I’m busy doing some freelance work and don’t have time to write about ideas you can do on New Year’s Eve with your grandchildren.  (I hate it when that happens.)

So, I thought that I would link to a couple of posts that I have written in times past. (Is that lazy or what…?)

Celebrate New Year’s Eve with grandchildren

New Year’s Eve party with grandchildren

Treats for New Year’s Eve

Punch for New Year’s Eve

My husband is on call New Year’s Eve so our celebrations will not be as wild nor as long into the wee hours of the morning as we have done in the past.  We just might pop in a video, munch on popcorn, and have a quiet cozy evening just the two of us. (Unless I can convince my 85 year-old mother to play Beatle’s Rock Band with me…)

Monday night, our next door neighbors dropped off a little treat/Christmas gift. The wife is always so clever and this year was more of the same.

See that cute snowman in the picture to the left?  She made it.

When they delivered it, she also recited a poem that she learned in the first grade.

Well, I’ve never seen this snowman idea before and I hadn’t heard of the poem either. I was duly impressed.  Cute, cute, cute.

To make the snowman, she printed up the ‘snowman’ face on white paper.  She wrapped it around a large box of Milk Duds.(You can use any large ‘stadium’ sized box of candy.)  She cut a small piece of fleece for the neck scarf. She got a pair of gloves and stuffed one glove inside the other. She pulled the gloves over the box of Milk Duds to create a hat.  She tied raffia just below the fingers to make the fingers look like a pom pom on the hat.

Here’s a copy of the poem that she recited.

ONCE THERE WAS A SNOWMAN

author unknown

Once there was a snowman,
Who stood outside my door,
He wished that he could come inside,
And run about the floor.
He wished that he could warm himself,
Beside the fire, so red,
He wished that he could climb upon
The big white bed.

So he called to the North Wind,
“Come and help me, pray,
For I’m completely frozen,
Standing here all day.”
So the North Wind came along,
And blew him in the door,
And now there’s nothing left of him,
But a puddle on the floor!

This would be an easy thing to make as a stocking stuffer or a Christmas treat to give to grandchildren.  Or, you could help your grandchildren make some snowmen to give to their friends.  Or, you could make the snowman as a decoration by using an empty box.  (Don’t want to let the candy get stale, now do we?)

Here is a copy of the snowman wrapper.  Print it up, color the nose, the heart, and add a bit of color for the cheeks, and wrap it around your box of candy.

Then, it would be fun to make these Snowman Faces cookies. Pillsbury has easy to follow directions for these little fellas.

Treats.

Isn’t that what the holiday season is all about?  Making and eating and eating and eating treats and goodies?  I thought so.

And, I’m all for easy — treats that are easy to make and easy to eat. (Is there any treat that ISN’T easy to eat? Mmmm?)

Dipped pretzels fits the easy category — especially the easy eating one.  When I stumbled upon the caramel covered pretzel sticks, I knew immediately that this was a keeper.

Here’s the link to the caramel dipped pretzel rods. This site has a step-by-step tutorial and great pictures so you know exactly how to make them.

This are easy to make with grandchildren.  They would be a fun treat for them to make and give to their friends.

If your grandchildren live far away, this would be something that would be light-weight to mail and survive the jostling.  (It might be a tad late to get them in the mail for this Christmas.  But you can tuck this idea away for next year, can’t you?)

Making some of these could be part of your family activities when they get together on Christmas Eve.

Enjoy!

My husband and I spent the weekend in Salt Lake City. We did quite a bit of walking and it was chilly.

Chilly? Chilly? Who am I kidding? It was downright freezing cold.

It made me wish that we had some wassail to drink when we got back to the condo.

I have a wassail recipe that I want to share with you.  It is way easy to make — especially with grandchildren.

Wassail

2 cups Tang
1 3-oz. package pre-sweetened powdered lemonade Kool-Aid
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.  Mix well. Store in an airtight container.  When you want a drink, simply mix 2-3 teaspoons of the mix in one cup of hot water.

See?  I told you it was easy.

Your grandchild could give some of the wassail mix to a friend along with a fun mug.  Put the mix in a Ziplock bag and put the bag in the mug and wrap the mug in clear cellophane paper and add a bow.

Maybe you ought to double the recipe so that you can mix up some and drink with your grandchild when you are finished.

Yum!  Warm, cozy, and tasty.