped me stir the pot.

This is a photo of the toffee as it is cooling off.  It is O-SO yummy!  We took some of each kind of candy to the beauty shop (that Brayden's mommy works at) as a Christmas treat.

So, in closing, I am going to try to be better about building memories with both boys.  If you are a busy mommy, be sure to hold and "play" with your kiddos!  If you are a busy Mimi/Grandmother  be sure to hold and "play" with your grand kids!  They grow up too fast and then that time is gone.  Enjoy them everyday! 

Spiced Tea - Another Holiday Tradition

Many of you have been the recipient of Spiced Tea.  I love drinking a piping hot cup of it, especially during the fall and winter months and I like to give it to family and friends during the holidays!  My earliest memories of drinking it were in elementary school.  My mom's friend made my brother, sister and myself a cute little jack-o-lantern cup and we would drink our spiced tea in it.

My friend, Tina, and I decided to make teacher's gifts with our spiced tea recipe and I wanted to share that process with you.  The first thing that you must do is get in the mood!  We put some Holiday tunes on and just had a good time preparing our little gifts!  We used recycled Starbucks Frappucino bottles and stamped our labels for the lid and the jar.  We bought cute Christmas ribbon at Hobby Lobby to finish them off.

Tina's mom saved the frappucino jars for us!

Quality ingredients make quality tea!

All mixed up!  It smells delicious!

These jars look great filled and decorated. 

*We made Avery labels on the computer with the sentiment, "Just a little something to spice up your holidays! 

Merry Christmas!" 

*We stamped the labels using the trees from the Bundled Buddies stamp set and a snowflake from the December 25th stamp set to make them more decorative.  

*We cut the small green tags with the Cricut cartridge and stamped them with a snowflake from the December 25th stamp set. 

*We also stamped the circles from the Countdown stamp set on White Avery label paper and punched them out with our

1 1/4" circle punch - we used the cirlce labels to cover the

Starbucks logo on the lids. 

*Reindeer ribbon is tied around the neck of the bottle and the "from" tag is tied on with glitzy red wire.

My recipe actually came from "The Cottage" which used to be on 34th Street in Lubbock.  Our family loved that store and visited each year during their Holiday Open House. 

Here is the recipe:

2 Cups Tang

1 1/2 Cups Instant Tea

1 Cup Powdered Lemonade

1 1/2 Cups Sugar

1/2 tsp. Ground Cloves

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

Mix ingredients well.  Stir 2 Teaspoons into 1 cup hot water.

In closing, may your holidays be filled with spice and the simple joy of spiced tea.  I challenge you to mix up a batch and give it as a gift.  You will make the recipient's holidays very happy and your's more memorable!