Diaries of a Domestic Goddess

Harry Potter Christmas Ideas

It’s officially November, does that mean I can put my Christmas tree up yet?!? While Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, Christmas is my favorite holiday to decorate for. Actually, who am I kidding…Christmas is the only holiday I really decorate for! This year I have a feeling that a lot of our Christmas gifts will be themed. When my kids like something, they go all in with it. Right now my daughter is obsessed with Harry Potter. Here is how you can do a Harry Potter Christmas!

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Image via Pexels by George Dolgikh

Are You Obsessed with Harry Potter?

Harry Potter is one of those characters that I think will always be popular. I remember when the books came out. My husband and I literally each bought a copy of it because we didn’t want to wait for the other one to finish before we could start!. Our daughter is now 12 years old and she is currently obsessed. In fact, a lot of her presents for her birthday recently revolved around Harry Potter and Hufflepuff. She will be having a Harry Potter Christmas, for sure!

Harry Potter Complete Book Series Special Edition Boxed Set Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two: The Official Playscript of the Original West End Production

Getting into the Holiday Spirit with Harry Potter

I don’t know about you, but we like to get into the holiday spirit with various traditions. One of those traditions is to make gingerbread houses. Last year, we did a “boys against girls” competition. While I have yet to find a Hogwarts gingerbread house (and I am not good enough to make my own kit), you can buy Harry Potter candy to decorate your gingerbread house!

New York Puzzle Company – Harry Potter Christmas at Hogwarts – 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Morphing Mugs Harry Potter Hogwarts Magical Marauder’s Map Heat Reveal Ceramic Coffee Mug – 11 Ounce (Parchment Paper Reveal)Funko Advent Calendar – Harry Potter

Other traditions that are great to get in the holiday spirit are Advent calendars. The Harry Potter Advent calendar is super cute. I know my daughter would be so excited to receive something like that. If your family is like mine, then doing puzzles is something you enjoy! While you sit and put together this “Christmas at Hogwarts” puzzle, you can enjoy hot chocolate or coffee in these super cute Harry Potter themed mugs!

Harry Potter Christmas Ornaments

Every year, my husband and I get each other a Christmas ornament. I always try to get an ornament for him that sums up the year. He always gets me a camel ornament (I collect camels). I joke that one day my goal is to have a Christmas tree filled with nothing but camel ornaments! We also try to get the kids an ornament too. I can tell you right now, this year, my daughter will be getting a Harry Potter ornament. I’m sure she would love to have a Harry Potter themed Christmas tree!

Hallmark Warner Bros. Harry Potter Christmas Ornaments Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Tree Ornament Trend Setters Harry Potter Sorting Hat Gryffindor Personalized Hanging Acrylic Harry Potter Christmas Ornament Ollivanders Wand Shop Hallmark Keepsake Ornament

Aren’t the ornaments cute?!? I would love to get my daughter the set of Hogwarts house crests! She would love hanging them on the tree, as well as her own tree one day!

For the last 14 years (yes…my oldest is 14), I have said that I wanted to get a set of matching Christmas stockings. Here I am, 14 years later, and I am still trying to get my matching stockings! These Harry Potter themed stockings are super cute and they match (bonus)! If you are looking for some last minute gift ideas, these are it!

Kurt Adler Personalized Harry Potter Magical Marauder’s Map Christmas Stocking – 18 Inches LEGO 75954 Harry Potter Hogwarts Great Hall Building Kit – 878 Pieces Northwest Harry Potter House Crests Silk Touch Throw 50

So…did you find any amazing ideas for an epic Harry Potter Christmas for the obsessed fan in your house? I hope you did! If you have any other ideas, other than what you see here, please leave me a comment. Like I said, my daughter is currently obsessed and I don’t see that obsession going anywhere anytime soon!

Lemon Pound Cake Mini Muffins

2 Nov By Leah Kanaan Leave a Comment

Since starting Weight Watchers (WW), I have become obsessed with finding WW friendly solutions for all of my favorite things. One of those things I wanted to make, that would be lower in points, are muffins. I am forever making banana muffins for the kids (that are NOT Weight Watcher friendly) so I decided to bake mini muffins for myself that would be Weight Watchers friendly. These lemon pound cake mini muffins work out to be 1 SmartPoint per muffin!

*This post may contain affiliate links*

Lemon Pound Cake Mini Muffins

Delicious recipe for lemon pound cake mini muffins that is Weight Watchers friendly. Just 1 SmartPoint per mini muffin!

Course Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Keyword lemon muffins, mini muffins, pound cake, smartpoints, weight watchers

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 44 muffins

Ingredients

8 large Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Swerve Confectioners Sugar
1/4 Cup Plain, Fat-Free Greek Yogurt
1/4 Cup Salted Butter softened
8 oz Fat Free Cream Cheese softened
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 tsp Lemon Extract
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
2 1/2 Cups GF Flour can use reg. flour

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Set your cream cheese out to soften.
In a large bowl, add the butter, eggs, Swerve, softened cream cheese and the Greek yogurt. Mix thoroughly. Add in the lemon extract and vanilla extract and mix.
Add in the salt and baking powder, making sure to mix in between each addition. Finally mix in your GF four. Mix well.
Grease your mini muffin tin or use a silicone pan (trust me...this sticks to the paper) and fill each well. Bake for 15 minutes.

