Holiday Cookies (GFCF) for Santa!

I think I've started a new tradition that will stick with us for many years! The day before Christmas Eve Logan and I made Christmas cookies for Santa Clause and Logan had such a blast helping me! We made gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies. Gluten free/casein free of course! They really taste fantastic, you can't even tell that they are GFCF.

I'm usually so busy Christmas Eve because I'm cleaning the house, cooking dinner and wrapping last minute gifts so I knew I wouldn't have time to make Santa some cookies too. That is why the day before Christmas Eve I recruited my favorite little boy to help me make cookies while Lily was taking a nap.

He did so great! He helped me mix the gingerbread ones and he cut out almost all of the little gingerbread men. I had him pat it down like it was play dough and then use the cookie cutter to make them. He also helped me tear off the excess and then I would place the gingerbread man onto the cookie sheet. We sprinkled them with sugar then into the oven they went! He was just thrilled when they were done baking and exclaimed to me "I'm eating his head and it's good!" when he took his first bite. LOL.

I also made gluten free, casein free chocolate chip cookies. This recipe is from Special Diets for Special Kids and it was modeled after Toll-house chocolate chip cookies. For the casein free chocolate chips, I use Enjoy Life brand. You can pick them up at any Cub Foods or Coborns. The cookies are fantastic, even Lily was chowing them down! I'm honestly thrilled that I can make these for my kids because they taste great. I can't wait to make cookies for Santa Clause next year. Maybe Lily will be able to help!


Below are the Recipes for the cookies.

GFCF Gingerbread Men

1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free all purpose baking flour
1/3 cup Tapioca starch
2 TBL spoons ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil (or other vegetable oil)
1/4 Molasses
2 TBL spoons water

Bake cookeis at 350 F on a greased cookie sheet for 14 minutes.

Combine dry ingredients into a large bowl then add the oil, molasses and water. Mix with a mixer until the dough is crumbly, then knead with your hands until it is the consistency of play dough. Flour your cutting board with a little tapioca starch then roll out or pat down until it is 1/4 inch thick. Use a gingerbread man cookie cutter and cut out cookies. After tearing out each man, smoosh the dough into a ball and re-roll again to cut out each additional cookie.



GFCF Chocolate Chip

2 cups of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup potato or Tapioca starch
2 tsp Xanthan Gum
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup of CF margarine or Ghee
2 eggs* (or the equivalent of one egg if using EnerG egg replacer)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 a bag Enjoy Life GFCF chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts chopped (optional)

Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix with a mixer until the mixture is wet and gooey. Roll cookies into balls and place on greased cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes. You can also make cookie bars by placing the mixture into an 8" square pan and baking for approximately 20 minutes.

Macy's 8th Floor 2009

Every year, Macy's does a fantastic Christmas display on their 8th floor. They've had this tradition for a very long time, forty seven years to be exact! They do an excellent job coming up with themes and creating a beautiful display around that theme.

This year, it was "A Day in the Life of an Elf!" and it was sooooo cute! They showed the elfs doing various chores at Santa's estate in the North Pole. They had them baking cookies, working in the toy workshop, going to school, sleeping and singing carols. They also had a majestic forest of singing Christmas trees.


It was so cool to see the children just fascinated by all of the cool things to look at! Logan was thrilled because everything was just about his size. He wanted so badly to climb up on the displays and play around in the kitchen or climb up onto one of the elf bunk beds. He did an amazing job of restraining himself and just looking with his "looking eyes."

Lily was tired by the time we got up to the display so she was a little cranky. We did have to wait in line for about 20 minutes before making it inside but once we were actually going through it she was OK. She wanted to get down and touch and being a two year old couldn't understand why we weren't allowing her to touch all the pretty things.

It was a very successful trip and even though Lily was a little too young to understand the concept of just looking at all the rooms I think she enjoyed what she saw. I know that next year it will be even more memorable. I've heard that Macy's is going to stop doing the holiday display so I wanted to take my kids to it at least once just in case they decide to discontinue this wonderful tradition. I really hope that they decide to do it every year but I guess we will have to wait and see. What is that saying again? Oh yeah, "All good things must end." I'm just wishing it would end 50 years from now!

2009 Holiday Train

Every year the Canadian Pacific Rail Road does a Holiday train that crosses the entire United States and parts of Canada. They decorate the train in Christmas lights and have a band play music out of one of the cars.

The goal is also to collect food for the food shelf. Logan absolutely loves trains, and this is such a good cause that we had to go this year. It stopped in Buffalo at 6:00 PM on Monday, December 14th. Boy, was it a sight to see!

Logan squealed with delight as the train blew its whistle and puffed into the "station". Everyone cheered and it was so cool to see a train decorated with gazillions of Christmas lights. Although the night was very very cold, the kids did a great job of braving the weather.

