Category: 2012 Christmas Gift Guide

When I write about the holidays, I mostly talk about Christmas, and that’s because that’s what we celebrate this time of the year. But I recognize that my readership is diverse and not everyone that lands on my blog celebrates Christmas, and very well may be looking for gift ideas for Chanukah or another December holiday.

That being said, while we aren’t Jewish, we did have some fun the other day putting together a Chanukah House from Manischewitz. This Chanukah House Kit came with everything we needed to build a great and tasty Chanukah house including cookies, icing, and decorating accents.

Boxed wine gets a bad wrap, and it really shouldn’t. Because of its packaging it’s a great way to get a really good wine for not a lot of money. And while I’m no wine critic, I did serve some Black Box Wines to friends who know a thing or two about wine and have discriminating palates, and they were impressed! Surprisingly to me it was their first taste of a boxed wine, and I think Black Box Wines won them over.

We got to try a white and two different reds.

I don’t know about you but my oven is working overtime this holiday season! I’m using the baking pans faster than I can wash them! Over the years I’ve picked up some tips and tricks from various sources to streamline my holiday baking and cooking, but I’m always open to new ways to use ingredients and prepare dishes.

This year Fisher Nuts is teaming up with Food Network Chef Alex Guarnaschelli, a regular judge on Chopped, to make your holiday cooking a bit easier and she offers up some simple twists for cooking with nuts during the holidays.

Thanksgiving week is always filled with celebrating around our home, not just because of Thanksgiving, but my birthday is November 23rd, so it always lands sometime during that Thanksgiving week. Sometimes though if we are very busy, birthday celebrations get pushed aside, but usually that’s okay with me because

Well Thanksgiving is over, and now we can focus on Christmas. The turkey or the ham is generally the focal piece, but side dishes can make or break a meal I think. I mean what good is all that juicy meat if you have soggy vegetables or over salted potatoes to go along with it?

My family isn’t that adventurous when it comes to vegetables. We have a few standbys in our home. Potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli are approved. Green beans and carrots are tolerated. That’s about the extent of the palates around here. Oh but what about corn?! Those sweet delicious nuggets? (shh…corn is actually a

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. #UbiChamps

My 16 year old daughter Amber, is the one who reviewed ‘Rayman Origins’ a game from Ubisoft for the 3DS.  Amber is enthralled with video games, so much so that she is planning to go to college to become a video game designer.

Cleaning your home when you have guests arriving for the holidays can seem like a daunting task, especially if you have natural stone surfaces. This holiday season there is no need to worry about stains and etching, or even germs, Granite Gold is here to help. Their product line includes everything you need to keep the natural stone surfaces in your home clean and protected, in the kitchen, the bathroom, and for you lucky people that live far enough south that you can still be spending time outside (!), even your outdoor living spaces.

With holiday entertaining upon us, NSF International has developed the following tips to help make sure that food poisoning doesn’t join your party as an unwelcome guest:

At the store…

· Shop inside to outside. Most grocery stores have their nonperishable products in the center of the store and their perishable products around the outside perimeter.

There are days I’m so thankful that I no longer work a 9 to 5 job, with just two fifteen minute coffee breaks. I get to have coffee break whenever I want to by blogging….and believe me, it’s a whole lot more than just two!

I have a ‘Coffee Bar’ set up in my dining room with coffee machines, a proliferation of hot and cold beverage flavors, sugars, creamers and syrups. And the other day I added to them a couple of Torani Syrups for some more fun to stir into my caffeine choices.

D23 is the world’s only official Disney fan club – and a Gold ($74.99) or Silver ($34.99) membership is a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious gift idea for any Disney Fanatic!

Taking its name from 1923, the year Walt Disney founded his world-famous company, D23 brings its members a host of exclusive benefits.

Some highlights of the memberships include: