Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday to celebrate the dead.
While I was away on vacation another Mom lead our art class at Co op. I left her with printed pictures of sugar skulls and masks created for the holiday to share with the kids. They used acrylic paints to paint the blank masks I bought at Michaels. Then used a hot glue gun to attach fake flowers and ribbons. They came out really great!!
It’s absurd isn’t it? The sheer idea that you could ever learn NOTHING? Especially in a whole 24 hours. I have barely even been up for an hour and I have learned about a Gum Wall in Seattle, How to Regrow Celery, I found this thought provoking and mostly funny!, Niagara Falls goes Rainbow for Marriage equality in NY and that is just while having my first cup of coffee with my best friends fb and twitter!
With more failure to come today– I plan on listening to THIS , re reading HOW TO STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST and finishing up a book I am reading. I haven’t even considered all of the unplanned learning that will inevitably happen while I go about my day.
We are all failures at learning nothing. It is a non discriminating holiday. Age, race, sex or location can not keep you from learning. And it’s a great thing to be a failure at!! Congratulations-you win!!
Our Holiday was wonderful. Mostly because everyone was home and together for three whole days. That doesn’t seem to happen as much as kids get older and husbands work more!
Here are a few highlights of the weekend.
We always go to my Mom’s for Christmas eve. She cooks delicious things and makes everything pretty just for us! This year she surprised Ginger with a karaoke machine! And a Hannah Montana CD…. Oh boy! Does she LOVE it!
Molly asked “how early can we wake you up?” Joe told her 5 AM…guess what time she woke us?
We are pretty good about sticking to the kids lists. Buying them things they want and not as much stuff that I think they should have. Yet there are always a few surprises thrown in. This year I hit a home run with my surprise for Molly!!
Bento boxes for her and Ginger along with a Bento cookbook and all the little tools and treasures. The perfect gift for my little Martha in the making!
It didn’t matter that we just had a huge breakfast, she couldn’t wait to get to work making lunch!
One of our other Christmas traditions is Molly’s Christmas day cake. This year she made a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting from scratch. Look out Cake Boss!
I LOVE the week between Christmas and New Years. I feel like I can breath a sigh of relief and just enjoy. I wrote all about it last year too.
We are anxiously waiting for a friend to arrive in a few hours to stay with us for the week along with a cousin who will also be visiting. We are looking forward to some sledding today before the snow melts, a trip to the movies and the zoo to see holiday lights, sushi and chocolate fondue with friends. It will be a stay-cation around here and I am loving it!! Hope your week between is filled with more holiday joy!
And busy we have been!
The annual gingerbread house making…..
The secret gift making….
The holiday playing…..
And the snowflake making….I am a bit obsessed!
We followed these folding directions at instructables
We also used coffee filters.
And some of us are relaxing with visions of sugar plums or bones and balls dancing in our heads until the big day!
I plan to do the same next week!!
Happy Holidays to you and yours!!!!
For the past several years we have gotten together with friends to have a day full of holiday crafting and snacking. I posted a past years event here.
This year we made xmas trees out of magazines. I found it very relaxing to sit and fold these!
I found this great idea at Just Like Martha
We also made beaded star ornaments.
The beaded star idea came from Mrs Picasso’s Art Room
We also made these beautiful novena candles inspired by Artsyville
I personally made 4 of these! Who said crafting day was just for the kids?!
I absolutely love where we live. I also love tradition. I go out of my way to make sure we are making memories together and carrying on family traditions. The 4th of July is one holiday steeped in tradition that my kids really look forward to. Growing up, my parents always had a big 4th of July party–it started in the morning with everyone coming over for breakfast outside. Family came and went all day long. We swam and ate and then moved the party into the garage in the evening. My dad and older cousins would blow off fire works in our back yard and a great time was had by all.
The apple must not fall too far from the tree. We start each 4th of July at our Clintonville Community Breakfast. We walk over to the park early in the morning to begin our day.
One or more of my kids always participates in the pet parade
Then there is the fishing derby
And the party preparation
It is the part of the day that is the calm before the storm. Because the next thing I remember– It looked more like this
And this
This was before the fireworks show and the post fireworks snacking!! It was a late night. And today after cleaning all that up, I took a long nap–in the air conditioning. Hope your Holiday weekend was both fun and relaxing!!
April 26 is National Pretzel Day—who knew there was such a holiday?!
So in honor of National Pretzel Day here is a blast from the past (May 2008!)
Homemade Soft Pretzels
We followed a recipe that promised Aunt Annie’s Pretzels-like from the mall. They weren’t exactly Aunt Annie’s but not too bad either. I used white whole wheat flour for ours-white flour definitely would have been better. Ours were really heavy. And as far s the amount this recipe makes-unless you are feeding an army cut this recipe in half as this makes at least a dozen pretzels and they don’t save well.
Aunt Annie’s Soft Pretzel Recipe
In a large bowl combine 1 1/2 tsp live active yeast with 1 1/2 cups 110 degree water, 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar and dash of salt. Let sit 5 minutes
Add 4 cups flour mix well and knead for 5 minutes
Put in greased bowl and cover with damp towel and let sit 1 hour in a warm place.
Divide into 8 to 12 pieces -we divided into 16 pieces-and they were still pretty thick.
Roll into rope and shape , dip into 1/4 cup warm water that has 1 tablespoon baking soda mixed in.
Bake at 500 degrees for 8 minutes
Brush liberally with melted butter and sprinkle with kosher salt or 2 tablespoons mixed with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or parmesan cheese and garlic salt and serve with marinara sauce.
Mmmmmmmm!
