Almond Joy Bars

Although there are quite a few steps in making these, they are really quite easy and well worth the effort. While these are irresistible just as they are, they are even more so just 5 or so minutes out of the deep freeze. To steal a phrase from the Pioneer Woman, Major Yum.
Almond Joy Bars
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp soda
1 cup butter
1 cup water
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 beaten eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Mix flour, sugar and soda. Set aside. In saucepan mix butter, water and cocoa. Bring to a boil. Pour over flour mixture and mix well. Add buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into greased 10 x 15 jelly roll pan. Bake @ 375 for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Filling:
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 powdered sugar
14 oz. coconut
1 tsp vanilla
Mix milk and vanilla. Slowly add powdered sugar then add coconut. Spread evenly over cooled bars. Sprinkle with coarsely chopped almonds.

Frosting:
1/2 cup-1 cup butter **
2 cups chocolate chips
Melt butter and chocolate. Drizzle over bars then spread evenly with the back of a spoon. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

**note: The more butter you add, the more of a 'glaze' you'll get. I tend to like it (if I'm not worrying about butter amounts!) a little thinner, but some of my kids like it better with a thicker, more chocolaty topping. (which is what is in the photo)

Orange Rolls

These yummy little things have become a Christmas morning tradition. I throw the dough ingredients into my bread machine on Christmas Eve, put the dough in the refrigerator until the next day, then I quickly roll them out on Christmas morning. (The dough is so soft that it needs to be refrigerated before working with it anyway so it works out well.) But whether you make these or not on Christmas Day, they are still way, way yummy! (sorry this is such a terrible picture, I promise IRL they look fantastic!)
Orange Rolls
1 cup warm milk
2 eggs
4 TBSP softened butter
4 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups flour
1 TBSP yeast

Put ingredients in bread machine and select dough setting. Refrigerate. When ready to roll out, spread with orange past (below) and cut out as you would cinnamon rolls. Bake in muffin tins or on a cookie sheet. Let rise for 30 minutes. Bake @ 350 for 20 minutes. Glaze while still hot.

Orange Paste:
1/4 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
grated rind of 1 orange

Glaze:
Squeeze juice from 1/2 of orange and blend well with /2 cup cream cheese frosting. (I just use the frosting in the tub.)

The roll in the picture was baked in a 9x13 pan, but my absolute favorite is baking them in silicone muffin cups. For some reason, those make orange rolls to die for!

Neighbor Gifts

I like to keep my neighbor gifts simple, without spending a lot of time or money but letting those around me know that I appreciate their friendship. While these ideas are not grand, they may give you a starting place for an idea. If you don't like to spend your time making neighbor gifts, check out this site for things you can just purchase and put a tag on.

{Disclaimer: If you are my neighbor, please keep your yawns and sighs to yourself when you think "Been there, done that, received this years ago.". . . . Give me a little break as my brain is not working at full power these days!}

Hot Plate Tiles:
I hadn't thought of these being a cheap, simple neighbor gift until my sister Danna told me that she was making them for her neighbor gifts this year. She also gave me the idea of putting a little piece of cork or felt (use self adhesive kinds) on the bottom for a little padding. Works swell! Get some tiles from Home Depot, Staz On ink and some stamps. Super easy, fast and cute. In addition to these that I posted back in April, I also made a two more with more of a Christmas theme for this post.This one could be for any time of the year, but using red and green kind of gives it a Christmas feel. It's got a fun, abstract look. The green, btw, on this is done with a Slick marker; I just added it after stamping to enhance the image.I really like how this one turned out, although you need to pretend with me that this is centered. Stamping on a tile with texture gives a little more control (no slipping). To make it, I placed a circle template on the tile and stamped a few random flowers to create my circle, (this is where you need to be more careful than me in centering it!) then I removed it and filled it in to make a wreath. All of the stamps are little individual flower stamps. Then I used a dot stamp to make some berries. Turned out really fun!
Soap Dispensers:
I have made these for a couple of years because they are cute and practical. In the past I have used rub ons on the front to put a greeting. But this year I decided they are just as cute without the greeting (hence saves time and money!). I also have gone from using a brad for attaching the flower to using a button and just stitch it on. It takes just a minute longer, but buttons don't rust so if the receiver wants to refill it, they can use it for quite a while. This year I also thought about putting hand sanitizer in them, which is nice because it is clear instead of slightly colored. Just make sure if you use sanitizer, you let the recipient know it isn't soap. Or if you like the clear soap option, Clorox now makes a clear dish soap. It is a little pricey, but you might decide it is worth it. (I found that with white flowers, the clearer soap looks better.) These make great teacher gifts too. To make them, cut a piece of texture template the size of your soap bottle (make a pattern first), sew your button and flower on, roll up the texture template and put it in the bottle, use a chopstick or something of the sort to help it unroll if neccessary.

