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Back to School Cookie Exchange

October 9, 2015/1 Comment/in Activities, Recipe /by ValleyFamilyFun

Back to School Cookie Exchange This is an idea I have been toying with for a few years, so I am glad that I finally got my act together to organize it! It’s a back-to-school cookie exchange! Traditionally, we have done cookie exchanges before Christmas. For the most part, I end up eating all the […]

The Best Mystery Series to Watch

October 9, 2015/in Family Life /by ValleyFamilyFun

The Best Mystery Series Out There… Or So I Think! My confession: I love crime shows. My favourite are true crime shows where they follow an investigation or explain how they caught a killer. When we stay in a hotel and the kids are in bed, my guilty pleasure is to watch an evening of […]

Back to School Cookie Exchange

October 9, 2015/1 Comment/in Activities, Recipe /by ValleyFamilyFun

The Best Mystery Series to Watch

October 9, 2015/in Family Life /by ValleyFamilyFun

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Back to School Cookie Exchange

October 9, 2015/1 Comment/in Activities, Recipe /by ValleyFamilyFun

Back to School Cookie Exchange

This is an idea I have been toying with for a few years, so I am glad that I finally got my act together to organize it!

It’s a back-to-school cookie exchange!

Traditionally, we have done cookie exchanges before Christmas. For the most part, I end up eating all the cookies (even frozen from the freezer!) There is always so much food around at Christmas time, and I don’t need to be eating more!

I, along with many of my friends, like to include a homemade cookie in school lunches. So, why not stock your freezer for back-to-school? The instructions were easy. Bake cookies that are nut-free and kid-friendly!

Here’s how I planned and orchestrated the back-to-school exchange:

1. Pick a time and a date. Not everyone is going to be able to make it. I’ve learned to just pick a date and work with who can come rather than to try to accommodate schedules.

2. Send an email to friends. Tell them the date, the idea, and ask who is able to come. Keep track of the responses!

3. A few days before the event send an email to those who positively responded. Let them know how many people are coming and how many cookies they need to bake.

We decided to do 6 cookies per person (rather than a dozen). This is more manageable to bake. We had 9 people so each person brought 4.5dozen cookies. They were instructed to put 6 cookies into 9 ziplock bags. For this exchange, we didn’t mind if they were all the same kind of cookies. The kids won’t care! So, it was pure potluck!

4. Set the cookies out around the table.

5. Have each person walk around the table picking up a bag of each kind of cookie (including their own – just makes it less confusing)

6. Take them home and freeze.

7. Try not to eat them before they get to the kids’ school lunches!

This was a great excuse for a girls’ night out. I had some drinks and snacks and we sat around and caught up. I’ll definitely be doing this next year, too!

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The Best Mystery Series to Watch

October 9, 2015/in Family Life /by ValleyFamilyFun

The Best Mystery Series Out There… Or So I Think!

My confession: I love crime shows. My favourite are true crime shows where they follow an investigation or explain how they caught a killer. When we stay in a hotel and the kids are in bed, my guilty pleasure is to watch an evening of true crime shows!

My husband and I also enjoy watching fictional crime mini-series, especially from the UK.

Here are some of our favourites that we recommend checking out:

The Bridge – This is a Danish/Swedish series with subtitles. There is an American version, but I hear it’s not as good! There are two series.
Crime drama in which a bi-national police team is put together to investigate when the body of a woman is found in the middle of the Oresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark.

Broadchurch – Set on the Dorset coast, it centres on the death of an eleven-year-old boy, and the search for his murderer by detectives Alec Hardy (Tennant) and Ellie Miller (Colman)

Life on Mars – Drama about a present-day Manchester detective who, after suffering near-fatal injuries in a car-crash, awakes to find himself living in 1973

Luther – Crime drama series starring Idris Elba as Luther, a near-genius murder detective whose brilliant mind can’t always save him from the dangerous violence of his passions

Sherlock – Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson’s adventures in 21st Century London. A thrilling, funny, fast-paced contemporary reimagining of the Arthur Conan Doyle classic

Wallander – Drama series starring Kenneth Branagh as Swedish detective Kurt Wallander, investigating a series of violent and terrifying murders in the beautiful setting of Skane, southern Sweden.

What other crime series do you recommend?

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Back to School Cookie Exchange

The Best Mystery Series Out There… Or So I Think!

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