Sparkle Christmas Biscuits

I made these for the children's teachers last week, and they looked really pretty when all wrapped up - the sparkles made them feel very Christmassy!

Ingredients
90g butter (soft)
100g caster sugar
1 egg
200g plain flour
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine salt
Edible rainbow dust (or any kind of sparkles)

Method
Cream the butter & sugar until fluffy, then beat in the egg.  Mix the flour with the ginger, cinnamon, baking powder & salt then sift through a sieve to remove any lumps.  Add the flour mix and the egg to the butter & sugar mix and combine thoroughly.

Mould into a ball and place it in a bowl, covered with clingfilm, and pop it into the fridge for half an hour.

When you are ready to cut the biscuits, take a piece of the dough and roll onto a floured surface - don't roll it too thin or the biscuits will be crunchy.  Cut your desired shapes (I did trees and reindeers) and place them on a lined baking tray.  Bake at 180 for around 10 mins.

Allow them to cool on a wire rack and sprinkle with the edible glitter when they are cool and firm (it sticks regardless).  I stored mine in a tupperware overnight to keep the fresh and bagged them up the following morning to take into school.

Recycling Christmas Cards as Gift Tags

For a few years now I've been recycling my Christmas cards and turning them into gift tags.  It is really easy and I like reusing them rather than just throwing them away after a few weeks.  If you are really organised, you could make a note of which card came from which person and reuse their card when giving them a gift but I have never gone that far!

Gather all the cards you want to use - personally I keep them all and then use the ones I need when it comes to it...you never know what size or shape future presents will be!

All you need to do is take your cards and cut them in half, i.e. remove the side that has the message in, and discard it.  Trim to size if need be - obviously small cards work the best but I do use large cards too.  

Punch a hole in the top of your cards... 

...and file them away until next Christmas!

When the time comes, add some ribbon / thread through the punch hole and attach to a present with your written message on the back.  

Free gift tags ;)

Review of 2012

While I was sorting through photos to create a photo book for 2012, I was encouraged to see the range of photos from all we had done during the year.  Sometimes I feel I don't do enough with the kids but looking back at my photographic evidence made me feel a bit better!  

So here it is...my look back at 2012.

Still only month 4 after our move from London, January saw us exploring the locals parks, decorating the bedrooms with a little help from DS, and discovering Staunton Country Park where we were lucky enough to see newborn piglets just a few days old.

February gave us our first real taste of snow outside London...and it didn't disappoint!

On a wet day in March, we discovered The Sculpture Park and had great fun exploring all the sculptures.  DS was lucky enough to meet Mr Bloom at an event organised by The Organic Cookery School.

If DS were editing this post, I have little doubt that our day out on the Watercress Line to meet Thomas in April would be one of the year's highlights!

After a chilly start to May which saw us exploring Littlehampton beach one wet & windy Saturday, the weather opened up possibilities of picnic suppers in the garden, numerous trips to Guildford Lido in the sunshine and lazy afternoon naps on the lawn.

With DS comfortably settled at nursery 4 days a week by June, I took DD to her first experience of a show and we headed back to our old stomping ground of West London to see In The Night Garden Live.  We also discovered the delights of Pewley Down at the top of Guildford one weekend, and the kids managed to burn off a ton of energy running through the fields.

There is almost too much to document for July!  The Olympic torch coming through Godalming and the start of the Olympics, visits to Fishers Farm Park, Alice Holt and Birdworld, surviving the mud at Guilfest, trips to London to see Daddy and a fabulous children's show at Priceless London Wonderground, more fun in the garden with the now added bonus of a paddling pool, a day out to Rustington beach and the delights of early morning in The Devil's Punchbowl...I'm exhausted just reading that ;)

We took advantage of the long lazy days of school holidays in August and headed off for a short break in Wales but once back at Three Counties Mum HQ, there was lots of fun to be had...a joint birthday party for DS and DD, trying our hand at PYO and a wonderful afternoon for DH and I where we escaped the littles for an afternoon at the Olympic Park.

September's big event was of course DS starting school, with DD joining in the fun by starting nursery.  Throw in a couple of birthday parties, a trip to the circus and a visit to Winkworth and the month had already passed us by in a haze.  Oh, and the paddling pool was still out...I was reluctant to put it away for winter in case we had another sunny day but alas the only thing we could use it for by then was jumping in it wearing our wellies!