Trudeau Grey Silicone 24 Count Mini Muffin Pan with Mint Accent Misto Frosted Glass Bottle Oil Sprayer Watkins Pure Lemon Extract, 11 Ounce(Packaging may vary)

While I made these lemon pound cake mini muffins with gluten free flour, you can totally sub in your favorite non-gluten free flour. I’ve tried a bunch of different sugar alternatives and I have to say, Swerve is the first alternative sugar that actually tastes like sugar! If you would prefer to use regular sugar, be sure to recalculate the Weight Watchers SmartPoints in your app.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

My first two pieces of advice are super important and if you follow it, you will love me each and every time you make muffins. You will want to get these batter spoons and this silicone mini muffin pan. The batter spoons allow you to fill the muffin wells with the exact amount of batter needed. This silicone mini muffin pan is AMAZING. It is the best silicone pan. It has a metal frame for support.

As for the actual recipe, I had a little trouble with the cream cheese. I don’t know if I let it soften long enough. When I make this recipe again, I will try beating the cream cheese first with the mixer and then adding the other ingredients and see if that makes a difference. Despite the tiny random specks of cream cheese, these lemon pound cake mini muffins are good!

Make these lemon pound cake mini muffins and let me know what you think!

*As always, I recommend that you put your ingredients in the recipe builder in your Weight Watchers app to get the exact points for the specific ingredients that you use

Thankful Thanksgiving Activity Printable

1 Nov By Leah Kanaan Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving, in my opinion, is the best holiday ever. You don’t have to worry about gifts at all. Instead, you eat food and enjoy time with friends and family. What could be better than that?!? Another thing I look forward to this time of year is reflecting all of the things that we are thankful for. As adults, I think it is important for our kids to slow down a bit and reflect as well. That’s why I think this Thankful Thanksgiving Activity would be a perfect activity for kids to play on Thanksgiving!

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Thankful Thanksgiving Activity

Do you need an activity to keep the little ones occupied while you get dinner together? How about an activity that gets the kids talking about the different things they are thankful for? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then this Thankful Thanksgiving Activity is the FREE printable you have been looking for!

How to Use the FREE Printable

First, print your FREE Thankful Thanksgiving Activity printable. You can print one copy or print multiple. It’s up to you, but make sure you print them in color. Next, roll your multi-colored die. Take the color you land on and have the kids find the corresponding dot on the printable. Tell everyone what you are thankful for!

Set of 10 Six Sided Round Edge Opaque 16mm D6 Dice – White with Multicolor Pip by Koplow Games

Print your FREE Thankful Thanksgiving printable HERE

In this day and age, with everything going on in the world, if we can get the kids talking about what they are truly thankful for, then we are headed in the right direction. The more we have our kids focusing on the positives in life, the better. I know I am looking forward to doing this with my kids.

How to Use the Trello App

31 Oct By Leah Kanaan Leave a Comment

One of my goals for 2018, was to use my time wisely and write more. Getting myself organized and pre-planning my posts was something I really needed to get better at. Having my son go to a private high school about 35-40 minutes from the house, and a daughter currently in the middle of her travel soccer season, planning is paramount. The Trello app has helped me pre-plan and, as a result, I began writing more.

*This post may contain affiliate links*

Image via Pexels by Jessica Lewis

What is the Trello App?

The Trello app is an organizational app that allows you to make various boards for your various projects and lists. You have the ability to add others to your boards when collaborating on a project, or you can use the Trello app by yourself. Not only is this app available on your iPhone, iPad and Mac, but it is also available through Google Play.

How I Used the Trello App for Blogging

The first thing you want to do is press the plus sign in the upper right corner. That will allow you to add a board. Since I have this blog and my book site, I made sure to make a separate board for each site. You can also color code each board so you don’t confuse anything. Once you click on your board, you can then add cards to the board to organize your thoughts and projects.

The image above shows what it looks like within each board. Since I joined an October blog challenge where we needed to try and write a post every single day (Monday through Friday). I had knee surgery on October 10th, so I knew that if I wanted to be successful with this challenge, I needed to start pre-planning my posts. I used the Trello app to do this.

As I mentioned above, you can add cards to each board. In this case, each card for me was a blog post. You will notice in the image above, this particular post was about 5 dieting tips. Since I was pre-planning my posts, I was also able to make a checklist within each card to plan out the individual posts. This made the writing process go a lot quicker.

