DIY Festive Dog Collar & Holiday Mocktails

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.

Harlan Miller

Merry Christmas! I hope you have all enjoyed your holidays! We sure have! We started Christmas Eve the same way we did last year, opening up our homemade family Secret Santa gifts! This year I pulled Oliver, again 🤣. This year however, SBean made us pull a theme too, so I had to make something for Oliver using Christmas colours! I made him a cute “bandana” and a handsome boy holiday collar out of one of Ninja’s old button up shirts! Super easy and so cute!

The trick is to find a collar that fits your puppy, is stiff and has a top button. All you do is cut directly under the collar stand and VOILA! You have a DIY fancy man holiday collar!

After I cut Ninja’s collar off his favourite holiday shirt 🤣 I decided not to waste and to try to make something out of the fabric on the back, so I cut out a rectangular piece along the seams.

And then just cut ties down the seams. Tada! A DIY holiday handkerchief!

I also made Oliver some of his favourite Doggo Cookies.

Ninja made HBear a 4 layer confetti cake with raspberry filling, decorated like a gorgeous gift. While HBear made Ninja a giant Twix bar! She even made the shortbread and the caramel herself! They both had to make an edible gift.

SBean sewed me a beautiful winter themed bag! I’m so impressed with her creativity and her sewing skills! Oliver made SBean a cute painting complete with his paw print!

I love our homemade Secret Santa tradition! Hopefully next year I don’t get Oliver… again! 🤣💛

Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Ep.360: Shave Your Nutmeg HERE! This week, we get together on Christmas Eve Eve to discuss: the Era’s movie, Egg Nog, Christmas movies, Christmas prep, PAMDA concert, tree hunting, last minute shopping, Canadian Xmas quiz, & country carols.

We always try to make the Kids a few special drinks over the holidays. Living in the valley, the Kids have learned a lot about grapes and wine making as well as hops and craft brewing but lately, with Ninja, getting more interested in mixology, the Kids have been interested in making some fancy mocktails for themselves! Ninja and I picked out a few festive non alcoholic drink recipes that the Kids tried over the month of December. They were all super sweet, uber festive, and enjoyed by all!

Grinch Mocktail

Candy Cane Mocktini

Spiced White Hot Chocolate

Frozen Hot Chocolate

Crockpot Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Grinch Mocktail

Lime Jaritto (or any other green juice of choice)
1 can of Ginger Ale
1 lemon
frozen cranberries
Ice cubes

Fill your glasses with ice cubes. Cut lemon in half and juice it, add the juice to the glasses, half a lemon per glass. Fill half of each glass with Ginger Ale. Fill the other half of your glasses with your green pop/juice and stir. Add your frozen cranberries and serve.

Candy Cane Mocktini

1 cup milk
12 oz cream soda
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2-4 drops peppermint extract
mini candy canes, crushed

Lightly coat the rim of your martini glasses in corn syrup on a plate. On another plate, place the crushed candy canes then rim the glasses by dipping the glasses that have been coated in corn syrup into the candy canes.

Mix the milk, cream soda, simple syrup and peppermint extract in a martini shaker. Pour mixed drink into the candy cane rimmed martini glasses. Garnish with mini candy canes.

Spiced White Hot Chocolate

8 oz white chocolate chips
4 cups half and half
2 cups milk
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
7 oz marshmallow cream
4 sticks cinnamon
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Place all ingredients in a pot and cook covered on low, stirring occasionally until the marshmallow is fully melted and the white chocolate chips are melted through.

Remove cinnamon sticks before serving.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

3 cups crushed ice
2 cups milk
2.5 heaping tablespoons of hot chocolate powder

Place the ice, milk and hot chocolate powder into a blender. Blend until thoroughly combined. Pour the frozen hot chocolate into the two glasses.

