The 25 days of December Christmas movie list.

In our house we love Christmas and everything that involves Christmas. Decorations, food,treats and movie nights.. We have big movie nights in our house with snacks and treats. The fire place is on and Christmas lights are twinkling..
I wanted to share with you 25 movies for the month of  December . A movie every night up until Christmas Day.
Make the movie nights special with some yummy and easy snacks.
Ill give you some ideas:
1)pop corn off course
2) hot chocolate
3) carrots sticks

4) cucumbers
5) savory dip
6) potato chips
7) home made whole wheat pizza
8) gingerbread cookies
9) whole wheat toasted cheese and bacon sandwiches
10) fruit salad with orange and cinnamon sauce
11) apple slices with caramel sauce dip( yumm)

These are a few I can remember and think about right now.. But mostly something you can eat with your fingers ,something that doesn't make a lot off mess..
We all get together in the kitchen and prepare the snacks, kids take them in the sitting room while I clean the mess and Daddy Doolittle prepares the movie.. It's a family affair with everyone involved and helping out.. We have a movie night every Saturday on school nights and if its school holiday we have some extra ones.. With less snacks of course. Good memories for everyone.
So here's the list:                                                                                                              

Christmas movie list

1 A Christmas Carol (1938)

2It's a Wonderful Life (1946.                                                                                   

3 home alone 1990.     

4 home alone 2 lost in New York 1992.          

5 Miracle on 34th Street 1947

6 Christmas Vacation (1989)

7 White Christmas (1954)

8 The Muppet Christmas Carol 1992

9 How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) ( short movie )

10 the snow man ( short movie)

11 Father Christmas ( short movie)

12 Elf (2003) funny

13 A Christmas Carol (2009).            

14 How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

15 The Nutcracker (1993)

16 The Polar Express (2004) my very favorite :-)

17 The Santa Clause (1994)

18 Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) my kids love this one

19  "Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause

20 The Nightmare Before Christmas

21 Mr. Magoo's Christmas Special

22 Christmas Story, A (1983)

 23 Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town 

24The Little Drummer Boy 

25 Cricket on the Hearth

Christmas cartoons:

1 Mickey's Christmas Carol

2 Curious George: A Very Monkey Christm
3 Elmo's Christmas countdown.

4 frosty the snowman ( kids cartoon) 

5 Toy Tinkers (1949 ) Disney's

6  Mickey's  once Upon a Christmas

7 Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas

Christmas stocking DIY

A couple off years back I made my boys Christmas stockings out of potato sacks. I got our neighborhood  shop to save me some and I hand drew a boot shape and cut it out, then I traced it on the burlap and cut it out. I made it a few inches bigger to allow for folding and stitching.
Stitched everything together and turned it out so the stitched side was in.
Then I got some felt and cut out letters for there names which again I drew and cut out on paper first and traced on the felt. I used fabric glue and stuck them on ... Easy...
I plan on gluing some red or tartan ribbon on the top off the stocking to change the look a little and make it look a bit nicer.. They come out every year for Santa to visit and fill them up...

Healthy oat raisin cookies...

Today I will be sharing a healthy cookie recipe , Oat raisin cookies.. Packed with nutrition and health without using any refined sugar .. Kids can practically have these for breakfast with a glass off milk without feeling guilty that you feed them cookies.. And kids love them..
For benefits of raisins go to this link:http://www.3fatchicks.com/10-health-benefits-of-raisins/

And for  oat benefits go here:http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=54

So on with the recipe:

You will need:

• 1 cup oats( not fast cook)
• I cup butter or coconut oil
• 1 cup agave syrup
• I tsp baking soda
• I tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs( substitute with banana) this is what I do so 2 medium sized bananas mashed
• I tsp cinnamon 
• I tsp gloves( optional)
• I cup whole grain flour
• I cup oats

What you do is this:

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees C and line your cookie trays with parchment paper.

Beat butter until creamy and fluffy, add your agave syrup and beat, add your eggs or banana and beat until creamy 

Add your vanilla, cinnamon and gloves if using and then sieve though your flour and baking soda, add your oats and raisins. By this time you would like to stir all off the mixture with a rubber spatula its easier.  Scoop out with a ice cream scoop equal sized balls on your cookie tray and flatten a little with the back off a spoon. Turn up your oven to 185 degrees C and cook for about 15 minutes , until edges are golden brown. 

Take out off the oven and let them cool down.. And enjoy!!!!

  

  

Whole wheat ,oat, Refined sugar and egg free chocolate banana cookies..

Today's post is about sugar and egg free cookies, these are moist and super yummy.. Made with whole wheat flour and oat flour , the eggs are substituted with banana and sugar with Agave syrup.

They can be made without the coco powder for a plain vanilla cookie. 

So what you will need:

• 1 1/2 cups organic whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oat flour
• 2 medium sized bananas mashed 
• I cup agave syrup
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbsp organic coco
• 1 cup of real butter( I also use coconut  oil instead off the butter)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Prepare your cookie trays with baking paper or grease them with olive oil.

Preheat the oven on 150 degrees C.

So what to do is this:

With a mixer beat the butter until soft and pale , add the agave syrup and the coco powder, beat a little longer and then  add the banana. Mix well untill smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla extract.

Sieve through the flours and  baking soda and mix well with a spatula ...

With a ice cream scoop , scoop out the cookie dough in to equal sized balls. Press the balls on top to flatten them a little bit.

Turn the oven up to 185 degrees C and cook for 15 minutes until the edges are golden brown ..

Leave on the counter to cool down and enjoy...

Diy body butter

Hi there in this post I will share with you how to make your own body butter, its super great and leaves skin soft and healthy. All natural ingredients are used , in fact you could even eat it if you like.
So here it goes.
You will need:

• I cup coconut oil
• Half a cup mango or coco butter melted
• Stand up mixer or hand mixer
• Essential oils . I like to use rose geranium, lavender , vanilla.

So first in a double boiler melt the coco butter or mango butter, when melted add the coconut oil and take off he stove. Add in your essential oils . Transfer your bowl in the refrigerator for about half an hour. What you need is the butters to start to solidify a little, just to turn a pale color. Then you beat the mixture with a mixer until it fluffs up like fresh cream.
It will look white and fluffy and feel super soft and great. Transfer your butter in a glass container with a lid and store it in a cool place. Keep it away from direct sunlight as the coconut oil will melt when it' gets hot, you could still use it just fine but it will loose that fluffy look and feel.
You could give these out with a nice label and ribbon as gifts for Christmas .

You could use cinnamon and glove essential oils to make these Christmassy , or coco powder to give your skin an extra glow ..
Hope you enjoyed this post.. Wishing you all happy positive thoughts.