Thanksgiving Eve Traditions

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  It may seem funny that I haven't posted in weeks, and yet here I am on Thanksgiving morning.  I was up feeding my little one at 6:00, and couldn't go back to sleep.  So, I decided to take advantage of the quiet, sleeping house and pop in for a quick hello.

I was going to just repost some fun ideas for Thanksgiving Eve today, but when I went to copy the HTML to paste in this post, I lost it!  So, today's ideas are a repost, but the post itself is new as of today.

What do you do on Thanksgiving Eve?  Are you out Black Friday shopping?  We aren't ever, so it's fun to have some traditions to ring in the Christmas season.  Here are a few of the things we do/ I want to start doing.

THANKSGIVING EVE TRADITIONS
Unwrap Christmas pajamas
Decorate gingerbread houses
Decorate your Christmas tree
Make your Christmas list
Get out the Christmas music (if you haven't already)
Read a Christmas book
Watch a Christmas movie
Make a Christmas countdown  

These are just a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing.  I'd love to hear what you do to usher in the holidays!  I'm always looking for new traditions!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  Enjoy this wonderful day of thanks, and great food!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you found a little something worth your time.

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Nacho Chedder Halloween Popcorn

Well, we're still anxiously awaiting baby boy number four as of today.  This little guy has an agenda all his own.  I've been early, and my water has broke with my other boys.  No water breaking, and I've all but reached my due date.  I do have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning.  Hopefully I'll have a better idea about when he'll be here after that.  We cannot wait!!

So, today's recipe is a bit of a cheat.  Over the weekend we had a big birthday bash for all three of our boys.  It's the one time of year I get to go all out and put on a bit of a spread.  I wish I could have done more, but being a week away from delivery slows you down a bit!  

I did manage to pull a few shortcuts that made the food pretty simple.  Like this nacho cheddar popcorn.  I knew I wanted to do some type of popcorn, and considered making a fantastic homemade concoction, but that didn't quite happen.  

Source

What I ended up doing was popping my own popcorn, and then topping it with melted butter, and this Kernel Season's Nacho Chedder popcorn seasoning (I found mine at Walmart).

It was a total hit!  The kids loved the nacho cheddar flavor, and even the adults were hooked!  The orange color was fantastic, and with a black creepy crawler or two on top, it became even more Halloween-ish. 

So, even if you're not expecting a baby in the next day or two, you could probably use a quick and simple Halloween treat.  This nacho cheddar popcorn is a great go-to!  My boys have even requested it three or four times since the party (which was just four days ago).  And I have to say, I have a hard time stopping once I've started.  Popcorn has that effect on me.  Anyone else?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

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Printable Halloween Countdown

I've been sneaking in a lot more Halloween posts into September than usual.  Maybe it's because I know at some point next month this little baby will be born, and blogging may take a backseat for awhile.  But I hate to not get some fun Halloween content posted, so I'm getting it done now.

Click to Print

And today's printable is actually a time-sensitive one.  A simple Halloween countdown.  It is a bit last-minute, but luckily it can be printed out with the click of a button, and you'll be all ready to go for the big countdown starting tomorrow.  I love that Halloween is the very last day of the month.  That means lots of days to do fun activities, and anticipate the big day!

Let the spooky countdown begin!

DIY Recycled Toilet Paper Roll Halloween Advent Countdown

This is the other countdown that will be beginning at our house tomorrow.  A simple toilet paper roll covered in cute paper with a little treat and activity inside for each day.  My boys LOVE doing this every year, and so do I!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

Free Halloween Garlands from PicMonkey

I love Halloween just as much as the next person (and probably more so), and I don't even decorate for it until October first.  But, if you're wanting to make a few new decorations for the spooky holiday, then now is the perfect time to get going on them.

If you've been here before, then you know I'm in love with PicMonkey!  I love it year round, but their Halloween themes have to be my favorites!  Today's four free garlands are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to their selection of Halloween images you can use.  As always, there are plenty of free items to use on PicMonkey, but you can always pay the Royale fee ($4.99/month or $33/year) and have access to EVERYTHING they offer.

As always, after you've chosen 'Edit' from PicMonkey's home page, and you've chosen what you want to edit (I just used a plain white document to edit I have saved on my desktop), then you'll see this sidebar come up on the left.  Click on the apple icon at the very bottom of the menu.

'School U' will be the first theme you see, but right under that you'll see all the Halloween themes.  Scroll down just a bit to the 'Trick or Treat' theme.

Once you've click on that, you'll see all these great Halloween overlays appear. 

 Click on 'Grim Garlands' and you'll see all four of these fantastic free garlands appear.  Simply click on the garland you want and then use it as you'd like.  You can change the size, color, and tilt.  Just experiment with them and find what look you're going for.

Here are two printables I created last year using the Grim Garlands.

Trick or Treat Printable

Happy Halloween Printable

These garlands would be perfect on any Halloween invitations your sending out for parties this year, for creating your own printable to hang on the wall, or anything else you can come up with!  I love how easy they are to use, and experimenting with all the different possibilities!  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.

America The Beautiful Printable

We've doubled the amount of kids at our house over the past few days (tending cousins) and so I'm a bit busier than normal.  It's been nothing but fun around here, and my boys are loving every minute of it, but finding time to blog is a bit tricky to say the least!

Click to Print

However, I did manage to get one last 4th of July printable done for today.  I really do love the beauty of America!  I haven't been all over the country, but I've found beautiful sights every place I have been.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

P.S.  My Google Drive is acting up this morning.  I will have it fixed by the end of the day, so if you're needing to print today's printable, check back this evening.  Thanks!

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Patriotic Sugar Cookies {Kneaders Recipe}

I always love a good excuse to make a festive dessert.  And as cute as these sugar cookies are, I have to say they taste just as amazing as they look!  Actually, I think they taste slightly better than they look (yes, the flavor is that good!).

In the past, the sugar cookie recipes I've tried have been fine, if I've layered with tons of frosting on top to cover up the bland taste of the actual cookie.  But this recipe from Kneaders is amazing!  I posted the recipe here a year ago for some valentine cookies, and raved about the great flavor of the cookie. There's a bit of honey, nutmeg, and lemon flavoring in the cookie.  So unique to the other sugar cookie recipes I've tried.  I can even eat these without frosting!  Of course I don't very often because frosting does make everything better, but I could.

 And, if I'm going to go to all the work of making the dough, rolling it out, cooking the cookies, frosting them, and decorating them, it's so nice to have the end product worth it, and believe me these are!  The recipe also makes a ton (and I always half it) which is great because you can make the dough once and have plenty of cookies to go around!

The perfect combination of deliciousness and  red, white, and blue!

And, in case you missed last week's recipe, you can check it out here.  Another great patriotic dessert you can use for your holiday party!

Fresh Strawberry Shake

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

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Land That I Love Printable

I love creating just about anything for every holiday, but the 4th of July is especially fun!  It might have something to do with my birthday being the day after, but I've always had an extra special place in my heart for fireworks, patriotism, and of course the red, white, and blue!

Click to Print

I'm kind of on a star kick lately.  If you visited me last Friday, then you saw my matchbox printables I shared over at twelveOeight, and the stars on today's printable may look a bit familiar.

I really do love this prosperous, free, beautiful land I'm so blessed to call home!  There are amazing places to travel, and new things to see, but nothing beats home sweet home!

And here are a few other patriotic printables from last year you can check out.

Click to Print

Click to Print

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you found a little something worth your time.

Linking up to these parties & Savvy Southern Style.