He Still Believes!

"Mommy, is Santa real?"

I have been dreading that question for years. Why? Because I do not want the magic to stop. I do not want his childhood innocence to fade. Not yet. I'm not ready.

My response: "What do you believe?"

Adrian: "I do believe in Santa but there are kids in my class who say he isn't real!"

Well then, I believe it was time for a life lesson. This was the perfect opportunity to teach him about beliefs. I started with reminding him that everyone has an opinion and just because you have an opinion and your classmate has another, it doesn't mean either of you are wrong. "A belief is like an opinion. Everyone believes in what they want and you accept it and move on." Those were my exact words to him. He just stared at me for a few seconds and then said, "OK."

That was it. He understood and he still believes. Adrian is now nine years old. I know that this might be the last year he believes in Santa and believe me, I will try for another, maybe 10 more. I am a HUGE believer in making childhood as magical as possible. He will never be nine years old again. I am soaking it in.

Oh and just in case you were wondering, he believes in the Elf too. He wakes up every morning excited to see what Buddy has done (Buddy is probably the world's most mischievous elf!) and never touches him, you know so he doesn't lose his magic!!

Christmas 2014

Christmas has come and gone (rather quickly I might add) and I enjoyed every minute of it! First up, Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve for us is usually lunch at Adrian's grandparents house and then dinner at JC's mom's house. We do it this way so we don't have to go out with the kids on Christmas Day from house to house to visit. This way we gt to spend a good amount of time with all the grandparents. Back to Christmas Eve, I dressed the kids up:

I was thrilled to find this HUGE bow at Claire's. No idea how we will top this one!

First stop: Adrian's grandparents house. After saying hello to his grandparents, everyone disappeared and when I went looking for them, I found this in the living room:

The joys of technology, there was no running around, no "I'm bored", it was wonderful!

Grandma with the grandkids. There are still 4 grandkids missing in this pic!

Stop # 2 was JC's mom's house. She made dinner for us, the kids opened presents and then we sat around talking for a bit!

Stop # 3 was JC's friend's house. We stopped by to wish them a Merry Christmas and drop off a present for their adorable baby! Then we went home, got into our Christmas pj's and went straight to bed!!

Then Santa came!!

One of our Christmas traditions is that the kids pick out a wrapping paper at the store and we "send" it to Santa to wrap their gifts in. It's way easier for me to know which gift belongs to which child!

Kids gifts included their own chairs that my Mom got them. They are super comfortable!

Santa brought Big Hero 6 toys, lots of Lego's

a Nabi DreamTab (seriously Nabi's are the best kids tablets!)

and lots of WiiU games, including Sonic: Rise of Lyric

Santa even brought an Andrew Luck jersey for the non-Dolphins fan in our house. Do you think he was excited?

JC got a new Xbox One controller, Nerf football, clothes and Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (we are obviously a gaming family!)

Santa remembered that I love cardigans and wanted a big crockpot badly!!

After all the present-opening craziness, the kids grabbed their Nintendo 3ds and got to playing their new games:

I was able to drag them away from their devices to get a family pic by the tree in our Christmas pj's (and a tutu, of course)!!!

After this my sisters, dad, niece and nephew came over for lunch and Amberly and Gian went home to celebrate Christmas with their mom! All in all it was an AMAZING day and one I will definitely remember. I'm hoping all the magic continues next year!!

Merry Christmas!!

 Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!! 

Northpole Breakfast 2014

A couple of weekends ago (yes I am THAT behind on posting) we had our Northpole Breakfast! I got this idea from Andrea at Momfessionals, who always shares all the amazing things she does with her kids. So, juse in case you are wondering, a Northpole Breakfast is a breakfast held after Thanksgiving and the Elf reappears. Well my kids had never had an Elf on the Shelf before and I wanted to make his appearance extra special for them! I set the table up the night before:

That's Buddy's tree. The kids were driving me nuts for a tree for their room this year so I got them this little one! I set it up with cute shatterproof mini ornaments and a sparkly skirt. 

I found these adorable plates at Target. I have seen them all over the blogosphere though so I'm pretty sure Target ran out. I bought the boys Santa and Amberly a snowman. On each plate was a letter introducing Buddy and a gift!

My kids love these jumbo marshamallows. We always have some in our pantry and this was a simple treat, just push in a candy stick and VOILA!!

THIS right here is the reason I do so much for my kids. These expressions right here do it for me. This is the joy of parenthood!! To say they were surprised is an understatement!

First, they each put on the elf hat that was on their chair and then they read their letters from Buddy. I had this fabulous printable ready for them and then I forgot to print them out so I had to write the letters last minute. Each letter mentioned that Santa had sent him to watch over them until Christmas and if they behaved, they would get those special gifts they had been wanting for a while. 

Then more excitement as they opened their gifts from Buddy:

This girl is a Rapunzel fan through and through and was super happy when Buddy brought her a Rapunzel ornament for their tree!

Darth Vader for Adrian

Rapuzel for Amberly

Spongebob for Gian

Then after a couple rounds of 20 questions about the Elf, we served them breakfast. JC made reindeer pancakes. I know usually kids have a sugar filled Northpole Breakfast but our kids are BIG pancake lovers and they would have cried and been miserable without pancakes. 

They really enjoyed their surprise. Oh and here comes my proud mom moment: as soon as they were done with breakfast, they sat at their little table by the TV and wrote thank-you notes without any encouragement from me! Yup, that will stay with me forever, that's how I know I am definitely doing something right!!

Buddy has since caused LOADS of mischief and the kids wake up super excited every morning to see what he has done. I enjoy the Elf and this Northpole Breakfast will definitely be happening again next year!!

How did you welcome your Elf on the Shelf?

