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Quick and Easy Holiday Treats To Make With The Kids
Are you looking for a way to keep your children busy during holiday break? One great way to have them contribute to the holiday festivities is to have them help make holiday treats. In many families cookies are an important part of the holiday tradition. Even if your children aren’t able to bake yet, they […]
Continue readingSimple Ideas To Get Into The Christmas Spirit
Want to decorate your home but don’t have a lot of time, energy or money? Here are some quick and easy ways to create a festive mood. Idea #1: Grab a few candles, place them in the center of your table and light them. The twinkling adds instant ambiance. If you have a decorative plate, […]
Continue readingSpread Holiday Cheer With Christmas Cards
Each year without fail, a few days after Thanksgiving we get a Christmas card from my husband’s grandmother. It always makes me smile. And it’s a great reminder that I need to sit down and write my own Christmas cards. For a few days the card sits all by itself on a shelf in our […]
Continue readingCreating Family Holiday Traditions
One of the best things about the Christmas season is the family traditions we grew up with and get to pass on to our children. Early in my marriage it was sometimes a bit of a challenge, but also always fun to merge the traditions I learned from my German family with those of my […]
Continue readingHow To Make Buckeye Cookies
My daughter went to a Christmas party for her 4-H group this week and made buckeye candy. Some call it cookies, some call it candy. Either way, it is delicious. I’ve eaten plenty of buckeyes (including some she brought home the other day), but I’d never made them myself. My daughter was excited to be able […]
Continue readingFrugal Ways To Wrap Your Presents
I love looking at all the fancy wrapping paper in the store. And without fail, I get some serious sticker shock when I look at how much it sells for. I’m just a little too frugal at heart to spend that much on something that will just be ripped up. Here’s what we do instead […]
Continue readingThe History Of The Christmas Tree
Did you put your tree up yet? We spend some time setting up ours over the weekend. My daughter has been very interested in traditions and where they come from this year. We did a little research on the history of Christmas trees and discovered some interesting facts. I thought I’d share what we found […]
Continue readingThings I wish I knew about Christmas when I was raising my children
The following was written by my friend Faydra. She has some great points about what’s truely important around Christmas. It isn’t the things we buy our kids or the expensive trips we take. True Christmas magic happens while liking a spoon of cookie dough or reading a favorite Christmas story… but I don’t want to […]
Continue readingSpiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
I’m a big fan of oatmeal raisin cookies and make them throughout the year. Sometimes I leave the raisins out, sometimes I use chopped apple instead. In December though, I take things to another level with these holiday spiced oatmeal cookies. The spices and nuts take this from a rather plain cookie to something really […]
Continue readingAdvent Calendar Day 10 – Cookies, Cookies Everywhere
The cookie plates I took to the neighbors that I told you about a few days ago were a huge hit. Sadly between making a few extra of those and all our incredible cookie eating skills, my large Christmas cookie tin is empty again as of last night. We took a vote after dinner last […]
Continue readingAdvent Calendar Day 7 – In Need Of Extra Christmas Cash?
One of my favorite things about Christmas is being able to give meaningful gifts to the people I love. Of course all that extra buying and making of things costs money, no matter how frugal I try to be. Since money is a little tight for us this year, and we happen to have too […]
Continue readingChristmas Eve Boxes For the Kids
Many of you know that we are a culturally mixed household. My husband is from the South, I’m from Germany. Since getting married we have blended our two cultures as much as possible. Our Christmases growing up have been very different. Mine was less about presents and more about the spiritual and religious aspects of […]
Continue readingAdvent Calendar Day 6 – Time To Bake Some Pies
Happy St. Nicolas Day. We just got through having coffee and cake and I gifted my husband and daughter their annual St. Nikolaus socks. It’s a tradition with some families in Germany to give hand-knitted socks on December 6th. Up until last year, my dad got a pair each year from my Oma Inge (his […]
Continue readingHomemade Christmas Gifts – HBHW Advent Calendar Day 2
From the comments and emails I’ve gotten yesterday, y’all seem to be just as excited as I am about the HBHW advent calendar idea. I sat down last night and planned it all out through Christmas Eve … and I have a special surprise planned for the last one. Today I thought we’d continue to […]
Continue readingChristmas Ice Cream
A fellow HBHW reader shared this recipe many years ago. She’s from Australia. I’ve made it almost every year since and it’s always been a big hit. Try adding some nuts in addition to the dried fruit for a nice bit of crunch. 1 cup mixed dried fruit 2 cups Port or Sherry 4 pints […]
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