TLC Extreme Couponing TV Show airs tomorrow night!

We're still on vacation in Orlando (yay!), but I wanted to post a quick update about a show that is airing tomorrow night.  It's called Extreme Couponing and it will air on TLC (The Learning Channel).  It will feature Nathan Engels, aka Mr Coupon!  I set our DVR to tape it so we can watch it over the weekend once we get home!  If you watch it, I'd love to hear what you think about it! 


~ Aimee

Do y'all shop the day after Christmas?

I do! I try to get the things I used up this year: Christmas cards, tissue paper, bows, ribbon, gift bags, gift card holders, plus new ornaments, lights, dishes, etc.  I also look for cute stocking stuffers for next year, Christmas-themed things like Kleenex, paper towels, and even candy - red hershey kisses and m&m's can be used for Valentine's Day, the green ones for St. Patrick's Day!  And don't forget cookie tins, ziploc bags, treat bags and other holiday baking products.  They'll also be on sale!   My favorite stores for after-Christmas shopping are Target, Wal-mart, Hobby Lobby & Michaels! Pier One has good stuff too, but they are pricier to begin with, so 50% off isn't really a good deal to me.  (Now at 75% or 90%, I'm in!!)

The dollar store is a treasure trove of Christmas clearance! I get tags, tissue paper and bags here for 50 cents.  Cookie tins too!  Check the clearance section of your grocery store too - chances are you'll find some good Christmas things there.

Most Christmas items will be 50% off on Sunday, and then for the next week or two they will be marked down again and again, up to 90% off! Stock up and save now, and you'll be way ahead of the game come next November!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!
~ Aimee

How to make Pretzel Turtle Candies & Pretzel Kiss Candies - yum!

So this morning, my sister called to tell me that the recipe I shared yesterday was like, old news.  It's been making the rounds evidently, and I was out of the loop. I feel dumb now! lol  Anyways, while we were talking she suggested I try this variation too - it's like a Turtle, but better because of the salty/sweet combination!

So my very kind husband ran to the store (okay, two actually) to get the ingredients for me.    I had some pecans in the freezer, so I toasted them with a little salt while we waited for R to get home with everything.  He brought three rolls of Rolos and a bag of square pretzels!! Thanks honey!  I laid out the pretzels, topped them with a Rolo and melted them in a 175 degree oven for about 6 minutes (watch them carefully!!) I also had 3 candy cane kisses from yesterday so as you can see, I added them on the sheet!

When the pretzels come out, smoosh (is that a word?!) a pecan on top of the melty Rolo.  Yummo!! Chill until set, then you can remove from the wax paper. 

I gave a small bag of these to my Father in law tonight and he said they were delicious!! I'm making more tomorrow for my family's get together tomorrow night.

~ Aimee

Holiday decoration tour

Here are a few of my favorite decorations and ornaments this year....

This is one of Walmart's fab $1 glitter churches - I put it on some glittery basket filler, under a glass light dome from Goodwill, topped with a glittery bow. It adds so much sparkle to my bookshelf!

This is one of my fave ornaments.  It's a snowman painted onto a knife!! There is wire wrapped up the handle, to hold a bow and hook.

My baby, 16 years ago...love this ornament so much!

This is a special ornament David made in kindergarten last year.  Precious!

Can you guess what this is? It's a crushed coke can, painted to look like Santa! Katie made this in 1st grade!

One of my vintage ornaments from my Papa & Grandmother's collection.  Isn't she beautiful?

Not the best shot, but this is the kitchen table, covered with Randy's grandmother's tablecoth over a cream colored cloth.  I added peppermint candies to the vase for a pop of red and white after this was taken!

This is where my Vintage Ornament Tree ended up.  With 18' ceilings, anything tall is good!  I like how it looks up there, & it is safe from the kiddos!!

This was my Great Aunt Charlotte's.  It was passed on to me from my Grandmother's Christmas ornaments Dad gave me.  It's sequins, attached with pins into folded points of fabric on a styrofoam cone.  So vintage!! Another favorite!

The most precious things to me... my beautiful kiddos, December 2010.

The yummiest, easiest Christmas treat ever!!! (if you can find the ingredients at your store!)

I saw this yummy delicious Christmas treat on Welcome Sunshine Home, a wonderful blog I found recently through a blog hop and just LOVE!  You have to visit her post and see her candies  - they are much cuter than mine (explanation ahead!) and she has a link to a darling printable that goes along with these perfectly.  As soon as I saw these candies, I knew I'd be making them.  I HEART Candy Cane Hershey Kisses, so this treat is perfect for me!!

I woke my kids up to drag them with me to Target first thing this morning.  I didn't want to spend any cash (aka vacation money) so I had an Rx gift card to use, which I received for transferring a prescription.  BUT - they were out of the square pretzels, and they didn't have the candy cane kisses.  Oh No! I decided to get the regular pretzels and mint m&m's - I would figure out the kisses later! 

