HOLIDAY FUN & FOOD!

I love this time of year and with seven grandchildren, I get to be like a kid again through them. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Annisa brought all the ingredients for the kids to make gingerbread houses - kid style!

Using orange juice cartoons as a base, they covered the cartoons in icing and then began creating their houses with all kinds of goodies!
Even little Emme got in on the action! She was fascinated with the marshmallows!
Kari was so focused on creating her house and surprisingly, most of the icing went on the carton and not on her!Our budding engineer, Aidan, definitely had a plan in mind in designing his creation. Note the smiley face he created on the side of the house!
Sasha created quite an entrance to her house! Love the peppermint walkway!
The kiddos designed and created quite a village of unique designs. The sign that Aidan drew and placed strategically in the center of town reads: "Candy Land." We didn't know that he did it until later. How appropriate!This weekend while Cory and Annisa were in New York City for the weekend, Jim and I were in charge of the Meyers brood. Yes, that is a tent in the middle of our family room! On Saturday, they stayed in their Pjs for movie viewing day from the tent!
We also spent time making Christmas tree ornaments and coloring poster pictures. The girls love to do anything artistic and creative.
Little Dixon also joined in with artwork while Pap read his book!Later we discovered that Dixon found the perfect spot to munch on his yogurt cherrios! Check out those cool Pjs!
I spent some time baking. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Tastefully Simple's creamy caramel sauce. So I created my own version of a one crust apple pie. I used a ready made pie crust for the bottom. Tossed sliced apples with cornstarch, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and two Tbsp. of the Creamy Caramel Sauce. Then I dotted the top with butter and baked for about 45 minutes at 375 degrees. After I pulled my creation from the oven, I drizzled more caramel sauce over the top. The only sugar in the pie is the natural sugar of the apples and a little caramel sauce. It was absolutely DELICIOUS!
I can't take credit for these phenomenal truffles made with Tastefully Simple's Triple Fudge Brownie mix. (Recipe is on the website). Becky made these for her holiday Tastefully Simple Open House this weekend. OMG - these are ridiculously good!
I am so glad all three daughters sell Tastefully Simple, so I never run out of my favorite products like these! Tonight I made the Potato soup and threw in leftover chicken and veges. What a wonderfully easy dinner for a cold winter night! I don't think a day goes by that I am not using a TS product. I think Flavors Of India chicken will be on the menu this week.
This is such a hectic, but wonderful time of the year. Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends all over the world! Next post will include some funny holiday pictures!