Celebrate Life!

This morning, Alabama wanted to make hot chocolate mix for a gift for her music teacher's birthday.   Thankfully, I had enough powdered milk, so we quickly mixed up a batch before school. Were we late for school?  ....ha ha, guess you'll never know!!  Actually, they got to the bus stop AS the bus was coming down the street, so yes, they did make it on time!! The first recipe is the one Jeff remembers his Mom making for him when he was little. Grandma Marjeans Hot Cocoa Recipe: 9 Cups Dry Milk Powder 3 Cups Nestle's Quik 2 Cups Coffee Mate Creamor 1 Cup Icing Sugar Mix Together.  Simple Hot Chocolate Recipe : (We made this recipe.   I usually don't have Nestle Quick on hand.) 14 Cups Dry Milk Powder 3  Cups Icing Sugar 2 Cups Cocoa Powder 3/4 Cup Brown Sugar 1 Cup White Sugar 1/2 tsp. Salt Mix Together. Measure 1/3 Cup of Mix to a mug. Pour hot water in and stir. Add Marshmellows if you like.

Crockpot Apple Butter Adapted from Shirley's Apple Butter Page 18 Fix It and Forget It Dawn Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good 4 quarts finely chopped tart apples 2 3/4 cups sugar 2 3/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. ground cloves 1/8 tsp. salt First place apples into crockpot. Combine spices and sugar and pour over the apples. Stir well. Place lid on crockpot and turn to High for 3 hours. Make sure you stir the apples every hour. After 3 hours, turn heat down to low and cook for 10-12 hours more. Stir occasionally during this time with a wire whisk. The whisk allows you to break up the apple pieces into a sauce. Apple butter will become thick and dark as it cooks. You can freeze or can to preserve. To can, simply ladle hot apple butter into sterilized canning jars. Screw lids on to seal. Tip: If your jars are clean and DRY, you can pour hot applebutter directly into the jars. If your jars are wet - they may burst or

11 Steps to Cruise Stress Free Through the Holidays | FlyLady.net This is the time of year I start thinking about getting ready for Christmas. Yes, I know it seems early! I'd rather prepare early, then be stressed out and running around shopping on the days of the celebrations.  I want to be able to relax and have a good time,  too! I love the Flylady's way of "Cruising through the Holidays." Years ago I signed up for her daily emails called Holiday Cruising Missions. Each day she emails a small thing to do to set you up to enjoy the month of December.  All the fun parties, events, gift that you want to give, all ready to go by December 1st.   Check it out at Flylady.net and sign up for her Holiday Cruising Missions. Trevor and Dylan playing Memory together..... Attempting to play Scrabble together.... I want to be able to smile and enjoy my babies!!

This is a fun recipe to make with kids. Get out a small mixing bowl for 1-2 kids. We made 3 bowls, with 6 kids, just pair the little ones up with the bigger ones. Have the measuring cups and spoons ready with the appropriate ingrediant. It worked really well to have each group take one cup of flour first, then move onto the salt, etc.  putting away each ingrediant to minimize the mess!! Play dough Recipe 1 Cup Flour 1/2 Cup Salt 2 Tb Cream of Tarter Mix together then add: 1Tb Oil 1 Cup Cold Water Food Coloring At this point once it is mixed throughly you are ready to pour the mixture into a medium size kettle. Cook at a medium high heat, stirring constantly. I had the older kids stirring until it started to thicken. Then you need to stir vigourously until all the playdough forms away from the sides. Remove from heat and knead gently with your hands. Be careful, the playdough is hot! Let it cool off and the kids can have a blast playi