Getting off the point here, but then we had a side trip to my Mom's to drop off her loaf pans from my baking earlier this week, a run to Chick Fil A so Katie could buy herself a chicken biscuit with her work earnings, and a run to Honey Baked Hams for our Christmas dinner.  We got a delicious smoked turkey breast with sweet potato souffle, cornbread dressing, broccoli rice casserole and sliced ham for DH, too.  Big huge thanks to his office ~  every Christmas we get a very nice gift card for HBH from them.   We eat very well on Christmas Day!!

So back to the candy quest.  After a stop at Kroger for gas, we ran into Walgreen's.  All the while I'm thinking - nah - they are so small they won't have the variety.  Oh yes they did!! I got 2 bags of candy cane kisses, and paid 43 cents out of pocket thanks to the Wags gift card balance I had left! 

Dropped Katie off at work, and finally got home.  I lined my biggest (and oldest!) cookie sheet with wax paper, preheat the oven to 175, and started lining up the pretzels.  This first batch used one whole bag of candy cane kisses. (well, except the two that the tips were broken off of.  I couldn't make ugly candies, right? I  mean, that is why I HAD to eat those two...)  I finished the extra pretzels with some hugs I had leftover from some baking earlier this week.

I did learn from this first batch - the second time I placed the kiss more towards the bottom (larger hole) of the pretzel so it would melt more evenly over the pretzels.  I baked them for about 5 minutes, then started sticking the mint m&ms right on top.  It was tricky at first, the melted candy goes everywhere, so I had to get good at aiming it towards the hole-y part of the pretzels to cover as much as possible!

Then I put the whole cookie sheet in the fridge to chill.  20 minutes later I popped them off the paper and onto my favorite plate.

I'm bagging them up and will add the printable tag later - stay tuned for that picture lol! 
If you make some the right way, with the square pretzels, they'll look so cute!! I'm happy with these, but wish I'd found the right pretzels for them.

PS ~ Don't ya love the vintage poinsettia table cloth? It was Randy's grandmother's, and I just adore how it looks on the table!!

Another week, another Blog Hop post!!

Hooked up with this blog hop today ~  if you are a new follower, welcome!! Please leave me a comment so I can stop by your blog & follow you back!!

Only three more shopping days 'til Christmas....are y'all ready?!

And now it's Wednesday ~ here's today's hop:


(and down to only two shopping days!)

Stone Mountain Christmas Review

Saturday we bundled up the kids and made the trek to a place my family always enjoys visiting for the summer Laser Show ~ Stone Mountain Park.  Located about 40 miles south of us, it's always a fun destination for all.   Stone Mountain is the world's largest piece of exposed granite, and is Georgia's most visited attraction!  This holiday season, I wanted to find out what Stone Mountain Christmas was all about.  We arrived at about 5:15 pm, which truthfully was a little later than we should have started our visit.  We simply didn't have time to do everything we wanted!

When you arrive at the gate to the park, you'll pay for a parking pass ~ it's $10 for the day, or $35 for the year.  If you plan on visiting more than once, it is worth it to upgrade and get the yearly pass! Then you can visit the park itself for free throughout the year.  

Once inside, we headed to the Crossroads area, which has been transformed into a beautiful Christmas village.  We had been given one day passes from Stone Mountain for our visit, so we exchanged those for armbands and entered the village.  The lights are gorgeous - trees are strung in all colors, and the buildings are covered in clear lights.  Everywhere you look there are sparkling lights! 

The Trim a Tree Shoppe

It was magical in the village, sparkly lights reflected everywhere  you looked from the rain ~ kudos to the decorating team!!

The theater where we saw Polar Express 4-D

  

We really wanted to go on the Sing Along Train ride, so the station was our first destination. Unfortunately, we found that the next train was already full, so we decided to go see the Polar Express 4-D while we waited.  Trains run about every 40 minutes, the movie is every 30 minutes.  When you enter the theater, grab a pair of 3-D glasses and you'll stand in a waiting room.  Watch the monitors for a prelude to the actual movie, then the doors open and you'll go in and find your seat.  Bottom line: my family loved this.  If we had been able to find the time, I know we would have gone to see it again that night - it really was that good! And the 4-D part was very fun: snow falls, water sprays to simulate the train wheels skidding on ice, you'll smell the enticing aroma of hot cocoa - it was a blast!  The show lasts 20 minutes, you get to wear funny 3-D glasses and you WILL get wet!  Everyone in the family will enjoy this attraction.



 After the movie, back to the train station we went.  After waiting in line for about 30 minutes, we found out that the next train was full also.  Luckily, there was some entertainment to keep my little guy from fussing too much - the Bubble Man!   He made some amazing bubbles and had the kids enthralled. 
 

