By Cheryl Tallman and Joan Ahlers

A parfait is an old-fashioned layered dessert that looks pretty, and is fun to eat. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we thought you would enjoy a nice sweet treat to serve for dessert to your special loved ones.

Ingredients for each parfait:
3 Tbsp. strawberry puree (made from 3-4 large strawberries)
1 Tbsp. chocolate syrup
½ cup vanilla yogurt
Whipped cream and sprinkles (optional)
Parfait glasses, short stemmed wine glasses, or tall glasses

Directions:
Puree the strawberries in a blender. Make the parfaits by layering the ingredients in each glass in the following order:
2-3 Tbsp yogurt
1 Tbsp chocolate syrup
2-3 Tbsp yogurt
3 Tbsp strawberries
2-3 Tbsp yogurt

Chill. Just before serving, top with whipped cream and sprinkles. Grab your spoons and dig in! Happy Valentine’s Day!

About the Authors:
Cheryl Tallman and Joan Ahlers are sisters, the mothers of five children and founders of Fresh Baby, creators or products such as homemade baby food kits, baby food cookbooks, baby food and breast milk storage trays, breastfeeding reminders, and child development diaries (www.FreshBaby.com). Visit them online at www.FreshBaby.com and subscribe to their Fresh Ideas newsletter to get monthly ideas, tips and activities for developing your family’s healthy eating habits!

by Jan McCracken

It’s CHRISTmas!

Where are the wise men?

WOW – The wise men are MISSING! What kind of Christmas is this anyway?

Are you caught up in the “season” with this Christmas thing? Do YOU know where the wise men are?

For over 200 years we have celebrated Christmas and all of the joys and festivities that go with the “holidays” in this great country of ours. Christmas was declared a federal holiday in 1870 by President Ulysses S. Grant for the purpose of celebrating the “philosophy of good will toward men.” What’s changed?

And, where are those wise men?

The Associated Press reported last Christmas that in New Jersey the sixth-grade class of the South Orange Middle School planned a field trip to see the play, “A Christmas Carol.” However, due to pressure from some of the parents the field trip was “re-routed” to a show, “The Great Railroad Race”!

Why? Because of the concerns from parents that the play, “A Christmas Carol” might have something to do with CHRISTMAS! The school principal told the AP, “There is a great sensitivity to putting students in awkward situations.”

Jesus is just not acceptable! Nice…

The school board in Covington, GA last year voted to “remove” the word Christmas from the school calendar!

Hundreds of towns across the US have banned placing nativity scenes and even poinsettias on public property. It seems that the ACLU as well as other organizations have threatened lawsuits and instilled the fear of God, uh, that would be the fear of “a greater power” because we have these “sensitivity concerns” and need to suppress any kind of religious display!

Why? Because Jesus Christ is involved in Christmas. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Jesus Christ, the great philosopher who believed that all men should love one another!

DOWN with all the happiness this national holiday brings to old and young alike. DOWN with tradition. DOWN with peace on earth and good will towards men. OH, and forget about that love one another stuff! Our world is in such GREAT shape this Christmas that we really don’t need any of that LOVE stuff, right?

And just how do we take Christ out of this season, out of Christmas? And WHY would we want to?

Our founding forefathers saw fit to utilize much of Christ’s philosophy in drafting the Constitution of the United States, a document that is the rock of this country reads…”One nation under God…”

Where are the wise men? We need them and I hope they show up pronto and start hanging out with us. This US would be WE, mis-guided and very confused Americans!

In the precious name of Christmas and all the wonder, magic, peace and love that it holds, please whisper a prayer that the “wise men” will show up in the nick of time for the world!

Wishing you all the love and happiness of this great Christmas season and abundant blessings of peace,

Copyright 2003, Jan McCracken

www.LowCarbcookin.com
Home site of Low Carb Christmas Cookin’
The FIRST Low Carb Christmas Cookbook!
Low Carb Christmas Cookin’- with an Old-Fashioned Cook! 224 fun-filled, sometimes hysterical pages!

About The Author
Jan McCracken is author and self-publisher of 39 gift books and cookbooks. Born in the Midwest and former owner/innkeeper of a country bed and breakfast in Branson, MO, she has been cooking since she was seventeen years old (she won’t tell us how many years that is! Jan has been living the low carb lifestyle for almost eight years. Her long-term goal is helping people understand that food is truly the great medicine, prevention and healer of disease. jan@lowcarbcookin.com

by LeAnn R. Ralph

“Wouldn’t you just know it,” muttered my husband, Randy.

We had already been driving for a couple of hours in a pickup truck that we had borrowed from a friend, and now it was completely dark.

“What’s wrong?” I asked sleepily. I had dozed off only a few minutes ago.

“It’s starting to rain,” Randy replied, as he reached over to turn on the windshield wipers.

Rain? In a few seconds, I came fully awake. If it was raining, that meant Mom and Dad’s furniture was getting wet.

So far, it had been my worst Thanksgiving ever. Dad had passed away a month ago. My mother had died seven years earlier. When I was a kid, we always celebrated Thanksgiving at home. All four of my grandparents had died before I was born, and to me, Thanksgiving meant celebrating the holiday with Mom and Dad. But now, for the very first time in my whole life, all thirty-four years of it, there had been no one to spend Thanksgiving with at my parents’ place.

Randy and I did, however, have plenty of work to do at Mom and Dad’s house. A family wanted to rent it, and we needed to have it cleaned out by Christmas. Randy and I had been married for a little less than six months, and this was hardly the way that I had wanted us to spend our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. And yet, I knew it was no use waiting. That if we waited it wouldn’t bring either of my parents back. But cleaning out the house seemed so final. The end of a lifetime. The end of two lifetimes. I simply wasn’t ready. Although, if I were going to be honest with myself, I knew I probably never would be “ready.”

We had decided to take some of Mom and Dad’s furniture home with us. My parents’ house was in west central Wisconsin, and my husband I lived two-hundred-and-fifty miles away in the southern part of the state.

After we had loaded the first piece of furniture into the pickup truck we had borrowed, Mom and Dad’s bedroom looked very empty without the dresser that they’d had for as long as I could remember. In the top dresser drawer, my mother had kept some of her keepsakes, including a strand of blond hair. When I was a kid and had gotten my hair cut short, Mom wanted to save some of it. Dad’s drawer held a few keepsakes too. His old pocket watch, for one thing. Dad always carried a pocket watch. He had been a farmer, and he said a wristwatch would never survive the hardships of farm work (dust and water, grease and oil).

In addition to the dresser, we had taken Mom’s cherry wood buffet. My mother had stored her tablecloths and what she referred to as her “good dishes” in the buffet. Randy and I were also bringing home the chest-of-drawers that I’d had since I was a little girl. Although the middle drawer looks like two separate drawers, it is actually one big drawer. When I was growing up, I had been fascinated by the design and had used the big drawer for storing my sweaters.

But now, after we had so carefully loaded the furniture and strapped it into the back of the truck, it was raining, which meant everything was all going to end up ruined.

No, wait a minute. The furniture was not going to get wet. We had put a tarp over the load.

“Well, at least we’ve got a tarp,” I said to my husband. By this time, it was raining so hard the windshield wipers couldn’t keep up, even on high.

Randy shook his head. “The tarp won’t help much unless we tie it down better.”

A few minutes later, my husband pulled off at a gas station.

“But what are we going to tie it down WITH?” I asked, as the truck swayed in a gust of wind that hit it broadside. We hadn’t counted on wind and rain or that we would need more rope.

Randy smiled. “These,” he said, bending down to pull the laces out of his work boots. “If I cut them into pieces, I should have enough to go around.”

It was still raining when we arrived home several hours later, so Randy put the truck in the garage. The next day I could hardly believe my eyes when we discovered that the furniture had suffered only a few wet spots here and there, but that nothing had gotten completely soaked.

“What would I do without you?” I said to my husband as I ran my hand over Mom and Dad’s dresser. “I never would have thought of shoelaces. Not in a million years.”

Randy shrugged. “I couldn’t let your mom and dad’s furniture get ruined, could I? What kind of a person would I be if I let that happen?”

And just then it dawned on me that even though it had seemed like my worst Thanksgiving ever, I actually had quite a few things to be thankful for. And my husband was right at the top of the list.

About The Author
LeAnn R. Ralph is the editor of the Wisconsin Regional Writer (the quarterly publication of the Wisconsin Regional Writers’ Assoc.) and is the author of the book: Christmas In Dairyland (True Stories From a Wisconsin Farm) (August 2003). Share the view from Rural Route 2 and celebrate Christmas during a simpler time. Click here to read sample chapters and other Rural Route 2 stories — ruralroute2.com. bigpines@ruralroute2.com

By Molly Gold

What Mom wouldn’t want to know the best secrets to create a fun-filled holiday season without wearing herself out? The life of a mom during the holidays is beyond hectic, with many women finding themselves hosting one winter holiday and traveling to another. The hectic pace of having it all leaves Moms scrambling for everything from presents for teachers to a well-stocked fridge before the relatives arrive. To help families enjoy the five weeks spanning the Winter Holidays with all their charm and wonder, Moms need to plan ahead. Check out Mickey’s Holiday Planning Guide and Calendar on www.MickeyDVD.com for scheduling solutions for a Happy Holiday Season.

Tackle the November Trio — get ahead of the game now!
Three important tasks must be accomplished by December 4 to allow room for holiday fanfare.

1. Write holiday cards now.
   Purchase cards, reproduce a family photo, write your holiday letter, address envelopes, and assemble. Thanksgiving weekend, let your children help stamp and apply return address labels and then drop them in the mail with plenty of time for your loved ones to enjoy.

2. Review your Gift List and tackle it now.
   You will save time and money with preseason sales. Take it one step further and shop online. You can finish it all in one sitting and relax while gifts are shipped prewrapped!

3. Take inventory of your holiday décor now.
   The stores are stocked to fill in the gaps so you are ready to go when the time comes.

Apply the Rule of One
One holiday social event per weekend, that is. And when you accept an invitation, contact your babysitter immediately so you won’t find yourself scrambling. We tend to over schedule during the holidays and then wonder why the season feels more like a treadmill than a celebration. With her planner in hand, Mom can carefully commit everyone’s time, leaving room for winter sports, the usual tour of weekend birthdays, commitments at your place of worship, and just plain hang-time to enjoy the warmth of your own home and family. While you are scheduling, review all school holiday performances and events with your partner so if needed, time off can be requested now and sitters for younger siblings can be arranged. If simultaneous events occur, have each partner take one event so everyone is covered with an adoring adult.

Family Traditions
Winter holidays just can’t commence without a huge batch of your family’s favorite cookies to start the season off right. This year it might be Daisy’s Sugar Cookies (visit “Just for Mom” at www.MickeyDVD.com for a great recipe). Maybe you decorate your home Thanksgiving weekend, or maybe you believe in Santa and visit him at the mall every year Christmas week. You need to schedule these celebrations to make sure they occur, just as they do every year, while you zoom through the fun. Offer your children the rituals you cherished as a child. Tell them why these rituals are special and together, start some of your own. You can create a Family Traditions Book where you record each activity with its history and then add to it through the years. Your children will grow to love this routine and you will offer a legacy for their children to cherish someday as well.

Act from the Heart
Teach your children the significance of their affections by encouraging personalized, handmade gifts for their favorite friends and teachers. Offer your child a choice between activities such as baking cookies or decorating candle votives. Check out some of Mickey’s craft ideas and resources at “Just for Mom” on www.MickeyDVD.com and schedule family time. Be careful not to curb your child’s creativity with a drive for perfect presentation. Remember the lesson here is showing the value of heartfelt gestures for gift-giving occasions. Go one step further and have your children sort through their toys and offer items outgrown or less favored to local charities. Throw away anything broken and help your children deliver their gifts to their charity of choice.

Entertain Early
Remember flu season? It’s back just in time for the holidays. Murphy’s law dictates that on the very day you have your annual open house for 75 friends and neighbors, someone under your roof will have a fever. So what’s a mother’s best defense? Entertain early in the holiday season and be prepared ahead of time so you can handle last-minute challenges such as this. Have your event before the season gets the best of you. Then you can enjoy the preparations to welcome loved ones to your home. By minimizing last-minute party tasks, you will build in time to handle the unexpected bumps life always hands us. And if you have to reschedule the entire event, remember it’s not the end of the world.

About the Author:
By Molly Gold, nationally known scheduling expert and creator of The Go Mom Planner. Molly has been featured on Good Morning America and her articles have been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, Woman’s Day and numerous other women’s magazines. For fun games, activities and family fun visit MickeyDVD.com.

by Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes

Wonderfully simple to do and oh so impressive!

You don’t need a $40 Easter egg decorating kit with pages of instructions to impress your family and guests this Easter – achieve sophisticated elegance with colors taken directly from nature. Simply decorated from a myriad of plants and flowers, you can create a beautiful range of natural colors and textures. Try this technique – it’s simple enough to do with young children.

Ingredients
Gather together eggs, an enamel or stainless steel pot, vinegar, cheesecloth, a rubber band, and plant materials such as onionskins, blueberries, pecan hulls, parsley, beets or dandelions.

Directions

1. To prepare the dye bath, fill a pot with two or three cups of plant material. Barely cover it with water (more plant material produces stronger colors.) Simmer for at least 30 minutes. Add water and stir as needed. The dyes can be made several days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Strain and heat the dye before using it.
2. Use hard-boiled or blown out eggs. Carefully wash the eggs with soap and water. Allow them to dry. Wipe the eggs with vinegar.
3. To decorate the eggs, moisten small leaves and grasses, one at a time. Press them firmly against the egg. Hold them in place by wrapping the eggs in a six-inch square of cheesecloth or nylon pantyhose. Pull the cloth tight against the egg and secure it with a rubber band. Immerse the egg in a container of warm dye. Some dyes are stronger than others. The process may take only a few moments or several hours. Dyes derived from yellow onionskin, red onionskin, and blueberries all provide quick results.
4. Unwrap the eggs, drain, and let them dry upright.

What a magical and unpredictable process. Each lustrous egg is a unique surprise. Some of our favorites were the results of happy accidents. Enjoy discovering!

About The Author
Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes are the co-authors of the award-winning book Together: Creating Family Traditions. To check out their website that’s jam packed with family ideas, visit togetherparenting.com/.
info@togetherparenting.com

by Patty Getz

Christmas is about so much more than presents and parties, and yet, each year, that is the focus that we as a society place on it. Christmas has become a stress for some, and financial hardship for others. Where there used to be a holiday, to celebrate Family, we have some how lost touch with our roots, and a meaningful soulful Christmas.

Following is a list of of Ideas that cost little or no money, that you can do with your family this Christmas for a more meaningful Christmas. Set aside some time, and lets all get back to the basics of Christmas. Take this list, and let each family member choose one, and then set aside an evening, for each activity, you will be surprised and amazed how much this will Change your and your families outlook on Christmas.

