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Day Eleven: Email from Santa

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Today is day 11 of 25 days of activities Christmas Activities to Do with Your Family. And what child wouldn’t love to get an email from Santa? This is a great program that I learned about from Ali Edwards years ago. It can be free and it is personalized to your child.

Day Eleven send email from santa

Send an email from Santa

Each year, my children get a personalized email from Santa via the Portable North Pole. They have a website and of course they have an app. For years, I used the free version through the website.

Last year, I decided that Sunshine, a second-grader, might catch on if she got nearly the exact same email as last year and nearly the exact same email that her brother got. So, I invested in the app. It is way more than I usually pay for an app but I figured it was worth it. And, I figured even if I had to pay that amount again, it would still be worth it.

The app updated on November 1 and it has new story lines, however,  I will have to pay again to access all but the ones that would also be free on the website.

Delight in Getting Email from Santa

email from Santa

My children squeal with delight each year when they get their emails. The Boy especially loves to watch them over and over and over and over. The app also has a feature where you can record their reactions to the email which I did last year and it was priceless. The app also has a coded parent area to keep it separate from the part that the children access. In addition to the videos, there are several games and this year a new section for taking selfie’s with Santa’s beard, elf hats, reindeer antlers, etc. The Boy also loves the part of the app where you can change your voice to sound like one of Santa’ elves.

app screen shot

The email will address each child by name and give background information that Santa knows about them. It will tell them whether they are naughty or nice or in between. And, you can even tell them that Santa knows what’s that what their most desired present is. That one is sometimes tougher because you have to choose from a list. In addition, in the app there are several story lines you can choose from. Which allows you to make a unique email for each child.

I usually aim for the emails to arrive around the middle of the month. This just like our elf friend can help with behavior.  Last year, emails arrived early in the month and told both children that they were on neither the naughty nor the nice list as means of a warning from Santa.  It ended up being meaner than I anticipated.  A follow up email did arrive around December 23 to let each know that they had been moved to the nice list.

25 Days of Christmas Activities

I hope you will join us in this delightful tradition. It is something my children look forward to each year. And, I am excited to see the new stories.  It is definitely worth it to get the all access pass.  Consider it part of your Christmas shopping!  I hope that you will give it a try this December.

Be sure to stop back tomorrow and for the next 14 days to find other great traditions to share with your family during the 25 Days of Christmas Activities.  And don’t forget to check out the first ten days too.

Don’t Miss a Day of 25 Days of Christmas Activities to Do with Your Family–Join our Email List today!

PS. This post may contain affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.  Portable North Pole is not an affiliate, just something we love!

Day 10: Cut Christmas Tree

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Today is day 10 of 25 Days of Christmas Activities to Do with Your Family. And, today we’re talking about going to get the Christmas tree. Not the cut Christmas tree from the big box hardware store and not even the cut Christmas tree from the farm market.  Your own cut Christmas tree.  The one where you and your family, trek out into a field of trees with a hand saw and cut it down yourselves.  Well, in our family, Daddy cuts it while the rest of us watch!

Day 10 Cut Christmas Tree

 

Childhood Memories:  Cut the Christmas Tree

Cutting the Christmas Tree is one of my cherished childhood memories. I can remember doing it when I was a little kid.  It’s possible that some of these memories are influenced by photographs, but I definitely remember a few of those road trips to cut the Christmas tree.

When I was a kid, we would drive about 45 minutes from the city into the country to cut our own Christmas tree.

It was a big family event. My grandparents, my aunts and uncles, close family friends. The day would conclude with a visit to my grandmother’s cousin and/or my grandmother’s lifelong best friend. It was always such a joyous day.  Yes, it was cold and snowy, but what is more fun than children in a forest of evergreens looking for the perfect cut Christmas Tree?

Our Cut Christmas Tree

Now that I have a family of my own and we live in the country, the tree farm is literally right across the street. In the days right after Thanksgiving, we actually watch as the family who owns the farm goes out to get the pre-cut trees. In fact, I am writing this a couple days before Thanksgiving and they just brought the first tractor load of cut Christmas trees in.

cut christmas tree in snow

Most years we still like to cut our own. It is something that the kids look forward to. There is just something about that trek across the field to find just the right tree.  We generally try to go around the second weekend of December.  For many, this might seem late, but cut Christmas trees just don’t have the staying power of the artificial ones.  That’s part of the charm–the smell of the freshly cut and the needles dropping everywhere by January 1st!

25 Days of Christmas Activities

So, if you’ve never cut your own Christmas tree, this year might just be the year to head out and Cut Christmas Trees (assuming that you live in climate that lends itself to doing that!).  This is a really great tradition to start with your family and one that your kids will remember for years to come.  I hope that you will give it a try this December.

