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The holidays are a time for friends and family and good old-fashioned home cooking. Who can resist the tempting smells coming from the kitchen at this most favorite time of year? Holiday dinners were among my favorite, most memorable meals as a child. Our family shared our holiday meals with different relatives each year, but wherever we were and whoever we were with, we always knew to expect good food and enjoyable family gatherings that we would remember for months to come.

When I was a child, it was always a tradition in our family to have turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas. We would also always enjoy mounds of creamy mashed potatoes and gravy, candied yams with lots of butter, brown sugar, and melted marshmallows, and I could always count on sampling my dad’s famous fruit salad. He would meticulously cut each fruit into bite-size pieces (apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, and raisins), and mix it all together with a generous portion of homemade whipped cream. Homemade cranberry sauce was also always a special holiday treat.

Now that I’m married we have even more family to share our holiday meals with. With so much family, though, we rarely get to host dinner at our house. It’s always nice to go to someone else’s house to eat, but then we don’t get any of the leftovers! We usually end up taking advantage of the holiday sales at the supermarket though, and then we can have our own little feast. I’ve had a lot of fun over the years devising ways to use up the leftovers from our own holiday meals–and I’d like to share some of my favorite recipes with you.

Turkey and Rice Soup

2 1/2 cups turkey, cooked and diced

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 6-ounce box long-grained rice

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

1/2 cup onion, diced

1 cup carrots, grated

In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients with 6 cups of water. Simmer, covered, until rice is cooked, approximately 30 minutes. Great with fresh bread.

Turkey Spaghetti

8 oz. spaghetti or other pasta

1 can cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup

3/4 c. grated mild cheddar cheese

2 c. leftover cooked, diced turkey

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional – diced celery and/or diced onion to your taste

Prepare soup as directed. Prepare spaghetti as directed then drain. Combine spaghetti, soup and remaining ingredients. Stir until cheese melts. Serve and enjoy!

Mashed Potatoes and Ham Bake

2 cups mashed potatoes

2 tablespoons mustard

2 cups ham, cubed

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 cup cheddar cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium-sized bowl, mix mashed potatoes and mustard. Spread potato mixture in the bottom of a greased 8-inch square baking pan. Arrange ham on top of potatoes. In a small bowl, mix cottage cheese and cheddar cheese. Spread over ham. Bake until mixture is heated through, about 30 minutes.

Chopped Ham Sandwiches

2 lb. leftover ham, chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1 c. ketchup

1/4 c. vinegar

1 c. water

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

Fry ham in a skillet and sprinkle flour over it. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 1 hour and serve on toast or hamburger buns. Makes 15 to 20 sandwiches.

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the author of What’s for Dinner?, an e-cookbook containing more than 250 quick easy dinner ideas. For recipes, tips to organize your home, home decorating, crafts, holiday hints, and more, visit Creative Homemaking at http://www.creativehomemaking.com.

I think the first question we have to ask ourselves is, why are you looking for crafts for kids to do?

There may be many reason why you are looking for crafts for kids to do. Let’s have a look at some of these reasons may be:

1. Summer is coming and you know you will have to have lots of activities to keep the kids occupied.
2. You simply cannot think of crafts any more and need some new ideas.
3. The crafts you do find, are difficult to do and you cannot print any of it.
4. All the crafts do not have enough pictures to make it easy for you to see what the completed craft should look like.
5. It takes hours of searching the net before you have crafts suitable for the stage of you kid’s development. Time you could have spent doing the crafts.
6. All the crafts for kids to do, that you do find, use specialized supplies that you do not have in the house at all times. You have to go and buy supplies before you can start crafting with the kids.
7. You want to save money by using crafts activities to help your kids make gifts for family and friends.
8. You want to spend quality time with you kids doing crafts.
9. You are looking for activities to lure your kids away from the television.
10. You are homeschooling your kids and you are looking for ways to improve your kids small motor skills.
11. You are homeschooling and you are looking for ways to help with your kid’s concentration span.
12. You are aware of the fact that crafts improve your kids self confidence.
13. You are looking for ways to teach the kids perseverance and know that crafts are an ideal medium to do just that.
14. You are a play group leader and are running out of crafts.
15. You are a kindergarten teacher and just cannot think of new crafts any more.
16. You can not always find crafts that are appropriate for all the holidays.

Well now the next question is where you can find all these crafts for kids to do. I think the very best way is to buy an e-book with lots of printable crafts in it. With an e-book you can simply print the crafts you need and start crafting without having to look for crafts for hours.

The reason I recommend an e-book, and not a printed one, is because it is easy to print the crafts you need. If you buy a printed book you have to draw the templates or you have to make photo copies. This obviously increases the cost of doing crafts. So, with a printed crafts book it is not always possible to do crafts on the spur of the moment but with an e-book you can simply print the craft you want to do and start crafting.

So, I think if you always want to have crafts for kids to do, on short notice, a kid’s crafts e-book is the best. It is well worth the time to look for a good crafts e-book as it will save you lots of time in the future.

Magriet has lots of kids crafts at Fun Kid Crafts, Magriet also has really fun Bible Crafts at Bible Crafts For Kids. If you are still looking for even more kids crafts you can Visit Here! and see Magriet’s site about kids crafts.