1. Make a popcorn Garland
2. Make garland with construction paper
3. Watch Christmas shows together with hot chocolate and popcorn
4. Make decorating the the tree a family event, serve hot chocolate and play Christmas music
5. Make your own Christmas cards to send to people
6. Go Christmas shopping at the the Dollar Store and donate to a charity for Christmas gifts
7. Donate clothes or toys for needy children
8. Make a snowman
9. Have a snowball fight
10. Make a ginger bread house out of graham crackers and what ever you have in the house
11. Paint Christmassy pictures on the windows with washable paint
12. Make a game out of hunting around the house, for things to make Christmas decorations out of
13. Build a fire, and have a slumber party with your kids
14. Bake and decorate cookies
15. Have a wrapping party
16. Plan to share a plate of goodies with any elderly or young parents in the neighborhood
17. Go caroling
18. Go for a drive and see who wins for the best lights in town — make an award for the winner and present it to them
19. Attend a live Nativity
20. Take a special drive at night to enjoy others Christmas lights
21. Invite your children’s friends over to make cards or gifts for their parents
22. Go collect pine cones and use them to make ornaments
23. Make bird treat with peanut butter and birdseed
24. Sing Christmas carols
25. Have the kids write and act out a Christmas play
26. Go to the library and borrow Christmas videos and books
27. Have a game night
28. Take a walk or drive around a neighborhood that has their houses all lit up and decorated
29. Shovel the snow for your elderly neighbors
30. Read one Christmas short story each night before bed
31. Write Christmas letter to all the relatives with the kids all telling what they have been up to in their own words
32. Go sledding (a personal favorite) and come back to the house for hot cider and hot chocolate (we do this and invite the kid’s friends to join us)
33. Take a picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, and make it a yearly tradition
34. Visit the local nursing home and present some of the residents with homemade Christmas cards
35. Do a random act of kindness for a neighbor that you know is sick or feeling down, like take them a plate of cookies or some homemade ornaments
36. Attend a church service together
37. Invite an older person/couple for a holiday meal
38. Have a campout night, and sleep in sleeping bags under your lighted Christmas tree or some Christmas lights
39. Make up a Christmas scavenger hunt
40. Watch the all the videos or home movies of Christmas, or look at all the photos from Christmas
41. Make some ornaments
42. Color some Christmas pages together
43. Share a favorite Christmas memory
44. Help your local church/library/community center organize a special holiday reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas, A Christmas Carol, etc. Invite seniors/families. Maybe get a local store to donate some cookies or cocoa.
45. Have a birthday celebration, complete with cake, and birthday decorations
46. We make a video of ourselves decorating the tree, making cookies, singing Christmas carols and telling the Christmas story, then we make copies of it for all the far off relatives (beats a humdrum letter)
47. Volunteer as a family for the local shelter or nursing home
48. Have your kids make Christmas cards or snowflakes and take them to the local nursing home
49. Organize your scout troop or Sunday school or home school group and go caroling at a nursing home
50. Scout or youth group could also offer to paint the windows of local businesses for the holiday with washable paint
51. Ask the local supermarket if your youth group or older kids can help carry groceries out for senior citizens. Those turkeys are heavy to pick up and put in the car!
52. Help sort food for a food pantry that does food baskets for the holiday
53. Make paper snowflakes to decorate your windows
54. Organize or volunteer to work in a Christmas wrap booth that gives the proceeds to charity
55. Volunteer as food servers at shelters that provide Christmas/Thanksgiving dinners
56. Light up your walkway/driveway with handmade luminaries
57. Collect pine boughs and pine cones and make wreaths – can be shared at nursing homes or with elderly ones nearby
58. We decorate our stocking each year. I buy the ones from the Dollar Store, and whatever we wish to decorate with. Last year we used sticky foam shapes, this year we used glitter glue pens
59. Get out your old records – or borrow your parents – and listen to the golden oldie Christmas songs from your youth, and share the memories of Christmas past with your children
60. Learn about different cultures celebrate Christmas…. and about what they did years ago.
61. Sing silly Christmas songs with your kiddos… (Grandma Got Ran Over By a Reindeer)
62. Find an angel tree and have your kids help pick out a toy for the needy child’s name on the angel tree
63. Make a manger scene out of playdough or clay or even construction paper, whatever is handy
64. Create a calendar that the kids can mark off the days until Christmas.
65. Have a “Christmas Past, Present and Future” evening/afternoon. Get out your photo albums/scrapbooks and talk about Christmas Past, remembering those who are no longer here to share it with us; for Christmas Present, discuss what one thing makes Christmas special for each person; for Christmas Future, talk about your hopes and dreams for the coming years ahead.
66. Make Christmas gifts for your family’s pet and other relative’s pets
67. Take a little Christmas tree and decorate it with your pet’s toys and set it in the living room with your bigger tree – just for the pets! Wrap up some treats and place them under the pet’s tree, too, like a small can of some fancy cat food or a package of doggie treats. (Hopefully the dog won’t tear it apart to get at it until Christmas day.
68. Let the kids make their own stockings out of felt and stocking “packages” out of paper grocery sacks to put gifts for others in.
69. Gingerbread people made out of brown grocery sacks are very cute, too and inexpensive and make great tags on presents and ornaments for a tree or wreath. You could glue on google eyes and a small candy cane to the gingerbread people, too and make them even more dimensional and if using two sides, you can tape or glue them together and stuff them with cotton balls to fill them out if you want to make them puffy.
70. Let your child decorate their bedroom door for Christmas. A wreath with some small trinkets on it is charming on every door inside the house, too.
71. Make snowmen out of styrofoam ball ornaments or styro balls or old Christmas bulbs (the breakable kind) in 2 sizes (one larger and one smaller glued together), paint white or glue on cottonballs or fake snow and add glitter. Use google eyes or dots punched out of a paper punch for eyes, Orange pipe cleaner twisted to a carrot shape for the nose, little buttons or Mini M & M’s or small pom poms can be buttons or even the gold top of a paper fastener clip. Also can use yarn for eyes, smile, eyebrows or braid yarn for a scarf. Use your imagination and whatever you have around the house, toothpicks or tree branches for arms, etc. An old sweater and flannel shirt can provide scarves and hats, mittens for all the snowmen and snowwomen which can be grouped together under a tree branch from outside. Provide all the scrap materials you have and let the kids have a great time making them.
72. Make some snow globes with old jars.
73. Create a God Can for family members here is how — use a tall odd shaped can, the one I found was a solid gold color, was maybe 6 inches tall and semi squared with a rounded bubble shaped lid. (Found it at Dollar Tree last year)