Be sure to stop back tomorrow and for the next 15 days to find other great traditions to share with your family during the 25 Days of Christmas Activities.  And don’t forget to check out the first nine days too.

Don’t Miss a Day of 25 Days of Christmas Activities to Do with Your Family–Join our Email List today!

PS. This post may contain affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

Day Nine: Christmas Toys

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Today is the ninth day of Christmas activities to do with your family. One of my kids’ favorite traditions is the toys that we saved just for December. We have a Christmas themed sets of Little People and Playmobil that we only pull out in December. Each December when we get the Christmas toys out, it’s like they are new all over again.

Day 9 Seasonal Christmas Toys

Make Christmas Toys Seasonal

Truthfully, my kids are little old for Little People. However, we still get out the Christmas set with Santa, a Christmas train, elves and a winter scene. And, we also have Little People nativity scene that I bought for Sunshine’s first Christmas (she was six months old). In addition, we have a much more involved set of Paymobil that is the product of several years Christmas themed advent calendars and one year when I purchased Santa’s Home and made my own Advent Calendar by wrapping pieces for the kids to open each day (boy was that a lot of work!).

We usually haul out these Christmas toys sometime during the first part of the month which gives the kids plenty of time to enjoy them before they go back into storage until next year.

We hope you will join us in this tradition of setting aside a few toys that might even seem too young because at Christmas everyone as a child at heart. Let your kids enjoy their Christmas toys year after year.

25 Days of Christmas Activities

So, be sure to hide those Christmas toys away at the end of the season.  This is a really great tradition to start with your family because each year those Christmas toys are new again.  I hope that you will give it a try this December.

Be sure to stop back tomorrow and for the next 16 days to find other great traditions to share with your family during the 25 Days of Christmas Activities.  And don’t forget to check out the first eight days too.

Don’t Miss a Day of 25 Days of Christmas Activities to Do with Your Family–Join our Email List today!

PS. This post contains affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

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I have been making these Gluten-free Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies since way before I had ever heard the term gluten-free.  Years ago, a friend shared this recipe which is only 4 ingredients: peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  It was actually my husband’s idea to add the kisses.  These cookies have the perfect texture and are almost more like candy than a cookie.

Note:  This post may contain affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

gluten-free Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

Gluten-free Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

This recipe is all about equal parts.

Two cups peanut butter (NOT natural peanut butter, you will not get the right texture and they fall apart); two cups sugar, two eggs and two tablespoons of vanilla.  How easy is that?

Add Peanut butter

Mix those ingredients in a stand mixer.  Roll them into balls.  To make a “standard” peanut butter cookie, cross hatch them with a fork.  To make kiss cookies, leave them as balls and then push the kiss into them as soon as them come out of the oven.  To make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, add one bag of semisweet chocolate chips and roll them into balls.

adding kisses to cookies Sunshine

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Bake for 11-13 minutes at 325 degrees (F).  Let them rest for 2-3 minutes on the cookie sheet, then cool completely on a rack.

A single batch only makes about two dozen cookies, so I often make a batch and a half.  As a word of warning, although it might seem like a good idea, doubling the recipe for Gluten-free Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies has been known to burn out a stand mixer!

This is a perfect family baking project.  It is easy measuring for kids who want to help.  And who doesn’t love rolling little balls of peanut butter cookies!  Unwrapping those kisses is also pretty tedious, but for some sweet reason, the kids don’t mind.

We hope that you enjoy these cookies.  Be sure to let us know if you try them and if you decide to finish them with a kiss.

25 Days of Christmas Activities

This Gluten-free Peanut Butter Kiss recipe is brought to you as part of The Semiconservative Granola Girl’s 25 Days of Christmas Activities to do with your family.  Day Eight is bake Christmas cookies with your family this Christmas season.  This is a really great tradition to start with your family.  I hope that you will give it a try this December.

Be sure to stop back tomorrow and for the next 17 days to find other great traditions to share with your family during the 25 Days of Christmas Activities.  And don’t forget to check out the first seven days too.

Gluten-free peanut butter kiss cookies | only 5 ingredients

PS. This post contains affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

Print Recipe
 Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
Course Dessert
Cuisine Dessert
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 11-13 minutes
Servings
dozen (depending on the size)
Ingredients
Course Dessert
Cuisine Dessert
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 11-13 minutes
Servings
dozen (depending on the size)
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (F). Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a stand mixer, add peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
  3. Roll the dough into balls about 1.5-2 inches in diameter. Leave them in balls (flatten the bottom a little so they don't roll) and place them on the cookie sheet leaving 2-3 inches between each cookie (the cookies will "slump" during baking).
  4. Bake 11-13 minutes. Immediately push the kisses into the center of each cookie. Allow the cookies to cool for 2-3 minutes on the cookies sheet in order to set-up, then move to a wire cooking rack to completely cool.
Recipe Notes

If you prefer to make traditional peanut butter cookies (sans kiss), cross hatch the cookies with a fork before baking.

