Random Acts of Christmas Kindness

Wow, I love Christmas! Seriously, who doesn't love the atmosphere and the spirit in the air?

My boys tend to be a little spoiled at Christmas time. We explained to them this year it would not be as over indulgent as usual.



Whilst our family is not overly religious, I have been stressing the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Jesus' Birthday! The two young boys LOOOOOVE birthday parties so that's what I've been telling them Chrissie day is. One big birthday party. BUT I am also trying to make sure that they bring back the idea of giving, not just receiving.

I thought we best start in the home. All boys have picked out a Christmas present for their brothers and have paid for half of it out of their own pocket money.

Kmart have a Wishing Tree where you can donate money or gifts to people in need. The little ones are going to pick a present each and put it under the tree for other little ones that aren't as lucky as them.

I was racking my brains for some other ideas. Christmas cards for their friends with candy canes or choccies in the envelopes? Donating old toys to the Salvos? I ended up finding some blogs that are all to do with Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. I absolutely love some of these ideas for my boys, and decided I'd add the ones I thought of and make an advent calendar. Some days are treats, and some days have an activity.

Here are some of my favourites:

A random act of kindness... Love the simplicity of just writing someone a friendly note. I could imagine the smile on my face if that happened to me!

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness fb page Love everyone's input and the wide range of ideas shared across the board

Light 'Em Up Some more great ideas and really helpful print-outs!


The Daily Buzz Different ways to create your advent calendars

Hope this has inspired you to start a new tradition - It's never too late to start!


Merry Christmas to all and your families

To Vacation: Tasmania

Heya,

I haven't posted recently. I've had so much drama in my life right now and I thought I really owe it to myself to have a break and look at some of my photography.



It was my Mama's 50th Birthday in August and we all hopped a plane to Tassie to visit.

"Nonna" loving her new Brag Book

Bright and early we drove to Sydney Airport and lets just say we were excited, but slightly sleepy!

Unfortunately, the boys couldn't come with us :( but their card certainly did light up Nonna's day!

We went for brunch with the Birthday Girl and her lovely boyfriend.

Mum's reaction to her beautiful new iPad!

My brother had to work the weekend, so unfortunately he had to fly back on Saturday, but we all enjoyed spending time with him and meeting his new girlfriend.

I am warning you, when my sister and I get together, we tend to act a little silly. Everyone was just lucky she's pregnant and couldn't drink, otherwise the silliness gauge would be at EXTREME!

My Sister's Baby Bump and Me

I had such a great time with my family. We don't have to be doing anything, just spending time together is so great, and it's few and far between occasions now we are all grown and have our own families.

This place just had so much Character

I hope this post reminds you all of how important family is. Pick up the phone and tell them you love them! Family is the most precious gift you receive in your life.

To Cook: Hunger on Hump Day

Since being MIA for a little while, I have been catching up on reading some blogs that I have subscribed to. I am really starting to take an interest in Meal planning and freezer cooking, so I thought I’d share with you my first week of meal planning.

If you are at all like me, you succumb to the dreaded twelve shops a week. You only need one thing, and somehow you come out with ten items (and often, not one of those ten things are the original item you came to purchase!). This has started to become an issue as far as financially, and in food wastage and I don’t particularly feel like being on a first name basis with everyone at my local shopping centre.

I do my shopping mid week (pay day woo hoo!), so I wanted to start my weekly meal plan as of Wednesday. The print out starts from Sunday, but those meals will be for the following week, not the Sunday just gone.

I created a template that allows me to plan the three basic meals of each day and break them down into ingredients needed to create each dish. This way, my meal planner can be taken to the shops and used as a grocery list quite simply.

Here is my meal plan for this week:

I did a big shop last week, so most of the things I’ll be buying this week will purely be items needed for this menu.

***As a side note, the spaghetti sauce for Tuesday night has been pre-cooked and is currently sitting in my freezer. All I need to do is add pasta. I haven’t been freezer cooking for long, but I feel as though spaghetti and lasagne are my two favourite dishes to freeze because they aren’t altered all that much by the freezing process. Trial and error has taught me that some other dishes don’t freeze quite so well.

Hope you guys enjoyed the method in my madness.

I'd love to hear some other people's "go to" freezer meals.

