Cookie-making With Kids---Silly, Sassy and Sweet!

Christmas, for me, is first and foremost about celebrating a Savior who came quietly to a manger bed and ended up changing the world.  But it is also about spending time with family and making memories together.  

Today I was remembering a fun activity that I did with some of my grandchildren.  I went searching for the pictures to show you and was astonished to see that we did this four years ago!  The years are flying by!  I want to fill them with as many happy times as possible.

This is a quick and easy no-bake cookie---Nutter Butter Santa cookies.

 

You will need: 

  Nutter Butter sandwich cookies, melted white chocolate bark, red sprinkles, miniature marshmallows cut in half, miniature chocolate chips, and red cinnamon candies.

To assemble: 

1.  Pour red sprinkles, red candies (for nose) and chocolate chips into cups or small bowls. Also snip miniature marshmallows in half and put in a small bowl.
2. Melt the bark in microwave or on stove top (be careful not to burn it.)  This is a job for grown-ups or older children.
3. Dip both ends of a Nutter Butter cookie into white bark.  Then dip one end of the cookie into the bowl of red sprinkles--do not completely cover the white chocolate bark but leave a little bit showing for Santa's "fur trim".  If you use a cup or small enough bowl, the sprinkles will be deep enough for you to simply plunge the cookie in to the right level.
4. Working quickly, attach a half-marshmallow to the "hat" for a "pom-pom".  You may need to use a dab of bark on the marshmallow to help it adhere.  We had some leftover icing from another cookie project that we used for the "glue".
5. Use a tiny dab of bark (or icing) to attach two chocolate chips for eyes and one cinnamon candy to make the nose.

This was an easy-for-kids activity that the grown-ups had fun with too!

Don't worry about perfection.  Just have fun.  Besides, it's the imperfections that give each cookie a personality!  Look at these guys--some are silly, some are sassy and some are sweet!

And one other fun thing---eating the cookies!

 Mmmm mmmmm.

Have you done anything easy and fun with kids at Christmas?  Care to share?  I can always use new ideas:)  Hope you're planning to make some fun memories this Christmas!

Something For My Favorite Peeps!

Hop on over for a fun, quick Easter treat!  I thought it was time to "practice what I pin"--on Pinterest, that is.  I'm short on time but I wanted to have something fun for the kiddos this weekend so I went searching through my Easter Pinterest board for something E-A-S-Y.

 This was perfect:  Peeps Pops!

To make them you need:

Bunny Peeps, lollipop sticks, chocolate and/or vanilla coating,  candy sprinkles

 I wanted to display them in an Easter basket so I am using one I already had and I bought a piece of styrofoam and some Easter grass.  I also bought some plastic bags to wrap each one individually (bottom right) but I decided to save them for another project.

Here's what I did:

Cut the styrofoam to fit snugly in the bottom of the basket.  I cut the corners of the rectangle and pressed it down to the bottom of the basket--it should be tight.  Then I covered the inside of the basket with grass and set it aside for later.

 

Separate the marshmellow bunny Peeps and then spear each one with a lollipop stick from the bottom to the top.  I pushed the stick in as far as it could go without coming through at the top.

 

Melt the candy coating following the directions on the packaging.  I used the microwave option.

 Dip each bunny peep into the melted candy coating and swirl it to completely cover.  I then tapped the stick gently on the edge of the bowl so the excess coating would drip off.  

 Then quickly sprinkle your choice of candy sprinkles on the wet coating and 

place it on wax paper to dry. 

Once the bunnies were dry I arranged them in the Easter basket by sticking them in the styrofoam.  Nice and easy!  All I am saying is give Peeps a chance (tee hee)!  See you next week with more of the beach cottage for a buck renovation project!

Happy Easter everyone!  He is risen!