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I hope you all had a relaxing and fun Thanksgiving. We enjoyed spending time with family and being thankful for our blessings. Here are some great ideas for using up that leftover turkey.  You can make turkey salad. Make just like chicken salad, but use leftover turkey in place of the chicken.  Another easy idea is leftover turkey mashed potato casserole.  And my favorite thing to make is Turkey noodle soup. This soup is fantastic. Delicious and comforting on cold winter nights.
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We made these family hand turkey crafts at my Catholic Moms group last week and I thought they were so cute I had to share. This is a really easy craft that you can make as a family. Just cut out everyone's handprints on different colored construction paper and layer the handprints to look like the turkey's feathers. Cut out the turkey's body, head, beak, waddle, and draw on the eyes. We mounted them on 12 X 12 scrapbook paper with Elmer's glue, but you could use whatever you have on hand. Thanks for sharing this fun and festive craft Joslyn.
If you just dined on a delicious roast chicken or turkey and want to make sure you utilize the leftover meat, this is an easy way to do just that and have an all new meal. Plus, you can make this ahead and refrigerate it to bake the next day. This is one of those anything goes recipes, so feel free to be creative and use up those leftovers.
Ingredients:
1. Saute onion, celery, and garlic in butter until tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. If you need to, add a little milk or 1/2 & 1/2 to help it mix.
3. Scoop into a greased 9 X 13 baking pan. 
4. Cover and refrigerate to bake later or bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until heated through.
Delish!
Disclosure: I received the products for review, but all opinions are honest and are my own.  The boys love crafts so when I saw these stained glass stick-ons , I knew they would love them. These Imagine i CAN® - Stained Glass Stick-ons in Galaxy, Garden and Circus styles from Manhattan Toy include everything you need to make four hanging ornaments and one picture.
 You make the stained glass art by putting the tiny colored stickers on the pictures and filling in the clear areas. This is a good activity for practicing fine motor skills.  My 4 year old struggled a little with removing and placing the stickers on the pictures and needed some help, but my 6 year old was able to do this on his own.  Check out this cool stained glass ornament. The boys love decorating with their crafts. I'm sure these will end up on the Christmas tree and then the windows. These craft kits are affordable at only $6 and would make great Christmas gifts for creative kids. Check out all of the Imagine i CAN® toys online. There are lots of great creativity inspiring toys and crafts. One reader will win one Imagine i CAN® toy from this list. (Winner's choice) imagine i CAN® - Stained Glass Stick-ons in GalaxyTM, GardenTM or CircusTM Styles • Ages 3+ • $6.00 Each imagine i CAN® – Roll & Bowl AnywhereTM • Ages 3+ • $20.00 imagine i CAN® - Mini Play Sets In Farm FunTM or Jungle FunTM Styles • Ages 3+ • $6.00 Each imagine i CAN® - Knitting BeginningsTM • Ages 8+ • $20.00 imagine i CAN® - Pet Rock PalsTM • Ages 8+ • $11.00 imagine i CAN® - Lace & Play AnimalsTM • Ages 3+ • $5.00 imagine i CAN® - Create-A-Puppet AnimalsTM • Ages 3+ • $6.00 imagine i CAN® – Tin Games • Ages 3+ • $6.00 Each
Disclosure: I received the products for review, but all opinions are honest and are my own.
Disclosure: I received products for review, but all opinions are honest and are my own.  I was so excited to hang my new cranberry wreath from Oriental Trading Company. Don't you just love the red contrast against the white door and my reflection as I took the picture? Can you find me? I think this wreath is great for both Thanksgiving and Christmas and I may even leave it up all winter.  It even comes in a cardboard wreath box that you can keep for storing your wreath.  Another great new product from Oriental Trading Company is this set of Rhyming Game Cards.  My kindergartener who is a beginning reader loved the cards and enjoyed trying to read the words on the cards.  This is a quick game that we both enjoyed playing. It is really easy to learn and helps children learn to rhyme and even provides practice for beginning readers.  The boys loved making these handprint prayer crafts. They are made of sturdy foam and come with foam stickers. The boys love stickers of any kind and really enjoyed making these.  This was a good craft for all of the boys ages 2, 4, and 6 because they could all do it mostly on their own. I helped them trace their hands and cut out the hand print, but they were able to do the rest themselves.  This is both a fun craft and a great tool to help teach young children how to pray. It comes with pre-printed stickers and blank stickers on which a child can write their own prayer requests. My son didn't quite get the concept of writing prayer requests on the blank stickers, but I wrote exactly what he said and thought it was sweet.  We also received these great rosary kits. Everything you need is in the kit - beads, cording, and a wooden cross. We were trying to follow the instructions and space the beads as instructed, but ran out of cording near the end of each rosary. We cut an extra cord and added length so we could finish them and they turned out really nice.  I love that when you finish this craft, you have something that you can actually use. I used one of these handmade rosaries at my last Catholic Mom's group meeting.  The boys love their rosaries. This little guy learned to say the Hail Mary last month. We practiced it every night at dinner and he learned it for family formation. As you can see Oriental Trading Company has some great new products. Check out their website where you can request a free catalog and sign up to receive exclusive offers, promotions, and coupons . Disclosure: I received products for review, but all opinions are honest and are my own.