This is what I attached.

God Can
When your worries get too heavy
Follow this little plan
Just write it on a little note
And drop it in this can
You know that any problem
That you place in Our Lord’s hands
Will soon be taken care of
Because we can’t but God Can!

About the Author:
Patty Getz is the owner, and editor, of Totally Frugal, and Old Fashioned Families, and loves to spend her time with family, in the kitchen, and Teaching others, how to have a more fullfilling life. Webmaster and owner of www.totallyfrugal.com. Send comments to mailto: totallyfrugal@totallyfrugal.com This article may be reprinted, provided the byline and contents are not Changed in any way.

by Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes

Too often we forgo entertaining because of the mere thought of all of the preparation that is involved. And more is not better. Often we try to out do each other with lavish parties and expensive gifts. Stop and remember for a second what was important from your own childhood. Was it an outing? Baking cookies with your grandmother? Building a snowman with your dad? We need to connect. This doesn’t require more time, just shifting the focus of the time we already have. Here, a casual party and a very simple activity were the catalyst that brought everyone together.

To get the entire neighborhood into the Christmas spirit we planned a caroling party.

The day before our guests arrived, my kids and I spent an afternoon making decorative candleholders to give to each caroler, to light the way for our caroling expedition.

Dad, dressed as Santa, provided our very own photo opportunity. Little ones whispered their Christmas list in Santa’s ear. Grown ups, as well as kids, had their pictures taken in Santa’s lap.

Adults, kids, and even a few dogs then joined us on our merry way. Our numbers grew as we made our way caroling through the neighborhood.

As the carolers returned, we welcomed them with Mexican hot chocolate and ginger spice cookies. This party was a great way to engage everyone in an activity that the whole family could enjoy. And for a few short hours we were able to turn our attention away from the commercial marketing of the holidays to something much more personal.

Recipe: Mexican Hot Chocolate
Recipes are one of our most cherished traditions. Passed down from one generation to the next, they conjure up memories of holiday preparations or time spent with a favorite relative. Cooking provides a quiet time to pass on the wisdom of family lore.

Ingredients:
4 cups whole milk
4 ounces Mexican chocolate such as Ibarra

or

3 1/2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla, preferably Mexican
2 eggs

1. In a medium sized saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat until scalding.
2. Break the chocolate into pieces. Add to the hot milk along with the sugar and salt. Stir until melted. Beat with a wire whisk until frothy.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla. Continue to whisk.
4. Pour into 4 mugs. Garnish with a cinnamon stick.

