MCT 12 Days of Christmas: On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

Hello and welcome again to another installment of My Creative Time's "12 Days of Christmas"! If you've come here from Trell's blog, you're on the right track! If not, check back at Emma's blog to start from the very beginning.

We've got a bit of snow here in Michigan. Not too much - just a dusting over our yard - nothing sticking in the roads (yet). I'm not much of an outdoor gal. I like to stay inside where it's comfortable and warm. Even as a little girl, I wasn't too fond of playing in the snow. It's cold! But there was ONE thing that got me to go outside to play: my big brother, Dan.

I'm blessed to be the youngest of four kids. My oldest brother, Donal, is 14 years older than me. My sister, Stacey, is 11 years older. And Dan is just 3 and a half years older than me. When I was 6 or 7, I had a beautiful pink wooden playhouse in our backyard. During the summer, it was a fun spot to play with my friends when the family was barbecuing. But in the winter... it turned into a safe house where I would wait - alone in the 'woods' - for my big brother, Dan, to come and rescue me. We'd play for hours in that little pink house - coming in only for bathroom breaks and hot chocolate refills.

When we weren't playing "Rescue", Dan and I would have snowball fights. Since we only had one proper 'fort' (my pink playhouse), we had to decide who was the lucky snowball fighter to use it as his or her battle station. Naturally, age before beauty prevailed in this discussion and I was stuck hiding behind a mound of snow for safety. As Dan started whipping snowballs at me, I was feverishly packing snow to make little bullets of my own (And they sure were little! Tiny hands = tiny snowballs). Once I'd start throwing my little hand fulls of snow, Dan called a 'time out' in the action. He told me that he wanted to be sure that I didn't accidentally throw snowballs that had ice in them, so I should throw the snowballs at the fort itself, and not directly at him. If the snowballs proved to be safe, I could then throw them at him. It took quite a while for my little brain to figure out that if I threw these so-called "Snowballs of Doom" at the fort first, I'd NEVER be able to throw them at him - they weren't snowballs anymore! Of course, Dan continued slinging snowballs at me without any concern for MY safety regarding the 'iceballs'. What are big brothers for, right?

click photo to enlarge

In honor of my snowball fights with my big brother, I've created these (totally safe, non-icy) Snowball Pops! They were so easy to make and are YUM-MY! To add a bit of pizzazz, I wrapped them up in clear treat baggies and tied them shut with silver twist ties. Hanging on the twist ties are my cute little tags that I cut out with one of the dies from MCT's Build a Banner Kit and stamped with Mixed Holiday Sentiments. I punched a hole in the point of the tag with the small hole punch of my Crop-a-Dile and slid it on the twist tie before I tied them closed. These delicious treats would be perfect for sending over to neighbors to spread some Christmas cheer or could be put out at your Christmas celebration as a dessert for your guests!

I discovered a great winter decorating tip this year, and just HAVE to share! It's difficult to see in the picture (click the picture for a larger view), but the Snowball Pops are sitting in a bed of 'snow' in the dish. You might be able to get a better view of the 'snow' in the ornament-filled vase in the background of the photo. How did I bring the outdoors in (where it's nice and warm)? Epsom salt! It makes for a GREAT accent to your winter decor and really looks like snow! The best part? It's cheap! I purchased a quart of Epsom salt at my local dollar store!

***12 Days of Christmas Give Away Alert***

To qualify for ALL the AMAZING giveaways for the next 12 days, you must comment on every blog in this hop! You will have until Tuesday, December 13th @ midnight to have all of your comments in! VERY IMPORTANT: PLEASE LEAVE A WAY FOR US TO CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE WINNERS! There are some AMAZING giveaways for this special 12 day event and some SURPRISES to help celebrate My Creative Time's One Year Anniversary! Yep, Emma released her FIRST set of stamps one year ago! So make sure you are tuned in because this is ONE hop you do NOT want to miss!

Thanks so much for joining us on our hop today - I'm your last stop! Drop by again tomorrow for our LAST day of the "12 Days of Christmas" hop. I hope you were inspired!

-Veronica