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of North American Property Services. All opinions are 100% mine.
Winter is here, and it’s a great time to do some deep cleaning to help keep your home germ-free. North American Property Services, which is headquartered in Denver, CO and is one of the top janitorial service companies in the United States has ten key tips for cleaning your home this winter: 1. Be extra careful about hand washing with soap so you do not spread germs from room to room. 2. Routinely disinfect high touch areas such as door handles, TV remotes, and keyboards for all devices, such as tablets and laptops. Don’t forget all of your phones, including the landline and cell phones. 3. Dust carries germs and grime, so wiping down with disinfecting solutions will not only make your house cleaner, but it will remove germs that can cause the common cold and flues. Look for places that dust settles, such as fan blades, window ledges, and walls to wipe away germs. Don’t forget to clean your light bulbs, which has the added benefit of brightening the house on these short winter days. Another thing to clean is the dust balls under furniture and in the corners of floors. 4. Dust more often, as your heating system circulates dust, dirt and germs. 5. Keep mops handy to dry-mop floors regularly, especially around high-traffic areas of the house. 6. On warmer days, clean interior windows, another germ collector in your house. 7. Deep clean your carpets every year to eliminate grime and germs. A good time of year to do this is after the holidays so any spills from your holiday celebrations will be washed away. 8. Scrub the grout in your bathroom with a powerful disinfectant to remove germs that spread between family members. 9. Take your shoes off at the door. Think about all the places you walk and the germs that hitch hike into your home. Taking your shoes off will greatly reduce indoor pollutants. 10. The best winter floor care program is to continue to clean and maintain floor surfaces with extra mopping and scrubbing around the entryways. What a nice comprehensive list. In addition to washing your own hands, make sure that children are washing their hands and faces frequently. I also, find that our stairway railing collects dirt and fingerprints and has to be cleaned often. I love the tip that cleaning your light bulbs will brighten your home. I never thought of that before. Get a mop that you won't mind using. I find that with three little boys I have to mop all the time, but I have found a mop that I actually like which makes mopping less of a chore. Great reminder - I need to clean my windows. Taking shoes off at the door does help reduce the amount of dirt entering the home. We keep shoe shelves in the garage and everyone removes their shoes before coming into the house. We have been busy cleaning and re-organizing our home for company that will be arriving soon. It is so nice to know the house is getting cleaner and less cluttered and will be ready for company and holiday decorating. You can follow North American Property Services on social media.
 My husband took this picture today to say "Thank You" to our brave men and women who have sacrificed so much for us. I also want to take a moment to thank all of the families of veterans and active duty military for their sacrifices. Thank You for your service! 
We gave our four year old a dinosaur birthday party this year. To make it extra special, I made a 3-D dinosaur birthday cake. To make sure I had enough cake (we invited my son's entire preschool class), I also made the green dinosaur cupcakes. They were super easy because I found a dinosaur cupcake kit at Meijer. (Thank you Mom for staying up late with me and putting dinosaur heads and spikes on the cupcakes.)
We were in Target a couple of days before the party and I had not decided on a cake recipe yet, when I saw these fantastic cake mixes from Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes. I decided a cake mix sounded great at this point and let my son pick out his favorite. He chose this really cool tie-dye cake. I didn't realize at the time that I needed two boxes of this cake mix to make two 9 inch cakes that would be thick enough to create a 3-D dinosaur. I baked two very skinny cakes and went back to the store and bought 2 cake mixes. I then used one cake mix for each 9 inch cake pan. This cake mix worked well for the cake, just make sure and use 2 boxes.
My husband found the instructions for making a 3-D dinosaur cake years ago and printed them out and we still had them 5 years later. 
I love the way the tie-dye looks. You start with a body, by cutting one 9 inch cake in half and putting the flat sides together. Spread a little icing in between to help hold it together and put some icing on your cake board to help it stay in place.
Make a template following the instructions for making a 3-D dinosaur cake. I used the bottom of my cake pan as a stencil and cut out a 9-inch circle of wax paper, then penciled in the cutting lines from the guide online. I then cut out the wax paper pieces and placed them on the cake. I very carefully cut the pieces and assembled them into a dinosaur shaped cake.
