DYI light-up Christmas tree lawn decoration

LOVE this idea and totally going to do this for next year.  Take a tomato cage and put it upside down.  Then wrap string lights starting at the top all the way to the bottom and you'll have yourself an adorable light-up Christmas tree lawn decoration.  What's even better is you can get a couple of landscaping fabric "staples" - I call them staples because they look like huge staples that you use to hold down landscaping fabric - and use those to secure the "tree" in whatever spot you'd like on your lawn.

Thanks so much to www.lowes.com/ for this fantastic idea!

In Remembrance of Sandy Hook Elementary

     I don't even know where to begin, mostly because I still cannot understand why someone would shoot his way into a school and heinously murder helpless children and staff of an elementary school.  I don't think any of us will fully understand why someone would do this, and this pain that we all feel as a nation will never fully go away, it may lessen with time, but we will never forget what was done.  We will never forget the faces of the innocent children whose lives were just beginning and ended way too soon.  We will never forget the staff of the school who woke up and went to do the jobs they loved, working with children. 

     Over the past couple years, we have seen many indescribable tragedies that have shaken us, but for me personally, this one hits close to home and is the worst I've ever seen.  I have two beautiful children, aged 5 and 7, that I would give my life for, as any parent would.  And to think that someone would willingly hurt them just takes my breath away.  Where do we draw the line?  Now we can't even feel safe sending our children to school?  

     Many people say "What is this world coming to?"  One of things we need to do, as difficult as it is, is to live our lives the way we always have, and let our children have their innocence.  As parents it is our job to shield our children from these things as much as we possibly can.  Of course they will hear about it to some degree, but we cannot let our children and ourselves stop living and enjoying our time on this earth, for we don't know which day is our last.  We cannot let our freedom and faith get taken away by a monster who doesn't value life.  We have to inform our children of bad things that could and do happen in life, but we have to make sure to do it in a way that children would understand.  Gone are the days of letting our children be as carefree as we once were.  I remember as a child walking around the corner to the candy store with my friends at a very young age, just as all the other children in the neighborhood did.  There were always neighbors outside and tons of children outside playing.  And none of us worried about a thing, except for who was going to be "it" in the game of tag; or who was getting picked next on a team for kickball.  We were young and carefree and had not a care in the world.  Unfortunately times have changed and we need to give our children the knowledge of bad things to help keep them safe.

     There are others that say "How could God let this happen?"  God didn't let this happen, in my opinion the devil did, but God was right there by those little angels when they met him at the gates of heaven.  They are safe now in His hands.  Unfortunately since the start of time there has been evil, but there has also been good.  Many more children and staff could have died that day if certain staff members didn't go above and beyond to save lives.  The first responders didn't even know what they were walking into when they entered the building, but they too saved many lives just by the monster ending his own upon hearing police enter the building.  Of course that doesn't lessen the sorrow and heartache that we all feel for the people who perished on that day, but it leaves us with a little glimmer of hope that good will ALWAYS prevail over evil in some way.  

     The only thing I can say about this tragic event is that every day I look at my children and thank God that I have them.  I always did that, but now even more than ever I feel lucky to have them to hug and kiss.  Even when they are testing my patience, as children often do, I find myself lucky that I can calmly talk to them and guide them through life.  There is no greater gift than the gift of parenthood.  God bless the community residing near Sandy Hook Elementary, and God bless the friends and family of the deceased.  We will rise and prevail and be a better nation.

These are pictures of some of the angels that earned their wings on Friday, December 14th (pictures courtesy of various sources online):

Daniel Barden, 7

Jesse Lewis, 6

Caroline Previdi, 6

Josephine Gay, 7

Avielle Richman, 6

Ann Marie Murphy, 52

James Mattioli, 6

Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 6

Chase Kowalski, 7

Catherine Hubbard, 6

Rachel Davino, 29

Grace McDonnell, 7

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47

Nancy Lanza, 52

Dylan Hockley, 6

Victoria Soto, 27

Olivia Engel, 6

Charlotte Bacon, 6

Mary Sherlach, 56

Lauren Russeau, 30

Emilie Parker, 6

Jessica Rekos, 6

The names of those killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary school were released by state police on Saturday. The list includes full names of children only when parents have spoken publicly:

• Charlotte, 6
• Daniel, 7
• Rachel Davino, 29
• Olivia, 6
• Josephine, 7
• Ana, 6
• Dylan, 6
• Dawn Hocksprung, 47
• Madeleine, 6
• Catherine, 6
• Chase, 7
• Jesse, 6
• James, 6
• Grace, 7
• Anne Marie Murphy, 52
• Emilie Parker, 6
• Jack, 6
• Noah, 6
• Caroline, 6
• Jessica, 6
• Avielle, 6
• Lauren Russeau, 30
• Mary Sherlach, 56
• Victoria Soto, 27
• Benjamin, 6
• Allison, 6

Wonderful DIY Advent Wreaths

picture credit: smallnotebook.org

I just had to share this wonderful idea from smallnotebook.org.  After getting a request for ideas on advent wreaths, I thought this idea was easy, beautiful and different!  You simply start with a bundt pan, add some glass votives (which can be found at your local dollar store), place some candles in the votives, and surround the votives with cranberries - instant advent wreath!  And you could definitely keep this one a little traditional by using 3 purple votives and 1 pink votive.  Also what you fill it with is up to you, cranberries are cute, but think potpourri, pine cones, small ornaments, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

picture credit:  instructables.com

If you'd like to go with a more traditional advent wreath, you can always click this link for step by step directions on how to make your own advent wreath instructables.com.

