Christmas Baking 2013

I know, I know. Each year after I bake I swear that I'm not going to do it again, because of rude comments that have been said. I've heard, "Well, you're not getting anything from us", "We gave them to our neighbors", and I've even received some of them back, re-plated of course. And I'm not a bad cook, honest!!

I really, really love to bake, and more than that, I love to share. It's just part of who I am. I had toyed around with the idea of donating it all to the homeless shelter or the airman's cookie drive. But when I mentioned it to a friend that I wasn't delivering them, she told me that she'd miss them. So I sat down and went through my list and found six families that I thought would really appreciate them, and I got to baking.

I think I managed five oldies, but goodies, and five new recipes that all shined. And of course, I didn't take pictures again, so I'll have to steal them from the other blogs where I got the recipes. (Shhh, don't tell them!)

Oldies: (all found in my cookbook)
Christmas Delight
Oreo Balls
Cherry Almond Shortbread cookies
Rolo Pretzel Turtles
Shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate

Newbies:
Almond Joy Truffles: http://www.highheelsandgrills.com/2013/09/almond-joy-truffles.html



Carmelitas: http://luluthebaker.blogspot.com/2010/10/carmelitas.html


I do believe that these were my favorites of the new ones. Oh, they are to die for! I had to freeze them so I wouldn't eat the whole pan. But I sneak in the kitchen frequently and pull one out and warm it up in the microwave. Ahhh....think I'll go get one now!

Reese's Peanut Butter Fudge: http://www.crazyforcrust.com/2013/04/reeses-fudge/



Mint Brownie Bites: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/07/chocolate-mint-brownie-bites/


I'm not a mint fan, so I didn't even try these. But my mint-loving hubby took one bite and started moaning, "Ohhhh, these are sooooo good!" It was quite funny to watch.


Salted Caramel Brownie Bites: http://makinglifewonderful.blogspot.com/2010/12/ummwhere-have-these-been.html


The original way says to use Rolos. I think this site said to use Hershey's caramel kisses. We used both and compared. Definitely like the kisses ones better as they are softer to bite into.

I think the only problem I ran into was that I didn't buy enough chocolate bark, and that I couldn't distinguish between my oreo balls and my almond joy truffles, once they were dipped. So I ended up doing white chocolate lines across the almond balls and swirls on the oreo ones.

Did you bake up something tasty!?!?!

Babies, Babies, Babies

 Babies, babies, and more babies. I'm beginning to think there is something in the water out here! This year has abounded in sewing projects for newborns. Here are just a few...

This was my first car seat canopy. I love having the zipper in it. Since this one I've made several more. I like adding the elastic in the back to keep it from blowing up in the wind. 

My good friend Karen asked me to sew her nursery set for her. We looked at lots of sets online and she'd say, "I like this, in this one", and "I like this in the other one", etc. I tried to find cute fabric in her colors (green, yellow and something else) but I couldn't. However, I found this Riley Blake fabric that I fell in love with and convinced her to let me just "go with it", without her seeing it, and she agreed. So here's my Pottery Barn knock-off...

 She also liked the idea of a monogram, but I couldn't figure out how to do that on the quilt above. It just didn't seem to fit. But I had a ton of extra fabric left over so I decided to make a second quilt.

I made the bumper pads and bed skirt too, and a little pouf chair with the baby's name on it. Just didn't get pictures of them. I think it turned out cute.

Another friend, Lisa, called to say that her daughter-in-law wanted a quilt for her upcoming baby girl, but Lisa wasn't feeling confident enough to tackle it. I saw a picture and thought it should be easy enough as I've made several pieced blankets before. However, I've never done one with diamonds and that proved to be a huge challenge. The daughter-in-law had purchased all the fabric, I just had to make it all work. Don't think I'll ever tackle diamonds again as they stretch so much, but it turned out cute and she was happy.

Not baby related, but another sewing project. I got the idea to make art kits for our Christmas party, and for some of my nieces and nephews. I think think they turned out cute. I couldn't find a pattern on line for free so I just made one up. 

Ignore the mismatched crayons. That's what happens when you buy a six pack from OTC and then try to add more Crayola ones in the mix-two different sizes. For my nieces and nephews I used colored pencils and cut them in half to fit.

