This year for the holidays, we decided to focus more on experiences over “things”. We decided to take our kids to the Langham Hotel again for their Gingerbread House event for the second year in a row. We paired up one big and one little, which we weren’t sure how it was going to go, but turned out great once it was clear when big sister said, “this is going to be great, you can do the back!”

Ticket prices went up this year to $170, but the ticket included a pre made gingerbread house (for up to two children) and a Paddington themed diner set. Here is what I liked about this event, you had your own space, your own supplies, and a box that fit your house. There were plenty of staff members walking around available to help you with anything you needed. Pastry Chef Kerry Levesque and her team really make this event special. Throw in a complimentary hot chocolate bar and pictures with Santa, and you have yourself a magical afternoon.

The Langham Boston is located at 250 Franklin Street, Boston MA

Follow them on Instagram

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Happy New Year!! What are you looking forward to as we start fresh? We are looking forward to more fun, more experiences, more living in the moment!

We didnt even try to make it until midnight this year. It had been a long day. We pulled our confetti poppers early (and how cute are these by the way?!?!) and were in bed, and asleep!!, early!

The next day we were up and ready to bake cookies with colorful sprinkles (and who can pick just one kind!) for our friends and a special teacher who happens to have a New Year’s day birthday! Hot tip (!!) if you have a child graduating this year, buy all the New Year goods on sale and use them for graduation parties in May!

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This was an especially long holiday break – what felt like 30,303.948.505,404,980 days long. We didn’t go away and only had a few day things planned. Keep it simple. That’s what I kept telling myself. So on the one hand, vacation went by very quickly, but on the other hand, the days dragged on.

In the theme of keeping it simple, I wanted to show you our awesome console table, that we actually go a while ago, but just dressed up for the holidays. It’s from a company called Vinna Home and Kitchen and they have these amazing modern console tables. They can make your table in any number of stain colors and any variety of sizes. Home delivery was white glove and we couldn’t have been more satisfied with the customer service. We bought two to run the length of our couch.

With all the baking that I did this year for friends and teachers etc. I didn’t make cookies for Santa – we outsourced. Thanks Cookie Monstah for the assist! We left Santa with options!

Their Burlington location is a breeze to get to, and they have a great selection. I loved that they asked me when I was ordering if I wanted to put the peanut butter cookies in a separate box (even though I didn’t have allergies, I’m not sure I would have even thought of it if I were getting these as gifts – which I did get one box for friends as long as I was here!) And how cute is the artwork on the box by Elissa Surabian?!?! She is a local chalkboard artist, you may have seen her work around town!

Speaking of friends, for my best gal pals and neighbors, I picked up some of our favorite cookies. It’s a tradition that I get them gingerbread girls or boys from The Gingerbread Construction Co. and for a little glam I picked up these cute holiday gift sets by Essie.

In an effort to make alllll of the Christmas magic happen in such a short amount of time – here is a look at everyone’s “stockings”. We tried to do fewer presents this year, and more “experiences”. For example, we paired each big with a little and they got to go into the city to do a fun gingerbread house decorating event. One pair went to the Langham Hotel and one pair went to Eastern Standard Kitchen. Stay tuned to see how much fun we had there in another post.

Back to our “stockings”. We use Sea Bags bucket bags instead of a traditional stocking. I think it started from our apartment days when we didn’t actually have a mantel, but can’t actually remember. I feel like every year the ante is “upped” and just because it fits in a stocking doesn’t mean it should go in a stocking I mean, when I was a kid, it was like candy and toothbrushes, and now I look, and I am totally guilty of this, I’m putting in $30 Owala water bottles (insert eye roll). I mean, but at least they don’t leak in the kid’s backpacks, right?

So for the big we got an Owala, a fun Stanley key chain/ornament whatever, a gold bubble necklace from Anthropologie, books for her Yoto Box, a cute Caboodles kit because it reminded me of my childhood, and a Squishmallow mystery bag.

For the youngest we picked up a Bluey brush, a Squishmallow surprise mystery bag, some holiday nail stickers, a Yoto story, some fun glow in the dark bandaids from Welly, Squishmallow hair claws, a monogram necklace and some fun ooly metallic pens.

