There's only a few days left until the new year! Alli and Ian are spending the night in the rental house with all the Michigan family (while Theresa and I go back to the RV each night due to capacity limitations). On the last morning they were there, I got a text from their Aunt Amy with just this picture. Alli has lost a tooth!
I realize I forgot to post this one when it happened, so here we are at the end of the year making sure it gets recorded.
Late one evening after the kids had already gone to bed, Ian calls out that he was wiggling a tooth and it popped out!
Today, just a couple days after Christmas, we're celebrating Christmas together as a family!
Because everyone has obligations all over the country, it took us just a few days to get everyone to Florida and into the AirBNB house we'd rented.
Merry Christmas from Florida! This year Theresa's Michigan family is coming to Florida to celebrate!
During Halloween 2022, we had the great idea to do reverse Trick-or-Treating at Disney World, giving bags of candy to all the cast members we saw. That went so well that for Valentine's Day 2023, we did the same thing, giving Hershey Kisses and Valentines to cast members at the Magic Kingdom. Halloween 2023 came and the kids wanted to do the exact same thing.
The kids have such a fun time with it, that we felt like Christmas, being the season of giving, would be the perfect opportunity to bring joy to the people who give us so much joy throughout the year. Let's give out some treats!
I've already shared quite a few of the ways that we've been getting into the holiday spirit, but here's a few more that don't quite get their own post. Instead I've bundled them all up into this one big one.
Happy Holidays!
We are fortunate enough to have Disney World in our backyard and luckily Epcot has so many different ways to get into the Christmas Spirit! On a random Tuesday in December, we all decided to head there to see what we can see!
Who wants to do a big cookie exchange? I do! Plus I know a few other people who would love to do one too!
While doing another taste test (Pepperidge Farm Cookies), it was Nicole that mentioned that she had a Gingerbread Chocolate Chip cookie recipe that she really wanted to make this season. From there it evolved into "let's do a cookie exchange"! A few days later, we all got together to do it!
Who likes cookies? If it's you, then today's taste test is sure to be a treat!
While Theresa and I were out shopping, we were talking about the cookie stroll at Epcot. They had a couple good cookies, but many were disappointing. Jacob and his Sister-in-law Nicole also went to Epcot and felt the same way. Surely we can get better cookies than this for the holiday season!
Thus the idea of a Pepperidge Farm Cookie taste test was born! Now normally I'd try to find every variation of every cookie when we do something like this, but with the amount of cookies Pepperidge Farm makes and the cost of each bag being $3-$5 (this blog isn't sponsored or anything), that gets pricy quickly! So instead, I tried to get a sampling of all the different cookie types I could, plus a few of our known favorites. Jacob and Nicole brought a few more, so in total we'll be tasting 16 different Pepperidge Farm cookies!
(From Christmas 2022) One of my favorite holiday treats is the Terry's Chocolate Orange. These have been staples in my stocking for the last few years! I'd be in trouble if these were available year round! I regularly find the original Milk Chocolate Orange and the Dark Chocolate Orange, but this year I was on the lookout for even more flavors!
My brother Jon found most of them and when I saw them all, I knew we had the makings of a Chocolate Orange taste test!
Cinnamon Toast Crunch has a brand new flavor out for the Holidays! Along with the Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch, that we tried a while ago, this winter they've also released Gingerbread Toast Crunch.
I love seeing a new flavor from Cinnamon Toast Crunch! Every time I see a new flavor of Cinnamon Toast Crunch I try it along with whatever it's supposed to be emulating! And I've made a whole bunch of different ones!