Easy 30-minute Mini Cheesecakes & Holiday Party Tips! #TasteTheSeason

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc., and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #TasteTheSeason #CollectiveBias

Are you planning a holiday party? Trying to come up with a fun food ideas? Well then I have the perfect dessert for you to make: mini smores-inspired cheesecakes! These are my favorite dessert to make during the holiday season because they are easy to make and fun to eat. They bring in the deliciousness of cheesecakes and the goodness of a smore all into one! They only take a few ingredients and 30 minutes of your time!!

EASY 30-MINUTE MINI CHEESECAKES

Makes 24

Ingredients:

5-6 graham crackeres

2 tbsp melted butter

1 8 oz package Philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature

1 egg

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Kraft Jet-Puffed mini-marshmallows (about 3 per cheesecake)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line miniature muffin tins with paper liners.

In a bowl, crush graham crackers into fine crumbs. Pour melted butter over crumbs and with your hands work together. Place about 1/2 tsp (or a pinch) into each paper cup.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and creamy. 

Fill each muffin liner with the mixture almost to the top.

 Bake for 15 minutes. Cool in pan. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

When ready to serve, top each mini cheesecake with 3 mini marshmallows. Using a kitchen torch or a lighter, toast the marshmallows. Be careful not to get to close to the liners or they will catch fire!

Serve to your guests and get ready for lots and lots of compliments! The yummy taste of a warm marshmallow and cold chessecake is like heaven in your mouth!!

I want one right now! These are also a great make-ahead dessert. I have made them up to 3 days in advance and they hold up perfectly!

Everything you need to make these delicious cheesecakes and throw an amazing holiday party is available at Walmart!

HOLIDAY PARTY TIPS & TRICKS

My friends, planning a holiday party does not have to be stressful or expensive. Here are a few of my tips and tricks for an amazing holiday party!

1. USE WHAT YOU HAVE! Do not go out and buy decorations for a holiday party. I'm sure you have everything you need already. Borrow ornaments from your tree. Hang lights. Gather pine cones from outside and place them all over. Fill vases with ornaments. Cut paper snowflakes. 

2. PLAN A POTLUCK OR THEMED PARTY! Holiday parties are for having fun, not stressing over food in the kitchen. Plan a potluck and have everyone bring a dish. Plan a themed party such as a dessert party and state it in your invite. Desserts can even be made in advance or bought at the store!

3. ASSIGN DUTIES. Put the kids to work. Have them help you clean up and set out decorations. If a friends asks "Do you need help?" don't be afraid to say yes!

4. PURCHASE DISPOSABLE DINNERWARE. Do not set out your fine china for a party. Buy fun holiday plates and funny napkins. If you are serving wine, do set out your wine glasses, but everything else should be disposable.

5. DIY. If you need more decor, DIY. You do need to plan ahead for this but it is doable and can double as decor in your home for the rest of the month. Use printables.There are tons of free printables online that you can just print out, cut and set up! I even have this cute one for you to download!

Hope these tips and tricks help you out this holiday season! Oh and make the cheesecakes, your guests will love them!!

If you need more inspiration, check out the Cooking Up Good website. It has recipes, sweepstakes, loyalty programs, coupons and more! What's not to love? If you're looking for a new dinner idea or a chance to win some awesome prizes, be sure to check it out!

Northpole Gifts from Buddy the Elf! #NorthpoleFun

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc., and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NorthpoleFun #CollectiveBias


Has the Elf on the Shelf made his presence known in your home yet? Ours had and is a little on the crazy side and causes tons of mischief! He's done all the classic moves: trapped Adrian in his room, TP'd the tree and painted mustaches on pictures of Adrian. I am slowly running out of ideas and have been scouring the internet daily for more. What I noticed was that Buddy hasn't brought Adrian any gifts yet. I looked online and found a bunch of cute Hallmark Northpole Christmas gift ideas that Buddy could bring Adrian instead of causing so much mischief!

I know that Walmart carries the Northpole by Hallmark line of products so I went directly to that aisle, which happens to be right towards the front of the store. There were so many goodies to choose from! These toys are based off of the new movie coming out from Hallmark. 

I picked up a couple different products for Buddy to "gift" during the next couple of weeks! Amberly had mentioned that she wanted the Northpole Communicator so Buddy will be gifting this to her this weekend! The Northpole Communicator lets kids "talk" to Santa and the elves and they talk back!

I also purchased the "Once Upon A Time Christmas story & Find Me Santa Snowflake" set. This book tells the story of a little elf that helps saves Christmas. The Find Me, Santa Snowflake can be hung in a window, on the tree, doorknob, anywhere.

                         

Then I found a Magic Snowball, that lights up when you toss it, and a Polar Explorer Map with 2 sets of 3-D glasses. I told you, fun stuff!

One morning, when Adrian woke up, he couldn't find Buddy and was worried Buddy had done something crazy again. When he came downstairs to look for him, he found Buddy waiting for him with a magic snowball and the Christmas storybook. Adrian was thrilled and quite relieved that Buddy hadn't made a mess!

After tossing the snowball around for a while (we don't get snow here in Florida so anything that resembles a snowball will give hours of entertainment!) he sat down to read his new storybook. He read it slowly because he didn't want to miss anything the wee little elf did! It is a beautiful Christmas story!

Then we wrote his name on the snowflake and hung it in our tree. We tried it out to make sure it worked. It lights up and fades in and out from blue to green to purple to yellow. It will light up for 4 hours straight so we will make sure to light it up on Christmas Eve so Santa can find us!

Check out the Find Me, Santa Snowflake in action here:

I can't wait for Buddy to gift the other toys, maybe this weekend when all three kids are home!

Has your elf "gifted" your kids any of these Northpole toys?