I’ve been blogging for over 10 years. Over the course of the last 10 years, I have tried every which way to figure out a process for me that worked when it came to pre-planning. Nothing seemed to work for me. I can’t tell you how many planners I bought, thinking that was finally going to work. Nope! Nothing worked until I tried the Trello app. Give it a try! It’s a FREE app found in the app store and the Google Play store.

Have you used the Trello App before?

Easy Last Minute Halloween Treats

30 Oct By Leah Kanaan 2 Comments

Halloween is tomorrow. Can you believe it? I know I can’t. I feel like 2018 has literally flown by. If you are like me, you are probably scrambling to get things done before tomorrow. In our house, it’s carving pumpkins. My daughter is at camp for the 6th graders and doesn’t return until tomorrow. I don’t know if we will even get to the pumpkin carving. In your house, you may be scrambling to figure out what Halloween treats you can make for your kids class party or for everyone to enjoy on Halloween. These treats are easy and perfect for making last minute!

*This post may contain affiliate links*

Cute Spider Deviled Eggs

I personally don’t like deviled eggs, but I love making them. Weird, I know. Everyone else in my family loves them and I know these adorable spider deviled eggs would be a big hit this Halloween in my house. Perfect Halloween treats for pre-trick or treating get togethers or even to take to a class or office party!

Image via Mommy Musings by Stefanie

Candy Corn Jell-O Dessert

Two things I love…candy corn and Jell-O. I was one of those people in the hospital after having my kids, that was always excited when they brought the Jell-O cups! Candy corn is one of those things that you either like or you REALLY dislike. I love it. This candy corn Jell-O dessert is super cute Halloween treat for any Halloween get together!

Image via Girl Raised in the South by Debbie

Brach’s Candy Corn and Autumn Mix Duo, 2 Count 40 Ounce Bags Wilton Halloween Candy Eyeball Sprinkles Set, 3-Piece Sixlets Candy Coated Chocolate Flavored Candy Gluten Free, 4 Oz (1 Pk)

Homemade Oreos

These homemade Oreos look delicious! It would be fun to make some with orange frosting in the middle and others with green! The kids would love that. Plus, as an added bonus, you can easily make these gluten free if you wanted to. Again, these make amazing Halloween treats for both the office AND the classroom!

Image via Kara in the Kitchen by Kara

Witch’s Broomstick Snacks

These witch’s broomstick snacks are super cute! They are perfect for any classroom party. I know my kids would have loved if I made these for their elementary school class parties! They are also super cute and easy to make if you wanted to make them and have them for the kids to eat after school or in their lunch at school! How fun!

Image via Mom Foodie

Skeleton Skull Face Chip and Dip Serving Tray and Bowl, 13 Inch Halloween Serving Tray, Heavyweight Quality, Perfect For Trick or Treaters, Cookies, Cupcakes, Candy, Parties, School Halloween Set of Two – Melamine Serving Tray

Witch Hat Surprise Cookies

Did you sign up to bring something to your child’s class party for the kids to do and eat, but totally forgot? No worries! These witch hat surprise cookies are perfect! Set everything up at a table and the kids can decorate their own witch hat and then enjoy their sweet treat!

Image via Mrs Wright Writes by Mrs Wright

Mini Mummy Pizzas

Are you looking for something fun for the kids to make for dinner before they head out to go trick or treating? These mini mummy pizzas are perfect. We always pick up hot and ready pizzas and I think every single person in my town does too. I get them home and the kids barely eat because they are ready to run out the door. These adorable pizzas they make themselves is something that they would definitely enjoy doing and eating!

Image via Mommy Musings by Stefanie

All of these Halloween treats are perfect for kids or even office parties. Don’t stress that you don’t have something prepared yet. You can easily pull these together! Which of these Halloween treats are your favorites?

Harry Potter Christmas Ideas

Image via Pexels by George Dolgikh

Are You Obsessed with Harry Potter?

Getting into the Holiday Spirit with Harry Potter

Harry Potter Christmas Ornaments

Lemon Pound Cake Mini Muffins

Lemon Pound Cake Mini Muffins

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipe Tips and Tricks

Make these lemon pound cake mini muffins and let me know what you think!

Thankful Thanksgiving Activity Printable

Thankful Thanksgiving Activity

How to Use the FREE Printable

Print your FREE Thankful Thanksgiving printable HERE

How to Use the Trello App

Image via Pexels by Jessica Lewis

What is the Trello App?

How I Used the Trello App for Blogging

Have you used the Trello App before?

Easy Last Minute Halloween Treats

Cute Spider Deviled Eggs

Image via Mommy Musings by Stefanie

Candy Corn Jell-O Dessert

Image via Girl Raised in the South by Debbie

Homemade Oreos

Image via Kara in the Kitchen by Kara

Witch’s Broomstick Snacks

Image via Mom Foodie

Witch Hat Surprise Cookies

Image via Mrs Wright Writes by Mrs Wright

Mini Mummy Pizzas

Image via Mommy Musings by Stefanie

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