There's 1/2 sheets of copy paper in the large pocket and sticker sheets in the small pocket.

Great way to use up scrap fabric!

Next on the list is a baby doll carrier and a warm blanket for my little niece's birthday. I guess I better get started. Happy sewing!

Church Christmas Party 2013

Kettering Ward Christmas Party 2013

“Santa’s Secret Workshop”

Date: Saturday, Dec. 14th, 9am-noon

Budget: $1000

Attendance: 200 (we shot for 300 but a storm came in the night before-would project 250 for next event if early in Dec.)

Pajamas welcome!

Itinerary:

*Breakfast

*YW did a short dance to the jingle “Hot Chocolate” from Polar Express CD when we mentioned there        would be a hot chocolate bar included in breakfast

*Short Christmas program

*Workshops to benefit needy

Food: (Cost was $380 including some paper products)

French toast-350 slices made and 250 eaten

Little pastries-13 boxes from Sam’s Club and most were eaten (these were an assortment of donuts, cinnamon rolls, pastries)

Breakfast Pizzas-12 and most of them were gone

10 Pineapples-all eaten

4 bunches of bananas-all eaten

10 bags of oranges sliced-only ate 5 bags worth

2 gallons of milk-1 gallon were used

3 gallons of OJ-2 gallons were used

Hot Chocolate Bar-(5 cans of hot chocolate bought and only used 2 ½ cans)

                Small containers filled with: 1 bag mini marshmallows, 1 bag dark chocolate chips, 2 bags caramels (use dots next time as cut up caramels stuck together and were hard to get out of container), 1 bag white chocolate; large container filled with 2 packages of Pirouette Wafers (cut in half), 60 large marshmallows on sticks, dipped in either white or milk chocolate and then either dipped in sprinkles or crushed peppermint, and about 50 spoons dipped in chocolate and then topped with M&Ms, and 3 bottles of whipped cream.  This was a total hit!! (Line got hung up due to having to make a choice-would need to run multiple lines next time)

Christmas program-We sang a couple Christmas songs and the Bishop spoke for a couple minutes

Workshops- ($620)

Mrs. Claus’ Attic-We made 37 fleece blankets and assembled 40 art kits (benefited Bellbrook Family Resource Center and Dayton Children’s Hospital)

Rudolph’s Apothecary-We assembled 96 hygiene kits. (Benefited both Men’s and Women’s local homeless shelter) Collected donations of personal care items for Harmony House Food Pantry.

Post Office-Made and wrote 80 cards to missionaries serving from ward and military serving.

Holly Tree Ornament Shoppe-made over 225 ornaments and decorated six trees to give to needy ward members.

St. Nick’s Magical Moments-Had a Brother in our ward take pictures of children with Santa.

Simmons’ Sign Making Shop-Scout needed help making signs for his Eagle project.

North Pole Sweet Treats Co.-Filled over 24 goodie boxes to give to needy in ward and the kids decorated sugar cookies for them to take home.

Workshop notes-

Mrs. Claus’ Attic-Fabric was purchased on Black Friday for 27 blankets (1 ½ yards each). Fringe was cut and a little slit in top of fringe so it could be looped. This method made it so even the small kids could participate. 10 pre-made blankets were purchased from Menard’s on Black Friday for $1.50 each. We made 20 blankets there and 2 ladies took the rest home to finish. We rolled the blankets and tied with a bow. 14 receiving blanket sets were donated and tied with bows also.

The art kits were sewn beforehand. I cut everything out and assembled kits for the sisters to sew. Most women were overwhelmed when they saw what we were making and said they couldn’t do it. But when I showed them their “kit”, they were fine with it. All they were doing was straight-stitching hems on pockets or sewing the handles, very easy. I then collected and finished sewing. On one side of the kit we put 10 half sheets of paper in the large pocket, and a sheet of stickers in the small pocket (bought in bulk on Amazon.com). On the other side was six small pockets for crayons. I bought the cheap Oriental Trading Co. 6 pack crayons and they are smaller than regular crayons, so I was a bit disappointed in them. But I used them anyway. And then we used six more crayons from the cheap boxes I got on “Back to School” sales, for a total of 12 crayons in each.

