The first is The Elf on the Shelf!
I saw this last year on Georgana Hall's blog. It was too late to get started with it at that point, but I made a note in my "Cut the Crazy Out of Christmas" notebook to order it for this year. The idea is that the little elf watches your children every day and reports to Santa whether they have been naughty or nice. He changes his location each night after the children go to bed and they must find him the enxt morning! He has strict instructions not to talk to the children, only to grown-ups and Santa! I ordered mine yesterday and am looking forward to having the kids grow up with this little elf watching over them. (And I am really hoping he can get them to be "nice"!) The Elf is $29.95 US and you can order it here.
(Oh, and if you are curious about my Cut the Crazy Out of Christmas noteook, it was a BPS class I took last year, taught by Georgana Hall and Debbie Raymond. If you missed the class this year, you can find out all about it here. And yes, I love my notebook!)
The second new tradition I am preparing for is the December Daily Album. It is the brainchild of Ali Edwards and she has been doing it for a couple of years now. I love the way it is set up to capture and record all the preparations that go into Christmas, documenting the 25 days leading up to the Holiday. I am super excited about this one and have been working on it and some special freebies to share over the past couple of days. I will share more soon, but for now, go read about it and get inspired at Ali's blog.
Because I was busy working on my December Daily stuff, I didn't get my menu plan posted in time yesterday to call it Menu Plan Monday, but oh well...at least it is here and organized for the week:
Monday: Perogies with side of Veggies
Tuesday: One of Shane's favorites, Dijon-baked Chicken Thighs with Rice and Broccoli. This recipe is from Sandi Richard - menu planner extraordinaire!
Wednesday: Ravioli with Quattro Fromaggio (four cheese!) Sauce, Garlic Bread and Salad
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: What else...Pizza and Salad and Wine, Oh my!
Saturday: Steaks ( grilled if it's nice out, broiled if it's yucky weather!), baked potatoes, raw veggies and dip
Sunday: I'm getting a little bored with roast or ham for Sunday dinner...any other ideas? If not, I'll do a roast. Sigh!
And since I'm asking for advice and ideas, any new ideas for kids meals out there? What are your kids favorites? I feel like I am always cooking the same old same old!
Have a great day!
I always love to read your weekly menus and see that you plan a traditional Sunday dinner. How about a roast chicken, meat loaf (great recipe on the Lipton's Dry Onion Soup mix box) or shepherd's pie or something in the crock like beef stew. Mmmmm. As for kids meals, Nico is always in for any kind of pasta and has taken to stir-fries (with a sweet sauce), burritos and fajitas(I can sneak extra veggies in both). Luciano is finally liking solids but will not eat any sort of baby cereal unless it's mixed in to fruit and definitely prefers texture and chunkiness over purees.
ReplyDeleteOOOH...good ideas my dear!I haven't roasted a chicken in a long time! And meatloaf was always a favorite of mine. It's funny how you forget about certain recipes!
ReplyDeleteDo you make your own burritos? I've never tried that! Thanks for the ideas!
I did Daily December last year...with my own twist. I used a bunch of gift tags and jouranling cards. I didn't do any photos since I can't print at home and live an hour away from a photo lab. I just journaled on the days when we did something Christmas-y.
ReplyDeleteI have the Prima Canvas album Ali is using this year. I think I will use it too. But this year I'm going to make a Christmas album about our decorations, traditions, celebrations etc.
I did 30 Days Hath September last year with Stacy J's Have More Fun class and it was alot of work to keep up with. When you miss a day then there is stress and pressure. I'm a stress free scrapper. So this doesn't really work for me.
Good luck with your album, I look forward to seeing pictures.
TracyBzz