I’m a huge fan of Christmas. And I love the idea of an advent calendar to build the excitement leading up to the Big Day. What I’m not such a fan of, though, is celebrating that lead-up with a chocolate every day.

So this year Mr. 4.5 and I have decided we’re going to celebrate the lead-up to Christmas with an Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar. From the 1st to the 24th of December, we’re going to mark each day with one small (or not-so-small) act of kindness. It’s going to be our way of saying ‘thanks’ for what we have, and recognising that Christmas is not just about receiving – it’s about the joy of giving as well. We’re going to call it The Kindness Project.

We’ve bought some little Christmas cards, numbered them with little stickers and stuck them on a piece of green cardboard. Each card will have the act of kindness for that particular day written on it, and each one will be sealed with a little gold dot sticker. Every day, we’ll open a new one and try to do whatever is written inside it.

So here’s what we’ve come up with so far. It’s not set in stone yet, so I’d love to hear your thoughts if you have any other ideas. Some are about food, some aren’t…

1. Donate a new toy to a charity Christmas Appeal
2. Donate some food to a charity
3. Make some Christmas truffles and give them out as gifts to homeless people around the city (and give some money to any buskers we see along the way)
4. Offer to walk our neighbours’ dogs
5. Create a book called ‘What I Love About You’ for someone special
6. Pick some flowers for the kinder teacher
7. Help Mr. 2 make breakfast for himself
8. Pot one of our tomato plants from our veggie garden and give it away
9. Make someone laugh with a Jib Jab card
10. Surprise someone with cookie mix in a jar
11. Hold the door open for someone
12. Draw a picture for someone’s fridge
13. Write nice messages on the footpath with chalk
14. Donate a little bit of savings money to a charity
15. Record a video of Mr. 4.5 dancing (he loves a dance) and send it to someone to brighten up their day
16. Make some food for Mummy and Daddy to take into work to share with their workmates
17. Write a thank you note (or maybe even put a Turkey Money Hug in someone’s mail box!)
18. Make a bookmark for someone who likes to read
19. Make some food gifts to take into kinder
20. Make a Christmas decoration for someone
21. Write a letter and mail it to someone
22. Make a freezer meal for someone
23. Water a neighbour’s garden for them
24. Give a stranger a lucky charm

We might even have a go at making some fortune cookies and putting some uplifting messages in them too! We may not manage to tick off every single one every day, but we’ll do our best to make sure we’ve at least done most of them by the time Santa points his sleigh in our direction. If we find any great recipes along the way, we’ll be sure to share them with you!

Merry Christmas – may the joy of giving be with you too!
Tami & Crackers (Mr. 4.5)

Earlier this year, my food-loving 4 year-old and I embarked on a virtual culinary tour of the world. Our mission: to get Around the World in 18 Breakfasts.

The idea was that we’d sample traditional morning meals from every corner of the globe and learn a little about the Big Wide World along the way. We bought a map of the world and some toothpick flags. Each week we’d pick a dish, find the relevant flag and put a star sticker on our map.

Eighteen breakfasts, 18 flags and 18 stickers later, our mission is complete. We made a lot of yummy food and a bucketload of mess. We got flour on the walls and egg on the floor. We made the odd dud dish and had to try again. But we had a whole lotta fun in the process.

There was no destination. It was about the journey.

Here is our itinerary, brought to you in pictures (click on the links for the recipes)…

Week 1: Japan – Tamagoyaki

Rolled-up egg – slightly salty, slightly sweet. Who knew omelettes could taste this good?

Week 2: Brazil – Açaí bowl

Fruit smoothie in a bowl. Healthy, easy and yummy – the Fun Food trifecta!

Week 3: USA – Warm custard spoon bread

A deep south delicacy – a little bit time-consuming but worth the wait.

Week 4: Mexico – Huevos rancheros

A must-try for anyone who likes their Mexican food.

Week 5: Lebanon – Manakish with labneh

Labneh, a yoghurt-based cheese, perfectly complements this tasty flatbread.

Week 6: Indonesia – Nasi goreng

A good way to use up leftover rice (and get some veggies into the kids’ breakfast)!

Week 7: Sri Lanka – Coconut roti

Fresh coconut turns this damper-like roti into something amazing.

Week 8: Switzerland – Bircher muesli

Nutty, fruity goodness in a recipe originally created by a Swiss doctor – how could you go wrong?

Week 9: Ukraine – Syrniki

Light, fluffy pillows of melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness topped with berries and sour cream.

Week 10: Spain – Potato and chorizo tortilla

This Spanish tapas favourite doubles as a hearty breakfast.

Week 11: China – Pork and prawn dumplings

These don’t feature in YUM-cha for nothing!