About The Author
Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes are the co-authors of the award-winning book Together: Creating Family Traditions. To check out their website that’s jam packed with family ideas, visit www.togetherparenting.com. To subscribe to their online newsletter, go to www.togetherparenting.com/feedback.asp. info@togetherparenting.com

By Jeff Westover

There she was in all her glory. Long white lab coat, frizzy hair, safety goggles — and a face smeared with the black ash of an experiment gone terrifically wrong. She was, at least on this Halloween night, Dr. Abby Normal. But for most of her life I had known her as Abigail, my daughter, and I had just taken some of the most legendary photos of her life.

These weren’t your garden-variety portraits. Not exactly Wal Mart studio stuff either. They were pictures taken of my kids in their natural element — being kids. That is the real photo opportunity of a holiday like Halloween.

For treasured images this Halloween, here are some quick tips to remember to get once-in-a-lifetime photos:

1. Stop Posing — Halloween is not a formal affair. So don’t bother with the wedding style shots. Engage the kids in the play associated with their costumes — and THEN shoot the pictures. Candids reveal the smiles much more than a “Hold still, honey!” moment.

2. Shoot Early, Shoot Often — Film is the cheapest part of photography. And in this digital age, there just isn’t a reason not to shoot several images. There are many good reasons for being trigger happy with the camera. First, if kids are use to you constantly firing away they won’t bother with the plastic smiles. But most importantly, shooting more simply increases your chances for great pictures. With Halloween pictures some of the best pictures are taken while the costuming is in process — don’t wait for the finished product in getting out the camera.

3. Get in Their Face — Halloween was made for pretend. Kids love to make faces, don costumes and assume a new personality. It is the ultimate form of exhibition. You just can’t let the opportunity pass. They WANT to be noticed. Most point-and-shoot variety cameras have wide-angle lenses. While this helps them to get sharp results and to work well in lower light, they tend to move the subject matter further away. Most have a minimum shooting distance of around three feet. Don’t be afraid to push that limit at Halloween. Get in close, have them make faces, ask them to talk to the camera. They will. It is, after all, Halloween.

4. Let Them Call the Shots — It’s their party. Ask them what kind of pictures they want. When my son was Harry Potter a few years back he wanted to jump off the roof on his Nimbus 2000. We had to reason with him a bit. But a little leap from a lawn chair to the grass did the trick and we got the shots of Harry in flight. Chances are your kids have an idea of the persona they are adopting. Let them call the shots to document the experience.

5. Use the set — Most of us decorate for the season. There could be haystacks, a bubbling pot, a roaring fireplace. Use these props, even if they don’t fit the theme of the costume. Down the road the memories you cherish will include all the fun that went into creating the holiday environment in your home.

Good candid pictures of children require active participation and putting them at ease. Halloween is the easiest of seasons in which to do this.
© 2004 by Jeff Westover

About The Author
Jeff Westover is a freelance writer and father of seven from Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the managing editor of My Merry Christmas.com, where folks have been making merry online for more than a decade. He writes about holidays, families, parenting, home schooling and photography for a variety of publications both online and offline. Please visit http://mymerrychristmas.com for more articles like this one.

Halloween is that time of year when your creative juices can begin to flow. It’s a fun time for the family and if you have a baby or toddler, and it is the first Halloween that they can actively participate in, then it can be even more exciting. Granted if your little one is too young to comprehend anything much past when the next meal or sleep is going to be, then your Halloween efforts may not amount to much. But if they are coming to the age when they can express their joy and delight then you are ready to create a bit of Halloween fun.
The key with toddlers is that you don’t want to scare them. A scary Halloween at this age is likely to scar them for life so keep it simple, lighthearted and fun. Here are some tips to help you prepare for the big day.

