Making Memories: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

Day 1: Lani's idea- Christmas Movie Night.

Between picking Steve up from work and running to the store to buy a few salad makings for the ward Christmas party later that night, our family took a short side trip to the library (one good part about living in a small town is that everything is close together).  I wanted to show the girls an old-time movie from my childhood~ Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, an 8 minute vintage classic from 1948.

I found the video I was looking for and another short Christmas kid's cartoon, The Nutcracker. 

When we got home, the girls wanted to watch The Nutcracker movie, so that's what we put on.  While I made the salad, Steve diappeared to the office and the girls watched the movie, which turned out to be a 1/2 hour cartoon that resembled Japanese anime and according to Lily, the story was a little scary.  Not exactly the memory-making family time I was picturing.  Oh, well.  There's always another day.

Day 2: Amara's idea- Dance to Christmas tunes.

This was going to be easy.  At the end of the day, we'd tune in to the Christmas station and let our fancy feet take over.  Well, the end of the day came, we put the girls to sleep and then it dawned on me... we never danced.  Aw, boo.  Oh, well... again. 

Our feet may have not been fancy that night, but earlier that evening we made warm memories.  As a family, we sat together in our crowded living room (I'd been folding laundry for 2 days in there, and not one textile made it back into it's designated drawer), I snuggled in a fleece blanket and the girls nestled under their daddy's arms, and together we watched the treasured Rudolph I remembered.  There were also 2 bonus features- Jack Frost and some springtime-themed cartoon.  We made memories.  Prancing or no prancing, that night was a success! 

Day 3: Lily's idea: Make cookies!

We all put forth a little more effort on Day 3 and after dinner we made my 5 ingredient Double-Fudge-Mallow cookies. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, softened

2 eggs

1 box devils food cake mix
16-18 marshmallows, halved

1/2 a bag of chocolate chips, melted

Mix butter, eggs, and cake mix until it comes together.  Form tablespoon-sized balls and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes (the tops will start to look cracked).  Add a marshmallow half to the top of each cookie and bake another 2-3 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheet a few minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.  Spoon a little melted chocolate over the top of the cookies, covering the marshmallow completely.  TIP: To prevent the melted chocolate from stiffening, add a teaspoon of vegetable oil and stir in completely.