Life in Pajamas

Let's Talk Cookies!

Time to take a break from holiday shopping, cards, decorating, work and just think Cookies! Doing a google search for "Christmas Cookies" took me straight to www.joyofbaking.com where the most beautiful, inviting cookies pop off the page in vivid Christmas colors.  We love the traditional sugar cookies in wonderful shapes and colors.  Most families make cookie baking part of their holiday celebrations.  Cookies just spread happiness.  Here is the recipe for this beauty.

Sugar Cookie Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure extract

Directions

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.  Set aside.

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes).  Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined.  Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.  Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch.  Cut out cookies using a lightly floured tree cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. 

Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.   Bake cookies for about 10 minutes or until they begin to brown around the edges.  Remove them from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Frost with icing.   Makes about 20 cookies.

Royal Icing Using Egg Whites

1 large egg white

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

Directions

Beat the egg whites with the lemon juice.  Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth.  The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. 

Confectioners Frosting

2 cups confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/3 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Directions

Cream the butter until smooth and well blended. Add the vanilla extract.  With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beater.  Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is nice and smooth.  

What are your cookie traditions? 

Spooky Halloween Sleepover Fun

Halloween is the perfect time for a spooky sleepover.  With decorations available everywhere it's easy to go all out inside and out.  Put pumpkins outside your door and fake spider webs inside with all the creepy decorations you love.  Be sure to add the spooky sound effects with a Halloween CD or download.  Halloween party food ideas are easy to find all over the internet.  We love the Ghoulish Halloween recipes found here, including chicken "fingers", "night eyes", "eyeball assortment", "bat wings" and "mad scientists".   Make your party complete with some perfect games.  Here are a few ideas:

• Pass The Pumpkin (Perfect for younger kids)  This musical chairs type game involves passing small pumpkins and gourds and when the music stops the person without a pumpkin is out. Play until there is a winner. Kids sit in a circle and you hand out one less pumpkin then children in the group. Then instruct the children to start passing the pumpkins when the music begins to play and continue passing until the music stops.  Once the music stops the child without a pumpkin is out of the game.  Now remove a pumpkin from the group and restart the music. This pattern continues until you have one pumpkin with one winner.

• Worm Bobbing Each player is given a bowl with 6-8 worms all mixed up (should be same amount for each person) in the whipped cream.  The worms can be gummy worms of course! Then with their hands behind their back they must bob with their heads into the bowl of whipped cream and  pull out the worms and place them on the plate. The first one to finish wins. Blindfolds make it even more of a challenge.
• Scary Stories is always a classic.  Everyone sits in a circle in a darkened room, each holding a flashlight.  One player starts the game by saying "Once there was...." and goes on to say one or two sentences.  The next player continues the story with another sentence or two.  Once everyone has added to the story one person in the circle can end it.  The scarier the better!
• Spider Web requires only a ball of black yarn.  Everyone stands or sits in a circle.  One person starts with a ball of black yarn and begins by holding the end piece and throwing the ball across the circle.  The person who catches the ball must say a halloween word, grab a bit of the yarn and then throw the ball across the circle.  Continue until the ball is nearly finished and a huge web is created.
• Mummy Wrap is always fun.  Teams are split into pairs with one person being the mummy and the other being the wrapper.  Each team gets one or two rolls of toilet paper.  When the game begins, the wrapper begins wrapping the mummy with toilet paper circling around and around covering as much as possible.  The best mummy wins!
• Memory Game is a fun twist on a popular game.  Find about 20 different Halloween items.  We love the bowl of cold spaghetti, rubber bats, ping pong ball eyeballs, skulls and more.  Place everything on a tray and cover with a cloth.  Each player gets a paper and pencil and has 60 seconds to look at all the items before they are covered.  Because it's a memory game each player then has to remember what spooky items were on the tray and write them down.  Of course, the one with the best memory wins!
• Monster Mash Freeze Dance is so much fun for kids and adults.  Put on this classic song full volume and have everyone dance, dance, dance but when the music stops everyone must freeze.  Whoever moves is eliminated.  The last one dancing is the winner.
• Witch Hunt involves picking up a bunch of cheap witches hat from your local discount store.  Hide them in random places around your house or yard.  Have your guests run around finding them and the one who finds the most wins.
• Worst Makeover Ever rewards the most disasterous makeover.  Divide your guests into teams and give each team a bag of makeup.  They are told to do the worst makeover ever.  Everyone votes on the biggest makeover disaster.

When everyone is settled in comfy pajamas choose one of these spooky movie classics keeping in mind what is best for the age group.