Trick or Treating

1. Keep it Simple – At this age your toddler won’t appreciate much of what is going on around them so you don’t want to spend a fortune nor a lot of your time in preparing for the day. Of course this won’t apply if you have older children in the house.
2. Create a Fun, Happy Theme – You don’t want to traumatize your baby with scary witches, dark costumes or blood and guts. Create a happy theme that is bright and cheery. For example, ensure that the jack-o-lanterns have happy smiley faces and the costumes you choose are more in line with fairies or princesses rather than scary witches or ghosts and ghouls.
3. Costumes – If you want to dress up your baby or toddler in a Halloween costume then look for something that is easy to put on and take off. Look for costumes with zips, velcro or buttons that are easily undone and of course a costume that allows for easy diaper changes. The costume also needs to be soft and flexible so that your baby isn’t uncomfortable. Avoid costumes with masks. This may restrict their view and cause them to topple over.
4. Keep it Safe – Be aware that most candies at this stage will probably be a choking hazard for your baby or toddler so be careful in your choice of sweets. Ensure that the costume you choose for your baby is flame retardant as you may be around real candles during this time. You should also ensure that the costume does not have too any dangly bits that your infant could place into his or her mouth.
5. Trick or Treating – If you are going to be trick or treating then follow these few tips:
   • Carry a torch and if your toddler is old enough, allow them to carry one too. Attach the torch to your child’s costume to ensure it doesn’t get lost.
   • Glow in the dark neck or wristbands are another way of keeping track of your toddler.
   • If you are taking a stroller then attach some reflective tape so it can be easily seen in the dark.
   • If you are worried about losing your toddler then buy one of those cords that attaches your wrist to your toddlers wrist. This allows your toddler a little freedom as they don’t have to constantly hold onto your hand and it means that you can feel secure that they are close by.

Your first Halloween with your toddler is likely to be a fun time that will be remembered forever. As a memento of the experience purchase a gift box and place in it your baby’s first Halloween costume, their first Halloween gift and any other little item that will serve as a memory in years to come.

About the Article
Article provided courtesy of Only Cookware – a resource for cookware sets, stainless cookware and enamel cast iron cookware.

by Kathy Burns-Millyard

Its baby’s first Christmas! How exciting! It’s a perfect time to start a tradition, like buying the little bundle of joy a special ornament for this holiday and every holiday to come, or you can just plain spoil them with lots of toys and fun-filled activities. Here are a handful of suggestions that will have them cooing with glee:

Piggy Bank: A piggy bank is a collectible gift that will be treasured for a lifetime. It’s also a great way to start teaching a young child the fundamentals of money management. What better way to get good habits started early? Personalize it with the baby’s name for an extra special touch.

Classic Baby Toys: Encourage imagination and learning with a time-honored and tested baby toy. Some of the better choices include a Fisher Price Animal Sounds Farm, wooden ABC blocks, jack-in-the-box, shape sorter or an activity gym. Go to a toy store to find the largest assortment of classic baby toys.

Collectible Teddy Bear: Here’s another option for launching a family tradition. Every year, buy the baby a collectible bear from a specialty teddy bear store. These are high quality crafted items that will be cherished for generations. They can also be found at your nearest gift store, or your favorite online shopping spot.

Baby Einstein Gifts: The entire Baby Einstein collection is loved by parents and babies, too. The theory behind Baby Einstein is to teach a baby basic ideas and concepts. Select from their award-winning videos, DVDs, books and music. Baby Einstein products can be ordered online or picked up at your favorite toy or department store.

Music Cube: It’s been proven that music stimulates the brain and encourages early learning skills. With the push of a button, a baby can compose and arrange musical scores and develop their creative mind. Your local toy store should carry several different types of music cubes, and of course many options can be found online as well.

LeapFrog LeapStart Learning Table: This award-winning educational toy will introduce a child to letters, numbers, shapes and colors through a fully interactive musical experience. It’s a learning adventure that is sure to delight any baby! They’re available at toy stores and mass-merchandisers nationwide.

There isn’t a magical tool for finding the perfect gift for a child. But if it is a gift from the heart it will surely bring magic.

About the Author
© 2005, Kathy Burns-Millyard. All Rights Reserved. This article is brought to you courtesy of The Home Gift Shopper – http://www.homegiftshopper.com – A wonderful online source for gifts and gift ideas.