CD and Ornament
This is the neighbor gifts I did last year. (the talk I put on the CD is wonderful! You should listen just for your own listening pleasure!)

Hand Exfoliater
You're going to have to use your imaginations on this one as I don't have a sample to show because I haven't been able to get any travel size containers the right size (Wal-Mart is always out). But here is a picture of the type of container I'm looking for. It needs to be a small wide-mouth type container because this mixture needs to be stirred well before each use. Then you would tie a ribbon around it, stamp or put a rub on put on the lid etc. Then make a little tag with the instructions. This exfoliater works marvelously and is very easy to make.

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup glycerin (pharmacys have it)
1 tsp Aloe Vera gel (in the travel size section)
2-3 drops of scented oil (by the potpourri) Don't go overboard, start with 2 drops and add more if desired.
Coloring if desired, again, use very little to start with, 1 drop is too much, add with a toothpick

Mix well.

To use, put 1 tsp on hands or feet. Massage in well and rinse in warm water. It tends to dry out your skin a little so use a good lotion right after.

I love the feel of my hands and feet after I use this! It really is an awesome recipe!

Journals/Calendars
These are really easy to make and make a nice gift for a girlfriend. For the journals I just buy a regular notebook. This one is about a 5x7. I create the entire cover how I want it then I use Wonder tape (or a knock off brand) to adhere it. I put the tape as close to the edge as I can get it and go all the way around. For the calendar, I just buy a calendar and decorate it. (most you would do the same as a journal, but this one had a plastic cover then I slipped my decorated paper inside.) The calendars can be used for anything, but I make a new one for myself every year that I write down what happens each day. Since the space is small, it only takes a few minutes, but it makes me keep a daily record.

And as always, click on pictures to see them larger if you want and *please* share other ideas you have! Thanks for reading!

Christmas Service Ideas

Every year I like to get my kids involved in a couple of service projects. They are a great way to bring our family together and service is always good. While this list isn't grand, it can be a starting point if you need ideas. And please, share ideas that you do so the rest of us can benefit also.

Humanitarian Projects: Check out the church's website for needed projects; many of them lend themselves well to an evening or weekend of family service. The year Tess was born we didn't take her out at all so we tied a quilt. It was so fun to do as a family.

Food Bank donations: It always seems local food banks are low at this time of year. Different ideas to implement this are to give each child a certain amount of money and a list of most needed items and let them choose some things to buy to take to the food bank. Or organize a neighborhood food bank donation day. Some people in our neighborhood do this every year and they provide a movie on a big screen outside and hot chocolate and other things if you bring some items.

School Donations: Teachers and schools often need supplies. Many schools could use basic supplies such as pencils, paper and crayons. Others would benefit more from volunteer hours. As a teacher I could always use help cutting things out, sorting papers, mending books etc. A phone call to your local school could easily give you ideas of service projects.

Nursing Homes: Most people there would just enjoy a visit. But here is a list of good ideas of other things you could do.

Something in your neighborhood: Is there a single mom in your neighborhood? Offer to take her kids for an evening so she can relax or shop for Christmas. While you have the kids, take them shopping for something for their mom, or help them make something for her. Is there a family in your neighborhood with a few small children that would have to hire a sitter in order to do their Christmas shopping? Offer to take the kids for an evening while they get out. The year we did this we had tea parties with the kids and did other crafts. It was so fun!

Hospitals: Look at this list of needs of Primary Children's Medical Center. The list just makes me excited because there are so many ways to help them. Since our ward is involved in a service project for them this year, they sent a packet with back ground information and a DVD. One thing they said is that the quilts they receive only last 3 months because of the disinfecting washes they go through, so they are always in need of those. Check the hospitals in your area for needs they have. (see my journals below that I made for the hospital)

I know there are a lot of other ideas out there so please share any ideas you have so we all can benefit. I'd love to hear them!

