I’ve been sharing some fun home-made gift ideas, but also wanted to give you a quick way out if you’re still scrambling for that perfect gift.  Next Generation Housewife is now partially sponsored by Amazon.com.  That means you can take advantage of their great deals while helping to support your favorite website (it is your favorite, right?).

So, if those cute home-made gifts are looking a little out of reach for you for this Christmas — run on over to Amazon for just about any gift, or even a gift card, for those last couple people on your shopping list.  Even better, if you do it in the next two days (by end of Dec. 17) they’ll give you free shipping with guaranteed Christmas arrival on any purchase over $25.

And don’t worry — just because we’re starting to get some sponsors, nothing will change.  NextGenerationHousewife.com will still be the site you know and love only now with some deals in it for you.  Plus, your incentive is this: the more you shop at our sponsors (by clicking to visit them from this website – the links in the sidebar or in any post where I mention them) the more you help NGH and the more we can do fun things for you like freebies and giveaways!  Deal?

And just to keep you in the Christmas spirit, here’s a pic of our outdoor Christmas decorating this year…

- Clarissa

Vintage is in!  Aprons are back and all over the stores.  Sewing an apron can be a nice gift for any cook, baker, or barbeque-er (is there a real name for them?) on your gift list. Even Martha Stewart is sewing aprons, she has a simple apron tutorial and pattern on her website.

Want to get a little more creative?  Here’s a list of 52 Free apron patterns available online.  A cute trend I’ve seen are aprons fitted more like a dress than an apron, and even some with ruffles at the bottom.  Really it makes sense — when you take the time to get dressed up for company, why put a boring apron on top?

Even if you’re not a seamstress, consider buying a plain apron and dressing it up with some iron-on designs or letters.  At any office supply store you can find iron-on “paper” that runs through your desktop printer.  So, make any design on your computer, print it on the special “paper”, and iron it on to an apron (I’ve learned from experience this works best on light-colored fabric).  Personal, fun, and easy!

- Clarissa

Gift ideas you can make in time for Christmas –

My Christmas count-down clock is at 14 days!  I’m a Christmas nut — something of the pecan family I’d like to think — and just love this season.  I love seeing family, I love shopping and making things for other people, I love Christmas songs, I love making Christmas cookies, and I love love love Christmas lights.  I’ll have to get outside and get some pictures of our lights for you.  We had a good time (well, minus the big tree/wind incident, but whatever).  Ok, enough of that, now to my point…

I have collected a few home-made gift ideas that are easy enough to start and finish before Christmas arrives.  And I don’t mean finishing at 1am Christmas morning.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that because I’ve certainly done it — remember the CDs, Dad?  And the year I decided to make a weekly calendar for my Mom (back in the stone age before Shutterfly and those guys) and did a page with a picture for each week.  After scanning each picture (no digitals, of course) and organizing the calendar, I was down to only a day or two to print.  With our old-school printer and PrintShop, it only took 2 days of straight printing at about 15 minutes per page – that one ended after Christmas Eve church too.  I must be into the tangents today because I just did it again.  So now that you know I like Christmas lights and am a procrastinator, what’s in it for you?

This awesome home-made chalkboard mat idea that’s what!  Check it out.

This idea and the photos came from my mom who came up with the idea and put them together. The basis is a fabric available at most fabric stores that works as a chalkboard.  It’s flexible, so it can be sewn on a regular machine like any other fabric and uses plain ole chalk.

She did a couple as placemats to keep kids busy at restaurants.

You can see she used old jeans for the backside so the chalk and eraser cloth have a nice little seat for the ride.  How cool is that?  Then, the whole mat just rolls up and goes anywhere.  I’m thinking a version of the chalkboard placemat would also be a cool gift for non-parents to use at home as a way to dress up a table for the season.  The host and hostess could write names like placecards or draw decorations to fit the dinner.

The other gift she made is a refrigerator note board.  It uses the same chalkboard fabric, but has a little pocket on the front for chalk.  What a cool idea?  Plus it’s lightweight and flexible so not always falling off when the door closes like our now broken dry erase board.

So, give that a try for a nice little gift for someone on your list.  And stay tuned for the next idea on Tuesday!

- Clarissa

Possibly my favorite part of decorating for Christmas is the Christmas tree.  When I was young we would go out to a tree farm, tromp through the snow, and cut down a tree (picture the beginning of “Christmas Vacation”).  Then we got a little wiser and started buying pre-cut trees, but still stood out in the snow debating between trees to find the perfect one.  Now that I live in a slightly warmer climate, the experience is much easier (although I have to admit it does take a little something away from the trip.  I haven’t decided yet if it’s a good something or bad something, just something).  Once the perfect tree has been tied to the car and brought home, it’s time to decorate!

I know many people are into the perfect-looking coordinated Christmas tree, but I prefer the “throw every ornament on the tree” look.  While it doesn’t make for the perfectly coordinated Pottery Barn tree, it is full of memories that we enjoy discussing throughout the Christmas season.

I’ve been playing with some different settings on my camera lately, so we’ll see what you think…

Of course, the angel

A couple of our “First Christmas” ornaments (as a couple, that is)

A pretty little “New Home” ornament that is a rookie on our tree this year

And of course our “First Christmas” (real first)

I had to pick the ornament that portrayed me as an angel — HA, not after THAT Christmas.

Do you have a favorite ornament on your tree?

- Clarissa

Cute, cute, cute, right?  I had fun making these cupcakes for a Hawkeye tailgate.  I’m proud of how they look, but they seriously tasted even better.  They use my now favorite go-to recipe, Hershey’s chocolate cake.  Earlier I gave you the Wilton chocolate frosting recipe, but this time I actually used the frosting recipe from Hersheys.  I learned that it doesn’t hold up quite as well as the Wilton recipe, but tastes 8 1/2 times better (that’s right, exactly eight and a half).  It’s truly like eating spreadable fudge.

The “I”s were made with fondant that I cut into I shapes, dried, and then placed on top of the cupcakes.  They fell down a little bit during the 10+ hour car trip, but you get the idea.  Of course, not as pretty as “M”s would’ve been — what we don’t do for love.*

*NGHubby is a huge U of Iowa fan.  While I don’t especially dislike Iowa, I never ever thought I would be making U of Iowa cupcakes.  Good thing they turned out so darn cute.

You gotta try this frosting right away.  Or just make some and eat it right from the bowl — it’s that good.

“Perfectly Chocolate” chocolate frosting

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

- Clarissa

Each Thanksgiving, just like probably most other American families, our family gathers for a day of fun, flag football, and Thanksgiving dinner.  My immediate family is quite large, so we divide up the entrees so each sibling’s family provides one key piece of the meal.  Because cooking for 35+ people is not an easy feat for one person — unless that one person happens to be my mom who has it pretty much mastered — it works well.  The more skilled cooks provide the pies (I think Mom has that lease tied up for good) or cook the turkey and gravy.  Those not as comfortable in the kitchen (or traveling from out-of-town) provide the rolls and very important wine.  Then, those of us in the middle bring the in-betweens like mashed potatoes and green bean casserole.  Adam and I signed up for mashed potatoes three years ago (can you believe we’ve been married for three Thanksgivings?) because it was cheap and easy to make.  Now it has become “our thing” and I believe we are getting closer to mastering it each year.  Of course we have to make a batch of “regular” mashed potatoes with just the potatoes, cream cheese, and sour cream.  Additionally, each year we try one different recipe for the more adventurous (and those seated further down the table where the gravy doesn’t quite reach).

The first year we tried White Cheddar Chipolte Mashed Potatoes.  That one was pretty good, but not a huge hit.  I’m not sure what happened to the recipe, so that tells you it wasn’t a big favorite.  I can’t even remember right now what we made last year, so that says it wasn’t even worth moving to the long-term memory.  But this year, oh, this year…

This year I do believe we hit the jackpot with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes.  It got RAVE reviews from everyone who tried it, and even the kids were running to the adult tables for more garlic mashed potatoes.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, whichever way you look at it) Adam and I didn’t get to try them because they were such a hit that the almost 10 pounds of potatoes ran out before reaching us.  Oh well, we’ll take it as a compliment.  They were quite easy to make, so we may just have to make a batch for ourselves.  Plus, the regular mashed potatoes were really good with Melanie’s gravy on top.

Every post needs a picture, so here’s the adult flag football team working up an appetite before dinner.

Now, some notes on the recipe…We obviously used lots more potatoes than the recipe, so we increased the other ingredients proportionately.  However, I read in a review of the recipe that it wasn’t very garlicy (that’s my word not theirs) so I added a little extra roasted garlic.  Because roasted garlic is so much milder than raw garlic, it turned out very nice and one person actually commented that it could have been even MORE garlicy.  I really need to find a better word for that — but in the meantime, here’s the recipe…

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

• 2 lbs. potatoes
• 1 head garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 4 tablespoons butter
• milk or cream, if needed
• salt
• white pepper (we left the pepper out so people could add it during dinner if they wanted)

1. Cut the top off a head of garlic, toss in olive oil, and wrap tightly in aluminum foil.
2. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45-60 minutes.
3. When the garlic has cooled to the touch, squeeze it out of the “paper” shell of the individual cloves and mash the garlic with a fork.
4. Peel and boil potatoes until tender.  Rice or mash the potatoes by your usual method.
5. Add the garlic, sour cream, butter, salt, and pepper and whip at medium speed until smooth.
6. Add cream or milk as needed to adjust consistency.

This came from RecipeZaar.

- Clarissa

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday!

This year we decided to pretend we were back in college and take the whole Thanksgiving week as a vacation.  We had a great time tailgating with friends, celebrating with family, and just enjoying the time with those most special to us.  It was a wonderful week.  However, it has set me a little behind in preparing great blog posts for you.  There’s lots to look forward to, though, including chocolate cupcakes, a great (and simple) mashed potato recipe, Christmas decorating, and some (hopefully) wonderful homemade Christmas gift ideas (I say hopefully because I haven’t actually made them yet, but they sound wonderful in theory!).

And charades?!  No, I just had to include this goofy picture of me trying to act out “What is and what should never be” in our regular game of charades.  I even had to keep the little paper in my hand to keep checking the word counts – yikes.

- Clarissa