For our oldest, we picked out various boxes of sports cards, a bunch of new Yoto stories, some Burt’s Bees lip balm, and an autographed version of the new book, The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys.

Dad was pretty straightforward, a few bags of his favorite coffee beans, a new razor, and some hair putty. Things are almost as fun when you are a dad as when you are a mom…..almost.

And finally, for the other little, we picked up an Owala with a boot, a new Pokemon book and a little sweet treat. Not pictured were a few Beyblades that came in last minute!

Remember when this blog was about food?! Right, me too. Stopped in to Lola’s pre-Christmas week to get one of their amazing chocolate chip ricotta pies. Not going to lie, I also picked up some frozen meals to give as gifts. We all have that one “uncle” who can’t cook and gets take out every night of the week (oh, wait, that’s just us?) and we figured a weeks worth of home (just not my home) cooked meals would be a great way to start his new year off right! I picked up a few for us to throw in the freezer as well, because let’s be honest, after a huge ramp up and all the Christmas magic we moms are making, once Christmas is over, come December 26th, I know that at least I don’t want to do ANY cooking!

Since we were home all vacation, we picked up quite a few friend’s mail. One of those perks was that they brought us home treats from their travels – and these beauties were some of the favorites from Standard Baking Company in Portland, ME.

Since I was baking so many cookies this year, I thought that maybe some people would be feeling like they were getting too many cookies this season (I mean, personally I NEVER feel that way….but maybe some people do). I figured I would try making cookie dough for friends. This way, they could make cookies when it was convenient for them. They could pull them out of the freezer and make one or make them all. So I found this great easy recipe by Melissa, from Design, Eat, Repeat and made her Freezer Cookie Dough. Super big hit. Some friends made them right away, some waited to make fresh cookies on Christmas, and some saved for later! I have made so many batches since, and keep them in my freezer – I grab when the kids are running out the door to play dates and I have nothing to bring – and it has saved the day in many instances! Here is the best part, you melt the butter, so no mixer required! Customize for the holidays using holiday m&m’s or even try and use that left over holiday candy as mix ins!

By the time I got around to making these cupcakes I don’t want to even tell you how many sticks of butter I had gone through already… but had to change things up from making so many cookies! I pick up sprinkles from every place I go – I even got these cute sugar snowflakes from Market Basket!

I love homemade gifts. I love seeing what people choose to give, or what their strong suits are. I love the thought and care that goes into something home made.Peppermint chocolate was a popular choice this year, which is totally up my alley. 10/10.

Our other neighbor brought us these adorable candy cane cookies and hot cocoa cookies, complete with full sized marshmallows. I applaud anything that you have to make two colors of dough for…I’m a strictly one bowl or it’s too much work kind of gal!

One friend brought us TWO boxes of cookies, maybe because we have so many people in our family Don’t see me complaining though! The chocolate s’mores cookies were #1 with the kids. I think the exact quote was, “the marshmallows are perfectly cooked” and “we should invite them over for s’mores one time”.I mean, that was perfect because that distracted them from the other cookies haha. Anything with jelly is A+ in my book, but also, cut out cookies impress me, because, again, that extra step goes a long way! Extra points for the fancy divider in the box, way above and beyond.

Teacher gifts were basically Girl Scout cookies this year, but to the extra special ones, we gave a little something more, and I’m not talking about the corny puns. But we couldn’t just give a gift card, so these cute treasure boxes we had from Bullseye’s Playground at Target filled with Lindt chocolate, a gift card and a tag saying, “you’re a treasure” were just enough to brighten a few days! Top off with a classic ribbon and a little sparkle.

I do also love a good Chex Mix, and this year was no different. Made a large batch, although had to do it solo this year, Isabelle was not around to do the bag shaking! Silly easy to make and a crowd favorite. Put in a cute tin or tie up with a pretty bow in a cellophane bag and you have a great little holiday treat.

