Bad Santa

Today during lunch, V told me all about "Bad Santa."  Apparently he comes at Christmas time to wreck havoc on the good children.  A few choice details that V shared about Bad Santa:

"While you're sleeping he smacks you in the head."

"On Christmas, when the kids are supposed to be having fun, he stabs out their eyes."

"He takes all the good kids away, and he leaves the bad kids behind to destroy the world."

"While everyone is asleep, he crashes the reindeer into their houses."

"If you take a nap, he chops off your ears."

Merry Christmas!

Snowman Pancakes

You might wonder why we make snowman pancakes every Advent, given that one of my rules for the activity Advent calendar is "no sugar treats."  Truthfully, we do whole wheat pancakes, waffles, or muffins for breakfast once a week pretty much year round, so the treat for my kids is in the shape and decorating, rather than in the pancakes themselves.  Here are a few pictures of our creations from last year.

As you can see, each big kid got a big plate with a snowman and a little plate of things for decorating it.  In this case, they used bananas, clementines, raisins, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, peanuts, cashews, and dried papaya, but that's just because those are the items I had in the cupboard at the time.  

L just got chunks of pancakes.  Which he ate with his face, because apparently his hands were not up for the challenge that day.

The pancakes weren't hard to make, either.  I cooked them two at a time on my stove-top griddle.  I used a 1/4 cup dry measuring cup to scoop the batter and filled it about 1/3 full for the head, 2/3 full for the middle, and all the way full for the bottom.

Added bonus: here's my go-to pancake recipe.

Super Fluffy 100% Whole Wheat Pancakes

Beat 2 eggs with 1/4 cup brown sugar and 2 tablespoons melted butter or oil.

Add 2 cups plain kefir or yogurt and mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Stir dry and wet ingredients together until just combined.  Some lumps are normal.

Pour batter on a pre-heated griddle and cook over medium heat until the edges are dry, the bottoms are browned, and you can flip the pancakes without smushing them.  Flip and cook until the second side is browned.  

Activities for Advent with a Toddler

I had a conversation with a friend whose big kids is the same age as my babies.  She talked about wanting to start Advent traditions with her daughter and expressed interest in my activity Advent calendar.  Upon further discussion, however, it became abundantly clear that my plans are for ages 3 and up.  So what to do with your toddler?

If you've got older kids, I'd suggest scaling down or scaffolding their activities so the littlest can participate.  Clearly parties and outings can involve everyone, even babies can listen to Christmas music, and books can be leveled for your audience.  Crafts can be simplified and oriented more towards process than product (I've cut paper wreaths, you can put on stickers however you like or use bingo dabbers to paint "ornaments" on them.  Here are pine cones, glue, and glitter: perhaps you'd like to combine them?)  Games can be about playing with the components, instead of actually playing the game.  Honestly, my littlest littles like to be involved, even if they have no idea what's going on.  Case in point; L says "knock knock, wha-hoo!" and then laughs hysterically.

If your only kids are under three, maybe a sensory themed activity every day is your best bet.  Introduce the material, let your little explore, and enjoy watching or playing along.  To that end, here are a few ideas:

Twenty-Five Sensory Suggestions for Advent

See
Lit candles (again, please supervise closely!  A two year old might be able to blow candles out.)
Christmas lights hung in the neighborhood (I would probably just take a walk before or after dinner some night)

Hear
Recorded Christmas music
Jingle bells
Caregiver singing
Salvation Army bell ringer

Smell/Taste
Cinnamon play-dough (or a chunk of cookie dough)
Cinnamon sticks
Pumpkin puree (with spices already mixed in or on the side)
Seasonal drink (eggnog, hot chocolate, apple cider, or cinnamon tea)
Candy cane
Pine branches

Touch/Play
Tinsel or Garland
Unbreakable ornaments
A pile of pine needles or a pine branch and pine cones
Miniature tree with unbreakable ornaments to decorate and undecorate
Wooden or plastic nativity scene
Straw + box + doll = manger
String of Christmas lights plugged in (with close supervision, of course)
Wrapping paper, ribbons, and bows
Snow (or fake snow)
Toy reindeer or a horse and sleigh or a toy Santa Clause
Unlit candles (scented ones would be fun)
White fur, faux fur, or a Santa hat and beard
Advent wreath with fake candles (here's an example, but you could certainly DIY something different)

Activity Advent Calendar

You're possibly already familiar with the chocolate Advent calendar: a piece of cardboard with little doors numbered 1 through 25, behind each of which rests a piece of chocolate.  The idea is that you open one door each day of December leading up to Christmas.  When I was a child, we also had an Advent calendar with a little bear whom you moved each day to a new "room" of his fabric banner house.

For the past 4 years, we've done an activity Advent calendar, where each day of December has a special activity planned.  There are a million pinterest-worthy ways to set one of these up, but ours is just index cards in pockets.  I've worked hard to make the activities not about sweet treats and either 1) something we would be doing anyway or 2) something that can be done at home without disrupting the schedule.  We also acknowledge Hanukkah in our celebration every year.  Mostly because we like playing Dreidel, and the story of Hanukkah is a great story.  We're not Jewish, though, so we don't light a menorah.

