Merry Christmas

I hope you and your families have had a peaceful, calm and creative Christmas Day!

We had a fun time with the niece and nephews, creating a few crafty inspirations:

First up is this awesome Gingerbread Cookie Tree.  My mom found a kit with star shaped cookie cutters, but it sure could be done with the cookie cutters you have around the house.  AND we used a box of Krusteaz Gingerbread Cookie mix!   Couldn't be easier.  We made 3 of each size of cookie.  Also, mix up a small batch of "ornamental frosting" - this is what we call "cement icing" in our house.  

Delicious sugary goodness.  

(Note:  I stayed Paleo through this whole thing! 

 I didn't taste a single bite or a lick during the whole process!)

Give each of the cute kids in your life a butter knife or icing spreader and explain that a lump of frosting on the middle of each cookie and a gentle press down (with fingertips only!  Not whole hand smashes!) is what needs to be done.  Lots of concentration and cuteness is needed!

Continue to stack up the cookies from largest (remember to stick that one to the center of the plate!) to the smallest.  The very smallest cookie gets to stand up vertically on the top. Don't forget to take lots of pictures of the cuteness!

Then use the rest of the icing in a plastic bag and snip off the end of it to dab frosting on the "leaves" or "needles" or tips of the stars.   Let your cutie pies decorate with sprinkles and jimmies and little non-pareils and whatever else you like! 

And whatever you do - be sure to keep an eye out for a super cute little sister who can sweet talk her momma into letting her "bite!??" the tree! 

Another delicious treat we enjoyed was inspired by Farm Fresh and Active - chocolate dipped mandarin wedges.  YUM!  I peeled and separated the wedges of the mandarins - we used the Cutie brand.   Then I dipped them in melted Enjoy Life Mini Chips - these are gluten, dairy and soy free chocolate chips - and placed them on waxed paper.  Then I popped them in freezer for about 30 minutes (or as long as you can stand to wait!)   These were SOOOO yummy and so much healthier than those crazy chocolate oranges we used to always get in our stockings!

And as you can see by the top picture, of course I played around with  my camera and the bokeh that I could capture with my Mom's colorful Christmas Tree!  Totally different from the images that I captured of my twinkling white lights!   I found the easiest way ever to do it here - from It's Always Autumn.

What did you do that was crafty this winter break?