Speaking of gift giving, one of my go to gifts I love to give people with kids is a gingerbread cookie making kit. Wilson Farms sells these plain cookies on packs of 2, and icing in fun colors. I pick up bright colored candy and add to a fun basket, throw in some tissue or paper shred and VIOLA! Simple and fun holiday gift for the whole family that will get them a whole 5 minutes of peace. OK, maybe 3. And yes, that is the viral CVS nutcracker in the background that I got 40% off with a coupon

No holiday would be complete without a stop to Clear Flour Bread. I used to live in Brookline and have really good memories of all the delicious things they had during the holidays (and all the delicious smells). So we lucked out one day, when the weather was not too cold and the line was not too long, and picked up these delicious treats. Not shown are the four loaves of bread we also bought

And to end this post, a look at what we did for our holiday cookie box. We went very kid friendly this year. Although my son’s friend told me that he was very upset that I did not put the Pillsbury slice and bake Christmas tree cookies in the box. Way to keep me humble my friend, and on my toes. I’ll keep that in mind for next year! So getting back to this year.

Chocolate M&M Cookies by Cooking with Karli

Sparkling Shortbread Cookies by E2 Bakes Brooklyn

Holiday colored Rice Krispie Treats

Sugar Cookies drizzled with chocolate and dressed up with holiday sprinkles

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How to gain ten pounds in a month Give me all things peppermint! Trader Joe’s makes their Hold the Cone in a limited holiday peppermint flavor, Crescent Ridge offers their peppermint stick Holiday Cridgewich ice cream sandwiches, New City Micro Creamery offers holiday peppermint stick ice cream pies and Trombetta’s also offers a peppermint stick ice cream pie!

Hot chocolate bombs, love them or hate them? Personally, don’t love them, but the kids adore them. One of these days I think I will try my hand at make our own, they look easy enough to make…

Right now we are in to the cutest beaded necklaces. Found these on Etsy, how fun are those glitter Mickey beads?

I love a good dessert board. Are they even a thing anymore? Samplers will always be a thing in my book! This fun holiday themed dessert board is perfect for a hot cocoa themed night in. Some marshmallows, some dippers, mug toppers, and crunchy cookies to put your cocoa over the top.

I also love a good shelfie. Here are some of our favorite holiday reads:

Twas the Night Before Christmas, Illustrated by Mr. Boddington

5 More Sleeps ‘Til Christmas By Jimmy Fallon a fun rhyming book counting down the sleeps until Santa’s arrival.

Together by Heather Stricker A story of a boy who visits Santa, and tells him that instead of presents, he wants to spend time with his family, and enjoy their family traditions.

Christmas baking is in full swing – cupcakes are top on the list. Let’s get out all the different sprinkles and have at it!

One of my kid’s favorite things of the season is my childhood neighbor makes these reindeer brownies and delivers them to us every year. They gobble them up!

And no baking season would be complete without sprinle cookies. Made with massive amounts of butter and cream cheese, these are melt in your mouth delicious with just a hint of almond flavor. They have the right amount of crunch on the outside and yet remind me of a childhood bakery. What are some of your fondest holiday baking memories?

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With the holiday season fast approaching, I thought I would recap some fun winter activities, including a trip to the Ice Castles in New Hampshire. While the trip could definitely be done in a day, we decided to go overnight and stay at the Omni Mount Washington Hotel to make a fun girls weekend of it! Located in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, a popular ski destination, the Omni Mount Washington is a luxury hotel, constructed in the early 1900’s. Once thought to be the inspiration for the hotel in the popular Stephen King novel and movie, The Shining, both King and the hotel have denied such rumors.

The hotel is quite charming. You can choose to stay in the historic hotel or the Omni Bretton Arms Inn (and use all of the hotel amenities). In the winter, guests can ski, tube, snowshoe, take a scenic gondola ride or even take a sleigh ride. We took a private, 30 minute sleigh ride, for a little over $100, plus tip. Worth every penny.

After the sleigh ride we grabbed a pizza in town at Celli’s, at the recommendation of our sleigh driver actually, but make sure to call ahead if you’re planning on dropping in on a weekend, it gets busy. Good pizza, family friendly for sure!

