We're finishing up Christmas stuff over here today, including baking and putting together a few gifts for people still on our list. This green tea scrub one is one of our favorites (disclosure, I make huge batches of it for myself almost every month) because it is a great gift that is easy to put together with things you probably already have in your kitchen. Great for stocking stuffers, for babysitters, neighbors, aunts, or just yourself.

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
4 green tea bags
1 cup coconut oil
optional: 10-12 drops essential oil or extract of your choice (we used sweet orange)

Directions:

Melt the coconut oil. Mix brown and white sugars, loose green tea from the tea bags, and coconut oil in a bowl. Add 10-12 drops of essential oil or extract (vanilla is a good choice, or peppermint, or almond...) Package in small mason jars with a bow!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL! We're taking a few days off for Christmas and birthdays but will see you back here next week.

Oops! I forgot to take photos for 12 in 12 on Friday the 12th, so these pictures are from our playgroup Christmas party, which we held yesterday. Our playgroup tries to have a party every year...the first year it was just me and Molly and our three kids. This year is our 3rd annual party, and since our little group has grown so much, it was kind of a blowout. Things get bigger (and better) every year. Next year, I fully expect we're going to have to rent a hall or something to contain the festivities.

Head over to No Monsters in My Bed and Not-So-SAHM to see how Darcy and Rebecca spent their days!




2:30 PM: The party started promptly at 2:00, and the first order of business is to get our craft on. We're making wooden ornaments here, and also clear plastic ones that we filled with buffalo snow, confetti, and beads. Lots and lots of beads. Everywhere.



 3:00 PM: The weather has been rainy but luckily clears enough for the kids to have a candy cane hunt in the backyard. 120 candy canes hidden and they found them in less than five minutes. In the true spirit of Christmas, the big kids even decide to help the little ones find candy. It's a playgroup Christmas miracle!

3:30 PM: Making holiday chocolates! Thanks for setting this up, Kelly!



4:00 PM: Santa arrives to hand out presents! Everyone is really happy to see him and give him their final lists of what they want to see on Christmas morning.

4:30 PM: Except for maybe Baby T., who is dubious.



5:00 to 7:00 PM: By now, all of the food (Sue's lumpia! pumpkin bread! cupcakes!) has been eaten and the kids have completely lost it in a sugar haze and are destroying the playroom. Do the adults care? No, we are far too merry for that.

The house is a mess, we all ate 3,000 calories apiece (at least), there is buffalo snow sparkling underfoot in every room, but we are ready for Christmas and so happy to have so many wonderful friends to celebrate with.

To see photos from our playgroup Christmas last year (look how everyone's grown!), click here.

Recently,  our friend Mylinh (who I met through this very blog!) returned from overseas bringing us a delicious marzipan lion to devour. Just a few days later, I saw this post on making marzipan tree decorations for cakes on Oh Happy Day and it was perfect timing because Anouk had been asking for more "lion candy." We decided to have our friends over and give it a try. We also decided to go a little further than the original project though and make our own marzipan instead of using pre-made almond paste. Because how hard can it be, right?

Turns out it isn't hard as much as it is tedious, blanching and peeling all those almonds. But once you've done that (or if you find almonds already blanched), it's pretty much the easiest thing ever.

Homemade Marzipan

Ingredients:

1.5 cups ground blanched almonds
1.5 cups powdered sugar (with extra for dusting)
1 egg white
2 tsp almond extract

NOTE: This recipe calls for raw egg. If you are a little weirded out about eating raw egg, you can use the egg white substitute in the refrigerated section of the grocery store; it is pasteurized. 3 tbsp = 1 egg white.

Directions:

First, blanch the almonds: Bring a pot of water to a boil and dump almonds in for 30 seconds. Drain, and immediately transfer to a bowl of cool water. The skins should pop right off when you pinch the almonds. Dry with a paper towel before grinding.

Grind the almonds in the food processor until they are very fine powder. Mix the almonds with the powdered sugar, add the egg white and almond extract. Mix in a stand mixer until the ingredients come together into a ball (like bread dough). Turn out onto a surface coated in powdered sugar and knead until smooth. The marzipan should not be sticky -- if it is, coat with extra powdered sugar and knead some more.

To make our marzipan Christmas trees, we made cones out of the marzipan and rolled them in green sprinkles and shredded coconut (for snow) before inserting a pretzel stick into the base for the trunk. Oh Happy Day's recipe mentions wetting the marzipan very slightly before adding the sprinkles, to help them stick better. Next time, we'll do that.

