The Adventures of Buddy the Elf

December 26th hit Peanut pretty hard this year. The day after Christmas let down. Sure, he had fun playing with all his new toys but many things ended that he had been enjoying the last month. All of our advents were finished and Buddy the Elf headed back to the North Pole. We were sitting in a drive thru to pick up some lunch and the usual nonstop chatter that comes from the back seat of the car was replaced with sniffles. Looking into the rearview mirror, I noticed big ole crocodile tears running down Peanut's cheeks. After a quick visual scan to check for blood and the standard mom questions of "Do you feel sick? Are you going to throw up?", he tells me that he's really sad because he misses Buddy the Elf. It about broke my heart how sad he was! So after we got home, we looked through the pictures of Buddy's antics and shared our fond memories of our month with him. I then decided to blog about it because most of the ideas did come from Pinterest!


The first thing Buddy did, although we didn't get photos of him, was decorate the house for Christmas. Peanut had gone home from our family Thanksgiving dinner with his grandparents so Buddy had a nice long weekend to get a tree and decorate the house.

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree in Peanut's room.

Fireplace with the start of our Christmas Book advent.

One day Buddy left us some magic seeds with directions instructing us how to plant them. They grew into Oreo Cookie Pops.

Our magic seeds. 

Buddy needs to work on his penmanship.

Planting the seeds in our sugar container.

Delicious goodies grew!

Buddy was caught one day relaxing in a marshmallow bubble bath. 

Such a hard life!

 The Lego Mini-figures teamed up with the Claus Family to build a jail for Buddy.

I think Buddy was framed by the black and white clown personally.

 He spent a day zip-lining from the fan to the Grandfather clock.

He probably had a horrible headache after hanging upside down all day!

He decorated Peanut's bathroom mirror with a whole bag of bows. 

 Buddy spent a day hanging from the ceiling fan in a pair of Peanut's underwear.

 He hid himself in a toilet paper snowman.

I swear the snowman has two arms. It's blending in with the background.

He got into our fridge and turned our milk green. He also added a bit of peppermint creamer to make it extra Christmassy.

He brought a bell from Santa's sleigh because we had read The Polar Express the night before from our Christmas Book advent.

We found him with a dry erase marker and then discovered that he had drawn on pictures hanging throughout the house.

He looks pretty proud of himself.

We found Buddy sleeping in Peanut's bed one night when he spent the night with his grandparents.

Peanut wanted to crawl into bed for a few minutes but made sure to not touch Buddy!

On Christmas Eve, Buddy brought a letter asking Peanut to donate at least four toys he wasn't using anymore. Peanut was told to leave them under the tree and Santa would take them after leaving new toys.

Peanut surprised me by going above and beyond the requested four toys!

Buddy got to hang out with his friend Luna on Christmas Eve!

Am I sensing a bit of a love connection?

 And finally, Santa lifted the magic so that Peanut could snuggle with Buddy the night of Christmas Eve.

Peanut was so excited to touch Buddy!

Thanks for the memories Buddy! We hope you have a blast at the North Pole and we can't wait until next November!

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas.....

It's the day after Christmas. Slowly, oh so slowly, the aftermath of the big day has been cleaned up. Our Christmas tree had puked up a pile of toys, trash, and packaging all over the living room. Throughout the day, with the "help" of my 4 year old Peanut, most everything has found its new home. All that lingers is the smell of Christmas. What, might you ask, is the smell of Christmas? Well, read on my friends. 

I wasn't sure if I was going to write a post about this particular Pinterest idea because I didn't think it really was working well. I made a batch of potpourri that you simmer on the stove. I had almost all of the required ingredients for it and I knew we would have people over Christmas Day. Why not try it out and make the house stink pretty smell nice? 

We got home pretty late on Christmas Eve after spending the afternoon and evening celebrating Christmas with my family, dinner, and a candlelight service at church. Once we got Peanut settled into bed (close to 11:00pm), I threw the potpourri together. I let it simmer for about 30 minutes before bed, took a whiff of it over the stove, and thought "That's a pleasant, albeit faint, smell." Just left the saucepan on the stove and went to bed.

Christmas Day arrived and I turned the stove back on to simmer. The potpourri smelled a bit stronger, but it was overpowered by the smell of taco soup simmering on the stove as well. Still was impressed by the faint whiffs I would get of the potpourri, but wasn't sure if I would ever make it again. Left it sitting on the stove in the saucepan and went on with my business.