The head/neck and front legs were the hardest parts to assemble. I found them difficult to hold in place even with toothpicks so I covered the whole cake in a crumb coat of buttercream frosting and covered the difficult areas with a layer of fondant to help keep them in place.
I used a large star tip to cover the cake with green and purple icing. I mixed purple and green icing in my icing decorator to get a nice mottled look. My favorite decorating tool is a pampered chef icing decorator that I have used for years. It has large tips and is great for cupcakes and less detailed work like this. I ran out of green before finishing the cake and when I made a second batch my green came out much darker, but I decided that was ok because it gave some variation in the color.
I colored some fondant gold and purple and cut out simple triangles for the spikes and random shapes for spots. The eyes are also cut from fondant. I did not leave my fondant pieces out to dry, I just put them directly on the icing while it was still moist and they held in place nicely.
How cool is this? The tie-dye cake was most impressive. So fun for a kids party.
Disclosure: I wrote this review on behalf of Brilliant Sky Toys and Books. I received products for review, but all opinions are honest and are my own.  Remember shopping in whimsical toy stores full of well-made, imaginative toys and beautifully illustrated books, where the staff are familiar with the products and can make suggestions based on your needs. I can only think of a handful of these stores where shopping is an enjoyable experience for both children and parents alike, unlike the chore that it often feels like in the big box stores. Let me introduce you to Brilliant Sky Toys and Books, a place where you can find the perfect gifts for the young at heart. Brilliant Sky Toys and Books is a full service toy store founded by a husband and wife team in 2002 that has quickly grown. You can visit their website to see if there is a store near you. "Based on the belief that the right playthings give children a gateway to physical, emotional and cognitive development Brilliant Sky Toys & Books provides the highest quality products in an atmosphere that is both active and interactive. Its unique aesthetic approach is vibrant yet warm, exciting yet comforting and exploratory yet safe. From rich colors and woods to low sightlines and custom fixtures the Brilliant Sky sensory experience is unlike any other." We received some wonderful toys from Brilliant Sky Toys and Books for review. They carry an amazing selection to delight all ages.  My two year old was overjoyed to play with his new Melissa and Doug Switch and Spin toy.  This is a great toy for little hands and growing minds. So much learning and fun!  You can change the boards which are conveniently stored in the back for some variation. This is a great toy for curious little minds.  My six year old was ecstatic when I showed him this new Lego City Brickmaster set. He actually exclaimed YES! YES! YES! (You can see the book in the background.) He is an avid Lego fan and followed the instructions meticulously to create several of the projects in the book. In fact, this set is so special to my son that he takes apart his creations every time he plays with it and stores the Lego bricks back in the original case so that he will not lose them. This set comes with 130 Lego bricks and an easy to follow instruction book with bonus comic strips.  I love the quality of these toys from Brilliant Sky Toys and Books. These are toys that the boys will enjoy for a long time.
For a nostalgic and unique full service shopping experience, check out Brilliant Sky Toys and Books. Disclosure: I wrote this review on behalf of Brilliant Sky Toys and Books. I received products for review, but all opinions are honest and are my own. 
I made these for my son's kindergarten class snack last week. I had snack on Halloween and thought it would be fun to bring a pumpkin shaped snack. I needed to make 24 pumpkins and was able to do this with 3 boxes of puff pastry. I actually made 25. You could probably save a lot of money by making your own puff pastry, but I was going for the easiest route. It is expensive, usually $4.50 to $5 a box, but it is fun to use every now and then.
My younger sons and I took snack in and they got to have one with the class too. The children were very appreciative and said lots of thank you's while they enjoyed a warm snack. I took them over right after they came out of the oven so that they could be eaten warm. I think they are best served warm. You can make these into whatever shape you want by cutting the dough into your desired shape. The pumpkin cookie cutter shape is a good size. 
Store bought puff pastry usually comes 2 sheets to a box.
Ingredients: Puff Pastry Deli sliced ham Sliced cheese 1 egg for egg wash Parchment paper To make the egg wash beat an egg with 2 Tablespoons water. 
Unfold the puff pastry into a flat sheet. Cut out the shapes you will be using. After cutting out your shapes, re-roll any leftover dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out additional shapes.
Place a cut-out piece of dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place small pieces of ham and cheese on the dough. Brush the edges with an egg wash. Place a piece of dough on top and press the edges together to seal. 
Using a butter knife, cut partway through the dough to make the lines that go up and down a pumpkin. Brush the top with the egg wash.
Bake in a 400 degree F. oven for about 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Linking up at Create with Joy
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Welcome to Home Ec @ HomeHi, I'm Faith, a former Family and Consumer Science teacher turned food blogger. I love God, my family, and food. You can usually find me in the kitchen preparing family friendly, homemade recipes and taking lots of pictures. 
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