I know I said I wasn’t going to blog but I just couldn’t resist adding these great reader tips for Christmas ideas. Merry Christmas!! Tawra

Hi Tawra, I love your site, and your cookbook is the one I ALWAYS
use!!! My husband knows if I tell him to grab “my cookbook” that it’s
always yours, not any of the “Good Housekeeping” or “Betty Crocker”
ones!!!

I think it would be really fun if other families would post some of
their holiday traditions that maybe aren’t so typical, as sometimes
there are some really fun ones!!

Every year on Christmas Eve, we get together and play games. But
they’re not games like “Monopoly”, they’re games with a prize at the
end, like games you might play at a shower. Everyone has to bring two
“prizes” from the dollar store, gift wrapped, of course, and it is so
much fun!!!! At the very end, we play the dice game where you can
“steal” someone else’s prize, but we add a twist, you can also give
someone else a prize you very much don’t want or need, so it’s fun to
buy stupid things, too….
Carol

Hi! Speaking of easy,inexpensive Christmas or holiday cookies…I have a recipe for Fudge Crinkles,but any cake mix can be used,and the cookies are wonderful.

Fudge Crinkles

1 [18 1/4 oz]box Devils food cake mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
Confectioners’ sugar

-Preheat oven to 350º
-Break up any clumps in the dry cake mix.Stir together [no mixer]the cake mix,oil,and eggs,until a dough forms.
-Dust your hands with confectioners sugar,then shape dough into 1″ balls.
-Roll the balls in confectioners sugar,and place 2″ apart on ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheets.
-Bake for 8-1o minutes,or until center is just set,this is a chewy cookie.
-Remove from pans after a minute or two,and cool on wire racks.The original recipe I had said the recipe would make 30-48 cookies.I usually wind up with 29-30.

Notes:
You can use any box cake for this. I LOVE using spice-cake cake mix,and rolling the cookies in either coconut,or confectioners sugar with a little cinnamon in it.You are only limited by your imagination.Also,Valentines day is coming up,and there are strawberry [pink]cake mixes that you can use to make mucho cookies for classrooms.Also,the recipe is extremely child and beginner-cook friendly.You buy those box mixes when they go on sale,they are shelf stable in your home for a year to 18 months or more,so you can create,at a moments notice,with very little $$ outlay.
Thanks for a great newsletter

Greetings!

In your most recent newsletter you mentioned purchasing candy canes for next year. Another use for candy canes is a summer one - homemade peppermint ice cream. There is a company in Fort Worth that makes peppermint and my parents would purchase peppermints for Christmas and also purchase a large diameter peppermint to keep for summertime when they would use it to make delicious homemade peppermint ice cream. I am looking forward to doing that with my family this summer.

Thank you for the wonderful newsletter and great tips!

Blessings to you and your family and Merry Christmas!

Tamera