With Christmas quickly approaching, I'll be posting some crafty little numbers very shortly!

Thanks for reading

To Create: Brag Book

Hi Guys,

It was my Mum’s 50^th Birthday last week and my sister wanted to do something really special for her and has asked for my help. Whilst we have the three boys and they are every bit my children, my family and I didn’t get to experience them from birth because they are my step sons.

In May we found out that my sister’s more than usual lethargic self (she is a chef, works upwards of 70hrs a week and suffers from transverse myelitis) was actually due to her growing a beautiful little human being! (Due Christmas Day and all) We are all so overjoyed it isn’t funny!

 

You know the Nanna’s Brag Book’s that you see? Well, my family is Italian, and we don’t have Nanna’s, we have Nonna’s. And we both seriously doubted we’d find a Nonna’s Brag Book.

 So here’s the one I’ve created

 

 

 

- 4x6 photo album from Kmart

- Embellishments (stickers, letters, etc)

The embellishments and letters I already had in my collection of scrapbooking bits and pieces, but the photo album literally cost me $3.00 from KMart.




Left to Right: The Love Heart is a puffy sticker in a set that my sister gave me last Christmas (not too sure where she got that from). The Red paper was from a booklet of papers I got from the Sewing and Art Show this year which is kind of oriental themed. The black glitter letters I bought from KMart a long time ago.

You could do this for any type of occasion. Birthday, Christmas, Easter, or perhaps even just a collection of your favourite memories and add the recipient’s name to the front cover.

Just to add an extra "Nawwww" of cuteness, here's the card that the littlies made for their Nonna's 50th Birthday. Aaron bought them a big poster board from the Newsagents, and we folded it in half to make a giant birthday card. Aren’t they just Darling?! I can’t wait until Mum gets her pressies! We are heading to Tassie on Thursday morning, and I’ll be taking the Nikon for a spin so be prepared for some boring family holiday blogging when I get back!

To Contact

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To Cook: Banana Bread

Hi All,


School Holidays just passed here, so I have been on the lookout for some fun activities to keep the kids entertained and out of mischief!

A while ago, I found a great website that's all about kids and teens. It's a great resource for recipes, health issues, parenting advice and advice for the young ones too!

I found this great Banana Bread recipe.

The only changes we made is to:

• Substitute the vegetable oil for Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Add slightly less sugar than the recipe requires
• We kept 5 slices of Banana aside until we poured the mix into the loaf pan, then placed them gently on top to add a little decoration!

I really recommend you try this recipe with your kids. We had some wonderful bonding time this morning, and now with a little salt reduced butter, and a sprinkle of cinammon we have a yummy treat for snack time!

To Cook: Pretty Patties

Do your kids love Spongebob Squarepants?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I insist you Google Spongebob immediately!

For those who do know the lovable sponge and his underwater friends, you must try these with your little one.

Spongebob is a fry cook who works at the Krusty Krab. He had dreams of creating a Krabby Patty with a twist

And so did the Ankle Biter and I one day when we were filled with boredom and I had nothing for dinner.

I started with:

• 1kg of mince (any kind, I used chicken because that's what we like best)
• Garlic minced
• Mixed herbs
• 1 large onion, grated
• 1 carrot peeled and grated
• And of course, multiple food colourings

1. Wash those grubby hands!!
2. Pull out a few bowls and separate the mince evenly amongst them, mixing through the garlic and herbs (I like to do this with my hands as it's fun for the kids and I find it's the best way to really get the flavour through the meat)
3. Add the grated goodies to each bowl and mix in (I like to include carrot just to add a bit of veg. I've tried capsicum, but that was NOT a hit with the family. You can add anything extra you like, but I'd suggest to make it small)
4. Put in a couple of drops of food colouring, but make sure that you add it gradually. You can easily make them darker, but making them lighter is not so easy!
5. Once you're happy with colour and consistency, heat some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a pan OR fire up the barbeque
6. Roll your mince into balls and chuck them into your pan/onto the BBQ. I used the end of my potato masher to squish them into little burger patties

(these ones are uncooked but the colour really does stay better than I thought it would once you cook them)

And Voila! You have a gorgeous plate of pretty patties that the kids are bound to enjoy