Rudolph’s Apothecary-I purchased most of the hygiene kit products from Dollardays.com and they came in boxes of 96-shampoo, mouth wash, deodorant, and the bars of soap had 100. Then from Dollar Tree I ordered their toothbrush/toothpaste combo (had 108) and picked up 10 packs (10 each) razors at the local store. Bagged in gallon Ziploc bags. Had several medium size boxes wrapped in Christmas paper for the other donations to go in. (Make sure they aren’t large boxes or they get too heavy to carry)

Post Office-I purchased 4-5 packs of predesigned Christmas cards from the Dollar Store. Also cut up 8 ½ x 11 cardstock and folded in half to make cards-we probably used about 50 of these. Then from Oriental Trading I purchased the snowflake stamp set (pre-inked) and a large bag of adhesive foam winter-type stickers (we used 1/3^rd of the bag). Then each table had pens, colored pencils, crayons, scissors, scrap cardstock, glue sticks, etc. (I think only one person used the scrap paper and glue stick).  Had a main table set up with “mailboxes” for each person we were writing to so they could be personal messages.

Holly Tree Ornament Shoppe-We had four different stations for ornaments. The first was a Fruit Loop wreath (made on pipe cleaner and hot glued bow on). We used 1 ½ boxes of cereal and probably 60-70 pipe cleaners (come in packs of 100). Next was a snowflake made from small popsicle sticks-3 sticks glued on top of each other a different angles, then spray painted white and a hole drilled for hanger (don’t drill again as split too many-hot glue ribbon hanger on next time). These were decorated with adhesive small jewels from OTC. Although the packet said it has like 500 jewels, it only made about 20-30 ornaments. So the rest of the ornaments we used markers and glitter glue to decorate. I think we made around 40 of these. Third ornament was a paper pieced snowman. It only took glue sticks to assemble and a marker to decorate face. He was the least one made. Had 57 kits and only used about 20. I think he was too hard for younger kids (but the cutest ornament I think). Last were salt ornaments in various shapes. These were buggers to make. It was easy to make the dough and cut out, but they took a week to dry (have to flip daily), and they are brittle if you get too thin. Used a skewer to make hole in dough for ribbon hanger, after we cut out and before they dried. I tried to stamp some images on the dough before it dried, but my cheap stamps didn’t work too well. I had about 60 and we used them all. They decorated them with markers and glitter glue pens from Dollar Store. (Glitter glue took a while to dry so we placed them on small plates and into a small Ziploc for easier transport home.) We let them make 2 ornaments and take one of them home, with the other decorating the trees for the needy.

I had six small artificial trees that I let them decorate and take to the homes. I’ll collect them after Christmas to use again.

(If I did this again, I’d forego the snowman ornament and do the beaded candy cane ornaments instead)

(Prior to the event, we had the families picked out and drivers assigned to deliver the trees-they were all under 4’ tall so easy to fit in mini vans)

St. Nick’s Magic Moments-We had a professional photographer set up all his equipment and take beautiful photos that we uploaded to a generic Google site for easy download. We handed out small candy canes after pictures. (We purchased a Santa suit last year)

North Pole Sweet Treats Co.-I had a stack of goodie boxes left over from years past that we used (I know OTC sells them cheap too). We had each family bring a plate of treats to be boxed up. I provided gloves and hand sanitizer and we put tissue paper in each box and let the kids pick treats to fill the boxes, in assembly line fashion. Then we let the kids decorate sugar cookies (assigned 3 women to each bring 3-4 dozen sugar cookies). I made 8 batches of Wilton’s buttercream frosting. Some was left white, and then tinted some red and some green. I had some bowls filled so they could spread ice them, and then I filled 6 pastry bags with tips for finer decorating. Then we had 4 large containers of sprinkles. I probably had enough frosting leftover that I could have gotten by with 6 batches. And I have about ½ of the sprinkles left (I bought the 4 set from Michael’s with a coupon). We had small plates and Ziplocs for the kids to put their cookies in so they didn’t drop them and make a mess of the carpets. We asked the HP and RS for names of families, prior to the event, who could use the treats, and we had a sign up for people willing to deliver them. So a sister worked on a list and assigned delivery people to each box and it went smoothly.