The organizers had free cider and hot cocoa for everyone and there was a group of carolers there that handed out bells to the kids so they could jingle their bells and sing along. Second Hand Rose, an antique shop, even brought in Santa! We had Logan and Lily go in and warm up for a bit and sit on his lap.

When we were done with that we went back outside just in time to catch the band start playing Christmas tunes. Logan made me hold him up so he could see where the music was coming from. The crowd was singing along and generally in good cheer.

After the kiddos got too cold, we decided to take them to Culver's for dinner. They both had a burger and we talked about the Holiday train and how much fun it was to see it. Definitely something to do again next year!

Sledding With the Kiddos 2009

We decided to take the kiddos sledding for the first time this winter on Sunday, December 13, 2009. It was Lily's first time ever sledding and Logan's second year of enjoying this wonderful Minnesota tradition.

We have some awesome sledding hills in St. Michael! The one we frequent is behind the community center playground. It is a great little sledding hill that leads down to the soccer field and they even put lights on in the evening so the kids can see where they are going.

It was Sunday, the day was dragging and Mike and I were looking for ways to keep the kids entertained. Logan wanted to go out in the yard and make snow angels. As I started putting on my snowpants, I mentioned to Mike we should take the kids sledding instead. He thought that was a great idea. So we all put on our snow gear and headed to the hill.

Lily had the best time! She is such a little dare devil. We strapped her into the little red sled and Mike would run down the hill with her. She had the biggest smile and her face and would exclaim "weeeeeeee" and giggle when she went down.

Logan went down with mommy the first few times but after a few times he wanted to go by himself! He did just great and had such a fun time. I think this will be an activity we will be doing quite often this winter. I can't wait until they are a little bigger so we can go snow tubing at Elm Creek Park Reserve and also get them on skis or snowboards. :)

After we were done with sledding, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights before going home. It was such a fun winter Sunday with my family. We are so blessed.

Elf Yourself

This is hilarious! Just watch the video.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Santa Clause 2009

This year we decided to take Logan and Lily to Cabela's to see Santa Clause. Every year they offer a complimentary photo with Santa! Who can beat that?! They do a really fantastic set up in front of the upstairs stone fireplace. They take your picture, have it printed in about 10 minutes and the kids get free face painting or a candy cane when they are done. They don't advertise this much so there was no line! Mike went to park the car and by the time he got upstairs we were done with photo.

It went so quickly we were able to go buy Logan a pair of hockey skates at the local sporting goods store. We plan on getting him on those puppies this winter but need to find some knee pads first. We are gonna be hitting up Cabela's every year for Santa, you just can't beat free and fast. :)


Logan was so excited to sit on Santa's lap again (he did the day before at the ECFE holiday party) and didn't really inquire why Santa was still in town. ;) He was just happy that he got to tell him what he wanted again.

I thought that Lily might be a bit nervous, she was last year and the picture we got of the two of them wasn't great because she kept looking up at him or at her brother the entire time. This year was a different story! I think it is the best Santa picture yet! They both were so good, even said "cheese". This picture is definitely one for the scrapbook!

Early Childhood & Family Education Christmas Party

We are so blessed to have a really wonderful Early Childhood and Family Education program in St. Michael. We enroll our kids in classes every year and they enjoy them so much! Not only does our program offer quality classes to babies through preschoolers, they also provide family field trips and family parties.

This year we took Logan and Lily to the ECFE Christmas Party and it was such a blast! They had each of the classrooms decked out with a theme. Each child was given a bag to collect treats and prizes in for playing Christmas themed games and completing craft projects.

The first room we went to was the "Gingerbread Man Cookie Room." They had made play dough that actually smelled liked gingerbread cookies. All sorts of cookie cutters were set out for the kids, and then they had three stations of play kitchens where the kids could "bake" cookies. Logan and Lily both loved this! Also in this room they had a bean bag toss where you had to toss the bags through little holes with a barn scene from Jesus' birth.

Next they had the snow room! Logan and Lily really enjoy sensory stuff so they had a great time playing with the shredded tissue paper that looked like snow. They also had some really cute play houses decorated in "lights" and "wreaths". The kiddos got a kick out of playing in them when they were decorated.

Then we went across the hall to the Santa & Mrs. Clause room. The kids were able to write a letter to santa and put it in a mailbox that actually looked like a miniature postal service box. Logan and Lily also colored pictures patiently waiting for Santa & Mrs. Clause to arrive. They were one of the first kids in line and got their picture taken with them. This year, neither kid was shy and Logan even told Santa what toy he wanted! You should have seen how excited he was to sit on his lap!