Healing

I had a terribly hard week last week. I just felt so broken. It didn't help that I spent most of the week very exhausted from a busy toddler and running on empty because of lack of sleep. There were other issues and I won't go into the details, but I hate to admit that I also gave into a terrible case of pity party blues. {And those are always hard to kick.} This week I have found answers in President Uchtdorf's talk from the General RS meeting in September. When he gave it, I knew first hand of the truths he presented because of how they have healed me in the past, but applying them when you are feeling a bit sorry for yourself is definitely a challenge.

President Uchtdorf suggests that the way women can experience joy and happiness amidst life's pressures is through service and creativity. It is so true! Making something beautiful brings so much joy and giving of ourselves pushes us outside of our little world to see other's needs which brings our challenges into perspective. Thankfully I found a project that met both purposes. Our ward is doing a Christmas service project for Primary Children's Medical Center and one thing on the list of things to donate was journals. I decided that I could make some nice journals for girls with all of the scrapbook stuff I have around. So I picked up a dozen notebooks and got to work. I got part way finished and Caleb asked how come I didn't have any for boys. So I ended up making some that boys might like and some neutral ones. I had so much fun that I'm sad that my notebooks are all used up. (But I've got other projects up my sleeve so it is time to move on!) I love how healing service and creativity are to a weary soul! I'm thankful for wise counsel to remind me when I needed it oh so much.And all of these supplies came from my odd-n-ends/scrapbox! How exciting to use some of those up too!

Daily Christmas Activities

This is one of our family's favorite traditions, but it has taken a few years of tweaking and evolving to get to what we do now. My suggestion, if you like this idea, is to start small and then add to it each year. Basically, what we do is each day during the month of December we have one family Christmas activity. Some are as simple as telling a Christmas joke or singing a song, but others require more time and preparation. To make it fit in, we print out a blank December calendar each year then write in programs, recitals, parties etc. and on those day we write in our simplest activities. On the days we have more time, we schedule ones that require more time. Sometimes we have a whole week of telling Christmas jokes or singing, and we are often trading them around as the month moves on, but we still make sure we do it just to keep the tradition up.

Last year our ward Christmas party was all about sharing traditions. I did a table display and made this layout and an explanation sheet hand-out to go with my odd collection of display items. (A laundry basket, a bunch of wadded up pieces of paper and a can of shaving cream need a bit of explanation especially amongst cute stuff like gingerbread houses, Santa, nutcracker and ornament collections don't you think?!?) Sorry for not providing a text version of the activity explanation, but I guess it didn't get transferred to the new computer so it was easier just for me to post a scan. I think you should be able to read it. (you will have to click to enlarge them though)
Each year we come across new activities that become possibilities and they get added to the master list (atm, I'm just writing them on the back of my layout). Ones that have been added for possibilities are: have a camp out around the Christmas tree, have a Jerusalem picnic, and since we have a little girly girl now we will be adding things like 'turn on Christmas music and dance' or 'have a Christmas parade' where we will wear Santa hats and march with instruments to a Christmas song. (okay, we're a little on the weird side, but we have fun!)

If you want explanations for other activities, let me know (I'll be posting our list of service ideas next week.) OR! if you do Christmas activities, please share, I'd love to expand my list!

Thankful

Yesterday I did laundry. Lots of it. And then I did more. While I was throwing one batch into the washer I thought about something that Tom always says (and it comes from his parents): He always reminds us that we 'get' to do something instead of 'have' to do it. And it is true. I get to do laundry. What a blessing!! Think about all of the things that could impair me from having such an opportunity. I could not have a family to care for. We could not have clothes. I could be disabled so as to not physically be able to perform the task. I could live in a different generation which would make doing laundry a greater task than throwing into a machine that does it for me. Think of all of my blessings surrounding an enormous pile of laundry!! Thinking in this perspective changes so much on things that otherwise seem mundane or burdensome! I get to drive Cache to and from school. I get to make meals, and clean up afterward. I get to help children with homework. I get to witness a toddler have large amounts of energy. I get to see my husband and family off each morning to their wonderful opportunities and then welcome them back again. I get to treasure a new life growing inside of me. I get to wipe up a lot of things (unless I'm thinking right, this is one that easily gets to me; but I'm thankful that the surfaces I wipe are much easier to clean than the ones previous generations had and I have many products available that make it minimal work!) I am TRULY blessed!

I don't want to skip over Thanksgiving, but I am going to start posting ideas for Christmas service projects, neighbor gifts, family activities, recipes etc. over the next few weeks so that if any of my ideas are ones you can use, you have time to implement them. I have gained so many ideas from blogs and other online sources that it is time for me to give back!