EASTER

Growing up for me Easter meant LOTS of chocolate, new clothes for school, cool pj's and some girlie accessories like new hair clips! However, as I speak with friends I find out for them Easter was just another day off except they get to gorge on chocolate & food!

For the past few years we've been hopping in our car & driving 5-6 hours to spend the holiday with my childhood friends and now that we have kids we've started an Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday morning... even after having celebrated & gorged on food ourselves the night before. Nothing was funnier to me this Easter morning when I see my kid taking cues from his older friend to look in places for plastic easter eggs... then when he dropped one & candy spilled out that was it for him. He no longer cared about finding eggs & got down to business at emptying the 2-3 eggs in his basket! Once he realized the other boy was still finding eggs he got back in the game, but only to get a few more theen went back to eating them! I know Easter will be more fun as he grows older & we have to get more creative in hiding eggs, but for now I couldn't have asked for a better Easter - and not just cause the sun was shinning!

Christmas with family

Finished another amazing dinner with my in-laws. My husbands god-parents really know how to throw a party - it also helps that I won one surprise gift of $140!! For the dinner I made desserts & decided to try making all kinds of finger food sized bites that allow you to try a few different things! I made mini vanilla almond cheesecake, butter pecan tarts, strawberry pound cake, chocolate mousse, chocolate pudding, and what turned out to be the hit: mini-maple walnut cheesecakes: http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/mini-maple-walnut-cheesecakes-105542.aspx These little delights took no more than 10 minutes to make & the artistic feature when you flip them over & see the maple leaf cookie had everyone thinking they were gourmet!

Of course I also had my usual bevy of holiday cookies, peanut butter, shortbread, snowballs, gingerbread men and of course a few types of biscotti!

Unfortunately, I didn't get around to making a few I had hoped to like mini lemon meringue tarts, and a few others from the kraft site (which I recommend if your looking for a super quick & easy recipe, especially for entertaining or cooking with/for kids too):
- mini raspberry cheesecakes (which can be topped with anything really) http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/mini-raspberry-cheesecakes-108678.aspx
- individual baked cheesecakes http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/individual-baked-cranberry-cheesecakes-107179.aspx
- Yuletide slices (Which remind me of Rocky Road cookies we had growing up) http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/yuletide-slices-85005.aspx

Why is enough never enough when it comes to presents???

Ok so it's Christmas Eve Eve or what maritimers call 'Tips Eve' - cause you are supposed to have all your holiday stuff ready so you sit back & have a few drinks & get tipsy! The key being 'supposed to' have everything ready.

Why is it that I think I have everything done then as I'm going over in my head what is happening christmas day I find myself thinking I should pick up a little something for this this cousin cause it's a speical Christmas, then what about the dinner hostess ... a little something might be nice for her too... then before I know it I have a whole other list of gifts I just HAVE TO get. Well not this year. I will no longer give into last-minute gift scrambling or be sucked into marketing tactics like those cool gadgets as you wait in the cashier line which are at eye level to suck you in to buy even more crap for people who don't want or need it! This year I will not buy anything else until Dec 26th - well excpet for wine so I can get a little tipsy!!

Holiday Cookies - Gingerbread

Being a smalltown girl I was raised that you show your holiday love by baking treats!! This year I tried to make traditional Gingerbread men cookies. I love to bake, although it doesn't always turn out as I would like, I keep on trying. To my suprise this recipe from a baking whiz friend turned out amazing!!! To see her creations check out: http://www.wix.com/julesbakescakes/dessertcreations

You can find the recipe here (it also includes a yummy icing recipe for decorating the cookies): http://www.joyofbaking.com/GingerbreadMen.html

If you need any help getting into the holiday spriit, you shoudl give it a try. I made them with my 2 year old son who loved helping out & then my husband helped me decorate them.... opps I promised him I'd say it was my son who decorated them!