Melt margarine, add chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and stir until chips are completely melted. Pour into large bowl. Add brown sugar and water and cool slightly. At high speed, beat in eggs one at a time. Reduce to low speed and add dry ingredients. Stir until blended. Chill dough. When ready to bake, line cookie sheets with foil. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough into very small balls (about 1/2 teaspoon per ball). Place 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and while cookies are still on pan, place half a candy piece on each cookie. Remove to waxed paper, wait about a minute and swirl the candy pieces across top of cookie.

Heat oven to 325 degrees F.

Dump cranberries into an ungreased 9 x 13-inch pan. Dump apple pie filling into pan. Spread mixture evenly and “sift” dry cake mix on top.   Cut up butter and dot top of cake. Sprinkle nuts or granola on top of cake. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool 10 minutes, then cut into squares.

Serve with Cool Whip or ice cream.

More wordless fun here…

More wordless fun here…

Combine all ingredients, adding ginger ale and berries just before serving (the strawberries can get slimy if left in for a while, you can omit them if the serving time is long).

• Chai Mulled Apple Cider
• Hot Orange Chocolate Cocoa
• Almond Joy Steamed Milk
• Warm Gingered Green Tea
• Hot Grape Punch Recipe
• Hot Caramel White Chocolate Milk

There are a couple of ways to do the reindeer’s head. First, you can use a footprint with the toes up and the heel where the nose will be placed. Do that footprint first … then do the handprint antlers slightly overlapping it (use both hands in doing the antlers … left for left, right for right). Second, just draw on a head for the reindeer using fabric paint – a fairly simple oval shape, colored in with the fabric paint. Then paint on the eyes and a nose (red, of course)

You can then draw a simple string of Christmas lights (bulbs of various colors) winding through the antlers if you wish.

Other cute holiday shirts to do are Christmas trees made out of upside down handprints .. a row of 3 handprints on the bottom, two in the middle, one on top. You could even draw on a star and ornaments (or use fingerprints for ornaments). Also, you can use an upside down handprint in white to be Santa’s face, with the fingers being his beard … draw on his eyes, nose, mustache, hat, etc. Or you can make a simple angel figure … just do a basic triangle for the body, a circle for the head and two handprints for the wings. You can obviously add more details if you want.

As an adult it doesn’t look all that appealing to me, but putting the characters in their correct seats (of course they had to enter the rocket by stepping three times on the steps), closing the cover and having it make sounds is exciting each time for this 3 year old. I will admit the sounds are annoying to me while other adults don’t find them that way – hey, what child’s toy doesn’t make sound?

This would appeal to the child in the 2 – 4 year old range when repetition and putting little plastic “people” in their correct places is at it’s strongest.

Lil’ Duck was delighted on Christmas morning to find a toy where he could take it out and have some good ol’ fun and have the Whac-A-Mole Game light up and giggle back at him. I was pleased to discover that there are various levels of play with a flip of a switch and it does teach the child to listen for their tune rather than just randomly whacking away. Another bonus is the child can play solo or with up to 4 players so this would make a good multi-age game for families.