Additional Info:

I found a 12’ Christmas tree at the Church and we put that in the center of the gym, so it looked like town square. We used the overflow for the Post Office, the Stage for the Ornament Shop (so we could use the small trees as decorations on the stage), and the YW room for the food (serving the hot cocoa bar from the open countertop in kitchen). Then used the YM, RS, and Primary for other shops.

We had Christmas music playing throughout the entire building through the breakfast and activities. It took a little to figure out sound system. Had to play music on Ipad in Chapel and had it hooked to the sound system box-also had to have back curtains open ten feet to trigger sensor to allow music to play in gym-we figured it out, but it did take a little trial and error.

Decorated the gym with snowflakes hanging from fishing line on hooks. Didn’t have a budget for centerpieces so I just brought my decorations from home. Used glitter and ribbon and large bows for long tables.

Each “shop” had a cute sign outside its door. Hung snowflakes and such in each room to make festive.

We had to do a morning activity due to scheduling conflicts, but I think it worked out really well and it allowed us more money for activities as breakfast is cheaper. The children liked the idea of coming in their pajamas and many adults did too. It was a huge success and many comments that it was the best Christmas party they have ever attended.

My sister also did a Ward Christmas party this year. I asked her to write down what food she used so I might have an idea on amounts if I ever had to do a ham dinner. Here's what she said:

Ham-bought 132 lbs, had about 30 lbs left (wanted to have extras to give to less fortunate in ward)
Mixed vegetables-big bags from GFS-14 bags, had 2-3 bags left
Rolls (set out on tables)-from Sam's-4 wheat, 6 white, about right
Fruit-50 lbs. of mixed, cut fruit-needed more
Baked Potatoes-10 bags (#10 each) from Sam's-had 2-3 bags left over

Fed around 200 people

Craft Day 2013

Here's our little craft day and some of the projects we worked on:

The most popular craft by far was the ruler height chart:

It's made from a 1x8x6, stained and then vinyl applied. Lowes is by far the cheapest place to get the wood. I think you can get a board for around $3-4. So you could get the price down to $10. I cut the vinyl for the ladies and it was in six pieces, with the lines all spaced 1" apart, and then the numbers separate. Real easy! Stain takes awhile to dry so I asked that they pick up their wood and stain from me beforehand, and do that part at home, and then bring it ready to apply vinyl, and then we sprayed with Krylon varnish outside.

Personalized signs-I didn't take pictures of the signs as they were each different, but here's an idea of the type of signs. They were all wood signs, painted and a vinyl saying applied. The picture below is from a class I taught to the YW of the ward. They each made a sign with this year's theme. 

 Birthday boards-$8

Christmas Countdown blocks-$7

Art Kits-Bring your own supplies (or sew a kit I had made up for our service project)

Personalized fridge magnets-$4

Wooden nativity-$2

Wooden "Oh Holy Night" sign-price varied depending on size

 Pouf Chair-bring your own supplies

"Stocking were hung" sign-$7 for 5 peg, $8 for 6 peg

What have you worked on lately?!?!

Trunk-or-Treat 2013

This year I actually volunteered to oversee the Trunk-or-Treat at Church, since it was getting close to the day and no one had stepped up to plan it. I thought it went really well, considering we had around 300 people!

Kettering Ward Trunk-Or-Treat Activity 2013

Participants: 200-250 expected (300 actual)

Expenses: $300 (If 300 is our new expected, and if you have to buy all paper products, could use an additional $50)

Activity: Chili Cookoff/Dinner, Carnival Games, & Trunk-or-treating

Dinner:

Chili-each family was asked to bring a pot of Chili or Soup (we had enough)

Hot Dogs-purchased hot dogs and buns for 50 in case kids wanted chili dogs instead. Blew through these!

Cornbread-had a sign-up for six pans (most brought 9x9 pans-was not enough)

Tortilla chips-bought the box at GFS with 5 bags. Only used 2 bags (least popular side)

Corn chips-bought 3 large bags at GFS. Could have used 2 more bags.

Saltine crackers-bought 1 box. Used ½ box

Cinnamon Rolls-I usually make 2 large pans (40 total) of these. Didn’t have time this year

Grated Cheddar Cheese-Bought 2-5# bags. Probably only need 1-5# and an additional 1 lb.

Sour Cream-4# tub from Sam’s Club is plenty!

