Menu Plan Monday & Fun Desserts for Christmas Parties

Less than a week until Christmas!  We celebrated Christmas early with our daughter and her family and had turkey breast dinner Friday night, Mexican food for lunch, and then a roast & veggies cooked in the crock pot for Saturday night.  Fortunately, we have enough leftovers so I won’t have to cook much this week.  Plus, it will be such a busy week that we’ll probably have some fast food meals while we’re out and about.   So, our menu for this week is leftovers and fast food or carry out.

Hope everyone can slow down, remember the reason for the season, and not stress over details that people won’t notice anyway.  Make a priority list and do the things that really make a difference.  Simplify where you can!

One last thing, here’s a cute idea to take to a party or potluck this week.

“Melting Snowmen” made by Brandi, a co-worker of mine:

I realized that I forgot to ask her how she made them, but I thought an easy way to do it would be to get Chocolate Cake Donut Holes and dip in melted white chocolate.  Place snowman head in a puddle of melted white chocolate.  Use chow mein noodles for the arms and decorate with colored icing, sprinkles and colored sugar.  Here’s another recipe I found which is probably what my co-worker used:  Melted Snowmen Cookie Balls.
And if you want to see some more really cute ideas, visit our daughter’s blog, Frugal Novice, for 10 Creative & Easy Christmas Desserts (did I mention fun?).

Christmas Holidays

This summer passed so fast, too fast. Before we know it, the holiday season will be here with all its hustle and bustle. Things get so busy during the weeks before Christmas that I try to get as much done early as I can so that I can enjoy the time and not be stressed.

Some people are already ordering their holiday photo cards, shopping for Christmas presents, and getting ready to buy new decorations for the Christmas season. And in all actuality, Christmas products will probably be appearing on shelves in the stores before we know it. My guess it that we’ll start seeing them next month some time. Or have any of you already seen Christmas items in stores?

 

Russian Nesting Dolls

When I was growing up, I thought Russian nesting dolls were fascinating, and I still think they are intriguing.  They are also called Matryoshka dolls, with the literal meaning of “Matryoshka” being “little matron.”  Sets consist of a wooden figure which has a smaller figure nested inside of it, and that figure has an even smaller figure inside of it, and so on.  The traditional number of figures in a set is usually five, and the innermost doll is sometimes a baby.  The dolls often follow a certain theme which can be  Christmas or holiday dolls.

I think it’s interesting that the very first nesting doll set was carved in Russia in 1890.  These dolls have been popular for over one hundred and twenty years.  Maybe it’s the element of surprise that makes them fascinating by opening up each doll to see what is nested inside of it.