• Hocus Pocus
• Nightmare Before Christmas
• Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory
• The Blob
• Rosemary's Baby
• Nightmare on Elm Street
• Saw

Tell us which horror classic films we missed and any other recommendations for a perfect kids sleepover.

Perfect Sleepover Games

Just stumbled upon www.party411.com which is packed with great suggestions for sleepover games and activities.  Here are a few I love:

No-Mirror Make-Over

One of the best themes for a sleepover party for teenage girls is a Makeover theme. Host a beauty contest in which the contestants have to apply all of their make-up without a mirror. This is a game in which the most hideous contestant wins the prize. Make sure to take some nice blackmail photos of all the contestants!

 

Ingredients

• Makeup

To Play

• On the invitation tell the girls to bring their makeup...all of it!

• Have everyone set it out.

• Then, set a five-minute timer.  Everyone has five minutes to put her makeup on without a mirror.

• The girl with the most hideous makeup on wins.

Junk Food Frenzy

This is a great game that will keep your tummy full and keep you laughing.

 

Ingredients

• Index Cards

• Dessert Recipes

• Ingredients to Make the Desserts

• Measuring Cups & Spoons

• Baking Dishes

• Bowls

To Play

• Dig out some of your favorite dessert recipes and copy the instructions on index cards.

• Buy ingredients for all the desserts and place them on the kitchen counter.

• Shuffle the cards and divide the guests into two teams.

• Have players take turns drawing cards.

• Each player reads the card and takes the listed ingredient.

• When all the ingredients have been distributed, give the teams thirty minutes to prepare a dish using the ingredients accumulated by the individual players.

• When the dishes are complete, have each player taste and eat the results, then vote on the best tasting dessert! For a fun variation, give both teams the same ingredients and see what different desserts they come up with (without using recipes).

Dance Off

If your party is at a restaurant or community center, a dance off is perfect to get everyone dancing.  Hire a D.J or band to provide entertainment all night.

 

Ingredients

• Dancefloor Light Up Jewelry

• Noisemakers

• Pink Glow Light Bracelet

• Poster Board

• Markers

To Play

• At a dance off people dance for as long as they can until the music stops.  And if they stop while the music is still playing they are disqualified.

• Coordinate a time when the music can start for the dance off. A good time would be after dinner.

• Make cards out of poster board and markers that say, “You Are Out.”  Ask a few of your relatives or your little brother or sister to keep score.

• Hand out glow bracelets; light up jewelry, and noisemakers to everyone who is going to dance.

• When the music starts grab all of your friends and start the rump shaking.

• As soon as someone stops dancing the scorekeeper raises the sign that says “You Are Out.”

• The last few people on the dance floor are the winners.

• You can play several rounds and also award prizes for best dance moves, most creative, or most ridiculous.  A great prize for this game is inflatable mircophones!

Check it out and share your favorite sleepover games here!

Partying In Your Pajamas – Have an Adult Sleepover!

 

The holiday season also means it’s the party season – why not take advantage of the time of year to have an adult pajama party?  There are many fun-filled activities you can prepare for your guests and planning for an adult sleepover is easier than you might think.  Following are some tips and tricks for making your holiday pajama party a fun and festive event.

 

• Drinks and snacks – be sure have a variety of beverages available, both cold and hot, and have snack food such as cheese, crackers, bite-sized vegetables, popcorn, chips and dip available to munch on.

 

• Make a list of activities – it might not be all about conversation or movie watching.  You could have an adult sleepover that includes your guests making their own party favors!  It can be an arts and crafts project, something that reminds your guests of pajama parties from their childhood.  Have a stock of fun games on hand for added enjoyment.

 

• Fun pajamas should be one of the center points of your adult sleepover -- the more outrageous, the better, with bonus points for feathered robes and the big bunny slippers!

 

• Pick a selection of movies to suit the theme of your party, if you have one.  If the participants in your pajama party are women, consider renting modern "chick flicks," as well as classic romantic black and white movies.

 

• Continuing on the girls’ night in idea, why not bring the spa to your sleepover?  Take the time to indulge yourselves with masques, facials, foot soaks, herbal treatments, and even delicious chocolates.

 

• Designate a “quiet corner” – this is an area where the first of the sleepyheads in your pajama party can nod off.  Typically, some adults will want to sleep early, others will be up till dawn.

 

• To breakfast or not to breakfast -- decide whether or not you're going to provide breakfast and what to have.  It can be as basic as coffee and doughnuts or as elaborate as a continental buffet.

