Works For Me Wednesday: Breakfast Shortcakes

By Alan

In our household, a Saturday morning tradition is that Daddy makes breakfast for the girls, while Mommy tries to sleep in. The favorite version of breakfast is based on a simple recipe that appears on every box of Bisquick: Strawberry Shortcakes. (Disclaimer: No, we aren't affiliated with Betty Crocker or General Mills, and we get nothing for this recipe from them.)

Since we're making breakfast shortcakes (think big gooey cookies), and not a fruit dessert, we changed the recipe considerably.

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Works For Me Wednesday: Christmas Cards

By MAD21

Since our girls were born, I've tried to get Christmas Cards out every year that include something that tells our family and friends what we've been up to during the year. In this stage of our lives, I've found it so hard to keep up with them because we are always so busy. So it's a good way to reconnect.

Something I have always done when we send cards to people, is trace my girls hands in the cards. I think I started doing it because my entire family lives 3000 miles away, and by including their handprints it was a way for them to see my girls grow. I realized after awhile how much I liked including that handprint because it was almost like sending part of my girls with the card. In the same way that we sign our own names.

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Works For Me Wednesday: Terrarium

By Alan

It's been a family tradition to spend the weekend around Thanksgiving to fix up the house for the Christmas season. However, weather and family illness slowed us down a bit. There wasn't as much opportunity to do things together.

Luckily, that week, there was a fun little article at one of my favorite web sites, Make Magazine. Someone took an ordinary incandescant lightbulb (now banned in several countries), carefully and safely cracked it open, removed the guts, washed it out, ending up with a perfectly clear little glass vase. There were several projects that derived from that idea, but the one that caught my eye was this lovely terrarium.

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Works For Me Wednesday: Gingerbread Houses

By MAD21

Like most people, we have many traditions in our house during the holidays. I think traditions are important. They not only provide opportunities to build the bonds of family, but they are also wonderful memories over the years.

One tradition we have is to build gingerbread houses. Not just for us, but to give away as gifts to grandparents and close friends. They are easy to make, the kids LOVE making them, and the people we give them to look forward to receiving them each year.

For each house, you will need:

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Works For Me Wednesday: Christmas Shopping

By MAD21

It's November and people are realizing how close we are getting to the holidays. One of my favorites is definitely Thanksgiving because it means family and friends... and food. But mostly it's because it's a time to reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for. Not that we don't do that every day, but it's nice to have a time to celebrate those things together with everyone.

But Thanksgiving is something else for me. It's a deadline. It has been my goal for years to have as much of my Christmas shopping done by 'Turkey Day.' It probably started even before I was married with my own kids. Because I live so far away from my family, I had to have everything done early enough to get it in the mail without paying a fortune to have it delivered by Christmas day.

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