LilSugar

How Do You Celebrate the Holidays: jessie

LilSugar — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:00:24 -0800

The holidays are finally here! A few lilsugar readers shared their holiday plans, traditions, and pastimes with us. Thanks to jessie for today's read!

jessie is a stay-at-home mom and mother of three. She and her husband Mike have been married for 12 and a half years and live in Oregon with their children, Jimmy, 9, Jason, 7, and Isabella, 5. Since they moved from Indiana last February, this will be their first Christmas without extended family.

lilsugar: What is the most magical part of the holiday season for your family?
jessie: Everything about Christmas is magical to us. Every time any of us sees or hears anything Christmas related it never fails to make us smile.

lilsugar: What is the hot wishlist item in your household this year?
jessie: The Wii.

To get jessie's recipe for sand tarts and find out if her kids still believe in Santa, read more.

lilsugar: Please share your family's favorite holiday recipe and the story
behind it.
jessie: I actually found this recipe in Guidepost. My whole family LOVES it. I've passed the recipe on to my Mom and sister and they have shared it, too.

Sand Tarts
2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour (sifted)
5 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 cup chopped pecans

Cream butter, add vanilla, and stir. Sift flour and powdered sugar together and add to mixture, then add pecans. After mixing all ingredients together, form into long rolls, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Slice into thin cookies and place on a cookie sheet. (I use parchment paper) Preheat oven to 300°F. Bake for a 10-15 minutes. Roll cookies in additional powdered sugar and cool. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

lilsugar: Do your children still believe in Santa?
jessie: Jimmy does not, but he knows that if he wants gifts to say "yes" he does. And, Jason and Isabella do believe in Santa.

How Do You Celebrate the Holidays: macgirl

LilSugar — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:00:09 -0800

The holidays are finally here! A few lilsugar readers shared their holiday plans, traditions and pastimes with us. Thanks to macgirl for today's read!

macgirl is the proud mama of two sons, Dylan, 9 and Grayden, 11 months. She and her husband own an Apple authorized service and sales business. Since the techs are both fairly geeky, she says there's always a lot of gaming going on in their house. And, this year they added to the excitement by moving into their dream home.

lilsugar: What is the most magical part of the holiday season for your family?
macgirl: The holidays are nice as things slow down and we get a little bit more time off and can take a break from the daily grind. This year is especially magical as we are in our new home and ready to start our own traditions. One of the things we like to do on Christmas day is just have an open house invite. Food and drinks are served all day long and people can come and go as they please. It's a nice way to take away some of the pressures of having to be places by specific times. Our guests seem to enjoy it.

To hear about the hot items on macgirl's family's wishlist and a favorite festive recipe, read more.

lilsugar: What is the hot wishlist item in your household this year?
macgirl: Well, we cheated a bit and bought the big family gift on Black Friday. A nice flat screen Samsung TV for the living room. The boys have wishlists of their own though. Dylan is hoping to get a PSP and Grayden loves the Elmo Live. I'm sure I'll regret that one soon enough, but he just gets so excited when we visit Elmo at Target.

lilsugar: Please share your family's favorite holiday recipe and the story
behind it.
macgirl: My husband makes these amazing Apple Pancakes. They are so rich and heavy you can only eat a few before you think you're going to die.

1.5 cups self rising flour
1/2 sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 apples peeled and grated
1tsp butter

Mix the flour, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Beat the egg and milk
together and then pour into the flour/sugar/cinnamon bowl. After you
mix the dry and wet ingredients together stir in the grated apple.
Make them on the small side as they are incredibly dense and filling.

lilsugar: Do your children still believe in Santa?
macgirl: Dylan actually asked me a few weeks ago if Santa was real. I asked him what he thought and he got a bit flustered and said, "I just want to know the truth." It broke my heart a bit that he's growing up. Luckily I get to start this whole process over again with Grayden.

How Do You Celebrate the Holidays: schnappycat

LilSugar — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:00:41 -0800

The holidays are finally here! A few lilsugar readers shared their holiday plans, traditions and pastimes with us. Thanks to schnappycat for today's read!

schnappycat is a stay-at-home mom to 11-month-old, Evan, but in a former life, she worked in corporate marketing, She now fills her spare (barely there) time as a competitive synchronized figure skater. She and her husband Dave are both proud University of Michigan grads and remain true to their roots, even though they live outside of Denver.

lilsugar: What is the most magical part of the holiday season for your family?
schnappycat: I have always thought the anticipation of Christmas was magical. There is something beautiful and exciting about the few days leading up to the big day, with the preparations, traditions, and discussions about the fun things to come. I especially find myself in a state of perpetual breathlessness on Christmas Eve, eager to have morning come, but at the same time savoring each moment of anticipation. This year, I think this will be especially true because I’ll also be looking at the holiday through my son’s eyes. It will be lovely!

