Tulle, My New Best Friend

I have to admit it, I love beautifully wrapped gifts. Always have, always will. They make my heart sing.

This year I bravely introduced my family to a new Christmas color scheme...teal with cranberry. Hubbs was not in agreement with my choice of colors this year. Being the gracious husband that he is, he let me go ahead with my crazy color scheme. I'm always after something different and I thought teal and cranberry would fit the bill.

I try to keep my wrapping paper in chorus with my tree color, so I bought this awesome teal and silver paper at Walmart of all places, but I needed something to make a bow. I've used wired ribbon thing the last two years and I needed something new and cheap. What did I turn too? Tulle. I love this stuff for three reasons.

1. It's cheap. $2.99-$4.99 for 25 yards at Hobby Lobby.
2. It's easy to work with.
3. If the bow gets smashed, just fluff.

If you can't figure out how to accessorize your gifts this year, give some tulle a try, you'll love it!

Christmas Toy Prep

Christmas is literally around the corner and it's time to clean out the toy collection. Each year before Christmas, my child must select five or more toys that he can donate to charity.

To start the process you need two paper sacks. Mark one "TRASH" and the other "GIVE." Keep a Force Flex bag handy ($1 off coupon here), you might just need it once you tear into everything. It’s amazing how many McDonald’s toys, random pieces of art work, school papers, and other treasures your child can collect in a year. This year we filled up a giant black Force Flex bag of these beloved items.

I like to divide the room into zones - closet, behind/under the bed, toy bins, book shelf, desk, etc. I'd recommend letting your kids do the first zone alone. Set the timer for 15 minutes and when the time is up, it's time for mom to inspect. If your child does well with the first zone, move on to the second, third, you get the idea. My child’s concentration goes out the window by the time he gets through the second zone. At that point, roll up your sleeves; it’s time to guide the process. This year it only took us 2.5 hours, one Force Flex bag, and two giveaway sacks to get through the entire room.

Make sure you lay some ground rules before you start. Kids need boundaries and generally do better when the expectation is set. We have two rules when doing this:

1. If you have to ask Mom what she thinks about a certain toy or item, throw it away. If you have to ask, it's more than likely bound for the trash.

2. If you have trouble deciding, Mom will narrow it down by putting two choice in front of you followed by the words, "Which one goes in the give pile and which one are you going to keep?"

Ladies, get your trash bag out and get your kid's room whipped into shape. Just NINE days until your child's toy collection expands.

Good luck!

And a child will lead them...

It's school papers like this where you think to yourself, "We must be doing something right." And then we reach for a Kleenex.

Quick, Easy & Messy Cookies for Christmas

Christmas keeps getting closer each day and that means that it's time for me to ramp up my holiday baking. When I was a kid, my mom would spend December making goodie bags for neighbors and friends. There was always a tiny loaf of homemade sourdough bread and several different kinds of cookies along with her signature chocolate chip cookies. Now that I have more time on my hands, I'm going to carry on the tradition.

In college one of my housemates made lemon cookies using four ingredients: lemon cake mix, Cool Whip, egg, and powdered sugar. Tonight I modified her recipe using a devil's food cake mix and it made the most super chocolaty cookies in the world. If you are looking for a cheap and quick cookie recipe, I highly recommend this one. Warning: It's a messy process, but totally worth it.

Cake-N-Cool Whip Cookies
1 cake mix - lemon, chocolate, devil's food, or whatever you want to experiment with
2 c. Cool Whip
1 egg

Powdered sugar

Mix ingredients together using a mixer. The dough will be thick and sticky. Use a cookie scoop to make a ball. Roll the ball in powdered sugar and coat evenly. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (What? You've never baked with parchment paper? Once you try it, you'll never go back. It's a little on the expensive side, but totally worth it in my opinion.) Bake at 350* for 8-10 minutes.

Give this quick recipe a try, you'll love it!

P.S. It's Monday...have you shined your sink?