25 Days of Christmas - Day 7 {Dinner & a Movie}

Tonight's activity for day 7 of our 25 days of Christmas was dinner and a movie.  We have done this a couple times this year and it's always a lot of fun, so I was really looking forward to planning to do this during the holidays. I chose the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for tonights movie.

The kids and I spent a little time this afternoon making the decorations to go along with our themed dinner. And Bub was kind enough to de-decorate his tree and let us use it for our "Grinch tree". We also used some little red hearts (“But I think that the most likely reason of all May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.”), red curly ribbon and tinsel (“The ribbons! The wrappings! The tags! And the tinsel!”)

They would feast on Who-pudding, and rare Who-roast beast
Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!

The Feast:

• Who Hash {Hashbrown potatoes baked in the oven}
• Who Roast Beast {Roast beef}
• Grinchy Green Beans {Green Beans with scallions & sliced mushrooms}
• Who Pudding {Chocolate pudding with whipped cream & chocolate shavings}

Movie Food:

• Cindy Lou Who Brew {Root Beer}
• Popcorn
• Bananas {“You’re a bad banana with a... greasy black peel.”}

And that was our family fun for tonight! The kids really enjoyed it and Little E kept saying "I love Christmas". <3 This is why I do this.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 7 {Dinner & a Movie}

Read more...

Friday's Feast ~ Cool Runnings

This week for our dinner and a movie night I decided to do the movie Cool Runnings.  I thought it would be a great movie to get everyone excited about the 2010 Winter Olympics that are going to start tonight.  Daddy was the only one of us that has seen the movie before, so we were all pretty excited to watch the movie.

When the big kids got home from school we set to work getting decorations made.  We made paper chains to hang in the living room, using the colors of the Olympic rings, we made some paper torches for the table and the entertainment center and I cut out some Olympic Rings to use as part of our table centerpiece.

On the menu:

• Jamaican Jerk Burgers {recipe from Relish! Relish!}on homemade burger buns
• Bobsled Twice Baked Potatoes {Just a regular twice baked potato topped with cheddar & sour cream}
• “Junior” Mint Brownies {I used my brownie recipe, put half the batter in the pan sprinkled Junior Mints on top, then covered with remaining batter, and baked as usual}

I think everyone had a great evening and I'm looking forward to doing this again.  The kids even tried the burgers and loved them even though they weren't just ordinary burgers.  We had a great time making the decorations and chatting together. 

*Next movie - Ice Age*

Friday's Feast ~ Cool Runnings

Read more...

Friday's Feast ~ Bedtime Stories

I don't know about your family, but as my children get older they are spending less and less time at home.  This makes me sad as I love having my kids home with me - ahhh the trials of children growing up. At Christmas time I planned a dinner & themed movie night for part of our advent.  We watched A Christmas Story and it was a lot of fun.  Shortly before or just after that I won a subscription from A Hen's Nest to Relish! Relish! and they have a whole list of dinner and movie ideas. This got me thinking that since we had so much fun with the one I planned that we would try the ideas on Relish! Relish!; and it would be a great way to ensure that we would spend sometime once a week (hopefully) together as a family doing something fun.

For this week's dinner and a movie we watched the movie Bedtime Stories and enjoyed a themed dinner to go along with it.  I had the kids use a couple of my circle punches and punch out some colorful gumballs to decorate the table. For our centerpiece we used a big bowl of real gumballs.

On the menu:
All recipes can be found on Relish! Relish!

• Bugsy Bacon Burgers on Homemade Buns (also did a garden burger for the vegetarians)
• Friday Night Fries
• Nottingham Nosh with Creamy Lemon Dill Dip
• Sleepytime S’mores

*Next weeks dinner & a movie in honor of the Olympics - Cool Runnings*

Friday's Feast ~ Bedtime Stories

Read more...