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New Beginnings + Package from Santa

Thank you to US Family Guide and Package from Santa for facilitating this post. All opinions are my own.

If you need to spark the magic of Christmas for a child this year, Package From Santa is the personalized gift you need! The holidays can be rough on the psyche, especially for those struggling, gift the magic of Christmas to help them believe again!

Do they know it’s Christmas time?

The holidays can be difficult for many. In some ways, I think it’s hard on all of us (even those of us who love Christmas). We hold ourselves to some sort of standard where we feel we have to buy the best gifts, hang up the most lights in the neighborhood, have the most festive wardrobe. Whatever those standards are, I believe we all (myself so totally included!) set the bar a little too high. Sure, we have good reason. Everyone should feel the magic of Christmas. Every little (and big) face should light up Christmas morning. Everything should be PERFECT!

But for some, like my oldest daughter, there are more worries and stressors than there are for others and all I want this year for Christmas is for my daughter and my grandson to truly feel the magic of Christmas. This year, as in years past, Package from Santa is helping me do just that affordably (especially with a 25% discount for entering FAM2060 at checkout).

New beginnings are magical!

Let me back up a bit to explain the importance of this year’s Package from Santa to you. A little over a year ago, my oldest daughter became a mom. The birth of baby Wyatt, her first and only child, was magical. I know because I was in the room. But life on the inside isn’t always as magical behind closed doors. My baby, who had moved to Texas from Georgia with her then boyfriend (I never liked him!), were going to get jobs and settle in before the baby was born. Life had other plans for Bryana and Wyatt and they embarked on this journey alone, much for the better! But when the baby was born, she had no job, no real home (of course she’s ALWAYS welcome in my home!), and really no direction other than to try to make it and be happy.

New beginnings mean new traditions!

Fast forward to present day. Bry and Wyatt have their own cute apartment, she works a full time (and more often than not, overtime) job, and she goes to school on the weekends. They’re making ends meet, they have a roof over their heads, they eat well, they have us when they need support, and they’re happy. But funds for extras, like holidays, are limited so we, as a collective family, do all that we can to make sure that Wyatt feels all of the magic of Christmas that a good (OK, he’s mischievous and into everything, but…) boy should. We do whatever we can for every other holiday, but Christmas – my very favorite holiday – should be the most magical of all and there’s nothing like a personalized Package from Santa to spark that magic!

What do you get when you order?

Joy! You get so much joy, wonder, laughter, and magic! For just $24.95 (if you act NOW – by 12/14/18 – you can get an additional 25% off with code FAM2060), you can order the Silver Package and get:

Letter from Santa Claus, personalized just for your child
Personalized Nice List Certificate – 8 1/2 X 11 photo of Santa Claus
Santa Flight Plan with your child’s picture and personalized based on their region
Special North Pole Shipping Label addressed to your child
Genuine North Pole Stamp
A bonus personalized Video Greeting from Santa!
Added bonus! Personalized Call from Santa
But wait…there’s more! Personalized Printable Nice List Guide

Smiles are priceless, magic is golden!

Not only is the online ordering process easy, it lets you customize your letter, your nice list certificate, your flight plan, and your video with pictures you send of your own little one.

So what are you waiting for?

Do you have someone on your nice list this year that could use a little magic in their lives? Head over to Package for Santa, customize your order, enter code FAM2060 at check out for 25% off, and your video will be delivered to your email probably on the same day. Then you’ll get your package – straight from the big guy at the North Pole himself – quicker than you can say cotton headed ninny muggins 10 times fast (OK, I exaggerate, but it’s super quick!).

Give the gift of magic, my friends, at Christmas and all throughout the year. You never know what someone else might be going through just by looking at them and just a little bit of magic can go a very long way! Merry Christmas, y’all! I hope it’s your best one ever!

Stuffed Pizza Skulls | Pizza Pockets

By Christy 2 Comments

Let these Stuffed Pizza Skulls be the star of the Halloween party this year. Simple to make and frightfully delicious, these pizza pockets will impress any ghoulish crowd.

Hosting a Halloween dinner party?

My family loves Halloween. Although insanity is not an option, during the Halloween season (you know…from September 1st through October 31st), I kind of walk the line. I go ~~a little~~ totally overboard with decorations. I buy new things each year, online and in stores. I come up with new Halloween crafts to try. I make costumes and I buy costumes. And I plan Halloween menus, as every mother should! This year is a little more overboard than most (I know *gasp*) because it’s Bubby’s 10th birthday and he’s going to have a spooktacular costume party birthday bash…at my house…with like 10 to 12, 9 and 10 year old boys. Hold me. Making sure there’s plenty of good and ghoulish food on hand is going to be key to keeping these monsters at bay. These Stuffed Pizza Skulls are most assuredly on the menu!

A skull cakelet everyone needs!

It all started with a Facebook post. A friend posted a video of some super easy stuffed pizza skulls and I went on a mission to find a pan to make this happen. The damned thing was $45 on Amazon. Holy high dollar cakelet, skull man! So I did some more searching and found this beauty (and might I say it’s a super high-quality beauty) on Perigold for just $27. SOLD! Let me just say, this is not a sponsored post and I paid for this out of my pocket. I’d never even heard of Perigold before, but you can bet your witch’s ass I’ll be shopping there again. Super quick shipping, great discounts, high quality, and they have so. much. stuff! Note: You do have to pay shipping, but it was still WAY cheaper than Amazon (I know, I’m shocked too!).

Tips for making perfect stuffed pizza skulls!

Knowing I couldn’t let down a group of 9 to 10 year old boys (kids are mean, y’all), we decided to do a test run. They came out pretty good for a first shot, but here are some tips I wasn’t smart enough to figure out the first time.

Don’t overstuff. Look, I’m an over stuffer. We’re talking pizza and you can never have enough sauce or cheese. Never. Except with these Halloween pizza pockets. If you use more than the quantities listed in the recipe, you’ll have blowouts (see above photo on the left – those are the just cheese pizza skulls that I overstuffed).
Lay the pizza dough into all 6 cavities as soon as you cut it. If you try to do these one at a time, the dough gets pretty hard to work with and stretch.
If you’re making multiple varieties of these pizza pockets – we made 2 cheese, 2 ham and cheese, 2 pepperoni and cheese, place the pizza pockets with the meat in them in the outside slots. They cook better that way and the ones in the middle, with just cheese, won’t burn up.

4 from 1 vote

Stuffed Pizza Skulls

Course Appetizer

Keyword stuffed pizza skulls

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 6

Author Christy

Ingredients

1 can prepared rolled pizza dough
1.5 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
6 tsp Parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup pizza sauce
18 slices pepperoni
1-2 tbsp Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb Seasoning

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400ºF. Spray skull mold with nonstick spray. Set aside.
Unroll pizza dough and stretch or roll into a 21x 8-inch rectangle with the long edge closest to you. Cut into six even strips.
Lay dough into skull cavities, press down lightly, and leave flaps over pan for closing the pizza pockets.
Into each cavity, layer 1 tablespoon shredded mozzarella, 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan, 1 tablespoon pizza sauce, 3 pepperoni, another tablespoon sauce, 1 more tablespoon mozzarella, and a sprinkle of seasoning.
Fold dough over fillings and pinch dough together to seal, making sure edges are sealed tightly. Repeat for the five remaining pizza pockets.
Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and let cool slightly, flip plan onto serving platter.
Serve with warmed pizza sauce and additional Parmesan cheese for topping.

Recipe Notes

You can use any topping you like instead of the pepperoni. Try chunked ham, diced veggies, or just add a little shredded cheddar in for a 3-cheese pizza pocket.

More freakishly fun food ideas:

We can’t wait to make these Stuffed Pizza Skulls again and I’m sure your little goblins will love them as much as mine do! We’ll also be serving up bloody witch fingers (mini sausages in BBQ sauce), Pizza Dough Spider Dip Bowls, Bloody Shirley Temples, and Eyeball Chili. What’s on your Halloween dinner party menu? I’d love to hear in the comments below. Recipe links are more than welcome!

How to Cope with BTS Mom Blues

By Christy Leave a Comment

While most parents rejoice during back-to-school season, some of us suffer from the BTS Mom Blues. Probably not a clinical term, but a real condition. Try practicing these five ways to cope with BTS Mom Blues to combat your loneliness, anxiety, and depression.

What are the BTS Mom Blues?

While many of you are cheering back-to-school season and cherishing your quiet time alone, there are others, like myself, feeling empty and blue. While you may feel that you are getting SO MUCH DONE in these first few days, weeks, months, some of us can’t concentrate or get motivated enough to get anything done.

These issues and many more, my happy-go-lucky-loving-your-empty-day-nest friends, are called the BTS Mom Blues. And it’s rough! I’m prone to tears at any given moment, I have the television on mindless shows for “white noise”, every time I get out of a meeting, I look up expecting one of them, any of them, to immediately need something from me.

But they don’t. They aren’t even here. I’m all alone in my house. Just me, no noise other than the constant pecking of these keys.

Coping with the BTS Mom Blues!

If you miss frolicking with your kids during the care-free summer days, and if you’re a sufferer like me, I have some tips for coping you should try. You might not want/need to listen, but believe me, at this point I’m an expert with six kids and a total of 29 years full-time parenting under my belt (with a 9 and 11 year old still at home!).

Tip 1: Let them know you’re OK!

When they go to school on the first day, and all the subsequent days, let them know you’re OK with it. Sounds silly, but telling them helps you convince yourself. Added bonus for giving them that added boost of courage and confidence. Mom “wins” help you cope with your BST Blues.

Tip 2: Let them be unicorns!

I know this one might sound a little trite, cliché even, but really it’s not at all. For those of us who suffer the BTS Mom Blues, we need to remember that our children need to be unique and forge their own paths in life. If we keep them with us all the time (which is truly what I want to do other than the occasional date night, etc.), we don’t give them the space they need to make friends, become stronger, learn more, and just grow up to be amazing humans…all on their own!

Tip 3: Make the most of together time!

No brainer here. When they get off of school, finish up your work, help them with homework, then let them help make dinner for the night or lunches for the next day. You’ll begin to realize that the time you spent alone wasn’t so bad after all and it just makes you appreciate your time together that much more!

Tip 4: Use the TV for mindless white noise!

During the day, if you feel it’s too quiet to function, like I do, since you’ve grown so accustomed to the chaos, turn on the TV for some white noise. Keep the volume low so as not to distract you from your work, but the background noise will actually help raise your productivity. Trust me, I know from experience. Don’t turn on something that will suck you in, of course, because that’s counter productive. I suggest Jerry Springer (yes, I’m serious) or something similar. Lots of fighting, no resolution. Just like when the kids are at home!

Tip 5: Remember that you deserve alone time!

As moms, I think this one is the hardest. I almost think guilt plays a HUGE part in the BTS Mom Blues. We need to be needed in all aspects of our lives. Home, work, husband, kids, you name it; we need to be needed so we feel a sense of emptiness if any of those aspects aren’t with us at all times. Break the cycle. They need you, whether they are with you in the moment or not, they need you. Remember that every time you start to feel blue.

That’s about it. I guess I’m not much on advice since I still suffer this horrible ailment (at least for the first half of the school year) every year, but that’s my advice in a nutshell. Seems simple, straight forward, and somewhat elementary (see what I did right there?), but it’s how I get through these days and I’m hoping it will help y’all out too. Hang in there, mommas, we got this. What advice do you have for beating the BTS Mom Blues? I’d love to hear them in the comments below!