I found this article on the parenting.com site. I thought it had some good ideas. We might try a few.
Photo courtesy of
drcorneilus, CC Licensed
Use It in the Kitchen:
Freeze it. Throughout the year, add it to milkshakes, sundaes, ice cream, and plain cookie dough. (For a quick milkshake, add mini Butterfinger or Snickers bars to ice cream or frozen yogurt and milk. Bonus: add a banana.)
Bake it into cakes. Try peanut butter cup cookies or brownies with fun sized candy bars inside. Or just put it on top of cakes and cupcakes, or stir it into icing. (For great recipes see
recipegoldmine.com/candybar.)
Make it a (sort of) healthy snack. Fill celery stalks with cream cheese and top with Peanut M&Ms.
DIY trail mix. Open bags of little candies like M&Ms and make your own trail mix by adding pretzels, nuts, and dried fruit.
Bring it to the Thanksgiving table. Remember how your mom used to make yams with marshmallows? Try using leftover candy corn.
Adults Only:
Pair it with wine. The chocolate, caramel, nuttiness of Snickers go great with tawny ports, and the cookie-like Twix goes well with a smooth scotch (
starchefs.com).
Make homemade flavored vodka. Just drop it in a bottle and let it soak for awhile to make your own homemade, creative tasting alcohol.
Put chocolates into your coffee for a quick, easy mocha.
Keep some in your purse for when you need a sugar fix, or your kid needs to be bribed.
Get Crafty:
Use it to wrap gifts. Save wrappers to decorate boxes, or garnish boxes with candies. Try stuffing it in gift bags instead of using tissue paper, or put it inside coffee mugs or any other gifts that could use some filling.
Make an advent calendar for November. Put candy in Dixie cups and cover with tissue. On the tissue, write numbers 1-30, and place the cups sideways on a large poster board to form a calendar. Let kids punch through the tissue to get their treat each day. (
alphamom.com)
Use it as a learning tool. Let kids practice counting or do their math homework with little Reeses Cups or Hershey Kisses.
Turn it into a science experiment. Kimberly Crandell, who has three kids and an aeronautical engineering degree, came up with 10 ways to turn leftover candy into a learning experience.
scientificblogging.com)
Plus:
Save and use next year for a Halloween wreath.Make Christmas ornaments.DIY candy necklaces.Save it for a gingerbread house.Use the wrappers for Christmas cards or decoupage.Make a board game and use the candy as playing pieces.Put it in a piñata for your next birthday party.
Give It Away:
Bring it into the office. It will disappear in no time.
Donate it. Bring to nursing homes, doctor's offices, and women shelters.
Send it overseas.
Operationshoebox.com will gladly take donations.
Let your kids make a care package and send it to their grandparents. Your parents (most likely) were not running around the neighborhood begging for treats in a witch hat, like your kids were.
Let's Be Honest: You can always just eat it.
This Nivea lipgloss is great. My friend gave it to me. T loves it & she won't nap or go to bed @ night without it on. That's good because her lips crack & bleed like mine overnight. Yesterday she wouldn't leave the house till I put it on her. Gee, I wonder who she got that from?
We put up our X-mas tree today, but were too lazy to decorate it. We'll do that tomorrow night. Couldn't get a pic of the whole tree since it's so tall. I have lots of things to get rid of. I realized that I have a bunch of junky X-mas things. I think I'll be making a trip to Goodwill to drop off some stuff soon.
Well I'm suppose to be writing out X-mas cards. I'm going through blogs & deleting 1s that never add updates, working on my myspace page etc.. I should be napping like everyone else in the house. We're hoping to decorate the house for X-mas later on. How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Lots of drama here like always. I got my bangs trimmed on Wed & they're in my face right now. Not sure what to do with them. I'll prob just end up pinning them back. Did anyone go shopping on Black Friday? I didn't leave the house yesterday. Hubs went to Kittery, Maine to go to Timberland in the Outlet malls. He got a bunch of work shirts. I ordered an X-mas present for myself from hubs (thermal pjs from Vic secret) yesterday. Did anyone get any cool deals? I wanna hear all about it.
I recently discovered that the store, The Icing, in the mall has really nice nailpolish. I got the colors Metal head (suiting for me) & Paparazzi (also suiting for me). I'm going to wear Paparazzi on T'giving. It's kind of a rust color. I'm wearing a black sweater, so it will match.
This is my childhood house. My parents still live there. They've lived there since I was 6 (1976). It has so many memories & the town has changed so much since I was a kid. It's nice to be able to go home.
I've also started getting into vests. I wore them in the early 90's & finally got rid of all of them a year or 2 ago (I had them packed away in totes), but now I'm liking them again. Are they a do or a don't? I like this 1 below from Aerie, but it's $60. I don't think I like it that much. I'm hoping it will go on sale. They also have black. If I don't get this 1, I will have to keep looking for the perfect 1, because I don't see too many that I like.
Yes or no?
We went to a storytime @ the MSPCA. After you could see all of the animals. Tons of cats. I'm a cat freak, so I loved it. I wanted to adopt this little boy.
T loves it.
Photo courtesy of drcorneilus, CC Licensed
