Chocolate Mint Crackers
One of the easiest recipes I've ever tried is making these crackers.

1 packet of Ritz crackers (get whatever brand you like. We always use the homebrand)
1 packet melting chocolate
peppermint extract
Cotton wool balls

Melt the chocolate and dip the crackers in. Make sure they are coated nicely. Place on wax paper to dry. Now layer them in a sealed container with the wax paper in between. As you layer them place a cotton ball that has got some of the peppermint extract on it (You know what to do, just put the cotton ball on the bottle and up end the bottle...don't soak the ball) in amongst the cookies. Only need about two or three balls per layer. Now seal the container and leave it for two or three days.

When you bite into them they will taste exactly like a mint choc cookie.

Sugared Peanuts
One of the cheapest gifts to make and give has always been Sugared peanuts. It's as easy as 1...2....3.

Sugar coated peanuts

• 1c water
• 2c sugar
• 3c raw peanuts (they MUST be the RAW ones)
  
• couple of drops of red food colouring.
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a saucepan over medium heat throw everything in the saucepan. Bring to a boil, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Keep stirring till peanuts are evenly coated and no syrup is left in pan. (The sugar needs to not be liquid anymore if that makes sense) Spread nuts out on a baking sheet.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes to evenly roastpeanuts.

Only three sleeps till Christmas and I am nowhere near prepared. I always try to have my gift shopping done before December because I hate to be in crowds and would rather not have gifts than try and find a parking spot at the shopping centres. For the food shopping I can send my husband.

Well...that's what I try to do. This year I have failed miserably.

We haven't even written Santa letters. It's a good thing Santa has email services nowadays! We'll be able to email him the requests and because it's so late in arriving Santa will have an excuse to not actually have the item they requested.

The past few Christmases have been financially difficult ones. For one of them the children were aware that we wouldn't be getting any presents. Santa did come and left a few treats. The next couple of years were lean also but the children didn't complain with the fun 'family' present that they got.

This year we have tried to do more things rather than 'get' more. One family night we spoke about the things we can do to make this Christmas a more 'giving' year. At first my 17yr old son was suggesting outrageous things....he sure likes to get a reaction out of me. We then got on the right track and even DS 17 (dear son the 17yr old) got into the spirit and this is what we came up with:

* One night we'll deliver cookies to some families. The children decided it would be more fun if we pixie drop/phantom family/ding 'n ditch, them....so that's what we did. Fun was had by all as we sang Carols on the way to the different homes and watched the boys almost get caught each time.

* We would have a night of just singing Christmas carols and we'd invite some friends over as well. This was held last night. I made eggnog, roca rectangles, sugared peanuts and mint choc crackers. It was a fun evening. It was made more special by having DD 18 play the piano and seeing that all my children would join in the singing. No attitudes in sight.

* The next thing we'll do is give some people a 'heart attack'.

So I'm not going to be ready for Christmas like I would like to be. We will have food and there will be some gifts to open and fun will be had. I have chosen to be OK with not being prepared this year and be thankful for the memories we've created and the Christmas spirit we've had (for the most part) throughout our home.

Oh Tannenbaum.......


I love Christmas trees!!! While I was living in Utah I loved to go to Salt Lake City and walk through the Festival of the Trees. When the children were little our tree would be full of decorations they would make. When we first moved back to Australia we had no decorations and no money to buy any so we strung popcorn together and made salt clay decorations and painted them. Lovely memories.

A few years ago I was doing the after Christmas decoration sale thing when I came across a bunch of beautiful gold and cream decorations at .10 cents each. Our tree never had a colour theme until that time.

The children are older and although our tree was beautiful when we'd use the children's home made decorations, we now have the most elegant Christmas tree we've ever had. I love to sit and look at it.

It is a tradition that I set up the tree, Sarah puts the lights around it and all the children hang the ornaments as I pass them out. We do all this while listening to Bing Crosby (it HAS to be Bing to start the Christmas season!) After dad puts on the tree topper, we turn the ceiling lights off and turn the tree lights on. There are many ooh's and ahhh's. This year I added a new tradition. Home made eggnog after decorating the tree!!

We LOVE eggnog. Not just any eggnog. We love Cream O Weber eggnog that we can't get in Australia. There is nothing even remotely close. The eggnog here is available all year 'round but they should not be allowed to call it 'eggnog'.

I went in search of a recipe and found one that uses cream. Which is good because we were given a case of cream earlier this week. I made up the recipe hoping that it would be alright. The verdict came in when the kids started drinking it. It was a HIT!!! So the tradition will live on. I just have to try to only make it for Christmas.

The recipe is as follows:

4 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar (I will use a little less next time)
2 TBL vanilla
2 cups cream (never said it was 'healthy')
1 tsp nutmeg (add to taste. We added more.)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (optional...but it was a nice add)

Separate eggs. Yolks in one bowl and whites in another. Add half sugar to each bowl and beat lightly. Add the cream gradually to the whites. Keep whipping mixture and add vanilla. Now add both mixtures together. Slowly add milk and spices while mixing.

Chill and ENJOY!!

This recipe served 6 of us with one or two having seconds.