Your Fun Family

For generations women have convinced themselves that eating chocolate is beneficial. Now medical science has found that we were right all along. Every news headline that announces a new reason that dark chocolate is good for you has women everywhere jumping for joy. There is just something about chocolate!

I have only met three people in my life that do not like chocolate and I am convinced that they must be aliens. How could you not like chocolate? Years ago I worked with a woman named Lynn. She would buy expensive chocolates for us at work. She would hide them so we were the only ones that would get any. We both agreed that good chocolate would be wasted on such chocolate amateurs.

Lynn and I were great friends through all three of my pregnancies. She knew all about my cravings and made fun of many of them. She insisted that my children should have been shaped like an egg since I ate a ham, cheese, onion, and tomato omelet almost every day. I also craved lots of rootbeer floats. Who knew that dark chocolate for pregnancy would become prescribed?

Now I see that in a new scientific study by Dr. Triche research at Yale they have found that dark chocolate is very beneficial to pregnant women. This new study found that pregnant woman that ate dark chocolate were 69 percent less likely to develop preeclampsia. I should call Lynn and thank her for all of that chocolate.

Right afterward I should head to Intentional Chocolate and buy some chocolate. Yummy!

Here is a cute little project for kids. This cute little craft stick basket can be easily made by kids. It could even be used as a bread basket on the table this Thanksgiving. Your kids will love showing off their basket at dinner time. All you need is craft sticks and glue. For a basket that lasts longer you can use wood glue. You could also get creative with the shape and design. When you are done simply add a cloth on the inside and you are ready to add bread.



Place three sticks down in a pattern so it looks like a hexagon with three missing sides. Put a dot of glue on the ends of the sticks. Then put three more sticks down in the openings so that they over lap and glue to the original sticks.


Continue adding sticks in the same three at a time back and forth pattern. When you are at the height you want stop. If you are unsure stop because you can always add more after the bottom is made.



Starting The Bottom

What you are going to want to do is, add the next three sticks a bit more "inside" than the other ones. You want to make it so that the sticks aren't overlapping. The first one will barely fit but all the others will have plenty of space.

Keep doing that until you can't without overlapping sticks. At this point you can just cover up the opening with a row of sticks.

Playground season is almost over now. That seems so strange to say. I miss Arizona where we could go to the playground all year round. It is great to get out of the house and spend some time on playground equipment for awhile. My kids love going to the park and have a ton of fun. It also wears them out so they will go to bed nice and early so I can get some things done.

It does not matter how old they get they still love playing on tire swings. From what I hear that is all they play on at school too. I can not really blame them though. Even as adults we still love swing sets. I find myself sitting on a swing most of the times that we head to the park.

Do we really ever get over it? I still remember going to the park one year with my parents when I was a teen. I think we were site seeing and noticed a park. My mom and I sat side by side swinging until she fell backwards and broke her finger pretty bad. It was nice until then though.

Every year millions of people make turkey and stuffing. Most just make the normal sage stuffing. Now that we live in the day and age of instant everything even our stuffing is instant. I am willing to bet that most people just grab a box or a bag of stuffing each year.

I will admit that I use stuffing mix. One of my little known secrets is that I cheat at cooking often by adding extra things to prepared mixes. It speeds things up and still tastes homemade.

For stuffing I add onions, celery, and real broth to the prepared mix. This year I wanted to do something a bit different. As I thought about it I realized that I have never made my mother's sweet stuffing. When I was growing up my mother always made two pans of stuffing. One was normal sage and one was sweet. This year I will try to make her sweet stuffing.

This will be more of a guideline than a recipe. When I called my mother for the recipe she laughed and said that she has never wrote it down so she has no clue. She gave me her best guess at amounts though. I will just try it and see what happens.

Sweet Stuffing is made with sage stuffing mix to make it easy right from the start. Yes my mother cheated while in the kitchen just like I do now.

Sweet Stuffing
(this recipe is all estimates... change amounts according to taste)


Dry Mixture

Stuffing Mix (already seasoned "sage stuffing mix")
Diced Onion
Diced Celery
Raisins
Peanuts or Walnuts (unsalted)

Wet Mixture

3 cups of warm broth
1/2 cup brown sugar


Bake

Combine wet and dry mixtures without breaking apart the bread cubes. It is good to have a little extra broth on hand just in case. Place the stuffing mixture in a buttered baking dish and bake covered for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

We recently became members of Sam's Club again. We went years without a membership because we had moved somewhere that did not have one. It was not until I walked in the door that I fully remembered how much I love the place. James loves it too so we bought a ton of stuff.

I forgot how much stuff they have though. I love all of the savings on bulk groceries but I forgot about all of the extras. We could spend hours there. Especially now that Christmas is coming. The decorations, toys, and dolls are all getting stocked and the savings are just waiting and calling for me.

Many people do not realize that if you have a membership you can access their website full of savings to. They have a huge selection of kids toys and baby dolls. I even found the Cabbage Patch Kids Surprise Newborn Twins there. They are very hard to find. When my girls were into children's dolls they loved Cabbage Patch Kids. The Surprise Newborn Twins are $27.98 at Sam's Club and the only other place I have been able to find them is on Ebay for $39.99 to $49.99. I might have to do more Christmas shopping at Sam's Club!

Making a Thankful Tree could become a wonderful tradition for years. It is a wonderful project that keeps kids giving thanks all November long. This Thankful Tree is made using a branch and regular paper. The paper is cut into leaf shapes and then painted. You can make your Thankful Tree out of anything. All that matters is that you make it together and give thanks.