Last but certainly not least, this advent wreath would be great for the children to make with you and best of all there is no worry about fire because it is made entirely out of construction paper!  Have all the members of your family trace their hands on green construction paper and cut out.  Then attach the hands to a paper plate (with the center cut out) to look like a "wreath" by gluing them all together  and layering (see above picture for reference).  Then take some purple paper to make 3 "candles" and pink paper to make 1 "candle."  Finally cut out some "flames" from orange paper and add them each week to celebrate the coming of Christmas!  

Pumpkin Caramel Trifle

Photo & recipe courtesy of pillsburybaking.com

My mouth is watering just looking at this picture!  Easy and delicious, this dessert would be great for Thanksgiving or any other time you want a delicious dessert!  Of course this dessert looks super pretty in a trifle bowl, but if you don't have one of those, you can always just use a regular bowl to layer your ingredients.  Also keep in mind that if you really want to save time you can buy a pumpkin bread already made in place of baking the bread yourself.

Ingredients

• Crisco® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
• 1 (14 oz.) package Pillsbury® Pumpkin Quick Bread & Muffin Mix
• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoons Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil
• 1 large egg
• 3 cups milk
• 2 (3.4 oz.) packages instant cheesecake pudding and pie filling
• 1 (8 oz.) container frozen extra creamy whipped topping, thawed
• 1/2 cup Smucker's® Caramel Flavored Topping
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons chopped pecans

Preparation Directions

• HEAT oven to 375°F. Coat 13x9-inch baking pan with no-stick spray.
• PREPARE quick bread mix according to package directions using water, oil and egg. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
• CUT quick bread into 1-inch cubes. Whisk milk and pudding mix in medium bowl for 2 minutes. Stir caramel topping with cinnamon in small bowl.
• LAYER 1/3 of cubes in a 2 1/2-quart trifle dish or large glass serving bowl. Top with 1/3 of pudding, 1 cup whipped topping, 2 tablespoons caramel topping and 2 tablespoons pecans. Repeat twice to make 3 layers.
• SPREAD remaining whipped topping over top. Drizzle remaining caramel topping over top of trifle and sprinkle with pecans. Chill 30 minutes before serving.

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Serving Size (1/12 of recipe), Calories 380 (Calories from Fat 120), Total Fat 13g (Saturated Fat 6g, Trans Fat 0g), Cholesterol 20mg, Sodium 500mg, Total Carbohydrate 60g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 44g), Protein 5g; Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 2%, Vitamin C 2%, Calcium 10%, Iron 6%.

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

GREAT Holidays deals through EBATES.COM

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Click the link below to get started!  Happy Shopping!

EBATES.COM

Handy Turkey Project

This is by far one of my favorite, inexpensive Thanksgiving crafts, and the best thing about it is that you can make a bunch to hand out to your closest loved ones.  I know the grandparents will both be getting one of these, and I cannot wait to hear the oohs and ahhs!

Plus, it will be so nice to look back on how little your children's hands were and to see how they've grown, and if you're like me, a few tears may be shed as well!  LOL

Below is the saying I used to start my project.  

I simply chose a font that I liked, and printed it in the 

center of a plain white piece of computer paper.  

Then I took brown craft paint, and painted my children's palms and thumbs (one hand at a time of course) and then had them push their hands on either side of the saying.

The next step was to have each child pick out some feathers they wanted to use for their turkey (the feathers can be purchased at your local craft store, or you could always make feathers out of construction paper.  Another cute idea would be to paint each finger a different color, and when your children press their hands down, the fingers will look like the feathers).

Then glue on the feathers and let them dry overnight or at least for a couple of hours (I just used Elmer's glue, but you could use a glue gun to help move the process along a bit faster).  After the feathers are secured and the glue is dry, have your children help glue on a googly eye, and draw turkey legs, a turkey beak and the waddle (that little red thingy that hangs from the turkey's neck).  

Once these steps are completed, tape or paste your finished project 

to a nice autumn colored paper of your choosing.  

In a couple of simple steps, you have a wonderful keepsake to decorate your home year after year!

Fun FREE Thanksgiving printables for your children

Since the hurricane, my children have been out of school, so they are definitely starting to get a little antsy (to say the least lol).  Today I decided to keep them busy doing some crafts and learning printouts, instead of letting them watch tv all day.

One of my favorite websites to go to for children's printables and crafts is DTLK.  They have tons  that you can do with your children to keep them busy and learn a little something too!

Below is just an example of some of the FREE printables they have - they have all different skill levels depending on what age your children are.

Crossword Puzzles:

Word Searches:

Very soon I'll be posting a great craft idea to get your children ready for Thanksgiving - the Handy Turkey!!  Stay tuned for my next post!