I've done the original Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a loaf of homemade bread for homemade cinnamon toast. French Toast Crunch with homemade bread for homemade french toast. Chocolate Toast Crunch and a loaf of homemade Chocolate Bread. Cinnamon Toast Crunch Churros and making homemade churros! And of course when Cinnamon Toast Crunch Chocolate Churros came out, I had to make those too. For Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch, the kids and I made sugar cookies. Apple Pie Toast Crunch and my sister-in-law Megan's homemade apple pie. Cinna-Graham Toast Crunch where I made homemade Graham Crackers for the first time! Cinnamon Roll Toast Crunch with homemade cinnamon rolls. Even CinnaFuego Cinnamon Toast Crunch that we tried with Freckle Bread!
It's not just the cereal either! We try Cinnamon Toast Crunch in lots of other ways! Cinnamon Toast Crunch Ice Cream, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Treat Bars, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cinnadust seasoning, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Pizza, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Oatmeal, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cookies, CTC Pancakes, Cinnadust Cake Mix and Frosting, Cinnadust Coffee Cake Mix, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch Creamy Spread.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch might be the post popular cereal on this blog!
Continuing our Thanksgiving Road Trip to Colorado, our next stop after leaving the World of Coca-Cola was another native Georgia business that is near and dear to us. From Hapeville Georgia, it's the Chick-fil-A Dwarf House. One of my first jobs was working for Chick-fil-A when I was in High School, along with both my brother and Sister-in-Law.
And this isn't just any random Chick-fil-A either. This is the original! (or at least where the original used to be)
It's time for another Holiday Taste Test! This one is brought to us by Jacob! He was out shopping at Walmart and found all these Christmas treats and thought it would be perfect for a taste test to do together! I agree!
Tonight we're going to be trying Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes in both Chocolate and Vanilla, along with Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes Ice Cream in both Chocolate and Vanilla!
We'll also be comparing whether the Christmas Tree Cakes taste better fresh or frozen.
Welcome to Atlanta Georgia and the World of Coca Cola!
The World of Coca-Cola is something I've been wanting to visit for a while now! Normally when we are coming through Georgia in the RV, we're pushing to get into Florida and back home. Plus there isn't a super convenient place to park the RV near downtown Atlanta. Lucky for us though, we're on a road trip! We're delivering a car from Florida to Colorado on the way home for Thanksgiving, giving us the perfect opportunity to stop by for a visit!
We've got a lot of things we're trying to squeeze in today though and we've got a bit of a drive ahead of us tonight. Let's get into it! Apologies ahead of time for the massive amount of photos.
It's the Holiday Season!
Every year since 2014, I've made it a challenge to myself to do something new for the holidays that I've never done before! It started with my friend Ariel sharing Disneyland's recipe for Gingerbread Cookies, and I thought to myself "I've never made homemade gingerbread. I should try it!" Since then, I've been making different treats every holiday season that I've never attempted before! Things like Homemade Candy Canes (2015), Fudge (2016), Peppermint Marshmallows (2017), Figgy Pudding (2018), Eggnog (2019), A Holiday Yule Log (2020), English Toffee (2021), and last year Pepperidge Farm Cookies (2022).
This year though, I'm doing something a bit different. Instead of the kitchen, my challenge will be in the sewing room! I'm going to make my own Santa Hat!
This year instead of the traditional Thanksgiving and all the traditional Thanksgiving food that goes along with it, Megan had the great idea to do something a little bit more simple that everyone will still love. Mexican food! Thus the idea of Graciasgiving was born! Great idea Megan!
After spending the morning opening Christmas presents together (GraciasMas we called it), the afternoon was left to just hanging out together. Megan made sure we did not go hungry while we were catching up. She's become quite the sourdough bread baker.
Merry Christmas (early) from Colorado!
My sister-in-law Megan had the great idea that instead of having a big Thanksgiving dinner that will take all day to make, we'll have something everyone loves just as much! Mexican Food! Thus was born GraciasGiving! Because we've got the whole family here too, we're going to add an early Christmas celebration to the mix too, giving us, what we liked to call, Graciasmas!
On a side note, being so far behind on writing things up, I'll be posting things from all different times of the year going forward. So if you see something from March or July, don't be concerned. I'm catching up as best I can!