To hear more about her holiday and get a festive peanut butter brownie trifle recipe, read more.

lilsugar: What is the hot wish list item in your household this year?
schnappycat: Evan is still too young to know what the hot toys are this season and I prefer to keep my house “Elmo free” as long as possible. But my husband and I have talked about breaking down and buying a Wii for us. I’m a bit technologically inept, so I’d also love a Flip camcorder to easily record and upload videos of Evan.

lilsugar: What is your family's favorite holiday recipe?
schnappycat: Since this is our first holiday with a child, we are still creating new traditions to share with our son. One dessert that my husband and I have made during the past few holidays is a Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle. Sadly, there is no great story behind this tradition, but it’s certainly a delicious addition to the season. I plan to continue including it in the holiday festivities each year. Hopefully Evan likes chocolate as much as his mom!

Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle
Ingredients:
1 (21.4-oz) pkg. chocolate brownie mix, chocolate peanut butter brownie mix, or peanut butter brownie mix (any type of mix is acceptable)
1 (5.1-oz) pkg. vanilla instant pudding
½ c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. whipping cream, whipped
3 c. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2-½ c. coarsely chopped peanut butter cups candies (Reese’s or other)
Garnish (opt.): additional peanut butter cups candies, sliced

Brownie Preparation:
Bake brownies as indicated on box. Cool completely. With sharp knife, cut brownies into ¾-inch pieces.

Pudding Mixture Preparation:
Combine vanilla pudding mix and milk in a large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed for 2 minutes or until thickened. Add peanut butter and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth. Gently fold in ½ of whipped cream. Set remaining whipped cream aside.

To Complete:
Place ½ of brownies in bottom of 3-quart trifle bowl. Top with 1-¼ cups chopped peanut butter cup candies and ½ of pudding mixture. Repeat layers with remaining ½ of brownies, 1-¼ cups chopped peanut butter candies, and pudding mixture. Pipe or spoon reserved whipped cream over trifle. Garnish, if desired.

Yield: Approximately 12 servings.

Notes:
*This dessert is best served after chilling in refrigerator overnight. The flavors mix together the longer it remains in the refrigerator.
*Since this is layered, it probably doesn't matter if brownies and candies are more or less liberally layered.

lilsugar: Do your children still believe in Santa?
schnappycat: Evan has no concept of Santa yet, and was a bit confused and scared as to why he was forced to sit on a strange bearded man’s lap at the mall. Next year will probably be much more Santa focused. I’m looking forward to him getting excited about Santa!

How Do You Celebrate the Holidays?: meandtheo

LilSugar — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:00:47 -0800

Why wait to celebrate? This month a few lilsugar readers will be sharing their holiday plans, traditions and pastimes with us. Thanks to meandtheo for helping us kick off this festive feature!

Prior to parenthood, meandtheo and her husband vowed to travel the world and spend time enjoying one another. They lived in Europe and taught at an international school before settling down in San Francisco to start a family. They are now the proud mom and pop of Stella, 1. meantheo is a former kindergarten teacher turned stay-at-home mom and she said there are plans to give her daughter a sibling!

To see what makes the holidays special for meandtheo and her family, read more.

lilsugar: What is the most magical part of the holiday season for your family?
meandtheo: "The most magical part of the holidays for us is getting to be with all of our family and friends. We are transplants to San Francisco from Colorado so every year no matter where we are in the world we head "home" for the holidays. All of our family (my husband's and mine) and friends from back in the day are there and we get to spend good quality time with them. We always stay for at least a week and my mother-in-law hosts a holiday party for all of our friends and their families. We spend the time playing with nieces and nephews, laughing with old friends and staying up late catching up with our families. I wouldn't trade this time for anything. It is so special to us and I am so happy to take Stella back this year so she can really enjoy the holiday season with everyone. She made the journey last December but was just over two months old; this year she will start to understand what makes it so "magical"."

