Be Merry Holiday Photo Cards

Be Merry Christmas Photo Cards feature your favorite photo as the artwork.  These holiday photo cards are printed on Luster Photo Paper designed to produce the best photo quality plain papers and card stock just can't duplicate, no matter now thick they are.

Upload your photo and your choice of greeting in any color is printed as shown.  Lots of unique, original holiday photo cards can be found at Announcingit.com

Illuminating Holiday Candles

When it comes to holiday decorating, I'm all about simple and elegant.  I love the look of these floating candles, not only because my dining room is red and gold with green accents, but because they are a fabulous addition to any table. 

Choose small mason jars to create individual candles for each place setting or larger jars for a larger centerpiece.  Add greenery of your choice to the bottom of the jar (plastic or real) and add a handful or two of cranberries. Pour water into the jar until the cranberries float to the top but leave enough room so that when you insert a floating candle, the water won't overflow.

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Critter Free Pinecones for Decorating

We don't have too many pine cones in Southern California unless we go up through the mountains, so when I came across this "Bake the Bugs out of Your Pine cones" I have to admit, I never thought of that.

I've picked up Magnolia pods for decorating and I'm sure it would be a very good idea to bake the bugs out of them too.

Basically, the House of Hepworths recommends pre-heating your oven to 200 and then putting in the pine cones or whatever goodies you might have, and bake for 45 minutes.  I'd take her advice too and only bake for 45 minutes. You might want to check on them every once in a while too as she had some burned ones after baking for an hour and a half.

Let us know if you baked the bugs out of your goodies from nature.

Hot Mistletoe and Holly Red Cocktail

Hot Mistletoe and Holly Cocktail is a beautiful drink to serve at any holiday party and the taste of warm peppermint and cranberry juice is perfect for the season.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups cranberry juice (100 percent juice)
1/4 cup white creme de cacao
1/4 cup 100-proof peppermint schnapps
1/4 cup heavy cream lightly whipped with 1 tsp. sugar for garnish
12 fresh cranberries {garnish}
Pinch of Matcha powder {finely milled green tea} for garnish

Bamboo skewers or swizzle sticks for garnish

Irish Coffee Mugs or hot beverage cups

Directions:

In a small saucepan, simmer cranberry juice over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat.  Add the Peppermint Schnapps and creme de cacao. Stir to blend and release some of the alcohol and cook over low heat for exactly one minute. 

Carefully pour the hot beverage into Irish coffee mugs and garnish with a small dollop of whipped cream in each. 

To garnish, add three cranberries to a bamboo skewer or other heat proof swizzle sticks. 

To finish, use a fine-mesh sieve to gently tap a light dusting of Matcha over the whipped cream - Matcha is green, so you'll have a light dusting of green on top of the whipped cream - just dust for the color, not the taste. 

Serve hot.  Makes 4 servings

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Mini Snowy Pine Trees in Mason Jars

We love the idea of mini pine trees dusted with Epson Salt snow in different size mason jars. You can pick up the mini trees at the dollar store and finish with twine and holly and berries.

These would be cute on a hutch as displayed here, a holiday centerpiece grouping or a fireplace mantle decoration.

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Christmas Holiday Party Invitations Get Guests to the Party

The first step in getting people to a Christmas party is to show you care by taking the time to mail paper party invitations. Shop Announcingit.com for holiday party invitations for family and friends or your office holiday party.