The ice castles were fun! I can see why people like going at night, but with littles, we wanted to go during the day. It was crowded, and with all the people, I wanted to be able to see and keep track of everyone. There were lots of people there taking photos for Instagram and plenty of places to make it look like you were there without the crowds. I’m sure when it got dark and they lit up with fun colored lights, it would have been beautiful! A good idea to wear boots and snow pants.

Tickets are timed entry, and adults are around $31 for 12+ and $23 for children 4-11. Group tickets and off peak hours are cheaper. Make sure to leave enough time to get from the parking lot to the gate. There is a quarter mile walking path through the forest that is lit up by colorful globes, crawl tunnels and ice slides for the young (and young at heart), and sleigh rides (additional cost and tickets needed). The line for the sleigh rides was long, we were glad that we had booked a private one at the hotel.

After a day out in the cold, we were happy to get back to our room and order some dessert room service!

Such a special treat to sit in a hotel robe and eat sweets in bed!

The next morning we woke up and took the hotel shuttle to the mountain to take the scenic gondola ride. Highly recommend. The gondola is open from 9am – 3:30pm, and tickets are around $30. After returning to the hotel, we spent the morning relaxing at the pool and playing at the arcade before heading home.

Omni Mount Washington Hotel

310 Mount Washington Hotel Road, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire

https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/bretton-woods-mount-washington/

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We decided to have all the kids from our neighborhood over to decorate gingerbread houses for the holidays.

We have a LOT of kids in our neighborhood, so, in the interest of keeping things simple and stress free, I picked up pre-made gingerbread houses from Target. If you didn’t want to spend this much money, another easy option would be to hot glue the houses together ahead of time. Let’s be honest, most kids aren’t going to eat the actual houses anyway, so trying to assemble the houses with frosting is just going to frustrate you!

I like to pick up disposable muffin tins and put candy in them and spread all around the table. This way, the kids can grab them easily, and there is enough to go around. I pick up candy everywhere – but the dollar store is generally a good option – rainbow belts, gumdrops, smarties, peppermints, candy canes, etc. I picked up frosting from the market for the kids to spread on with plastic utensils and places like Wilson Farm sells fun premade colored frosting in piping bags! Market Basket has sugar candy novelties and colored icing as well, along with bulk sprinkles in the bakery.

Check out how fun these houses turned out! A good time was had by all!

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Now that Thanksgiving is over, I am in FULL holiday mode. Tree is up, shopping has already begun, and, let’s be honest, is almost done, and we are in baking M.O.D.E!

Chex mix is a go to in this house, you can make it big batch and is super fun to package up and give to friends and neighbors. I’ve put it on here before, but here is the recipe in case you’ve missed it:

• 1c butter
• 1 1/2c brown sugar
• 1/2c light corn syrup
• 1 (14oz) box of Rice Chex
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1tsp vanilla
• 1c m&ms

In a small saucepan, heat butter, brown sugar and corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla.

In a brown paper bag, add caramel mixture over cereal and shake. Place in microwave for 2 minutes and shake again. Repeat. Pour mix onto wax paper to cool and add in m&ms.

If you wan to get those cute Utz pretzels in holiday shapes, you should probably have bought them already, or they are gone….but there are so many other cute choices and variations that you can make here.

Cookie swaps and edible gifts are my go to as well. I usually make sprinkle cookies, a chocolate chip of some sort, and a few cut and bake varieties or no bake choices, just to keep things simple. What are your favorite cookies?

My least favorite to make are cutout cookies, they are time consuming – but they are so cute! And chocolate covered Oreos are also a fun treat to make, and oh so easy when you have a silicone mold.

One of my favorite things to do is decorate my outdoor planters. Red berries add just the right pop of color, and I love the different textures the greens give. I chose these with the help of my friends over at Trombetta’s in Marlborough. They have something for everyone, at all price points, whether you want to design something yourself, or if you want to get a predesigned pop to drop into your planters.

While you’re there don’t forget about wreaths and trees!

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Last year, we had so much fun making gingerbread houses at the Langham Hotel in Boston. Led by pastry chef Kerry Levesque, children design their own houses while also indulging in a candy and hot chocolate bar and maybe even get a chance to see the big man himself!

