Dec 26th is the perfect day to blog about........

HALLOWEEN?!?!?!

Since I never posted any Halloween pictures around Halloween time today is just as good as any other day right?  LOL

Travis went as "Slenderman" who is apparently a famous internet character---I had never heard of him but a lot of people recognized who Travis was!  Brody went as a skeleton.  He still isn't "into" the whole costume thing but I had him sold on this one because a) it was pj's and b) the bones glowed in the dark.  ;)

I took this picture 5 times and Brody's eyes were closed in all of them!

Running to the next house!

Travis' friend Tate (on the left) went out with us

Seriously they ran to every house!

Today's party prep updates.......

Ok......I will likely never make these again because they were a pain in the a$$ but they are so cute! GF too--yay Bugles!  :)  Please ignore the sideways picture---even if I saved it separately it still posted this way!

I made another batch of GF hot chicken salad after I read my Timehop for today and saw I had 2 batches last year.  :)  I even sampled today's batch and seriously I couldn't tell it was GF---the stuffing mix was an awesome addition!

 Over the weekend I made no bake cookies and put them into cupcake liners to make them a little less messy---when I have made them in the past they were runny and end up everywhere!  lol

I love to make food labels for my parties.  Why?  Well I like to know what something is when I am at a party before I put it on my plate.  ;)  It's also an easy way to label the GF things for my guests.

Magic......I perform magic.......

Well I'm not really magical but I feel like I am since I pretty easily made one of the most popular dishes at our Christmas Eve party GLUTEN FREE!  Which dish you ask?

Hot chicken salad made famous by Kristen's mom.......if you haven't trued it at my house or Kristen's  you must TRY IT.  You can eat it with chips , or bread or just with a fork (my preferred method lol).  The original recipe calls for croutons....instead of just leaving them out I substituted with a GF stuffing mix--I couldn't find GF croutons, didn't want to make my own and when I opened the stuffing package it basically looked like croutons---WIN!

Ready for the freezer--YUMMY!

I also made Jenni's famous chicken enchilada dip---the recipe is naturally GF which is nice.  I serve it with Fritos but really anything can work---I have even put the leftovers into corn tortillas and baked it!

This year I need to remember that things need to come out of the freezer 1st thing in the morning!  Last year a few things were still partially frozen when they went into the oven.  LOL

More party prep

Eventually I will get to posting about things in the last month or so like Halloween and Brody's birthday but until then.......here are more dishes I've prepped.  lol

Holiday pretzel bites---super easy and can be adjusted for any type of Hershey kiss, pretzel etc.  It just takes a lot of time getting the kisses out of their wrappers! ;)  http://www.cookingclassy.com/2012/12/pretzel-mm-hugs-christmas-style/

During.......

After  :)

Bacon cheddar bites---I have learned this can be prepped ahead of time and stored in the freezer.  Then on party day I thaw it and put it on slices of bread for baking!  Easy!  http://www.food.com/recipe/bacon-cheddar-bites-121308

During  ;)

Ready for the freezer!

Sausage balls---I need to find the link to this recipe but the ingredients are just baking mix, ground sausage and cheese.  ;)  These are a party favorite and they freeze perfectly!

Already in the freezer!

Christmas Eve Party Prep has begun.......

I finally made my grocery list yesterday and made it to the store this morning so I am able to start prepping some of the dishes for our annual Christmas Eve party.  I have found a bunch of desserts that hold up very well in the fridge (assuming I don't eat them LOL) and some other dishes that transfer well from the freezer to the oven.

So today (as of right now) I have made my Oreo truffles and guess what?  This year I made them gluten free!  It was an easy switch to make and no one will be able to tell the difference but my friends that are GF have one more thing they can eat at the party!  :)

This is the recipe that I used: http://www.chef-in-training.com/2011/11/no-bake-oreo-truffles/.  Obviously I used GF cookies and I used 8oz of cream cheese and regular white chocolate chips.  They are very easy to make and look a lot more complicated than they are---I promise!

Gingerbread house

I am going to state the obvious---YES I AM VERY BEHIND!  In the next day or two I will be posting Halloween pictures.  (sigh)

Last week I put together the gingerbread house that someone got the boys as a gift last Christmas (they brought it over on Christmas Eve).  Technically it had expired so I didn't let the kids eat any of it but since the use by date was Nov I decided it could still be put together.  ;)

Let's just say I stink at putting these together.  Ugh.  In the end we put frosting all over it to keep it from falling apart--we said it was a nice snow blanket.  :)

So excited

Seriously.....Travis kept making these goofy faces on purpose---I gave up trying to get a good picture