Stay at Home Make

We will not be having a make for the month of December so instead I thought I would share a recipe for an easy stay-at-home-make; SNOW ICE CREAM!

This might gross out some of you because it involves eating real fallen snow. If you're like me, however, as long as it's not yellow, I don't do much to stop my kids from a chomping on few flaky handfuls. I learned this recipe from my mom who made it for me a many snowy days when I was a kid.

You will need:

• fresh, clean snow
• milk
• sugar
• vanilla

I did no measuring but if you want to be precise the internet is full of recipes. I added milk to the snow until it became the consistency of soft seve ice cream then I added sugar and a bit of vanilla...time for a taste test...you might need a little more sugar, milk or vanilla...it's up to you. Enjoy!

P.S. Paula Deen's recipe contains sweetened condensed milk in place of milk and sugar! I haven't tried it yet but I am pretty much game for any recipes involving condensed milk.

Activity Advent

We decided to count down the days until Christmas with an activity-advent calendar to go along with our chocolate one.

I inserted a to-do item in each miniature box (found at a paper warehouse for 40 cents each). Then I wrapped each box with tissue, ribbon and feathers.

Each day Hendrix will find the number of the day and unwrap to revel the activity.

Today we will string popcorn for a little extra Christmas tree decor. Here's what is to come:

1. Set up Christmas tree and arrange Christmas decorations
2. String popcorn for the tree
3. Learn a Christmas song
4. Nativity puppet songs and stories
5. Reindeer Hats Craft
6. Take pictures in a homemade photo booth
7. Write a letter to Santa Clause
8. Homemade Marshmallows
9. Create Christmas cards and mail them
10. Look through toys and find something to donate
11. Make "snowball" soap
12. Bake and decorate gingerbread people
13. Take a Christmas surprise to the neighbors
14. Make ice ornaments for the great outdoors
15. Play a holiday game
16. Paint snowflakes on the window with window paint
17. Get on an airplane to visit family
18. Disneyland
19. Disneyland
20. Watch Christmas claymation movie
21. Make holiday play dough
22. Make snow ice cream
23. Neighborhood Christmas lights tour
24. Open Christmas eve gift (ornament)
25. Hooray! It's Christmas!