By October, we were almost becoming regulars at Haslemere Museum thanks to their excellent Early Years programme and the dressing up section that DS doesn't seem to tire of!  With friends visiting from Japan and our mammoth drive to Europe, there wasn't much room left for anything else that month except for the excitement of DS bringing the class bear home for the weekend and our adventures taking him to London.

The start of November saw us still in Europe, enjoying Belgian waffles and flying kites on the beach.  After our return, we had a fairly quiet month but managed to squeeze in an evening watching the fireworks in Godalming and trying out a new playgroup in Haslemere.  Oh, and me attempting to snap a decent photo for our xmas cards!

What with all the Christmas preparations, there wasn't much time left in December but we did find time for the Haslemere Christmas Market, a production of The Very Snowy Christmas at Cranleigh Arts Centre, a Babes In the Wood Christmas Special at Alice Holt and of course the panto at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford for DS and I.  After the madness of Christmas, I was glad I had the forethought to book ahead for a showing of The Polar Express at Haslemere Hall...the kids absolutely loved it and it was a lovely family afternoon.

And so now on to 2013 and all it brings.  I'm hoping to spend more time on the Blog with more local reviews and info, making it even bigger, better and brighter than before.  Wish me luck!

Christmas Thank You Cards

I can't be the only one left with scraps of Christmas wrapping paper that aren't big enough to wrap anything in but are too big to just throw away?!  So I thought we would use them to create cards thank you cards.  To be honest, getting DS to write his thank you cards after birthdays and Christmas takes quite a bit of "encouragement" so I thought if we made it more fun he would be more inclined to get involved.

We drew around each of their hands using different wrapping paper scraps for each child.  I stuck a left hand from DS and a right hand from DD onto the front of a piece of black folded card.  Then I cut out letters from the wrapping paper to say "thank you".  This bit was a little fiddly but we were sat watching a Christmas film on TV so it didn't matter that it took me a while.  I stuck those letters inside the card, then stuck in a mixture of printed and written words (depending on how much I could persuade DS to write!) inside, i.e. Dear Grandma & Grandpa.

We are posting them off today so hopefully they will like them!

Turkey Hash

Aren't we all trying to find ways to use up the turkey right now?!  This is a take on a Nigella recipe - last year I followed it to the letter and while it was delicious, I had many more roast potatoes left over this year so added some of them in and I have omitted the black olives she suggests.

Ingredients (serves 2 adults, generously)
50g flaked almonds
1 onion, peeled & chopped
2 red peppers, deseeded & chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled & crushed
200g cold turkey, chopped or shredded
6 cold roast potatoes, chopped
2 tbsp soured cream
2 tbsp turkey stock
1 egg
Generous dash of Tabasco
75g grated Parmesan
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Method
Heat a frying pan but don't add any oil - put the flaked almonds in and toss until toasted.  Remove and set aside.

Heat some oil in the frying pan and add the onion and red pepper.  Stir until soft then add the garlic, shredded turkey and roast potatoes and cook until piping hot (around 5-10 mins).

In a bowl, whisk together the soured cream, stock and Tabasco sauce then pour it into the pan, giving everything a thorough stir.  Add the Parmesan, toasted almonds and fresh parsley and serve immediately.

Father Christmas Cone

Another of my dodgy craft attempts for you to laugh at!  But these were super easy and fun for the kids to make without too much help.

You will need:

Red card
Pink paper
Glue
Glitter
Cotton wool
Googly eyes (optional!)

First, cut a semi circle out of the red card for the cone body and an oval / circle for the face out of the pink card.

Next, draw on the face.  We used googly eyes and red glitter glue for his nose but you could just as easily draw on the features using a pen.

Stick the face on to the middle of the red card.

Next, glue the cotton wool around the bottom of his face for the beard.

Now tape the cone together at the back and add cotton wool to the top of the cone for his hat.

Add glitter around the base of the cone for extra Christmas sparkle!

I think mine looked more like one of the wise men!  

This is the best one by a mile...proudly made by DS, aged 4.  