Next we went to the Reindeer Room where Logan and Lily made reindeer hats that they still have. We pasted on googly eyes and a pom pom nose and fitted them to their head. Another activity was having reindeers set up with different nose colors and having the kids match felt pom poms to each nose color. Lily and Logan sat down and colored reindeers too. Mommy and Lily took a picture in the hand made reindeer photo cutout.

I think our ECFE program did a fantastic job and the kids had so much fun! I had so much fun just watching my kids have a blast and I'm really thankful that we have a community that cares so much about young families and their little ones to do programs like this. We are blessed to live here. :)

TO SEE THE IMAGES IN LARGER SIZES JUST CLICK ON THEM.

Great Grandma & Grandpa Klein

We decided to go visit Mike's grandparents, Grandma & Grandpa Klein, a little over a week ago. We brought our rambunctious toddler and preschooler and they had a great time running around their place. Logan loved to jump on their bed and Lily entertained herself by getting into Great Grandma Kleins sewing materials and dumping buttons all over the floor. (Which I had to clean up quickly!) They were also very attracted to the fireplace and Logan would say "Look, it's a fire!" with glee.

They also really enjoyed singing songs for Great Grandma and Grandpa, especially Jingle Bells. Logan and Lily had a juice box, then posed for pictures. We couldn't get them to sit still for very long because it was close to their bed time and they always get very silly and hyper when it is time for them to go to bed. Logan fell asleep on the way home and Lily went down as soon as we got home without a peep.

Great Grandma & Grandpa Klein are in our prayers as they face this trying time. We hope to support them throughout their health issues. Please say a prayer for them, we love them very much.

The Christmas Card

Ya know, I never really got into the whole Christmas card thing until Mike and I got married. My mom didn't do them consistently, especially when we got older and busier with sports and school and work. I think she gave up by the time I was a teenager so I don't remember ever sending them out. Well at some point (I think it was the 2nd or 3rd year we were married) I decided it would be a great idea to start the tradition of sending out a photo card and a Christmas letter. I gave up on the Christmas letter because I don't have time to sit down and come up with all the clever things we've done the past year. I think the Christmas photo cards are priceless and so we keep doing them.

For 2009, I thought it would be wonderfully fun to post all of the Christmas Cards from the past and also include the one we will send out this year. I have discovered digital scrapbooking! I love regular old fashioned scrapbooking and will continue to do it so that my kids can have something to actually page through when they are adults, however, digital scrapbooking is pretty cool too. I like to use it for making inspiration boards for my wedding planning blog but I've also found that it is fun to use it to make a unique photo card. Yes, I've spent endless hours geeking out on the computer to create our Christmas card. :)

Here is the card for 2009:

I'm also including the collection of cards from years past. I keep one every year and scrapbook it so that we can look back at our memories from Christmas time.

Hansen Tree Farm

Mike and I have had a real tree for Christmas since the first year we were married. We've continued the tradition with our children and up until this year, we always got our tree from a "tree lot" in St. Michael.

We decided that this year Logan would be old enough to enjoy going to a Christmas Tree farm and we would cut our own tree. (Lily is a trooper and likes to do EVERYTHING her big brother is into, so we figured she would enjoy this little outing as well.) We found the most perfect Christmas Tree farm in Anoka. It is called Hansen Tree farm and they have a huge selection of trees.

You can cut down your own tree, or they do have pre-cut ones available...but what is the fun in that? We took the kids to the Blue Spruce section and we walked around the field for awhile looking for a great tree. Mike wanted a short fat one, and I wanted a taller skinnier one. Hmmm, sounds familiar. Maybe our Christmas tree tastes echo what we are drawn to aesthetically. LOL.

In the end we let Logan help us decide. He really liked them all so mommy pointed to the one she wanted and he agreed with me. I think it was a good compromise, it was taller and fatter. Mike then set about cutting the tree down and the kids were excited to watch him do this.

After we picked our tree, we took the kids on a hay ride. They loved that, and it is great to be reminded how simple things are so fantastically fun when you are with exuberant children. We also hung out by the fire, enjoyed some warm cider and hot dogs. Logan and Lily also played in their miniature log cabin while Mike payed for the tree. (He felt the price was a little high but I reminded him we are paying for the experience, not just the tree.) The kids really had a great time and it is a memory I will always cherish. I would really recommend Hansen Tree farm if you are in the area, they have a neat little corner of Minnesota. http://www.hansentreefarm.com/

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle All The Way....

Logan and Lily have really gotten me into the Christmas spirit this year! They sing songs like "Jingle Bells", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and "O Christmas Tree". It is so darn cute and they absolutely love listening to the radio with all the Christmas music. Logan is so excited about Santa Clause this year and every night for a bedtime story he wants to hear "The Night before Christmas."

Here is a video of my precious itty bitties singing "Jingle Bells!" It's so funny because Lily tries so hard to sing all the words!