First you make your tree and then you can start adding your leaves or hands. Everyday the members of your family get to write something that they are thankful for and then add it to the tree. By the time Thanksgiving comes along you have a big full tree.

This one is made from construction paper and displayed on a window. You can get creative and make your Thankful Tree out of anything. You can cut out hand prints or leaves for your tree. It is all up to you.

If you have a small family you may want to add more than one a day. Make sure that you all discuss the things you are thankful for as you do it. That is the best part.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hoover and Dirt Devil. All opinions are 100% mine.

Dirt Devil has put together an awesome gift buying guide. The Dirt Devil site has savings and special offers that start Wednesday November 25th, but the guide covers way more than just their products. The Dirt Devil Holiday Gift Guide is packed full of great gift ideas, tips on saving money, and a list of over 300 recommended websites. They have covered everything!

Want to know what websites have Black Friday deals? Want to find the best Cyber Monday sites? Want to find sites with promotional codes to save money when you order? Want to know what the heck all of those abbreviations mean? Learn tricks on how to use Google to easily find the promo code you want. You can even find sites that are just dedicated to free shipping offers.

I like the Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, and Family Favorites sections. I never even knew they had a Designer Series that offered sleek looking versions of their products. I would love a Dirt Devil Broom Vac and a Easy Steam Deluxe. I would not care how it looked though. Some women want they cleaning tools to look good but I just care about the power.

It is time for a new giveaway! This giveaway is for a photo enlargement poster print from Digital Room. We recently got a poster of this photo. We absolutely love it! It looks so good that I am planning on having it matted and framed for in the livingroom. It will fit in perfectly with the World theme that we have going on. I can not wait to get another one!

Giveaway prize: (1) 18x24 poster print for 1 Lucky Winner

Paper: High Gloss; Semi Gloss

Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US

Eligibility: Limited to US Residents due to shipping costs.

This giveaway ends November 22nd. Feel free to check out Digital Room for more info on Poster Printing. You can also check out Printing Reviews. The poster for this giveaway and a free poster for us is provided by our sponsor Digital Room.

HOW CAN YOU ENTER?

Your main entry will be to comment about what photo you would like enlarged into a poster.

EXTRA ENTRIES

• Blog about the giveaway and include a link back to this post. Make a new comment here with the URL to your post. This will give you three additional entries!
  
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Each one counts for one entry so each should have a separate comment. It must include the link where it can be found to count. I will be deleting comments that do not follow the rules so others get a fair chance.

I have just become an Official Event Chaser. How awesome is that? I used to go to concerts all the time. My friends loved going to concerts too so we would all go together in a few car loads. We had a blast! Some great memories were made.

When I had kids the concerts stopped. Now my teenage daughter has been after James and I to take her to concerts. That is when I realized how long it has been since I went to a concert. My kids are older now so I need to get out and have fun again!

When the opportunity to become an EventChaser came around I was thrilled. I could get out, have fun, and write about it. As an Event Chaser I can get free or drastically reduced Concert Tickets. That is a pretty awesome deal if you ask me!

I was asked for a list of things that I would be interested in and as soon as I saw the All Time Low Tickets for The Rave/Eagles Ballroom I knew I had to add it to my list. My daughter has gotten me into All Time Low and I have some great memories of that place. I have seen some great concerts there.

Since I work with General Mills I have been contacted a few times to vote on covers and headlines for the Betty Crocker magazines. As a thank you they always send me a copy when they come out. I got so excited yesterday when I saw that the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookies issue came.

It is actually all pull out recipe cards and the recipes are awesome. We love making Christmas cookies and have gotten stuck in a rut so I can not wait to try these out. There are so many that I do not know where to begin.

Once again I am getting excited and want to get started on the holidays.

The weather this weekend was wonderful! I loved being able to open up the windows and get some fresh air in the house. The sun was out so we spent a lot of time outside. I am really going to miss days like that over the winter. Many people in my area love winter but I hate it. I really miss Arizona and being able to spend time outside all year long.

Today we were back to cold weather. There was even frost on the ground when I took the kids to school. Right now I am curled up on the couch with a blanket over me. If I could build a house and start from scratch, I think I would get under floor heating.

It just sounds so comfortable and cozy. Having a gas furnace means I have to get cold before I can get warm again. When the furnace kicks on I always get a cold breeze where I sit on my laptop. Plus it blows around dust and we all know how much I hate cleaning.

There are so many neat options for homes these days. I was looking at Floor Heating Online and found some really cool Mirror heaters too. You flip a switch...they heat your mirror...you keep a perfectly clear mirror. How awesome would that be? I hate trying to clean off the mirror so I can do my hair after a shower.

I love pumpkin pie but I also like to find different types to make. Have you started to think about your Thanksgiving menu yet? Most people want a simple and traditional menu so you can not get too creative with dinner. You can get creative with dessert though. This pumpkin pie is wonderful. Pumpkin cheesecake is a perfect combination and the gingersnap and pecan crust is the perfect compliment.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar, divided
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium bowl, mix together the crushed gingersnap cookies, pecans, and butter. Press into the bottom, and about 1 inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake crust 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Set aside to cool.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla just until smooth. Mix in eggs one at a time, blending well after each. Set aside 1 cup of the mixture. Blend 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg into the remaining mixture.
3. Spread the pumpkin flavored batter into the crust, and drop the plain batter by spoonfuls onto the top. Swirl with a knife to create a marbled effect.
4. Bake 55 minutes in the preheated oven, or until filling is set. Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Allow to cool before removing pan rim. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.