lilsugar: What is the hot wish list item in your household this year?
meandtheo: "The adults in the family rarely exchange gifts...the loot goes to all the kids. This year I am planning on giving Stella the Kettler Air Happy Bike, which our neighbor has and leaves parked in the driveway teasing poor little Stella...she heads for it every time we walk past their house, now she will have her own!"

lilsugar: What is your family's favorite holiday recipe?
meandtheo: "Monkey Bread...we have monkey bread every Xmas morning (yes oh so nutritious). after all the gifts have been opened and we sit down to our Xmas breakfast everyone is looking forward to the monkey bread that my mother-in-law has to make four loaves of...
The recipe is as follows:
2 Cans of BUTTERMILK Grands biscuits, 1 3/4 cup sugar, 3 tbs cinnamon, 1 full cup of butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar. Mix one cup of sugar & the cinnamon - dip cut up biscuit sections in this and arrange in a heavily greased bundt pan. Pour remaining cin sugar mix on top. Melt the butter and add the last 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar - bring to a light boil. Pour over biscuit pieces. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.
*If I make it I always layer in a can of Apple Pie filling with the biscuits before baking, as well.*"

lilsugar: Do your children still believe in Santa?
meandtheo: "Stella is just starting to understand who Santa is, so the simple answer is yes."

Lil Links: Everyone Is Irish on St. Patty's Day

LilSugar — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:00:40 -0700

Get your Irish on today! - Alpha Mom
Michelle Obama goes on the road to meet military families - Cookie
Julia Roberts had breastfeeding time built into her Duplicity shooting schedule - Celebrity Baby Blog
Harry Connick Jr. and his daughters take a holiday in St. Barts - Celebrity Baby Scoop
Will you tell your baby you did IVF to conceive? - CafeMom
Second-generation female condom approved - Health
Prince William remembers his mother - ParentDish
Pippi stool for kids - Inhabitots
Will your kids be embarrassed by you? - The Poop
How do you deal with bullies - Momversation
5 steps to going green for your family - Fit Pregnancy

Lil Tip: Lisa Kothari

babysugar — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:00:17 -0800

Following up on Lisa's great holidays tips from yesterday, we are sharing her ideas on how to celebrate kids' birthdays that fall right in the midst of the holiday season.

Kids don't always want a holiday themed party, and they most definitely do not want to get a birthday/holiday gift all in one. Birthday = present and holiday = present. Not birthday+holiday = present. She has some fantastic ideas on how you can make holiday birthdays unique celebrations. read more

Themes you could try:read more

Have a faux-summer beach party, indoors of course.
Have the kids bring a summer change of clothes to change into when they arrive. The guests will find the mixed-up seasons loads of fun.
Throw an around-the-world party and focus on those countries in the southern hemisphere that are actually in the middle of their summer. It will be a great party, and educational, too!
Think about your kid's interests and do a party completely around a favorite character, book, or hobby. Something not at all related to the holidays, like a Harry Potter party. This has nothing to do with the holidays and will be an excellent party theme.

Lisa says,

Although the holidays are always so stressful and busy . . . planning ahead of time for a birthday party completely unrelated to a holiday theme will be quite manageable, especially if you take it to an outside party venue. You may not be able to do it every year, but the one or two times you throw such a unique party at the height of the holiday party season will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you Lisa for all of your wonderful input. Happy parties lie ahead!
Source

Ecomomics: Five Ways For Santa to Stretch His Budget

LilSugar — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:00:48 -0800

Tough financial times are cause for even the jolliest of fellows to cut back on expenses this Christmas. If you're looking for ways to make the most of your money this holiday season and still celebrate to the fullest with your children, consider these tips!

Cut back on presents by having “Santa” hide them so your children will delight in finding them. Excited about the new tradition, the kids won't notice there are less packages under the tree.
Divert your tot's eyes from the big toy items with whopping price tags by making a rule that all gifts have to fit in their stocking. Kids will love discovering that good things really do come in small packages.
If you find yourself without funds, gift coupons in place of a few goodies that can be cashed in throughout the year. Christmas keeps on giving and your budget won’t be drained.
Traveling for festivities? Buy two gifts for your tots. One they can have prior to take off and a second that they will receive once they return home.
How about a one gift wonder? Leave a letter under the tree from St. Nick that gives kids kudos for being so good and grants them any single item they want (within reason).

Source