The Fine Art of Lounging

 

I like to think of myself as kind of an expert in the fine art of lounging.  Lounging doesn’t come easy to everyone, I know some who have to work hard to lounge but fortunately for me, lounging has always come easy.  I remember one summer day in-between my 6^th and 7^th grade year when I managed to lay on the floor in the same spot in front of a teenie weenie black and white TV for seven hours straight.  It was beautiful.  Never once did I leave my spot.  I couldn’t get enough of “Password”, “Concentration”, “What’s My Line”, “Bewitched”, “Gomer Pyle”, “That Girl” and more.  Today, many many years later, I still have a great feeling remembering that day.  No guilt, no “wasting my life” angst, none of it.  Just pure happiness.  And things haven’t changed that much today.  My TV has just gotten bigger, better and is now in glorious color.  Oh, and has a zillion more choices but given the chance at a channel from 1968 TV, I might still choose that one today.

 

Back to the fine art of lounging.  Lounging is simply plopping yourself down in a comfy spot and not leaving it.  There is a little preparation required for ultimate lounging.  You need a few basics, any of the following pieces of furniture (or just floor, beach or grass) will do nicely depending on your preference:  a great chair, a great soft rug with pillow, a great bed with stacks of pillows, a great sofa that fits you just right, a lounge chair, hammock, or blanket if you prefer to do your lounging outdoors.  Lounging is not about good posture, it’s about slunking into your chair, and it’s about sprawling on your bed, ground or sofa.  Lounging is having your legs hanging over sides of furniture or propped on pillows.  Perfect lounging is actually about not being perfect.

 

Clear the way for your perfect lounge time and space.  Get the lighting just right.  Soft or dim for TV/DVD watching or music listening, stronger for reading.  Surround your lounge space with things you love.  Perhaps candles, flowers, TV, music, books, newspapers, magazines, laptop, DVD’s, your phone, iPod and of course your remotes.  Food and drink are also very important elements to perfect lounging.  Whatever your comfort food or drink might be, have it accessible.  Remember the first rule of lounging is:  NO GETTING UP!  So we have now covered the required furnishings and space for proper lounging.  We’ve covered the props.  Let’s get down to another particular expertise of mine, what to wear when lounging.  I began my pajama business www.ThePajamaCompany.com  four years ago because I love to lounge and because I love to lounge in pajamas.  Something told me that I wasn’t the only one with these quirky loves.  I know now that there are thousands just like me who love their lounging and who love their pajamas.  To be a happy lounger requires comfortable clothing.   I love pajamas because of the great fabrics, the fun prints, the drawstring waist, the comfy tee shirt tops or menswear type tops but that’s just me.  The point is to be totally comfortable.  Be it sweat pants, boxers, robes, footed pajamas, nightshirts, workout shorts, swimwear, oversized shirts or nothing at all, comfort is key.  You may have that favourite tee shirt that always makes you happy; by all means throw it on for your perfect lounge.  Again, the key is comfort so work hard to find what is truly comfortable for you. 

 

I’ve discussed here the “things” required for perfect lounging but let me say for many “nothing” might be all that is required for perfect lounging.  The thing about lounging is that for some, perfect lounging might just be grabbing that feeling of quiet and calm.  It might be lying on the perfect sofa with closed eyes clearing the cobwebs of the day, the week, the month and finding a place of calm and creativity. Lounging can be the place where great ideas brew.  When in a world of noise, stress and turmoil…the perfect lounge might just be a totally quiet place. Doing “nothing” may take some work at first but work you must because truly doing “nothing” for even 10 minutes is perfect lounging.

 

Is it OK to nap while lounging you ask?  The answer is yes.  A power nap (anywhere from 2 minutes to 20 minutes) has proven health benefits including lower stress, cell repair, heart health, improved memory and mood.  Ever notice how fresh ideas seem to bubble up after a nap?  So if you nod off during your lounging, not a problem.  Let your mind and body rest.

 

Lounging isn’t just about “me” time mind you, it can be “us” time at its very best.  Perfect family moments can happen while lounging.  A family TV or movie “Pajama Day” is an event I have long promoted.  “Pajama Days” are Lounge Events.  Get the kids involved in planning the perfect “Pajama Day” and see how many hours you can lounge.  (Remember my record is seven.)  Lounge Events promote family fun and take away a little of the day to day stress from one and all. Desperate for date ideas?  Make it a “Movie Night” a “TV Night”, again a Lounge Event.  Pull out that DVD and watch episode after episode of your favourite old TV show.  The beauty of old TV series is that the show takes you back to your childhood, the show brings back memories and fun.  Old Disney movies are always winners as well. We’ve all had that favourite Disney movie that came along in our childhood.  Put it on and sing along with every song.  You will love it. Again, the perfect Lounge Event.

 

So here’s to the art of perfect lounging.  Follow my tips and you will only have lounging success.