Dear Readers, We Wish You A Very Merry Christmas! Thanks for following along with us on our Fifth Annual Family Advent Calendar! Here was our original Advent 2015 Love To Do List: And here are all of the links to our “accomplishments!” Family Advent Calendar 2015: Family Tree Trimming Party Family Advent Calendar: Make Italian Lemon […]
It’s Christmas Eve! Oh my word!! You know what that means…. The Lunchbox Season’s Christmas Eve Checklist □ Bake more cookies for Santa! □ Feast on the bowtie pasta and simple sauce we made together! □ Make clove oranges! □ Drink hot chocolate and sing carols by the fire! □ Listen to Jon Solomon’s 27th Annual 25-Hour Christmas Radio […]
Are you kidding me? Nope! I’m telling you the truth! Today, we are going to Illuminate or Video Shelley’s Ozymandias As a way of helping the kids to familiarize themselves with and, eventually, memorize Shelley’s poem, “Ozymandias,” I am setting them to the task of creating an illuminated manuscript of the poem. An illuminated manuscript […]
Today, we’ll be donating non-perishable items to the Daily Bread Food Bank box at a local grocery store or fire station [for instance, Fire Station 227, 1904 Queen East] and making a contribution online to Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank. The Daily Bread Food Bank is a registered charity that is fighting hunger in our communities. Every […]
This year, I wanted to start a new holiday tradition, a special holiday supper prepared by the whole family and served family style. Today, we’re pulling out all the stops with a red and green meal. We’ll be making homemade Bowtie Pasta three ways : simple, basil lemon garlic [my fave], and spicy sundried tomato. Farfalle for […]
Four calling birds? Today, I am going to ask the kids to get out some paper and their preferred art supplies and Posterize the Twelve Days of Christmas. That’s right, I am going to ask them to posterize the heck out of that song! I’ll tell them to go all out on this one and […]
Catch the ornament! Catch the ornament! Catch the ornament! Tonight is the night we’ve all been waiting for! We’ve got reserved seats for the new Star Wars movie. We’ll have dinner out and then hit the theatre this evening! And, thank goodness, we won’t have to wait in line! Shouldn’t everyone be doing the same […]
Shake a leg, peppermint stick! It’s time to get outside and be festive! This evening, Bea and I are going to take a little wander around the Toronto Christmas Market. The Toronto Christmas Market is month long festival held on the cobblestone pathways of Toronto’s historic Distillery District. It promises to be filled with food, entertainment and festive […]
Aww!! Jon Snow and a Dire Wolf pup! Did that make you happy? Have I already done my job? Today is our Random Act of Kindness Day. Each person in the family is tasked with doing something kind, and, if possible, in secret, for someone they don’t know, or, at least, someone they don’t know […]
Today, we will be putting together some gifts for the teachers. We thought we’d package up some gift cards, bottles of wine, tins of tea, or bags of coffee beans with something homemade. Of course, we know what everyone really wants…. Well, first, there’s your Christmas list…and then…and then… Luckily, there is no more perfect cookie on […]
It’s that time of year, sweeties! Time to start wrapping all of the gifts! So, today, I thought I’d get the kids involved in the process of making our packages ever so special. The images above and below are from some sweet little tags that I made for Christmas last year. I simply scoured the web […]
Okay folks, today’s the day. Get out your sacks of flour, your butter blocks, your monster egg cartons, your pounds of chocolate, your sprinkles and your pastilles, your chopped nuts and your, your, your everything! It’s our annual Holiday Cookie Bake Off! Today, we will be making: Cookie Meteors, Santa Baby Cookies, Pfeffernüsse, Reverse Chip Brookie […]
Now, don’t cry again… And, don’t swear, either, when I tell you we’re not illustrating Shakespeare as part of our family Advent Calendar this year! But, fear not, revellers! We’ve got one of the most beautifully written carols of all time on the drawing board this year… That’s right, this year, we are illustrating J.M. […]
I’m Santa!…No, I’m Santa! In two days, it will be Santa Lucia Day. December 13th is a day to celebrate the light in a season of long, dark days. Need to know more? Check out this little vimeo: Anyway, to prepare for this holiday, we thought we’d try our hands at Saffron Lussekatter, or Santa […]
Today is pure and simple joy! We’re going to have a picnic beneath the Christmas tree! That’s right…. We’re going to order our favourite take-out, turn on the fire, and use the Christmas tree skirt as our tablecloth. Heck, we might even throw a few holiday films on the “big screen” while we munch! Aaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnd…That […]
Don’t cry, sweethearts! It’s advent! Or is that me after Christmas shopping? Today’s advent calendar task is going to supply us with the wherewithal to greet the masses via snail mail. We’re going to create some holiday cards! Since some of our previous Frieda Kahlo Santa and Picasso Santa projects have been so successful, we’re going to […]
It’s another giving day on our 2015 Advent Calendar. Our family’s focus today is on world health. Plan Canada provides a global movement for change, mobilizing millions of people around the world to support social justice for children in developing countries. And, today, via their Gifts of Hope program, we will sponsor a newborn checkup for a mother and […]
Hello, again! And again! There are certain things we do over and over, because, well, they are fantastic! Today, we’re making our famous Whisky Fig Cranberry Sauce and Carrot Cake Jam to serve at the holidays and to give away as last minute gifts, you know, for the whozits and whatsits who show up at […]