I decided today to give it one more chance before I gave up on the whole project. I had taken the carcass of a turkey and made broth throughout the day (that in and of itself smelled pretty good). After that finished, I began simmering the potpourri again. Glad I gave it another shot, because boy oh boy, it smells WONDERFUL in my house. The smell is permeating the whole house. The fact that I let it simmer longer than the last two days and that it doesn't have any other smells to compete with probably helps. It also probably helps that it has been marinating for several days. 

Now you're most likely thinking to yourself, get on to the recipe! Without further ado...the recipe!

It even looks as pretty as it smells.

• Slice up one orange or just use orange peels
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1 Tbsp whole cloves
• 3 sticks of cinnamon
• a bit of grated nutmeg if desired (I skipped this ingredient because I didn't have any!)

Throw all ingredients into a saucepan, add water to cover, put it on the smallest eye of your stove, and turn it on to the lowest setting. Keep adding water as it evaporates. The batch should last for several weeks. While it may turn brown and murky, it'll still smell good. 

Give it a try and let me know what you think!  

The Year of Christmas Advents

While Peanut is still young, I'm trying to find ideas that will translate into yearly traditions. This year I found two different Christmas Advents on Pinterest that I wanted to try. I believe that Peanut, the Woodman, and I are all enjoying these and will definitely turn them into some new traditions.

This first advent that I found was a Bible verse advent. There wasn't much to the pin, just a list of Bible verses to read December 1st through December 24th. I wrote out the list, pulled out my Bible, and read all of the selections. While I enjoyed reading it, I realized that the language in my own Bible would be waaaay over Peanut's head. The "My First Bible" that he got before he was born retold stories from the Bible, but there were no books, chapters, and verses. It was time for Peanut to get his own real Bible. After searching online and in book stores, we bought the Bible in the picture below. While it is still told in more of a narrative format, it is broken down like a traditional Bible. Peanut really enjoys reading out of it at night and begs for more when there is only a short passage to read.

The second advent that we are doing this year is, in my opinion as a book lover, amazing! I am so in love with this advent. I came across several different pins on Pinterest for Christmas/Winter book advents. I looked at several different lists of books, compiled a list for us (incorporating books that we already owned), and then started scouring the Internet for the best deals on the books that we needed to buy. We ended up having to buy 19 books and was more than what we should have spent, but we'll be putting them all away after Christmas and then reusing the same books each Christmas for quite some time. I found a lot of good deals on amazon.com and half.com. 

The books ready for wrapping. At this point, we were still waiting on Mr. Postman to deliver a few more packages.

Here are the books we are using for our advent:

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess

How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague

The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston

Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

Christmas is Here (Words from the King James Bible) illustrated by Lauren Castillo

The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers (This inspired a trip to see the ballet, which he LOVED and gets so excited every time he hears the music now!)

"I'm Not Santa!" by Jonathan Allen

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost and illustrated by Susan Jeffers

A Charlie Brown Christmas by Charles M. Schultz

The Little Drummer Boy by Ezra Jack Keats (we then listened to the song)

My Favorite Things (Rodgers & Hammerstein) illustrated by Renee Graef (again, then listened to the song...which is now one of Peanut's favorite things to do!)

Santa is Coming to Georgia by Steve Smallman

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

The Littlest Angel by Charles Tazewell (Netflix watch instantly also has this movie)

An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco

The Twelve Days of Christmas illustrated by Laurel Long (some of the prettiest illustrations I've ever seen)

Good King Wenceslas by John M. Neale 

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell! by Lucille Colandro

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Room for a Little One: A Christmas Tale by Martin Waddell

The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter

The Shortest Day: Celebrating the Winter Solstice by Wendy Pfeffer

This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotten

Twas the Night Before Christmas (this book is my favorite because it was from when I was little, and I think it was old even then. Copyrighted in the 1950s, I believe. Can't check because it's still wrapped!)

Peanut is LOVING this advent. Who wouldn't want to open a package every night for 24 nights???? Below are a few photos of his excitement!

Totally can't tell that he's wearing Halloween jammies in December!

Hmm....we might have to replace this book if we ever can move out of Georgia!

Just a few more books to go!

So, am I missing any must read books? Let me know! Merry Christmas!

Can you smell how good my house smells? (otherwise known as Making Cinnamon Ornaments)

It was 4:30pm on a rainy Monday afternoon. I should have been thinking about what I could make for dinner. Instead, I found myself thinking that I wanted to do a Christmas craft with Peanut. I wanted it to be simple, relatively clean, and completely free using items that I already have at home. I remembered coming across a pin on Pinterest for cinnamon ornaments. Silly me, I went to Google to find the recipe and came up with all kinds of recipes that had lots of ingredients. I knew I had seen one on Pinterest that used 3 or 4 simple items and that didn't need to be cooked. So, I went over to Pinterest (where I should have gone in the beginning) and found the pin I had saved under my Christmas board. Bingo! A short, sweet, to-the-point recipe. Easy for Peanut and I. 

Step 1- Gather your ingredients!

All you need is a cup of flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1/2 cup cinnamon, and 3/4 cup very warm water.

Step 2- Mix all ingredients together and knead dough until it isn't sticky anymore. (You may need to lightly flour your hands.

Gather up your Christmassy cookie cutters. 

Step 3- Get your cutest helper to roll out your dough (use wax paper to keep dough from sticking).

I personally think the ornaments turn out better if your helper wears a Santa hat.

Step 4- Use cookie cutters to cut out your ornaments.

Step 5- Using a drinking straw, punch holes in your ornaments before they dry so you can hang them up using ribbon.

I hate that the Santas and snowmen look like they have gunshot wounds to the head. Plus, what Christmas isn't complete with a cinnamon leg lamp ornament (it's a major award!).

From here, you let the ornaments dry completely. The website said it'd take approximately 24 hours. You may then paint them (I think they dry pretty light). The site suggested mixing cinnamon in with the paint to make the cinnamon scent stronger. Or you can not paint them....modge-podge them to bring back the dark color. 

I'll just say, this tray of ornaments has the entire house smelling super yummy! My hands are yummy smelling too from mixing and kneading the dough. I've been walking around just sniffing my hands like the Mary Katherine Gallagher skit from SNL.  If you aren't sure about the reference, check out the video below and scroll to about 1:05 in the clip.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post for a Christmas Book Advent!

Freezer Crock Pot Meals

I love freezer bulk cooking. I usually spend two days when doing this. One day is spent preparing a master shopping list, shopping, and doing any food prep (chopping meats and veggies). The second day is spent cooking, assembling, and freezing the meals, and then cleaning up all the dishes used. Two days worth of work usually turned into 8-10 meals stored in the freezer. Pull them out the night before to defrost and cook the next day for 30-45 minutes. 4-6 weeks worth of food that's easy to prepare at night....That's the best!

UNTIL NOW!

I stumbled upon this blog on Pinterest that talked about freezer crock pot meals. I perused the different recipes, chose what I thought Peanut my family would eat, and then waited until payday to go shopping.

Payday hit on Friday and I'm sitting here on a Sunday. I spent one hour shopping and then...... Wait for it...... 1 hour and 15 minutes assembling 8 different meals!!! I still have to clean up, but that's only a few measuring cups, measuring spoons, a cutting board, and a knife. THAT'S IT!!! I'm figuring we can get 3 or 4 meals out of each bag of food, so I spent 1 hour and 15 minutes for 24-32 meals.

I spent roughly $175 in the grocery store on items for these meals (I had a lot of the spices and food staples at home already). It would have been $210 if I hadn't lucked up and found chicken breast packages buy one, get one free at Kroger. So, paying $175 and stretching out each bag to 4 meals, each serving is $4.86. Not too shabby!

Here are the steps I took to get my meals ready (I'm sure you could have your food assembled even faster if you had help!)....

Step 1- Gather your supplies and ingredients.

Seriously....this is all you need food prep-wise. Measuring cups, measuring spoons, a cutting board, and a knife or two.

Step 2- Label gallon sized freezer bags with name of recipe and cooking instructions.

Step 3- Divide up meat into bags.

Most of the meat used. I forgot to take the picture before I opened and distributed the London Broil roast and the chuck roast. Good thing chicken was buy one, get one free this week!

Everybody is in their new homes!

 Step 4- Add ingredients common to most bags and cross of on main recipe list as you go along. After this step, I worked with two meals at a time while the rest sat in the refrigerator.

 Step 5- Step back and admire your work.

Step 6- Freeze!

All of the meals can go straight from freezer to slow cooker with no defrosting (you can defrost overnight if you want), and cooks on low 6-8 hours. Easy peasy! If you use crock pot liners, the only things you'll have to wash are the dishes you eat off of!

Below are the recipes I chose (several of them are similar, and very heavy on the chicken- I kept 4 year old Peanut in mind when I chose these).

Hawaiian Chicken

Beef Burritos

Chicken Fajitas

Dijon Chicken

Italian Chicken

Honey Pineapple Chicken

Taco Roast

Honey Chicken

Now, after assembling these meals and blogging about this process, I need to point out that I haven't actually tasted any of these yet. The blogger who posted these recipes said they are really good, and the ingredients are things that I like, so fingers crossed. I'll update this entry after we have eaten these meals. Let me know if you make any of these and how they turned out if I haven't updated yet!