Well, with another 40+ minutes before the next train, we needed dinner ~ it was a cold, drizzly night and we needed some warmth!  Miss Katie's Restaurant had a huge wait, so we got on the waiting list and visited the Glass Blower's shop.  There was time for a little window shopping too.  There are several stores to visit, including a Trim a Tree store, a Toy Store, Candy Store, and a gift shop in the train depot too.  Back at Miss Katie's, we were seated in a cozy booth and enjoyed their famous plate of pass arounds ~ fried dill pickles, sweet potato fries and fried onions ~ while we waited for our dinner.  Yum!  It's a little pricey, but it was filling and you can't beat the service.  Oh, and my kids liked the fact that the servers don't serve you rolls, they throw them to you - Miss Katie's is the home of the hand-tossed rolls!

 Next we went back to the train station.  The 8:40 train was also full.  They told us we could wait 40 minutes for the 9:20 train, but we would miss the Snow Angel finale and fireworks.  Both kids decided that they would rather ride the train, so we decided to stick it out and wait.  It was running a little behind, and we didn't board til 9:30, but we were in the enclosed car.  I was happy my toes had time to defrost for a bit!! The train ride was fun, with lots of Christmas carols for everyone to sing along to, and Christmas light displays around the base of the mountain.  Shortly before you arrive back at the station, the train stops for a live presentation called "The Gift", basically a retelling of the story of Jesus' birth.

Simple but beautiful, this story reminded us all of the real reason for the Christmas season.

David & Daddy on the train


When we finished our train ride it was almost 10 pm,  and everything was closing down.  I was really disappointed that we hadn't come earlier - there is so much more to see!! We had planned to watch some of the live shows - they have several, including Sleigh Ride, A Crossroads Christmas Carol, and more.  There is a storyteller several times a day,  plus a Christmas parade.  (We actually heard the parade going by while watching the prelude to the Polar Express 4-D).   We had hoped to take the kids to play in the Barn and there is also mini golf.  So much to do, and we just ran out of time!!  All in all,  Stone Mountain Park is a great time, and a super-fun family-friendly destination in the metro Atlanta area.  There are many festivals throughout the year, nightly laser shows in the summer, and so much more!

Here are my tips for visiting Stone Mountain Christmas:  Go early, obviously.  Get the day's schedule at the ticket window so you can plan your visit accordingly.  As I mentioned before, there are some great shows to see, plus a storyteller, the Polar Express 4-D, the Sing Along Train, the Summit Skyride up the mountain, and even a visit with Santa!   If you plan to ride the Sing Along Train, take along a blanket for the little ones and scarves, mittens and hats. You'll be waiting outside for the train, some of the line area is covered, but it is all outdoors.  There is one enclosed train car and several open sided cars.  Even in the enclosed car, it was cold and we saw many families with blankets!  Don't forget your camera because there are so many beautiful photo opportunities throughout the park. Finally, make sure you can watch the Finale & Fireworks show with the Snow Angel.  I'm still disappointed we missed them!

If you plan to eat at the park, options include Miss Katie's Restaurant, several snack bars and even a Honey Baked Ham Cafe on site.  Scope them out early and make a reservation if you plan to eat at the restaurant.  If you need a warm drink while you're strolling through the park, visit the Hydration center which offers coffee, cocoa and soft drinks.   There are also kiosks throughout offering drinks, and even a S'mores station!

Stone Mountain Christmas is open through the 23rd of December from 10 am to 10 pm, and December 26th - 30th from 10 am to 10 pm.   Their phone number is 770.498.5690.

For more information on Stone Mountain Christmas click here. 
For Stone Mountain Park ticket, family value pass & annual pass information click here.

Disclosure: Stone Mountain Park provided me with 4 one day passes for our family to visit Stone Mountain Christmas.  I was not compensated in any other way, and all opinions expressed are my own.  ~ Aimee

An easy way to recycle a Christmas decoration!

So I was reading this post from Skip to My Lou, one of my fave blogs....where she shared how to use the plastic insert inside your Advent calendar to make cute gift tags.  Well, that got my gears to spinning, and I am saving ours to make more adorable Christmas chocolates!!   You can use melted chocolate chips, melt some squares of chocolate bark, or candy melts from Michael's.  Just melt in the microwave, pour into the plastic molds, refrigerate for a few minutes, then pop those cuties right out!!

I am baking/making Christmas treats today, and thought of a really cute way to use these.  Katie decided she hates the chocolates in our advent calendars so I took the insert out of hers, and filled the cavities with melted white chocolate.  I made some chocolate covered oreos, then topped them with the white chocolates from the advent calendar! What do you think? I love how they turned out!

~ Aimee

Cellfire has a Christmas present for you!

Log onto Cellfire today between 1 pm & 5 pm EST to find out which coupon Santa left for you - they are giving away coupons valued from 50 cents to $5 off your next shopping order.   Thanks Cellfire!!

Ballard Designs Free Shipping Offer

Ballard Designs is offering Free Standard Shipping on orders of $50 or more through Monday, December 20!

~ Aimee