Diced onions-used ½ of a bag

Rootbeer-I made 5 gallons homemade in one container and did another container of 2-liter bottles and added a little dry ice to the pre-mixed one so they both looked homemade. We blew through this!

Orange Kool-Aid-had 4 gallons and blew through it. Definitely need to have extra drinks to refill.

Water-6 pitchers and refilled once.

Had some cookies and leftover cupcakes for dessert. (children got dessert doing the games)

Games: (Used RS, YM, YW, Primary, Nursery and 2 foyers-worked great to spread everyone out)

Prize Bags-on each table we had several small brown lunch sacks, and a bag of crayons from the Primary closet. Let the kids decorate the bags while waiting to eat, and then used the bags to collect their prizes from the games.

Cupcake Walk-Made 10 dozen cupcakes and all were eaten (during game and after trunk-or-treat) Had 20 spaces on floor for game. Could use 30 spaces. Need something louder than Ipad to play music or speakers to plug into pad. (Had apples that were popular for allergy kids)

Hanging Donut-Purchased 12 dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme, using the punch card that gets you B1G1 Free. Did see that Walmart and other bakeries have donuts for $3.00/dz which would be cheaper than KK. Used a rope that we tied on curtain divider in nursery (one end was stationary, the other looped over hook so we could slide donut ropes on. All donuts had ropes attached to them before the event, and the other end of the rope had a loop) Made it quick and easy to get donuts on main rope. Used all donuts. Taped a tablecloth on floor below donuts to minimize mess.

Bean Bag Toss-Had two large wooden cutouts, one for younger kids, one for older.  (Gave out glow bracelets-gave out all 100)

(easier one for the little kids)

(harder one for the older kids)

Halloween Bingo-Had 16 bingo cards (from http://thecraftingchicks.com/2011/10/halloween-bingo-free-download.html) printed and laminated and set up on two long tables. Had candy corns in sets of 12, pre-bagged, and in bowls so they could grab a bag and use as their markers. 16 seats was enough. Gave out small bottles of bubbles-purchased 96, had 18 left. (only complaint on this one was the kids thought Bingo would take too long but it went fast.) 

Pumpkin Bowling-Took 12 rolls of toilet paper and glued card stock eyes on them to make them look like ghosts or mummies. Then purchased 2 small pie pumpkins ($2.50 each at Walmart). Stacked the toilet paper like a pyramid, making two stacks, and used the pumpkins to “bowl”. Purchased glow-in-the-dark Dracula fangs in a pack of 72 and used them all.

Birds vs. Pigs-basically the Angry birds game. Build a sling shot and stacked boxes in different configurations on a table, and then set 4 wooden pigs on them. Kids launched 3 balls (decorated to look like birds) at the boxes and tried to knock down pigs. Best game ever! Line was huge! Probably only give them two balls to make it go faster. Gave out jumping plastic spiders. Purchased a 1 gross bag, had 72 left over. We did this in the Primary room just in case a kid got wild, as it has a vaulted ceiling. (only complaint was the length of line) We have used this game for birthdays and YW parties too.

(wooden pigs cut from 1x5 wood)

Photo Booth- A professional photographer from our ward set up his stuff so everyone could have a professional picture taken (Free of charge). We posted all the photos to a Google site for everyone to download. Decorated set with bale of hay, cornstalks and pumpkins. (Hay bales are $4 at Walmart-cornstalks usually most expensive-found them at Tom’s corn maze for cheap) Everyone loved this!!!

Competitions:

Chili Cookoff-Was run according to International Chili Cookoff rules. Three categories-Homestyle (can have beans or pasta), Chili Red, and Chili Green. We had 10 enter the Homestyle category, 5 for Red and 2 for Green. Picked 4 judges-men who loved to cook and were good at it. 2^nd place received a large candy bar and a small can of chili powder (to practice for next year!) (Found small cans of chili powder cheap at Kroger). 1^st place one aprons that I made. (bought 3-pack of black aprons from Sam’s club for less than $15 and used iron-on vinyl). Also had a grand champion between the three winners. Winner received a plaque that said “Chili Cookoff Grand Champion) with a gold spoon on it, and a Chili’s Gift Card (donated by me). Their name gets written on the back of the plaque and it will be returned each year and passed off to the new grand champion. (my hubby won it this year!) We let the judges enter chili, but they couldn’t judge the category in which they entered.