When you walk in you are greeted by a table filled with candy, but don’t worry, all the candy that you will need to decorate is already at your station inside the ballroom!

I love that the houses are assembled for you before you get to the event, so when you get there, all you have to worry about is decorating! Pastry chefs are walking around the entire time to help you with piping or float some design ideas your way! Need extra licorice, just ask! At $170 per house, this is not an inexpensive ticket, but the service is top notch, and it includes admission for two children as well as a limited edition Paddington diner set as a token of your special day. They have two seatings, one at 11am and one at 3pm. Children under the age of 2 are complimentary. If you are looking for a VIP experience, this is your best bet. We highly recommend! Tickets can be found on Eventbrite. More information can be found on the Langham Hotels website.

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We decided not to do a big classroom birthday party this year. We opted for the big kids to come and read a story to the class and to give out these cute “party favors” instead. There is a small class, so we opted fot these Sun Squad chalk boxes with a cute home made tag saying “Thanks for making my birthday “chalk”-ful of fun! Big hit with the class, and something that the kids would go home and use! What are some of your go to goody bag ideas?

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This was a Halloween for the books! We must have boo’d every kid in town. The kids were so excited. Just seeing their faces and hearing them laugh made it all worth it. We were so busy that we managed to carve pumpkins the night before Halloween! EEK!

One of our favorite spots to get Halloween treats is Heirloom in Weston. How cute is their dirt cake?

With all the boo baskets we did, I almost forgot to boo my own kids I like to reuse the baskets from year to year, so I kept the same pumpkin jelly baskets I bought from Target. For my oldest, I added Bonaparte Falls Apart, some spooky shost cookies from Rustic Bakery, assorted fancy treats from Sugarfina, some cute pumpkin and skeleton notepads, a “boo” straw, Meri Meri party crackers and a Tops Malibu sparkler wand.

For #3, we did Gustavo the Shy Ghost, a new trick or treat reusable bag from Target, fancy milk chocolate skeleton chocolates from Harbor Sweets, the only candy corn I like – in notepad form, a “boo straw”, some football cards, Meri Meri crackers, and some skeleton sticky notes. Not shown was the glow in the dark ghost NeeDoh.

I love all things mummy and anything that involves candy eyes. Do you prefer the cupcakes plain?….

…or frosted?

The Dollar Store coffins are such a cute way to dress up a little Halloween candy for a “boo”. We added a few fun treats like a “poison” bottle from the Bullseye playground and a Halloween bracelet to round out the fun!

Getting a boo is almost as fun as delivering one! Our neighbors dropped off this cutie pumpkin…while our animals of children raced out and “caught” them mid front lawn!

Another fun boo that we put together were these skeleton hand glasses we found at the Dollar Store, that we filled with some candy, vinyl ghost stickers for those water bottles, and a Meri Meri spider surprise ball!

I always like to try out one new recipe a season, and this holiday I did the Halloween M&M cookies from Cooking with Karli. Super easy to make, these dark chocolate cookies with Halloween colored M&M’s were a crowd favorite!

Another boo that we did were home made Rice Krispie treats, dressed up with Halloween colored sprinkles. Something a little special and different than those bags of candy!

I came across these super cute witch cauldron brownie bites on Instagram, and thought they would be so cute to make. Popped a few in a fun box and surprised a few friends with them one night!

Cupcakes are kind of my thing, so I was busy working on making different iterations – How fun are these orange frosted ones with skeleton and fang rings?

I’m not usually a cupcake topper kind of gal, but these Meri Meri ones and Day of the Dead ones are pretty fun!

Chocolate covered pretzels are so fun to make, and I love the Utz pretzel rods. There are so many combinations you can make, and I even made some that said “boo”.

Finding new uses for old things, I reused these old McDonald’s Happy Meal Boo Buckets to give cookies to friends and neighbors this year.

Cider Donuts are only my thing if they are hot and just out of the oven. These pumpkin donuts from Tougas Farm, however, weren’t too shabby! And how cute is this mini bottle brush Halloween tree from Migration Goods?

Rice Krispie Treats are even more fun when you get the orange Rice Krispies….

And last, but not least, how cute are these sugar cookies from Wilson Farm?

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