deck the halls – Sadie’s room!

I have a lot of Christmas decor that is white, mint and gold… which happen to be the colours of my daughter’s room. I thought it would be fun to decorate her room this year. She LOVES her tree. As soon as she wakes up, she wants to turn it on. I loved how everything came together. And those golden animals from my wedding continue to be a hit wherever they are!

 

Teacher gifts

Sadie has been absolutely loving her new school. I wanted to put together a little basket for her teacher with some homemade things that Sadie helped me with. Yes it’s probably a lot easier to find an already-made basket at HomeSense… But I wanted the gift to have a personal touch! Here’s what I included:

• healthy coconut cookies (recipe here, made with Sadie’s help!)
• Christmas Crunch popcorn (recipe here!)
• Celestial Seasonings gingerbread tea
• Starbucks hot cocoa
• Lindor chocolates
• …and tied with a homemade ornament painted by Sadie

Christmas Crunch popcorn

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought it looked fun, easy, and perfect for an item in Sadie’s gift basket for her teacher. I followed this recipe, and have these suggestions:

• I used Smarties (I don’t like M&Ms).
• Instead of combining the Smarties, pretzels and popcorn in a bowl, I arranged them on the baking sheet to make sure they were evenly distributed.
• Sadie could help me with the last step – sprinkles!
• I used Alphabet pretzels for a fun element, since it’s a teacher’s gift.

Here’s how it looked as part of the gift basket! (blog about the gift basket here.)

 

healthier coconut cookies

 

I’ve made these cookies twice now and they’re so easy! And since Sadie is incessantly saying “up peeese” and “help ewww” when I’m in the kitchen, she was my little helper. These cookies are also great to give away as Christmas gifts. Here’s the recipe, modified from here to make them a bit more healthy.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat or spelt flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups flaked coconut

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream the butter, coconut oil, and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually blend in the flour mixture, then mix in the coconut. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks.