Dear Mrs. Fields,

My small family recently made a cross-country move for a new job and we are spending our first Christmas far from family, friends, and the holiday traditions we’ve always known. Before we moved, Christmas Eve was always spent feasting and partying with parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. While we’re excited for our new opportunities, we’re battling a bit of homesickness and not quite sure how to make it feel like Christmas when everything is so different. Any ideas?

Sincerely,
Lucy

This is a great question and one that many people will relate. My advice is to make the most of things by sitting down together as a couple or a family and creating your own new Christmas Eve traditions. Most people have traditions handed down to them, but few people get to tailor-make their own! If you need some inspiration, here are some ideas to jump start your planning:

• Family Game Night. Wrap up a few favorite (old or new) board or video games to play. Unwrap and play them one at a time. Think of creative ways to mix things up, like silly prizes or treats for the winners.
• Pajama Night. Everybody can always use a new pair of pajamas. Wrap up a new set for each person, then pose for pictures, read favorite storybooks, watch movies, or play games.
• Christmas Scavenger Hunt. Grab the family and a list of holiday items (Christmas lights, Santa suit, candy canes, manger scenes, reindeer, etc.) and snap photos of your group with each item. You’ll have fun hunting down each item, and you’ll have a photo history of your fun night.
• Karaoke Night. A simple microphone, speaker, and your favorite holiday music turns your home into a fabulous karaoke lounge. Most of us know all the words to holiday music anyway, so it’s especially easy for everyone to participate!
• Progressive Dinner. You can do this one of two ways.  Join up with new friends to host a progressive dinner (appetizer, entreé, and dessert) at three different houses. Or, if you’re solo, pick three favorite restaurants and have each course of dinner at a different spot.
• Christmas Lights Tour. Most local newspapers feature the best holiday light displays in the area. Look it up and buckle up the family for a tour of the garish displays.
• Egg Nog Taste Test. Purchase 4 or 5 brands of egg nog and have a blind taste test to determine which is the best. You can do this with practically anything, such as fudge brownies, potato chips, or any favorite snack or treat.
• Soup Kitchen Service. Sometimes the best way to beat the blues is to do something nice for someone else. Contact a local soup kitchen or shelter and help serve a meal. It’s a guaranteed feel-good moment.

Any other ideas for Lucy? What are your favorite Christmas Eve traditions? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

P.S. DON’T FORGET! Today is Free Shipping Friday at Mrs. Fields! Get free standard shipping today on select holiday gifts! Use code 11YEZ at checkout.

And if you haven’t already, share your favorite Mrs. Fields memory as part of our 35th Anniversary Giveaway! You could win free cookies for a year!

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I’ve invited a host of moms, bloggers, bakers, and otherwise interesting people to share their “secret ingredients” for success. I’m thrilled to introduce today’s post from Emily Hobbs, baker, finalist in Food Network’s Ultimate Recipe Showdown, not to mention a finalist in a Mrs. Fields recipe contest and creator of Sugar Plum blog where she posts delicious original recipes for you to enjoy!

Layered Amaretti Apple Pumpkin PIe

My secret ingredient I use in baking is browned butter.  I cook butter in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking frequently, until it foams and turns light golden brown (about 2-3 minutes).  The browned butter adds a nutty flavor to cookies!

Chocolate Truffle Cookies

Follow Emily’s beautiful blog and Twitter feed, and become her friend on Facebook to keep up with all of her great recipes.

If you would like to participate in the “What’s Your Secret Ingredient?” series, contact me, mrsfields[at]mrsfieldssecrets[dot]com.

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Reflective Tape

1. Use Inconspicuous Reflective Tape. A few small squares of reflective tape on your trick-or-treater will keep them safe and visible to cars on Halloween night. The tape is available in a wide variety of colors, so it can be incorporated into any costume without being obnoxious. Be sure to place some on the heels of their sneakers, on their elbows, and on their tote bag—the natural movement of their feet and arms will catch more light.

2. Modify masks. Remember that masks hinder your child’s ability to see, hear, and breathe properly, especially in the dark. Use an ex-acto knife to enlarge eye, nose, and mouth holes. If a mask covers their ears, make inconspicuous ear openings to allow noise to penetrate. Adjust or replace elastic bands to keep mask and corresponding eye/nose/mouth/ear holes securely in place.

3. Hitch your wagon. If you have little ones, keep their excitement and energy contained in a wagon or stroller in between houses while trick-or-treating. This will keep them from darting out into the road while you’re conversing with neighbors, and will also keep them from tiring out too soon.  (Which, in turn, will keep you from tiring out while carrying them home.)

Happy (and safe) Halloween!

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I think I would say my secret ingredient is perseverance. Most of the time, when I bake, I’m trying something I’ve never made before. Many times I’ve wanted to throw in the towel when I thought a recipe wasn’t going right in the kitchen. And 9 times out of 10 things worked out better than I’d hoped thanks to pushing through. That’s what’s been so fun about baking and learning new recipes and decorating techniques. It’s the challenge and the feeling of accomplishment when I create something that stretches my comfort zone. Like macarons and fourteen layer cakes and crazy cake pop designs. And I enjoy every minute of it because even if I do make mistakes…they are still sweet.

If you don’t already, follow Bakerella’s blog, facebook, and Twitter feed for even more inspiration.

If you would like to participate in the “What’s Your Secret Ingredient?” series, contact me, mrsfields[at]mrsfieldssecrets[dot]com.

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I’m so excited to announce the winners of our Nominate a Local Hero giveaway! We were flooded with incredible nominations from all across the country, giving us the enormous challenge of selecting our winners. Make no mistake, it was an impossible decision, as all of the nominations were stories of true heroes, but eventually a decision had to be made. Congratulations to the following winners who have already been contacted by email:

My nominee is Mama Lois Coleman, founder of Grace House.
Lois knew she wanted to help young people excel morally and academically, so she mounted a basketball hoop in her backyard and held cookouts for the children and teenagers in her neighborhood. The children soon began calling her “Mama Lois.” She later formed a club, called the Cultivators Club, to teach girls grace and manners.

Returning to Birmingham, Mama Lois worked with the Wales Gobel Ministry for over nine years. As a result, the Cultivators Club grew from being just a club to girls actually coming to live in her home. These girls were taught the same values she had been taught as a child. Not only did she work with these girls, but also worked with various agencies to send scores of inner-city children to camps each summer. It wasn’t long, however, before Mama Lois realized that there were more girls needing assistance than bedrooms in her home. She had a vision: to open a home to serve girls who had been abused or neglected.

Overcoming the big obstacles of funding, incorporating, purchasing property, and renovating, Mama Lois and a large host of volunteers opened that home in 1992, calling it Grace House Christian Home for Girls. At age 69, Mama Lois implemented a plan for operating this home: to provide a nurturing environment for girls from crisis backgrounds, where they could receive plenty of love and encouragement in a family setting.

There are now a total of three group homes operating in Fairfield, AL, which house up to 24 girls total. What began as a dream in one woman’s humble home is now Grace House Ministries, poised to make a difference in the lives of many young women and children in the 21st century.

Of all of the people I know, I have to nominate my 12 year old daughter Osjah. The child is truly amazing and that is not her Mom talking! By the time she started kindergarten she had enough community service hours to more than qualify her for graduation and since then has averaged about 1000 hours a year. Not only is she active in the community, but she finds problems and then figures out a way to solve them. Last year she adopted an underprivileged elementary school and supplied them with backpacks, school supplies, socks and jackets and held a fundraising event to supply them with money for special needs. She even managed to get a former Miss America and a Jets player to come speak to the kids and hosted a pizza party. She also held a Stocking For Soldiers event to ship Christmas stockings to Afghanistan to help brighten the holiday for the troops, food drives for the local food bank etc… She’s a gifted student and someday hopes to be a doctor or an attorney working with kids. You can Google this her. She is working now on getting her group (Osjah’s Wish – on Facebook) established as an official nonprofit. Some kids hang out with their friends at the mall on the weekends, this one hangs out with her friends working at the food bank or cleaning up the park. I couldn’t be more proud of her spirit and her heart.

I nominate my mom, Virgie. She has worked with LA County Children’s Services Department for 30+ years and finally retired last year. She dedicated herself to being a children’s advocate. She has implemented many of the parenting programs to teach parents how to discipline their children without abusing them. She even had a program for the parents that didn’t have to means to pay for classes where the social workers would watch the kids while the parents attended parenting classes in the evening (until the county cut the program)(sad but true). She wrote the developmental chart for children 0-18 years of age in which the county still uses today. This explained where a child should be developmentally in their growth stages. She was the supervisor for the emergency response unit in Covina, CA for many years. And I have to say the world is a better place because of her!! She has saved many lives with being a believer in continued education by keeping herself updated with all the latest news on health and disease issues like how to recognize certain illnesses that had similar characteristics to bruising that would be caused by abuse. She was actually recognized for saving the life of a baby with that type of illness. She has even had children that were raised in the foster system that came back after getting their education and worked for her as social workers and have become supervisors, deputies, etc. Her training and teaching techniques are amazing!
She just really made a difference in a lot of lives!! She has since retired but I would love for her to be recognized in any way possible. She is a “Hero” to all and we love her!!

Once again, thank you to all who took time to share a nomination, and thank you to all the heroes out there making our world a better place to live!

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1. Personalized Family Tee via Erica’s Bloggity Blog.

2. Personalized Reunion Totes via Blond Designs.

3. Family Photos in Mason Jars via Weeping Cherries.

4. Family Photos Table Runner via Oh So Beautiful Paper.

5. Family Reunion Tees via Kin.

6. Personalized Screenprint via Kin.

7. Personalized Frosted Cookies via Mrs. Fields Gifts.

8. Family Recipe Cards via Tiny White Daisies.

And in the spirit of personalization, enjoy free personalization at Mrs. Fields Gifts (shop the entire category here). Use code 11MER at checkout. Discount code is good through September 30, 2011.

Happy reuniting!

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1. Get into routines. Organize your daily tasks into routines. Create a literal checklist of everything you need to have done each morning and evening and post it in a convenient place that you’ll see each day, like your bathroom mirror. Follow it every day and soon you’ll be in a thorough routine that will keep you from scrambling to do the same things. This will streamline your daily chores and free up your thoughts for other things.

2. Begin menu planning. Minimize the time you spend running to the grocery store and lamenting over what to make for dinner by creating a simple menu plan each week or month. You can also minimize waste by using the same ingredients for at least two meals. Invite the kids to help you plan and cook meals, too.

3. Unplug and go outside. Commit to spending some time outside each day, and when you do—even if it’s only a five minute walk—commit to unplugging yourself from computer, phone, and other electronic devices. Take in the beauty of nature, get some Vitamin D from the sunshine, and enjoy being unavailable to anybody but yourself for a few minutes. It’s heavenly.

4. Say no. It’s easy to fill up life with too many commitments, especially if they are all worthy causes. However, it’s important to be able to say no from time to time. In fact, it’s good for you. Try it.

5. Get rid of stuff. Clutter has a way of infiltrating a room, a house, and even your mind. If you’re overwhelmed with where to start, begin small, maybe with one drawer. Toss out garbage, donate things you don’t use anymore, and leave only the items you need and truly love. You’ll feel instant relief and rejuvenation as you simplify your belongings.

6. Single-task. Everybody is big on multi-tasking, but it can often complicate things and slow us down. For one day, work on single-tasking—focusing and completing one task at a time. The results will probably surprise you.

7. Eat slowly. It sounds simple, but simple is what we’re after. We often deny ourselves the simple pleasure of eating by rushing through a meal without taking time to thoroughly chew and savor each bite. People who eat slowly tend to consume fewer calories and enjoy the experience a whole lot more than the rest of us.

8. Identify your time-suckers. Most of us lose time without realizing where it went. Keep a log of your activities for a few days and see if you notice areas that devour your time. Maybe it’s sitting in front of the TV, or maybe you lose hours on the Internet, but whatever it is, identify it and then set parameters for yourself that will keep it from robbing your time and energy.

9. Breathe. Research has shown that simple breathing exercises can improve health, both physical and mental, specifically with anxiety and depression, as well as decreasing heart rate, blood pressure, and stress. Try this: Lie down flat with your hands on your stomach and breathe in slowly through your nose until you’ve reached capacity. Watch your hands rise with each intake as if you’re filling a balloon. (Your shoulders should remain still.) Slowly let the breath out through your mouth, in a soft, controlled movement. Watch your hands fall back down. Counting slowly to 5, 6, or 7  with each intake and output can help you stay focused. Repeat the process for 5 – 15 minutes every day.

10. Bake cookies. Take a little time to create something simple like a batch of cookies to enjoy and share with others. Roll up your sleeves, turn on some music, and invite a loved one (tall or small) to join you. The process of creating something is a simply satisfying experience, and the reward is, oh, so sweet!

Do you have tips for a simple life? Share them in the comments section!

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Summer Reading 2011

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Fiction)
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby (Fiction)
The Imperfectionists by  Tom Rachman (Fiction)
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume (Fiction)
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (Historical Fiction)
Bossypants by Tina Fey (Memoir)
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (Historical Fiction)
The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande (Non-Fiction)
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (Mystery)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (Memoir)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Young Adult Fiction)
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt (Young Adult Fiction)
We Bought a Zoo by Benjamin Mee (Non-Fiction)
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Legal Thriller)

Now it’s your turn. What are your favorite reads right now? I’d love to hear your recommendations in the comments section!

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See the results here:  http://www.mrsfields.com/incoming/mday_vs_fday

If you’re struggling on what gift to give your dad this year, don’t skimp on dad like our research showed, add a batch of Mrs. Fields cookies to spruce up any humdrum socks, necktie or item-turned-paperweight.

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You’ve had it happen before, right? At the last minute you end up with company with no plan for a real dessert. No need to panic with this great dessert idea from Breyers®. If you’ve got a carton of Breyers® BLASTS!™ Mrs. Fields® Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough ice cream in the freezer and a jar of hot fudge in the fridge, and some nuts in the pantry, you’ve got a dessert ready to go! Give it a try for impromptu dessert or planned-ahead delight. Either way, it will hit the spot.

Out of the Box Cookie Dough Sundaes

1 container (1.5 qt.) Breyers® BLASTS!™ Mrs. Fields® Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough Frozen Dairy Dessert, cut into 12 slices*
1 jar hot fudge topping, heated
3/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted, or chopped walnuts

Directions
Arrange Breyers® BLASTS!™ Mrs. Fields® Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough Frozen Dairy Dessert on individual serving plates or large platter. Drizzle with hot fudge topping, then sprinkle with almonds.

HINT: Have some cookies on hand? Crumble them on the bottom of the plate for a tasty crust!

HINT: Create a custom look by using cookie cutters on the ice cream layer. cut away excess and serve your dessert in any shape you like!

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