Week 12: Thailand – Coconut sticky rice with mango

Coconut milk and mangoes – a match made in heaven.

Week 13: Canada – Pancakes with maple syrup and bacon

An interesting flavour combo – and a huge hit with the kids!

Week 14: Peru – Quinoa porridge

Cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and honey make this a sweet, spicy variation on traditional porridge.

Week 15: Sweden – Swedish fruit loaf

Fruity with a touch of sour, this healthy loaf uses no sugar or butter.

Week 16: Jamaica – Fried bananas

Not exactly Heart Foundation tick-worthy, but definitely yummy!

Week 17: South Africa – Mealie bread

Real chunks of corn give this bread lots of texture and taste.

Week 18: Finland – Korvapuusti (cinnamon rolls)

A fitting finale – there were definitely no leftovers…

Come and join us on the journey!
Our Around the World in 18 Breakfasts adventure may be over but there’s plenty more to come. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the fun!

Last Sunday we had my younger son’s 2nd birthday party. We decided to go with a Teddy Bears Picnic theme, in honour of his favourite thing in the world – a raggedy looking stuffed polar bear we unimaginatively call ‘Bear’.

This is ‘Bear’, after turning up at the Lost Property section of DJs on Christmas Eve last year – and being delivered home by ‘Santa’ on Christmas morning… If my son’s second birthday party wasn’t his happiest day on Earth, the day he was reunited with his beloved ‘Bear’ most definitely was!

The Entrance to the Party

Party guests were greeted by bear footprints (made with chalk) and a faux wooden sign on the door.

Teddy Bear Biscuits

We made these Teddy Bear Biscuits using a gingerbread recipe as the base. The idea for the plate came from Pinterest.

The Cake

I used white fondant icing, a black food pen and some shaved grey artist’s chalk (‘painted’ on with a paintbrush) to recreate a miniature version of Bear for the cake. I found this teddy bear ribbon at a cake shop and on the final version of the cake, I wrote my son’s name with curly fondant letters in different colours.

Teddy Bear Games

Using my older son’s paintings, we made a personalised bow-tie for every little guest (with their names written on the white part in the middle) and drew a teddy bear on a big sheet of cardboard for ‘Pin the Bow-tie on The Teddy Bear’. You can find the pattern to make the bow-ties here.

My older son helped me make some coffee-stained treasure maps for a treasure hunt around the ‘woods’. The kids teamed up in groups of three or four to find the ‘treasures’. The other game we played was Statues (also known as the Freeze game) using teddy bear themed songs (Teddy Bears Picnic, Five Little Teddy Bears, and Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn Around).

The Party Bags

In keeping with the picnic theme, we made up party bags with brown paper bags and ribbon. I didn’t want to use full lunch-sized paper bags, so I managed to convince a fish and chip shop to sell me a packet of smaller paper bags for $2! The party bags featured a little pack of tiny teddies and some gummy bears, among other things. Each ‘little bear’ had their own beary-personalised name tag on their bag.

One Happy Little Teddy Bear…

And this happy little face made it all worthwhile!

With two more grocery shopping days to go before Mother’s Day (hint, hint, Dad!), we thought we’d do a round-up of fun breakfast in bed ideas for Mum. We think all of these breakfasts look too good to choose between, so you might just have to have an ongoing ‘Festival of Mum’ and make them all!

Heart shaped egg in a nest

All you need for this one is a knife (or a heart-shaped cookie cutter if you have one), an egg, bread and a frypan. Too easy!
Source: Reclaiming Provincial

French toast kebabs

Decadence with a healthy twist – guaranteed to make Mum smile.
Source: Tablespoon

Ham and egg cups with hashbrowns

This is one that your little chefs can really get involved in making (and eating!).
Source: Recipe.com

Strawberry roses

We love this one! While the kids will need Dad’s help with the carving, they’ll have fun with the skewering (or if they’re not quite up to that, maybe get them to make some hand-drawn wrapping paper to put around the ‘stems’).
Source: One Little Project

Mini pancake brochettes

At the risk of looking like this post is sponsored by a bamboo skewer company (it’s not, we promise!), we couldn’t resist including these cute little mini berry pancakes. A dash of maple syrup and they’d be complete!
Source: Nugget Markets

I love U

Say ‘I love you’ (literally) to Mum on Mother’s Day with some bacon, a heart-shaped egg and a half-bagel (or your own variation using Mum’s favourite breakfast foods).
Source: Pinterest

We hope you find some inspiration in this post on fun food ideas for Mother’s Day. Whatever you end up having on the menu, may it be a day that’s filled with love, laughter and fun!

Big Mother’s Day hugs,
Tami & Crackers
xx