One thing to make the activities work for me: I plan the month in advance, but I write each card the night before.  This has two advantages.  First, it lets me rearrange things as necessary.  Second, it reminds me of anything I need to get organized for the next day's activity treat.

December 2015 Activity Advent Calendar

1- Start Christmas crafts for family gifts

2- Set up Nativity scene

3- Make paper snowflakes

4- Christmas Lights bubble bath (light candles on the counter and put glow sticks in the tub)

5- Joyful Traditions (our town tree lighting ceremony)

6- Buy Christmas tree

7- Play Dreidel

8- Read Hanukkah Stories (I check these out from the library in advance)

9- Decorate our tree

10- Sesame Street Christmas videos on YouTube

11- Tell holiday jokes

12- See the lights at a local park

13- Church Christmas party

14- Christmas song sing-along

15- Christmas for animals (we smear pine cones with peanut butter and roll in birdseed, then hang them with ribbon from our trees outside)

16- Read Christmas Stories by the Christmas tree

17- The Gibbon's holiday concert

18- Support group Christmas party

19- Watch a Christmas movie

20- Children's Christmas program at church

21- Make snowman pancakes

22- Pajama Dance Party

23- Board Game night

24- Midnight service at church

25- Merry Christmas!

In case you don't have as many parties as we do this year, our backup activities are:

• drink tea from the fancy china cups
• wrap presents together
• decorate bedrooms for Christmas
• carol for our neighbors
• dress up and take glamorous photos,
• a winter scavenger hunt in the back yard.  

Of course, if you had fewer parties, you could spare a few extra sweet treats, and then you might want to bake cookies, decorate a gingerbread house, or drink hot cocoa.

Any other great ideas?  I'd love your suggestions.

Gingerbread!

Why no, I did not drop off the face of the earth.  We're taking a date hiatus during the madness of the holidays.  And I had so many leftovers after Thanksgiving, not Thanksgiving leftovers, just regular meals, that I basically took a week off from cooking.  Yay! 

However, we have been up to some fun around here.  I'll tell you about the Advent calendar later, but today, it's gingerbread! 

We hosted a gingerbread house making party for the ladies from my Bible study.  I followed the recipes from this book and cut my own template based on the dimensions of his Cape Cod house.  Using my brilliant math skills, I determined if I halved the original dimensions each batch of dough would make 2 houses.  I forgot to take into account that 6x6 is actually 4 times the size of 3x3.  So don't make that mistake. 

Our houses ended up being 3 inches north/south, 5 inches eat/west, and 5.5 inches in total height, which was just about right.  And now, from the benefit of my experience, here are some tips for hosting a successful gingerbread house building party.

Before the Party

1. Start early.  If you don't want to go crazy, this will be a 4 day process.  Day one, shop.  Day two, mix your dough.  Day three, roll, cut, and bake your pieces.  Day 4, host your fantastic party.


2. Have some inspiration.  I checked out a dozen library books on gingerbread house decorating.  They were helpful, not only to give me recipes and ideas on what candies to use (hint, pretzels and Chex cereal for half-timbered and thatched roof houses), but also as visual inspiration for the guests.

3. Use parchment paper.  I rolled my dough on a silicone mat, and while it didn't stick (yay), it did stretch when I picked it up (boo).

4. Give yourself at least three hours for the party.  It takes a long time if you want to build and decorate gingerbread houses.  We were working from 7 until 10:30.  *Whew*

5. Have your guests bring surfaces to build on.  It saves you preparing cardboard until the middle of the night or buying 20 trays.  Successful surfaces include cake stands; cookie trays; rigid cutting boards; and pieces of sturdy cardboard, wood, or Styrofoam covered in aluminum foil.  Don't use anything flexible unless you can leave the house undisturbed for 12 hours.  Lifting a wet house on a flexible surface will result in your house falling apart.

On the Day of the Party

1. Erect the walls of the houses, and then look at the books.  You want to give your walls a good chance to solidify before you put on the roof, or else your house will collapse.  Maybe serve coffee and hot cocoa while your guests look.  Or wine.  Or some veggies and cheese to counteract the frosting and candy that they're bound to eat while decorating.

2. After the walls are solid, add the roof, then decorate the grounds and the walls.  The same logic as #1.  You want your roof to dry in place quite a while before you try to decorate it, or else it will slip off and/or break in the middle.

3. Quart size zipper-top plastic bags work just fine for piping icing.  But you can get disposable piping bags, which work even better, waste less icing, and look classier.

4. Have a lot of scissors.  Table knives, spoons, and a fine grater for shaping uneven cookie pieces are also handy.  But everyone will want scissors to open piping bags or cut licorice sticks or defend their chocolate kisses.  Run several pairs through the dishwasher.

5. Amuse your small people.  Let them make marshmallow snowmen or decorate sugar cone trees.  Keep them busy mucking so that the don't topple your guests' precious creations.

Happy sugar high!