Crockpot Peppermint Hot Chocolate

14 oz sweetened condensed milk
2 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup cocoa powder
6 cups milk
24 oz evaporated milk
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Combine the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, peppermint extract and cocoa powder in the bowl of your slow cooker. Use a whisk to combine and make sure the cocoa powder is fully incorporated and smooth. Add the remaining ingredients and whisk to combine.

Cover and cook on LOW heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Once the chocolate is melted through, pour into a festive mug, top with marshmallows and enjoy!

What a week! I am at that point where every day runs into itself and I have no idea what day it is! Hence, why this blog post was put out a day late this week 🤣. SBean kept Mr. Ice in the freezer for as long as she could but by the time we had our real tree decorated, Mr. Ice was Mr. Puddle. After all of the excitement of hunting for a Christmas tree, I took a much-needed rest day! Midway through the week Grandma and Grandpa came over for a pre-Christmas roast beef dinner, and some annual gingerbread house making! The next day Ninja wrapped potatoes and dropped off a homemade Gift of Bacon Wrapped Potato Wedges with Honey Sauce, Yorkshire Puddings and Gingerdoodles for my MMBesty and her husband. We had winter solstice dinner by candlelight, Ninja bought me some beautiful festive flowers, Ninja and SBean checked out the new Fresh Slice in town, Dad and J represented Sparkles at the Osoyoos Cottages Christmas Party. We drank holiday mocktails, played family games, and took advantage of the sunshine by reading Christmas romance novels on the balcony, topped off with a stunning first day of winter sunset!

Christmas Eve was incredibly busy but jampacked full of laughter and fun! Maynard zipcorded through our living room, ended up in the tree, but still managed to deliver our annual Christmas Eve present. Before opening it, we met Grandma and Grandpa, Papa, J and her mom at Poplar Grove Winery for an amazing Christmas Eve brunch! When we got home, we had our homemade Secret Santa gift exchange, opened up our family gift from Maynard and took Oliver to the dog park to let off some steam in his new fancy sweater. In the afternoon, we watched the movie Maynard brought us, Ernest Saves Christmas, HBear helped get Christmas morning breakfast ready by making my Mom’s Awesome Christmas Breakfast, we enjoyed a family raclette dinner, and then grabbed bowls of candy, mugs of hot cocoa, and hit the road! We went light hunting, walked through the Penticton light tunnel, and came back to play more family games and watch Candy Cane Lane! Once the train was set up, we were all ready for Santa. We let him know by setting off our sparklers on the balcony. It was a little chilly, but a beautiful backdrop of an almost full moon, magical stars, and the beauty of the sparklers. I will forever keep that moment in the memory box of my 💛.

When we woke up, Santa had come! We spoiled each other with gifts we wanted and gifts that we needed. When all the presents were open, we enjoyed Christmas breakfast with festive mimosas and when we were all done, we packed up and went to my in-laws for Christmas number 2! We had a wonderful afternoon opening up Maier family gifts and then the rest of the family came over for my mother-in-law’s famous Christmas turkey dinner! Ninja made a festive cocktail, the cousins were excited to tell each other what they got, and all the adults stayed far away from each other as we had all caught our Kid’s head colds from the last week of school… Again 🤣. The next morning, Christmas number 3! We all headed down to my Dad’s place for a Castle Christmas! We started with an amazing BLT bar and then we all hunkered down to open up all the presents from my side of the family! We ended our Christmas by spending time with my friend’s kitties who the kids are looking after over the holidays while their owner is visiting family back in Winnipeg!

Thank you to my Mother and Father-in-law for hosting my entire crazy family every Christmas 😂 and thank you to my Dad and J for hosting our crazy Castle Christmas every Boxing Day. Although I am completely drained, 100% exhausted, and will need to sleep for days to recuperate, I am overwhelmed with a sense of peace and gratitude. It was a wonderful Christmas for our family. Merry Christmas to all of my friends and family that are reading this right now. I wish you nothing but the best moving forward, happy holidays 🎄💛😘.