Christmas Biscuits

I know most people bake gingerbread at this time of year but my kids love it all year round so it doesn't feel especially Christmassy to me.  Orange however does!  We had fun making these biscuits this week, with the added bonus of being able to hang them on the tree as ornaments.  You could of course ice and decorate them to make them look even more appealing.

Ingredients
140g caster sugar
1/2 tsp orange extract (I used orange blossom water instead)
1 egg yolk
150g butter, cut into small cubes
375g plain flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Grated zest of one orange

Method
Put the sugar, orange extract, egg yolk and butter into a food processor and "whizz" until combined.  Add the flour and cinnamon and whizz again until it becomes a dough.

Remove and knead in the orange zest, bringing the dough together into a ball.  Wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for around 1/2 hour.

Roll out onto a floured surface and cut out your desired shapes - we used fir trees, baubles and angels.  If you intend to hang the biscuits, use a skewer to make a hole in the top of the biscuits at this point.  

Place on lined baking tray and cook at 190 / 170 fan for 12 mins.

Paper Gingerbread House

I keep seeing posts of fabulous gingerbread houses baked by inspirational blogger mums but I haven't been brave enough to attempt one yet so this paper house from Bora is the perfect substitution.  

I printed one each for the kids, cut them out and put an LED tealight inside before setting it beside their bed last night.  They loved it!

I printed mine on regular paper but they would be a little more robust if you used card.  These would also look cute hanging from your tree!

Father Christmas Fruit Snacks

I made these for the kids last night as we were putting up the Christmas tree - hubby was busy putting the lights on, and they enjoyed these while waiting for their turn at the baubles!

If you haven't checked out Creative Kid Snacks before, they have some fabulous ideas to make food fun.  Mine are not quite as good as the original design but the kids loved them all the same ;)

You will need:

White marshmallows

Strawberries

Bananas

Chocolate chips

Slice a chunk of banana, keeping it as straight as you can.  Cut a marshmallow in half and place one part sticky side down on a plate.  Put the banana chunk on top.  Add the other half of the marshmallow on top of the banana and put a strawberry on top.   (I used cocktail sticks to hold them up if they wobbled, and just removed these after the kids had looked at them and before they started eating!)

Melt the choc chips in the microwave, and dot on two eyes and a nose.  Add a tiny strawberry piece for the nose on top of the chocolate dot.

Christmas Decoration

I have been looking for a decoration to go on top of my dresser cupboards in the dining room but everything was either too expensive, or not large enough to be noticed at that height so I thought I would fashion something myself.  

I started saving empty boxes of all shapes & sizes...boxes that contained shoes, meringues,  cereal, biscuits & cookware.  Within a few days, I had enough (wow, thank goodness we recycle!)  

I wrapped each box in different Christmas paper and tied them with coloured ribbon.  I wrapped a toilet roll tube and tied the ends with ribbon to make a cracker.  I didn't need to buy anything - I used scraps of wrapping paper from last year (it does pay to be a hoarder sometimes!) and pieces of ribbon from my sewing box.  

I arranged them on top of the cupboard and hey presto ;)  I didn't want them somewhere within reach as the kids would not be able to stop themselves tearing them open, even if I explained the boxes are empty!  But I think they look quite nice.  They are the first decoration I've put up this year, and now I'm feeling quite festive!

Christmas Table

Have you started thinking about Christmas yet?  Last night, I attempted the Christmas card photos - DS dressed up as an Elf and DD as a fairy.  I gave up after about 20 photos of ridiculously cheesy grins, none of which were great so I'm going to have to see if I can photoshop some together!

There will be 11 (possibly 12!) of us around my table this year so I'm trying to organise in advance.  I've been buying one Christmas item each time I visit the supermarket, not only to try and spread the expense but also so I don't have a huge load all in one go!  My utility room is fast filling up with mince pies, paper plates and crackers ;)

I'm planning to give the kids a few things at the lunch table to keep them occupied, either while waiting for the food to be served or when they are finished eating but the adults are still going.  In Sainsburys this morning, I found some wonderful Stacking Crayons for £1.99 a packet - way cheaper than Amazon - which I'm going to pair with some Christmas colouring pages.

My presents are very nearly all purchased, and I can't wait to get our tree up...in fact, this year, I'm really looking forward to Christmas!  Not quite at the counting-down-the-days stage but still...