If you prefer to make chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, add 1 12-oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips to the the dough once it is thoroughly mixed.  Roll or spoon drop onto a prepared cooking sheet.

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Day Eight: Bake Christmas Cookies

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Today is day eight of the 25 Christmas Activities to do with Your Family. Today we are talking about baking Christmas cookies. In our house most of the year, we try to keep sweets out of the equation. Needless to say, as much as I like to bake, we don’t bake very much or very often. Christmas cookies are the one exception. It is a time when we bake cookies and we often bake a lot of them.

Day 8 Bake Christmas Cookies

Bake Christmas Cookies

This is a great time to bake cookies with your kids. There so many benefits to cooking with kids. It teaches them about math and measuring and volume and time, and of course, cooking and baking skills. And, it’s just fun.

Sunshine has a Christmas apron and she loves donning that apron and getting cooking. The Boy also loves to get involved.  This year we are getting new matching aprons for the Christmas cookie festivities.

making cookies

There are so many great recipes out there. We always make a cream cheese cut outs. This is an awesome sugar cookie recipe because it never gets dry. Daddy always bakes a bar cookie called fudge-revel bars.  There is a family no-bake recipe affectionately called t*rd balls.  And, we bake gluten-free peanut butter kiss cookies. We’ve been baking these since way before gluten-free with a thing. This recipe (which I got from a friend years ago) is just an awesome almost candy-like cookie. The bonus for today is the recipe for these super gluten-free Peanut butter-kiss cookies.

25 Days of Christmas Activities

So, bake Christmas cookies with your family this Christmas season.  This is a really great tradition to start with your family.  I hope that you will give it a try this December.

Day eight bake Christmas Cookies

Be sure to stop back tomorrow and for the next 17 days to find other great traditions to share with your family during the 25 Days of Christmas Activities.  And don’t forget to check out the first seven days too.

Don’t Miss a Day of 25 Days of Christmas Activities to Do with Your Family–Join our Email List today!

PS. This post contains affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

Day Seven: Elf on the Shelf

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Today is the seventh day of 25 days of Christmas Activities to do with your family. Elf on the Shelf is a rather new tradition for many families. It serves so many purposes. It’s great to be able to have something the kids can look forward to every day. Her presence helps with behavior. And our children love our elf, Snowflake.

Elf on the Shelf

Day Seven Elf on the Shelf

Snowflake joined our family a few years ago. She arrived a little after Thanksgiving. Right around dinner time. There she was on the windowsill over the kitchen table along with the book that introduces the idea. Sunshine named her Snowflake and since then she has flown back and forth to Santa every night from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve.

The story explains that an elf has been assigned to keep watch and report back to Santa each night while the children sleep.  The next day, she will hide in a new place and the children of the house must find her.  Mornings at our house in December are always easier because we are up and at ’em in order to find Snowflake’s new spot.

Elf on the Shelf at Our House

Sunshine is so intrigued by Snowflake that she often thinks about her during other times of the year. She has created an apartment for her out of boxes, egg cartons and Playmobil toys. She leaves gifts and writes letters for her to deliver to Santa.

Our elf is well-behaved.  She never gets into the mischief that I hear about in other people’s homes.  It is easier to have an elf who just does her job–watching and reporting.  And there has been a time or two when Snowflake has been unable to travel.  Once, we had a blizzard and Santa told her it was too dangerous to travel.  Another time, she was so tired she feel asleep and didn’t wake up until she heard the sound of the children.  It was too late to move by the time she heard the children.  Santa forgave her for the little mishap.  December is a very busy month for an Elf on the Shelf, so clearly, Snowflake is worn out by the end.

If you prefer a more Nativity driven tradition, some homes are visited by a lamb from Bethlehem.

25 Days of Christmas Activities

So, invite an Elf on the Shelf to join your family this Christmas season.  This is a really great tradition to start with your family.  I hope that you will give it a try this December.

Be sure to stop back tomorrow and for the next 18 days to find other great traditions to share with your family during the 25 Days of Christmas Activities.  And don’t forget to check out the first six days too.

Don’t Miss a Day of 25 Days of Christmas Activities to Do with Your Family–Join our Email List today!

PS. This post contains affiliate links. When you click the link and make a purchase through the link, we make a little money, this helps to keep The Semiconservative Granola Girl going. Thank you for your support.

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