We found that letting the trees sit for an hour or two led to a more stable tree but most of them didn't last that long.



 
 We also found that marzipan and pretzel is a combination that is pretty legit. Ritter Sport, why aren't you on this?

 Last year we really enjoyed cutting down our own Christmas tree at Bright's Christmas Tree Farm, but this year we decided to get our tree a little closer to home at the Norfolk Farm Market. Because it's so close to our house, Norfolk Farm Market has become a holiday tradition in our family -- it doesn't really feel like Christmas until we've been. We have a ritual of visiting every year in the first week of December to see the decorations and to let Anouk pick out an ornament of her very own (hard to believe this is her third one so far!)

Sadly, Santa wasn't there on this visit, but we did find the perfect tree, a spruce with the featheriest branches. And A. found the perfect reindeer ornament (she is a little bit obsessed with Rudolph right now). After visits to the poinsettia house and a cup of hot apple cider, we declared the Christmas season officially kicked off.







Over at Fun and Free Hampton Roads, I blogged about a FREE Holiday Yule log bonfire happening at Town Point Park tonight! Click here for more info. It sounds so fun!

We spent our last weekend before Christmas at the Yorktown Victory Center. There was a lot we wanted to see but the thought of experiencing a Colonial Christmas seemed so fun that we moved it to the top of the list. It turned out to be kind of a bum day for cultivating a holiday spirit -- rain threatened and the temperature was a soggy 80 degrees, not exactly the perfect weather for huddling by a woodfire.

But we still had a great time exploring. In the working farm, Anouk chased chickens and turkeys while J. and I talked about colonial cooking with the "townspeople." That's one thing I have to say for Yorktown that's especially impressive -- the staff really know their stuff. We went on to help dip candles and dumped dipperfuls of water on the colewart in the garden and then peeked in the wood houses at tables set for a holiday meal.

Over at the army encampment, we held our ears while the soldiers showed off their artillery, including muskets and a great booming cannon. Of course this was James's favorite part (but not Anouk's. As soon as she saw the soldier walk over to light the cannon fuse she said, "Mama, I want to go inside RIGHT NOW." We ran, but still heard the tremendous boom.)








The holiday entertainment won't end on Christmas Day; Yorktown Victory Center will feature 18th century Christmas music from Dec. 26th through 31st (more about that here).

Hope you're having a merry Monday!

My favorite part of the holidays so far this year has definitely been our playgroup Christmas party. Last Wednesday, we moms of the group got together and threw a big shindig (that was probably just as much fun for us as it was for the little ones). The lovely Molly hosted and everybody brought something to eat or drink and the result was the perfect way to celebrate the season with friends. I feel so lucky to have all of these folks in our life.

I thought I'd share some pics from our fete, including eats and crafts (we made snowglobes and "gingerbread" trees) and a visit by Santa to hand out gifts! If he looks familiar to you, it's probably because he shares a strong resemblance to somebody you see around these blog parts fairly frequently. But rest assured this was the real deal Santa. We have North Pole connections, you know.

Hope you make the most of this last weekend before the holiday! Click here for some local Christmas fun you might have missed.

In last week's holiday post, you got a glimpse of our presents under the tree and I promised to write about them -- the wrapping, at least, the stuff inside I've managed to keep secret so far this year. I think I've mentioned before on the blog how I used to be a wrapping paper junkie. I would search high and low for interesting paper and hoard it throughout the year. But then I read an article on the environmental effects of the wrapping paper industry and was a little turned off. I converted to kraft paper a few years ago and have to say that haven't missed my old stash.

I don't set out every year to decorate our presents in any unique way but we always end up having a theme which I like, because it helps me remember that Christmas. For instance, I will always remember that in 2011 we used glitter, because it took most of 2012 to clean it up. Last year, we broke out the stamps; this year, I wanted something fun that Anouk could really help with. We ended up making tons of teeny tissue paper "rosettes" (for lack of better word?) to put on our presents and it was so easy, the perfect toddler craft. Just pinch a little bit of tissue paper in whatever color you choose. Scrunch, twist at the base, and glue in a pattern or at random.






Anouk loved this one. It's not the most elegant present wrapping idea, but it's festive and it always makes me smile to see the flashes of red and green on our brown paper packages sitting under the tree.

How do you wrap your presents? Do you DIY your wrapping?