Trunk-Or-Treat-Asked everyone to bring 125 pieces of candy. Most ran out. Next year we’ll need to increase it to 200-225. Or have them pair up with someone and split the candy. Many did decorate their trunks and I gave out a candle to the winner of the trunk decorating and a certificate to second place. We made everyone back their cars up to the sidewalk, when they arrived, so the kids could stay safe. People complained at first, but it really worked out great. And it helped with making kids only go through once and gave us a little lighting too. Those that didn’t want to stay, were able to easily leave as they parked in the main lot away from building.

Carved Pumpkin Contest-Had one for youth and one for adult. Used the pumpkins as centerpieces. We had 7 adults and 13 kids enter the contest. Gave a certificate to 2^nd place and a certificate and pumpkin carving kit to 1^st place, for both adult and youth.

Decorations:

Purchased a roll of black paper from Hobby Lobby (in art department) and cut out large trees and bats. Used straight pins to pin them up to the walls. Purchased 40 tablecloths, 20 round and 20 long. We set up 20 round tables in middle of gym, 2 rows of 3 tables each, down each side for chili and toppings, 5 long tables on stage, 4 long tables in overflow, and put 4 small classroom tables in a line for sides and drinks. It was crowded and there wasn’t enough seating.

Next year I would recommend setting up the food in the Young Women’s room. You could then have more room for the round tables because you don’t need to small ones, and use the 6 long tables at each end, for seating. Really need to see if can squeeze seating for 300 in there, without crowding. Otherwise need to have overflow room like YM.

Black tablecloths are $1.00 at Dollar Tree, but orange long, or either color rounds are pricier. Cheapest place was Flower Factory. They actually put them on sale the week before Halloween. Got the long for $0.69 and the round for $0.89 (usually $1.70).

Schedule:

6:30-7:15 Dinner (It took a while to get that many people through food line)

7:15-7:50 Games

7:50-8:00 Awards (met back in gym)

8:00-8:15 Trunk or Treating

8:15-9:15 Cleanup

Lessons Learned:

It worked really well to have YM/YW run games. They were great at it and it gave them something to do so they weren’t bored.

Need to assign one or two people to “man” the food line and refill items as needed. Doesn’t work to MC and do food by self.

Worked great to have one person over Chili cook-off portion.

Worked well to have games throughout building.

Worked well to have trunk-or-treating on sidewalk

Didn’t work to have food in gym as not enough seating. Move it to YW room next year.

Hot dogs/buns were HUGE success. Probably could have used 150!

Assign a cleanup crew. We did start taking down tables during games and left chairs so people could come back in for awards. But we could have used more cleanup hands.

People loved having an actual cook-off, and not just bringing chili. Gordon did awesome at heading this all up!

Purchases:

Krispy Kreme-10 dozen donuts (using punch card to get ½ free)

Dollar Store-foam board for advertising posters ($1 each)

GFS-Shredded cheese, corn chips, tortilla chips, sour cream (too big of tub-get at Sam’s next time), hot dogs (50 ct)

Sam’s Club-Spoons, bowls, cups, napkins, small plates, large plates, aprons

Walmart-Pumpkin carving kits, candy corn, glow-in-the-dark bracelets (had 50 pks-bought 2), pie pumpkins, onions, rootbeer extract, sugar, saltine crackers, large candy bars

Hobby Lobby-Black roll paper (used 40% off coupon to get price down to under $10)

Meijer-Dry ice (comes in 10# chunk), apples

Tom’s Maze-hay bale and cornstalks

Flower Factory-candle (could probably find cheaper at Dollar Tree or Walmart), tablecloths

Aldi-hot dog buns

Oriental Trading-game prizes (Halloween spin tops (didn’t use-still in box), jumping spiders, bubble bottles, vampire fangs)

Church-needed 80 copies of flyer for Sacrament programs, and another 100 to put in RS folder and to give to missionaries/ward missionaries to send out. We had a ton of less active/inactives/friends show up.

 Most people said it was the best Trunk-or-Treat they have ever been to, so I'm happy. It was the first real Ward Party that I've been in charge of so I'll count it as a success!